The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-10-16 00:00:00

THE REFORMATION OF CRIMINALS.

B11111114CHA(, Monday.
At the Quarter Sessions here toelay, Mr. H. 1). Hill,
Q.C., delivered the following charge :
" Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,—Whatever doubts
and difficulties may hang over the question of the dimi-
nution of crime in our adult population, although,
apeakine for 'lapel', I have a firm belief in the truth of
aoine diminution, yet we have overwhel ' g teetimony
that jitveitile criminals are reduced in nutuber to an
extent which, sanguine as I have always been in the
efficacy of preventive and reformatory measures, if well
devised awl applied with skill, and with Christian seal
and perseverance. I never ventured to hope I should
live to witness. I will not trumble you with figures, not
because they would not abundantly prove my statement.
but because they must challenge your attention almost
daily in the public journal,, presenting the statistical
result, iii • multiplicity of forms, and redoubling their
force by the Accordance which will be found throughout
the variety of aspects under which the subject is mewed.
But if, indeed, we were altogether unprovidest with sta-
tistical evidence, the experience of every day would con-
vince us of this great and auspicioua fact. Several re-
formatories have actually heron closed for lack of inmates,
although established and conducted by able mid earnest
philanthropists,whose interest in the work never decayed.
and whose trust in the enterjunse never grew faint. If
any remnant of that corps of sceptics who might, had
we given ear to them. have disheartened us intim outset
by their misgivings, still remain to be vonverted,l would
ask them to center ivitlu such so have the best meatus et
iuformation with regard to the classes from which (het
army of juvenile offenders wan wont to be recruited,
which as hotly disturbed :slid evu ii alarmed all reflective
members of the community. let them ask respectable
working owe and their wives whether the steps of their
• children between hone and eciiool are so frequently
, dogged as heretofore by the city Arab. Let them in-
' quire of the officers if puttee woether the diminution of
Slits juveuile pest in our streets is nut apparent to
the most careless observer in the force. Let them ask
what Imes been the consequence of seining the captains
of the various rings of juvenile depredators who here•
tofore herr:weed the paesenger and the shopkeeper, awl
of sending these loafers, not to be confined for a week
or two auil then let loose to join their followers in
triumph, but to be consigned to a reformetory for yesni,
thence to emerge willieg end competent to enter into
seute honest and useful occupation. Tim inquirer will
aesuredly find that the abstraction of the leader 1144
caused the dispersion of the hand, it being as true of a
hosly of thieves as of any other body, natural or arti-
ficiel, that the IMO is by fir its most imminent mein.
tier, and that, discouraged by its loss, the followers will
slink away to their homes or their hiding places, where
they ere readily attracted to achools and refuges. For
-myself I know of none who have retained their unbelief.
Since I last preeided in this court death his closed the
labours of • valuable public servant. I speak of Mr.
Jardine, the late recorder of Bath, and one of the police
magistrates of London. The learning of this gentleman,
extensive in many branches of knowledge, hao been
oeculiarly directed to the administration of our criminel
law in past ages, au his published works testify. Nor
Win his experience as to the preatitt infenor to his
knowledgeof the past,perfeeted as it was by the assiduous
exercise of hie official ditties during a long coutse of
years. From this gentleman, whouse friendship it was
my privilege to enjoy, I had expected to find an agree-
tuent of opinion in the more than expediency of *change
from inflictions simply penal to a treatment which
. should have for its object the reforuiation of the crimi-
nal, and in an especial manner ditl I hope for his con-
currence as regarded our dealings with the young. To
my surprise and disepeointittent Mr. Jardine hail no
confidence in the result of such a change, and he, thei e-
fore, most consistently withheld his approbatioo.
Shortly, however, before his death, with the manline a
which really allies itself to sincerity, he from the bench
of his Court of Sessions explicitly announced that being
now able to form his judgment upon effects produced,
instead of effects merely predicted, he had arrived at
conclusions diatuetrically opposed to such as he had
formerly held. With this array of evidence and
authority in favour of the treatment by which the indi-
vidual is taught instead of terrified (or rather sought to
be terrified), no wonder that the lete miumrtant Congress
at Glasgow which has just concluded its lebours, has
affixed the sell of unanimity to what hail been pre-
viously acknowledged as the genural impression. The
futility of the deterrent princiole,asapplied to the young,
and therefore now be taken PII an accepted truth.
