The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-24 00:00:00

DECEMBER 24, 1853. lie'•e parents from their fair par•nW liahilities. knew, Grand They must all feel that, perhaps, the greatest sources of those evil* which they sought to remedy a►v.e front the pnAligaey of the parents---(lleurl—and nothing would be mole unsound than to say that, because betteto. letter, cha►ity, and sound lw►licy- led then► to endeavour to rescue theft unfortunate child►en front the temporal and eternal destruction hanging over them, tltey were to r e lieve profligate parents (tom liability on account of their otl'spt logs Another resolution of the et 1111 l nittee of the Honer of t 'ont mons referred to the immense benefits and advantages which had been found to arise from the fibtein of rugged industrial schools. ( Heur, hear.l" The chairman proceeded to refer to the evidence collected by the parliamentary committee, citing the chief facts elicited, and adducing the example set by various countries of Europe and in the United States as a stimulus to ourselves to establish reformatory institutions of various kinds, industrial sclwols, houses of tefuge, prison farms, and other places where young criminals, or other children left from (afferent causes in a state of moral destitution, might be received, sheltered, trained into habits of indus try, and furnished with the knowledge and skill re quisite to their becoming honest and productive members of society. 'Various speeches were made anti suggestions thrown out at this conference ; and a list of resolutions was prepared in readiness for the public meeting. This commenced at seven o'clock in the Town-hall and was attended by fully 3,000 pemons. The Earl of SHAFTESBURY, who took the chair, in his opening address, insisted chiefly upon these points—that the amount of ju►enile delinquency now existing in England was far greater than was consistent with the honour and dignity of a Christian country, and that, for the prevention of the evil, the voluntary system, aided by Government grants, might be united and made to work harmo niously. The voluntary system by itself could never be adequate to so great an undertaking, while t;overn ment aid, if alone given, would soon become cold, formal, and ineffective. To support his sanguine declaration that there "could be no doubt" as to the ultimate success of their endeavour:4 at reforming criminals, Lord Shaftesbury related a fact which had come within his own experience:— "He remembered once having Lad the honour — and an honour it really was—of presiding at a meeting which was composed of about :151) of the most depraved and profligate men in the city of London. lie met them in a street in the Minories, and the object of the meeting was to consider in what way these unfortunate persons could escape (non their state of misery. The men having disclosed to him the history of their lives. eallings, and pursuits, and how soften they had lwen in prison, did not at tempt or wish to disguise from 1 • the startling and nie laneholy fact that before twelve o'clock on the night of the meeting the majority of those present would have cum. mat e d some set of robbery in order to procure the means of existence. Soule considerable efforts were made to rescue these unfortunate people, and a large proportion of them were distributed and placed in different lines of life. A few days since, when he made inquiries, tilting prepared to redeem the pledge lie made to them. that he would meet these persons again upon some future occasion, he meekest the remarkable 11101 most grmifying statement from a party conversant with them all, that it was HO use inquiring, liw that at the present 11101111.111, out of the :Val wh o m h e had met, there were out 110 W more than twenty pars g their old habit's. 'heers. )" Sir J. PAKINoToN, in moving a resolution expres sive of hearty concurrence in the design of the con ference, added some comparative statements regard ing the state of juvenile education in other coup "The statements made before the committee of the house showed that, in a sundries where education was vernal, one sixth of the population ought to be at school. In 4 lermany and Switzerland the full prop4ort• of one Sixth did attend seboul. In the United States, exclusive of the slave-holding states, the proportion of the isgmint iou attending schools was 1 in 7 or 1 in 4.1 ; and even in 4 leorf.tia, Carolina, and several of the slave suites, the proportion was lin 11. In Scotland the pniportion was linl I ; in Ir e . land and England it was lint I in 11. or only one-half of those who ought to attend school. So that, actually, in this Issisted England of ours, we were only on a level with the slave-holding states of America. While eonmidering this state of things, it should be borne in mind that if the children were not educated they were in too many instances fully taught in the paths of vice and crime. (h ear, hear.)" Mr. AnnERLEV, who seconded the resolution, re• joiced to see how rapid had been the advance in the great reformatory work as indicated by the character of the r. s , ,l;;tio:ou proposed for adoption. These now embodied an actu►l and practical measure in stead of merely enunciating general principles. lie then proceeded to trace the progress that haul been made from the year 1537 down to the present time : " A commission for the revision of the (.1i ttt i t nil law, appointed in 1t4:17, stated in it 11.1..11 that it ale, their opinion that a more pet-feet syssin 411' treatment of criminal children was necessary fol the safety of the count ry. In IRIP) Parliament passed an art which espressed umiih the same opinion, and which pro% ided a different prison for juvenile offenders than tie... A.. for Fultiltm. In 1'417 a seleot committee of the House of Commons stated in its Number. l'auww, , ers. 1 , 410.13.. 