The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-15 00:00:00

258 1. Sermons in Behalf of the Home for Outcast Boys, in Belvedere-crescent, Lambeth. By Henry Whitehead, M.A. 2. A History of the Home for Outcast Boys, Belvedere -crescent, Lambeth. By the same Author. 3. First Annual Report of the Committee of the above Institution. London : Hatchard. TILE subject of juvenile reformatories is now generally acknowledged to be of such vast importanee, and Mr. Whitehead's name is so well known to all those persons who are more especially conversant with it, that we have no doubt about the service we shall be doing to our readers in introducing the results of his experience to their notice. 1. Two points are dwelt upon by Mr. White head throughout as of primary consequence— first, the obligation under which the inha bitants of this metropolis lie to adopt some method of dealing with juvenile vagabonds and criminals beyond the operation of the police-court; and, secondly, the necessity of not being too fastidious about what that method is. It is, of course, highly to be wished that extensive and well-organised institutions, with large funds and a numerous staff, should be established. But what in the meantime ? Can individual exertions effect nothing? Is every private enterprise of this nature to be characterised as ephemeral? Mr. Whitehead's whole life for the last four years is a practical negative to these questions. An immense amount of good has already been effected by private exertions, but recently a n source of discouragement has arisen in consequence, ,strangely enough, of the en couragement given to the movement else where : But now I have to acquaint you with one very natural r .suit of this provincial movement a result which t ireatens to imperil the very existence of our metropolitan Reformatory Institutions. Whereas they once could com mand the support of philanthropists in all parts of the kingdom, they cannot any longer rely upon obtaining the same amount of assistance from remote quarters, now that social reformers are busy with their own plans and schemes in their several localities. Inquire of any London com• mittee engaged in this work, and you will soon ascertain tle truth of this statement. What is to be done then in tiis emergency ? Are these pioneers of the movement to b.) left to their fate ? to be discharged as no longer neces sary? to be complimented as having made straight the way of reform, and then dismissed with an empty vote of thanks? Why, surely this great metropolis will not thus disgrace herself in the eyes of the nation ? She will be up and doing, and say that, when God has assigned to her a fireruost place in a great social and religious movement, it shall never be said of her that she was unfaithful •o her mission. Silver and gobl she has, enough and to spare— even the wealth of many countries. Juvenile delinquents you know she has plenty. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, let her bid them rise up and walk. Peter and John had neither silver nor gold; but there were other Christi 'lll9 in those days, who had, and right nobly did they give of their abundance, yea, in some cases, even to the utmost farthing of their property, to the common 84)13)11 o• the Gospel brotherhood. Many wellwishers to the movement, says Mr. Whitehead, contend that it is " a fanciful idea " to think of combining the energies of metro " politan districts." The difficulty he admits, but trusts that the same enthusiasm which originated the private institutions already existing may be found powerful to combat the supineness with which Londoners too gene rally view the hideous mass of youthful crime and misery which surrounds their homes. In the meantime these minor establishments will act as admirable training schools for a body of efficient superintendents such as possibly the institutions of the future may require, and on that account, if on no other, are de serving of sympathy and support. 2. Some of the particulars of the Berwick str•eet Reformatory—now removed to Lambeth --are highly curious and interesting : "In these boys there is a basis of shrewdness to go upon." The great need was of moral and religious training, with regular w.,rk. Industrial employment, no matter what, was necessary ; so he lost no time in sup plying it. He set them to work making paper bags, of a kind for which there is a large demand in wholesale grocery establishments. Some idea may be formed of their industry in this employment, when it is stated filet twelve tons of paper were thus manufactured between the 11th of August and the 31st December, Ir+33. An I whilst they were thus gradually acquiring habits to which they had long been strangers, habits which told visibly upon their moral improvement, they had the satisfaction of knowing that their labours contributed materially to their THE PRESS. support. For, during the period of time just alluded to, they earned 221. 10,. Si: out of the seven ware thus em• ployed—the seventh being constantly engaged, in a way for which he soon manifMsted a decided taste, in the affairs of the kitchen and other household matters. Working four days a week, they earned successively in the first four weeks, 35., 2s. 6d., 9s. 21 , and 9s. 10d. When by this time they had learned their business, the produce of their industry, five days in each week being now devoted to the work, rose to 255. 81., 255. 10d., 31s. 101., 335., 275. 101, and so on, varying from 28s. to 305., up to the end of the year. The above is a tolerably decisive answer as to the extent to which such institutions could be made self-supporting. A curious, and we doubt not perfectly truthful, distinction is drawn between real vagrants and dilettanti vagrants—the one who steal from necessity and to prevent starvation, the other who " are " suffered, if not encouraged, by careless " parents to pass many hours of each day in " the streets, where they soon take to stealing " as an exciting amusement, or a means of " securing access to the more thrilling excite " ments of the yaff ; and of course they " become a nuisance to their parents and a " pest to the parish." These it is who pre sent the greatest difficulty to the reformer. Having no recollection of street hardships, like the others, they have no appreciation of the comforts they experience, and frequently discredit the whole institution by desertion and theft. Here is a curious anecdote of one of the class : On Sunday morning, February sth, Mr. Driver perceived an unusual crowding of the boys be:bre the window of an outhouse, which served for a sort of primitive looking glass. There was plainly an unprecedented attention to the arranging of their hair. On coming nut among them, he encountered a strong scent of perfumed hair-oil, which on inquiry he found to have been brought overnight to this young hopeful by his judicious mother. Wide ditfer ei.ce indeed between such a boy—and one who had been driven by hunger to eat dog's meat, or another to w!tom a fever, caught under damp arches, was a passport to a home ! One of the most satisfactory features in the history of the outcasts is the character of the letters received from such as have been enabled to emigrate to