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

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.

THE reformation of juvenile onenders has formed
the subject of some important proceedings at Bir-
mingham during the past week, 'When Sir John
Pakington, Lord Lyttelton, Lord Calthorpe,
the Earl of Denbigh, the Bishop of Worcester, Sir
H. I'eel, M.P., and Lord Leigh, having formed a
committee, summoned in the first place a conference,
which met on Tuesday morning. At this conference
the subjects for discussion, resolutions to be proposed,
and general course of pruceedings were arranged for
the public meeting that was appointed for the same
evening.
This conference was, however, the successor of a
former meeting, held as long since as Dec. 10, 1451,
upon the subject of " legislative amendments in the
national treatment of morally-destitute and criminal
children." During the intervening years the matter
owl not been allowed to drop. Many inquiries had
been instituted ; much information obtained respect-
ing the national treatment of juvenile delinquents at
home and abroad; and considerable progress Meted
in ripening the public mind for an extensive re-
formation of the criminal law in this respect, as well
as towards establishing the practical principles on
which such reform should be framed. The purpose
that had been indicated at the previous conferences
in 1451, and the steps that had since been taken
towards carrying it into effect, were briefly recapitu •
lated by Sir JOHN PAKINOTON in his address as pre•
silent of the present conference :
" A number of gentlemen who had devoted their time
and attention to this interesting subject at that time
agreed to a series of practical resolutions, laying down the
course which, in their judgment, it was desirable to take.
lie had always felt that our neglect of this important sub-
.le'e'r was a stain Noon the reputation of this country, and
he considered that it became the duty of the Legislature
to take up the matter. He conferred with friends whose
opinions agreed with his own, and they came to the
unanimous conclusion that, all-imponiatot as the subject
was, it was one which at that time was not very widely
or generally understood, and that public feeling was hardly
ripe for legislation. They felt, therefore, that to introduce
any measure into Parliament, or to call upon the Govern-
, ment to legislate on the subject, would at that moment be
premature, and that the best and most useful practical
course to take would be to seek to enlarge the amount if
public information on the question, and to put the country,
the Government, and Parliament in a better position tier
legislation by means of inquiries conducted through the
agency of a parliamentary select committee. This had
been done, and the committee had taken evidence during
two successive sessions of Parliament, and had circulated
a report embodying their opinions in twenty-five reso-
lutions which were now before the public. The con-
ceit-slice of P 451 passed five important resolutions. The
first declared that the present treatment of juvenile mind.
inns was unsatisfactory : the second acknowledged the ne-
cessity of reformatory sehouls ; the third called for an
extended action of the committee of Privy Council for the
establishment of industrial schools ; the fourth expressed a
desire for legislative enactments for the establishment of
reformatory schools for children guilty of minor ottiloces ;
and the tifth declared the necessity of penal establislometots
for the reformation of juvenile comicted criminals. Now,
it must be satisfactory to know that the committee of the
House of Commons arrived at the same results tos tin t
conference. (Hear. /wan) Mt the resolutions of that
committee went further, and touched upon points nhich
were not refrrred to by the conference 41841. Among
other things, they referred to this most important point,
which he itopt4l would not be lost sight of in their proweed-
hog that day—namely, that it was not intended Toy those
who advocated legishitiou ou this sulleot thereby to rc•

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 relieve
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.
mated 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 whom he 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 isgmintiou
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 Ire.
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 ;m5
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
Feint; not sine death for two which happened in the earlier
so also will a resitieti bl fsn to hate taken
place in the nitio oribatotetitz,.e., injured,
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
entintermed 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.
wt. call 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 14noleablr, also. that the
CA411%10114 of express 111111 excursion trains have pro-
ducts' lint foie death end' among the passengers
throughont the whole penis' of 4.ltrs, anal
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 in 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' 1104, -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 ;
Rivet 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.

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