requiring no further defence ; but as regards that medi-
cation of the principle which in elemplified in refonua-
tory schools, a fallacy yet lurks in the public mind
which I think it important should be dislodged. Pre-
vention, we are told, is better than core, • proposition
which, I believe, 11114 never been, and I think I may ven-
ture to prophesy, never will be disputed. But, gentle-
men, a truism is often thrust forward to cover the
advance of a fallacy, and the fallacy which accompanies
this truiem is, that reformatories dealing only wth
offenders are of inferior utility to schools which, taking
charge of what hare been called the " perishing and
dangerone clauses" of our juvenile population, prevent
their falling into crime. 'I babe seminaries of the latter
kind me most eesential to the well-being of the country,
I. for one, not only admit, but strenuously maintain.
But let them not be marshalled in opposition to retie-.
inatories. Each is, and I fear ever will be, a social
necessity, for use shunt vigilance you may you cannot
bring all under this preventive tuition for when( auds
eafeguerti is intended ; and, moreover, it ie exactly the
individuals who most require training whom it is most
difficult to allure and retain under control. But were
it even possible to subject every member of ouu• perishing
and &macrons children to the proper disciplioe, still wu•
know that beckslitling cannot be prevented. Even the
middle and higher Clauses of society furnish ti ournful
examples that no influencee, however benign, that o
tiaining, however well conducted, can guarentee the
community that the subject of this watchful care shall
not himself break sway from all ties, and enrol himself
among the hordes who pursue crime uis the stated occu-
pation of their lives. l'revent then, if you can, bat
reform where you have failed of preveotiug. It would,
however, be unjust to reformatory schools to forget that
although their direct purpose is to reform they have a
large incidental uperistion in preventing. Crime is con•
legions, and the mote you diminish the number of the
infected the more you limit the !Tread of the disease.
But, as I have Already shown, particular individuate—
that is to sae, boy leaders, have a power of dissemina-
ting the seeds of crime far beyond that poseee,ed by the
majority of their class whom nature has destined to be
followent,—followere, if successfully trained in that
which is good, lint followers in that which is evil when
trainio; has not been applied or when it has failed of
the desired effect. The learned gentleunia then referred
to the Birmingham cumferenoe, hell nine years ago.
lie misted thst that conference had stimulated popular
action under the Government and the Legislature, and
many of the changes for which we asked have been con-
ceded. The Hon. Gentleman concludeei as follows:
" Gentlemen, I have felt compelled to occupy you
with this long and I fear tedious explanation in order to
justify myself in urging the necessity for an universal
manifestation of opinion, to the effect that, if public
money is to be spent on education at all, the schools
which I have now ulescribeei ought to be the first objects
of the public lmunty. I, gentlemen, am no enemy to
what I may call the lifetimes of education. I am quite
content to bear my eliare of that texatien of the country
which maintains the British MUWIIIII and similar
foundations, although, if you utivide the ennuisl coat of
the British Museum by the number of visitors, enorruous
es that is, you will find each visit of each visitor costa
the nation several shillings. lam glad to see school, of
design spreading over the country, and I grudge not the
expense ; indeed, I should be glad to see it much larger
than it is. But, neverthelees, Ido any that, if I were
called upon to defend euch an enployment of the revenue
I should not find tuy task altogether free from diffi-
culty. Whereas, inasmuch as in the nature of things
the people of every country utmost be governed, and as
that government utmost be paid for from a common fund,
if it shall be found that inetruction and training, when
applied to qualifying the recipient for performing his
duties as a member of society, thereby reduced to a
minimum the expense of governing him, then, and so
far, I look upon educetion to be a part of government
itself; and consequently, where the coot of tuition MI.
not be extracted from its natural sources. I consider it
self-evident that it should be furnished by the State.
Whether it should mite from the Privy Councilor from
the Home-office— whether it should be charged upon the
general revenue of the country Or raised by lo al rates—
these are tineetions into which I will not enter. But I
stand upon the broad and irrefragable truth that, as the
disbursement is called for by the interest of the State.
by the State ought it to be borne, and I must unite my
bumble protest to the masterly speech of Sir. John Pak-
ington in Parliatnent, the fervid appeals of Dr. Guthrie,
and the unanswerable remonstrance of Mary Carpenter
against the haltering frugality with which our Ministers
let go their coin shilling by shilling to the ragged *aped.
—a pareimony which, when contrasted with the pleni-
tude of their mutuificence in favour of classes of the com-
munity able and willing to contribute to the education
I of their children, strikes me eis the most astounding
example of incousistency which has occurred in my
general'