1 , 11 17.. !lotion. Outs killed llase ' fn its 944,559 221,610, lAN Vt:Vol+, :1:11:AN 5A91,961; T 27,: I I I rpo;,.;!mi,oirj 24;0; 3,i04; 5i;,111+4,99.; 61 I 209 104 370 1(17 ; m 5 NI I *MI 47 4 It thus appears that, while in the years 1P410.13 there was I killed iu every 011,550 passengers, there was, is the year 1%4P4 Al, only I in every 10.4,007 pasts.'"genis Fein t ; not sine death for two which happened in the earlier so also will a resitieti bl fs n to ha te t a k en place in the nitio orib ato t etitz ,.e., i n j ure d, Other% besides passenger.% are aut&renv by railway 'Thus in the twelve years specified above I"smns were killed and 05 iiktured by their own negligenee "—such as by (Idling font trains, jumping in or out of earriage% in motion, or straying on the tine; "in...moven- were killed and st injured; rind Loki employes of the emu palish wen. killed, while lilt n.s...ivest bodily injury. Of these hitter classes it is remarkable that the number of deaths ...distills a I • olll4illeralite% Ptel'N't More (lint of injuries. Taken in the order of time, without toasting our columns with figures, we may state as a general result that the ea4tialtie4 here entinter m e d lime. also not increased in number in espial proportion to the expansion of the railway ardent, with the exes.ption of the aceistents to " tnaipassent," which during the four last years of the period have multiplied to a Keriotnt extent. To the causes of railway aeridents Mr. Nelson devotes many pages, and an elaborate clatosifieatiod. w t . ca ll flint space hut for his concluding abstract, In %hieh he divides the inns% of catastrophes into two eategories---those " mister the esintrol" and those the etsiitnil" of the elliiipanieN I . %I. STEM, l'o 1.1.1 of Ibsen ilium l.alu - l:. IMII•I7. I Siti N lu'r of ibwotrutiger4 Demist. hum esunes be I 000ttA of Cow. Deaths Roil' oath■ t mitlervoutrul ofl'i.m. 57,617.57 s I Oho hi 3.*(10,97 7 IlrUu Ileyllllll I r. .11, rI.I a 4 . I.lllpliilif . 4 ••t 'miler I you '01i11.811‘..14 I Isf;,o9s.o111 1,910,;g45 thin In n,141,771 V 61373,107 6,103,179 low lii 4,8t4,4103 This table Mr. Neison cites as proving not only that there is a great diminution in all kinds of ace'. dents to passenger+, but that those accidents for which the managers of the several lines may be con sidered accountable have decreased in a retuarkablro degree its compared with the other class of easnal ties. "Whether this change," he adds, "he due to the better general regulations enforcer' by 11 e aliroetopt, or to the improved skill anal intelligence of their officers and servants, the results afford tl Most striking testimony, from the recent improve limits anal increased safely in railway t 'livening, that the saint. 111014114 will lie persevered in to etl•eet still further reduction in the frequency and intensity of railway accidents." Adverting to aceident 4 'modally, without reference to their etinatitintinties in relation to life or limb, the author furnishes some curious fads. its far the larger proportion of these disasters arise from collisions. In nine years, 11411— 59, no less than collisionit1)00111T0111 1111N111 the railways of Great Ifiritaill mid !rebind, from th4nigh2ss happened to passenger trains, only in 51 instances were any injuries sustained. It 14nolea bl r, a l so. that t h e CA411%10114 of express 111111 excursion trains have pro ducts' lint foie death end' among the passengers throughont the w h ole penis' of 4. lt rs, an a l neither of these happened in the great "excittsri 111 l " year of 11451. To teals trains 'll collisions occul't'ed within the aforesaid period, lint without produeing a fatal result in a single imitative. The annual num ber of collisions has been as follow* 1, IN ; II 15, 17 ; 44411. :15 ; 114 li, 10 ; (Nis, ; 11419, IP4 ; 1559, 1.2; 1/451, :Is; 11. The 1141140 g are thus classified for the whole period : hig tar storm, I I : rails slippery, 9; train retsnleil lay wind• and overtaken. I waggling air tobtrtm 01 train* blown lan i n m•—generally flegiralt s 'Wild %Melt, 7 ; part 41 Irsin 1,444,9999 41elateliell mid r g back, 9 ; part of train beniming 1141'141os! and 14. ft on line, 5: train gam nig way in or about the 99(1111n—hinder part n 1111 l iug into fon• part lay its own lame' 11 04 , -I; faulty break*, :I; 11199 or ra.tftril...l or stopped by accident to engine, 111 ; 11 , 01 . 11 Id . signal-, Iµ ; neglect of engine.drivenr, 17 ; R ivet of 111119(m m-9, 1; neglect imii9l.inla.n. IS tietrlert 5h1114111.1111141er4. I : waggons of part* of lining left on line, In: train lost spars' and was ovi nuke'', :1 steam tor faili.ii, 5 ; !nisei Ilativatig. anti hail sp.ellied, hat 01 attrilintlible to neglect a the vault of 141.r%19114 at the 4.4 1111111P14. 