Canada or Australia. This is, of course, the most satisfactory me thod of dealing with the majority of them. Labour is scarce in Australia—not perhaps in the large towns, but in the interior of the country—and if any wholesale system could be established by which these lads could be apprenticed to colonial masters, it would go far to afford a solution of one of the most difficult questions of the day. The colonists refuse to receive our criminals. Well and good. Would they object equally if we re formed them first? The country is para lysed by the discovery that the boasted ticket of-leave system is a failure. What are we to do with our convicts? Root up the hotbeds from which they spring, we reply—catch the young criminal while he is still plastic and impres sionable—wash him, clothe him, and feed him, till outward decency breeds inward self-respect —treat him with kindness, and above all with confidence, and few natures will be found so bad as not 'at length to repay their culture. With grown men the treatment may fail— mortification of the whole moral part may have become complete With boys this can not be ; and every effort, on however small a scale, to act upon this principle, is deserving of gratitude in proportion to the greatness of the results which its adoption may hereafter effect. The Daisy Chain. A Family Chronicle. By the Author of the " Heir of Redclyffe." London : J. W. Parker and Son. Six hundred and sixty two pages of closely-printed matter countenance the fear of the author that the work may be deemed "an overgrown book of a " nondescript class." Not pretending to the charac ter of a story, it describes the fortunes of a number of young people as they rise to maturity, and is chiefly intent on recording their " aspirat;ons " and heavenward hopes. " Building a Church" would be a more appropriate title than the one it bears, as the first conception of this design by some of the young people, and its practical realisation, are not only the main incidents in the book, but the key-note, as it were, of the whole " Family Chronicle " At page 25, Ethel, the favorite character of the author, introduced to us as a girl of fifteen, is shown sitting apart, and indulging in a reverie : She had heard in books of girls writing poetry, romance, history—gaining fifties and hundreds. Could not soino SATURDAY, of the myriads of fancies floating in her mind thus be available? She would compose, publish, earn money some day call papa, show him her hoard, beg him to take it. and, never owning whence it came, raise the building. Spire and chancel, pinnacle and buttress, rose befcre her eyes—and she and Norman were standing in the porch, with an orderly,religious population, blessing the unknown benefactor who had caused the news of salvation to be heard among them. Just six hundred pages later we arrive at a descrip tion of the manner in which this idea is brought to pass. There is " the pierced spire," and "the rich creamy stone " and the porch " copied from th e west-door of the Minster," and the "high pitched roof," and the oak beams " like the ribs of a ship," and " the painted glass windows " with " legendary saints." Ethel contributes a window from her savings—the church building design has made a " woman of her." The children have a workshop, where they can " illuminate texts on zinc scrolls for the church," and one of the little boys is brought up in the way he should go by being taught to make a model of it. That power of pathos which distin guishes this writer is brought out to advantage in many passages of the book, which it is impossible to read without being deeply touched; but the spirit of the whole seems to us too strongly tinctured with the sentimentalism of religion, and not hearty enough to represent the genuine nature of high coloured, active, buoyant youth. With great talent for fiction, the writer's composition is so often tinged with a simulation of cloistered sanctity as to ap proach perilously near to the " namby-pamby." Senti ment is a poor substitute for principle; nor can the prettinesses of ecclesiastical decoration ever satisfy an earnest mind and craving heart. The greater portion of the book is made up of dialogue, and this is skilfully managed and always appropriate. The passages representing domestic affliction are so delicately written, that they will probably counter balance the heavier portions of the narrative, and maintain the author's popularity with the class which admires the spirit, and is satisfied of the use fulness, of this style of fiction. The Food of London. By George Dodd. London: Longmans. MR. DODD has given us a very interesting and agreeable volume, in which amusement is pleasantly blended with instruction. We have all the newest statistics on the consumption of food in the metropo lis, and the latest economical and sanitary theories, combined with picturesque sketches of markets, shops, and taverns, both in the olden and present time. We have also much curious information con cerning the price of commodities in the middle ages, and sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, extracted from various sources. But we should say the most interesting part of his work to the general reader will be the history of the various London markets. Three of these, Billingsgate, Smithfield, and Covent garden, are of extreme antiquity. Fish were sold in the first (said to be named after Belin, King of the Britons) eight hundred years ago, and cattle in the second seven hundred years ago; while Covent garden, though it did not become a market till much later, existed as the convent garden of the monks at Westminster as early as 1222, " and there has " probably never been a week during a period of six "centuries anti a half in which this plot of ground "did not contain fruit, flowers, and vegetables." Under the head of " Vegetables " we have a brief sketch of the market gardens which encircle London on three sides with their rich belt of highly forced vegetation. In his chapter on " Beverages," Mr. Dodd tells us what, doubtless, many of our renders will be surprised tc hear, that the con sumption of beer, wine, and spirits is very much less in proportion to the population than it was a century ago. By Ruricola. London Lovel Reeve. Dairy Farming. " DAIRY FARMING " will form an agreeable addition to our bucolic literature. A hundred years ago it would have been written in verse, with an invocation to Pales. Now we have it in sober prose, with statis tics about fodder, and the percentage of nitrogen, gluten, and fatty matter contained in the various straws and grasser:. The work appears in every respect to be carefully got up, and contains the latest inventions on the rearing and management of stock. The designs for cowhouses are well drawn, and seem to be excellent of their kind. The Manual of Zoology. London: Renshaw. THE " Manual of Zoology " presents few points of interest except to personb specially interested in the subject. But it contains an immense mass of infor mation, and the name of its author, Mr. Milne Edwards, is a guarantee of its truthfulness. The illustrations are numerous and excellent. By Milne Edwards. 11 11. :e :f. 1, a a r li 1, a I - n 0 )f h It r B B f f