1:11. A curious and apparently motecomitable result is deduced by Mr. Ntiaorii from a computation in which the respective number of collisions is (dowdily', intro months. Thus it Ropers that during the specified nine years 911 collisions have happened in the first six months of the year, that 14 from January to June, and no fewer than 109 in the latter six, July to December. It is true that the truffle also increases during the latter half of every visor, but in a far inferior proprinion. l'pon the callse of this singular anomaly, whirl' would seem to show that railway trot• Iliac is more lootanlons during autumn and w . nter than iii spring or summer, Nelson dues not venture to %peculate. ) THE PRESS. report that the I`oll 111 l ittal of Children to prison would *Nays be hurtful to them, and tend to make them more hardened criminals. Sir John Pakington, in Isis. etn• bodied these liews in a hill which is ii , bw the law the subjeet. In I e<ll I another committee of the comm,e l es states' that it was absolutely nee•essary that a larger amomit of industrial trai ll ing should he given to the children than Icas at present the case. The first eta l feretece on the sub jeet lair glm in anti in Is - c: another Mire , l'tbi 1111 l thee their report to the I ge, the adoption of whirl' by the Legislature the 0a5t . ..1...nee of to. 'hey warmly advocated. and the great meeting of that night aa a strong !woof of the gnat and growing interest whieli was frit by the peilolic in the settlement ofthisgreat national question. t heliev eel that 110 truth ea Will he more indisputable than that a nation a hieli undertebeek the task of punishing c • was bo'n'd to pre.%e'llt its eOll 111 l sign as far as possible. It was a Most 1111 l 61411 iiig thing that almost all laws received It gre•titer t eat attention tair than tii4ise% 1 I 101 atteeteti the criminal law of the clammy% because •legislietors did not feel themselves per sonally so much interested in that as im other subjects. War, hear.) It was to be hoped that this selfish and elite graceful state of things would not he allowed ell Wager to rat'l'i'n'e. //ear. I Succeeding resoluti MR, •ed by the Earl of I %ItItoWIIV Alla MONCKTON .MILNES, were to the following effect : " That till* meeting Irtt.t that the lettialation which should be neeessary hr estathlimllitat indumtrial reformatory selmoht will eu eouratte the rtalightetted and philanthropic managerm of Mom.. ill Windham maintained by tolmut&try ethwrtm %h t. hate alread y awakened !midi,. attention to the mttbjeet• and a Melt ought 1.. he I . osteeett Mid ltillleJ, for the make of the varied and taluable experience they are calculated to supply, lha iuditi.htal veal toga interemt they unlimt, and the opportunity they prevent for the intniedinto adoption of treatment towardm eriminal children different from the ordinary pmui.l , tit of adults. - " That the reformatoriem eatablishetl privately 111 thim and other buntries have been very ruceemmful, and mrford deelmive proof of the reapeetabiEty and titnemm of the mode of treatment or Jut !title eriutr %Melt they ha%e adopted." Many exhortatbms to private and individual exer tion towards the greatend in view were given by the speakers who addressed the meeting upon these resolutions. Finally. a vote of thanks was pass►d to the noble chairman, and the assembly dispersed. ANALYTICAL VIEW OF RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. THE voluminous reports drawn np at the instance of the Board of Trade contain many valuable returns respecting the nature and frequency of railway acci - dents. These were, however, presented in so con% plicate(' a form as almost to baffle all the attempts of ordinary reader, to decipher their meaning, or colleet from the intricate series of tabulated results the information which they were known to contain. The task of disentangling this mass, of grouping together the most important tables in the most intelligible form, and of deducing from them the conclusions which the travelling public are most anxious to learn, has been undertaken by Mr. Nelson, honorary ,acre. Lary to the Statistical Society, and aveomplished with much ability. His labours resulted in a papa read at one of the meetings of his society during the current year, which was afterwards included in their journal, and has just been republished in a separate Harm. It constitntes a "manual of railway aecidents" containing a large amount of valuable information, put together with vast cure, and rendered as compact and at the same time as intelligible as the subject allowed. Hallway aecidh•llts, when they have onl'l` ecalsed 1.. Luau• an individual interest as items in the news of the day, retain importance chiely in relation to the future. The piddle value them as furnishing a basis for eounpubitioin nospeeting the chances of peril in railway travelling, or the general management of railway affairs. With smolt an object in view Mr. Nelson has prepared his analysis. Ills tables are accordingly so arranged as to show, I st, the frequency, and, 2tiolly, the causes of the various deaths, Mini or harmless accidents on the venous railways in Great Britain. The results of his calculations are extremely interesting, and in many respells contra verse the preconceived opinion of the !midi,. Respecting the frequeney of accidents we MO, for example, a considerable diminution during the latter years of railway managem e nt, whether we base the average upon the mileage of open lines, or the annual number of pasmengera. Ihtring time twelve and a half years that elapsed between August, lain, an:l December :11, lasl, the total number of passen gers amounted to 015,1:1:1,7',1, of whom 2tal were killed and 1,7941 injured. On the average, therefore, a fatal catastrophe has overtaken 1 in 2,312,53:1 passenger's, and injury, more or less severe, been suffered by 1 in 312,509 passengers, during the course of this period. Diyhting the Name interval into grmipm of year'', the averages are shown in the annexed tahle 1 K Moll Injured