The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-10-11 00:00:00

JUVENILE REFORMATION.

THE INTERESTS OF THE STATE demand that
the subject of Juvenile Reformation shall be
thoroughly and frequently ventilated, until its
paramount claims, not merely on the individual
sympathies of the more philanthropic members of
the community, but upon the Government, shall
be fully realised and practically acknowledged.
The case of poor and neglected juveniles forming
the class from which the criminal population has
been wont to be recruited, is not merely one
appealing to private philanthropy, or to that
sense of Christian duty which ought to regulate
our conduct to the needy. On these grounds
alone, no doubt, much might be said ; and,
prompted by such motives, undoubtedly much has
already been done. This, however, is a question
which touches most closely upon the government
of the nation, and the expenses of the administra-
tion of national institutions. To speak plainly,
it is a question of taxation. As a matter of
pounds, shillings, and pence, it may be stated
thus :—Whether is it cheaper to instruct and
train juveniles so as 0 qualify them subsequently
to perform their duties as members of society,
or to seize upon them after they have entered
upon a criminal mode of life, and punish them as
the law directs ? Viewed in this aspect, the issue
is very easily determined. If by the timely
expenditure of a few pounds annually, we can
save the country as many hundreds per annum,
will not the heavily taxed people of England
gladly hail any such economical, expedient as a
most welcome boon ? This is what Ragged
Schools can do.• Stinted as they have been in the
measure of public support hitherto awarded to
them, they have done so already. Are there still
any sceptics on this point. Let them listen to
Mr. Commissioner HILL, the Recorder of Bir-
mingham, in his charge to the grand jury of the
Borough Quarter Sessions on Monday last. He
said :

"If any remnant of that corps of sceptics who might,
had we given ear to them, have disheartened us in the
outset by their misgivings, still remain to be converted,
I would ask them to confer with such as have the best
means of information with regard to the classes from
whence that army of juvenile offenders was wont to be
recruited, which so lately disturbed and even alarmed all
reflective members of the community. Let him ask
respectable working men and their wives whether the
steps of their children between home and school are so
frequently dogged as heretofore by the city Arab. Let
him enquire of the officers of police whether the diminu-
tion of this juvenile pest in our streets is not apparent
to the most careless observer in the force. Let him ask
what has been the consequences of seizing the captains
of thrvarious gangs of juvenile depredators who here-
tofore harassed the passenger and the shopkeeper, and
of sending these leaders, not to be confined for a week
or two, and then let loose to join their followers in triumph,
but to be consigned to a reformatory for years, thence to
emerge willing and competent to enter into some honest
and useful occupation. The inquirer will assuredly find
that the abstraction of the leader has caused the disper-
sion of the band, it being as true of a body of thieves as
of any other body, natural or artificial, that the head is
by far its most important member ; and that, discouraged
by its loss, the followers will slink away to their homes
or their hidineplaces, whence they are readily attracted
to schools and refuges. For myself, I know of none
who have retained their unbelief."

Speaking of the opinion of the late Mr. JARDINE,
Recorder of Bath, and one of the Police Magis-

trates of London,—a gentleman whose 'ektef,SiVO
learning had been partietiiitiy- dlieeted to the
administration of viit 'Criminal law in past ages,
as his V-Atitleci works testify, and whose kriow-
kctge and experience were perfected by the assi-
duous exercise of his official duties during it lohg
course of years,—and, refeftititto the fact that
Mr. JARDINE had at •on'e tinie withheld his appro-
bation from the new system of juvenile reforma-
tories, the necorder gave the following interest-
ing statement of the more matured views of the
learned judge
"Shortly before his death, with the manliness which
readily 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 diametrically opposed to such as he had
formerly held."

The Recorder of Birmibgharn appropriately
adds :

"With this array 01' &ideltiee hied authority in favour
of the treatment, by Which the individual is taught
instead of terrified (or rather sought to be terrified), no
wonder that the late important congress at Glasgow,
Which haS just concluded its labours, has affixed the seal
of unanimity to what had been previously acknOWl.edged
as the general impression."
Much has beer_ said as to the qualifications
which- onht to be possessed by the teachers in
Ragged Schools, and no small part of the diffi-
culty experienced in moving the Privy Council
to do their duty towards these establishments has
arisen in connection with this question. Most
people, however, will agree with Mr. Commis-
sioner HILL in the following remarks ~.----
" The teachers, male and female, must have peculiar
and somewhat rare qualifications. They are net reclinired
to be either mathernaticians or lingnigts. their know-
ledge of 'geography may, perhaps, be lithited and super-
lkeial. it is desirable 'that they should speak and write
their mother tengtie after the manner of educated per- .
sons. They shoed be able to practice and to teach a
legible handwriting. They should be quick at figures,
and competent to make their scholars as quick as them-
selves in solving the problems whk,h arise in humble
life. But all this does net go to the root of the matter.
They must be of t. patient, child-loving nature. They
must pestess the gift of influencing the hea.rts of their
yuong flocks, so that not only must they love, but
they must inspire love towards themselVet. That
they must be honest and pions f need not say. Further-
more, they must be hanerous. The class of children
to which E have drawn your attention is• the most
diffitalt in the world to govern. To ordinary motives
and expedients the master can seldom resort with effect.
The parent who pays for his child shows by that at "
that he values what he will call schooling., and will
lend his aid to the master to stare 'the attendance of
his child. But the class tt Which I refer is not paid for.

" Again, it will be thought that the receipt of food at
school would ptcscnt an all potent allurement. But, in
the first place, the conductors act with regard to such a
gift tinder wholesome restraints ; and, in the next place,
children of this class are inured to hunger and cold, and
consequently often prefer their darling pletsnres of
wandering at their own will, to the dinner coupled as it
is with the restraints of school. Hence we have to
depend on personal influence in school, which demands
a staff of teachers sufficiently strong to prevent the
influence of each being dissipated by attempts to exercise
it over too large a number. Again, it must be remem-
bered that in addition to the duties of the master in
school hours, his labours are augmented by the netesstty
which exists for making inquiries of thO .p.rcnts as to
truants, and endeavouring by ar,gliment and persuasion
to ally himself with the former, so as to strengthen his
influence over the latter."

Mr, Thu concluded his address by the follow-
ing pointed and eloquent appeal for further aid
to Ragged Schools
am no enemy to what I may call the luxuries of
education. lam quite content to beat my share of that .
taxation of the country which maintains the British
Museum and similar foundations, although, if you
divide the annul cost of the British Museum by the
number of visitors, enormous as that is, you will find
that each visit of each visitor costs the nation
several shillings. I am glad to see schools of
design spreading over the country, and I grudge not
the expense. Indeed, I should be glad to see it
mnch larger than it is. But, nevertheless, Ido say that
if I were called upon to defend such an employment of
the revenue, I should not find my task altogether free
from difficulty. Whereas, inasmuch as id the nature of
things the people of every country must be governed,
and as that government must be paid for from a common
fund, if it shall he found that instruction and training,
when applied to qualifying the recipient for performing
his duties as a member of society, and thereby reducing
to a minimum the epense of governing him, then, and
so far, I look upon education to he a part of govern-
ment itself ; and consequently, where the cost of tuition
cannot be extracted from its natural sources, T con-
sider it self-evident that it should be furnished by the
State. Whether it should come from the Privy Council
or from the Home Office—whether it should be charged
upon the general revenue of the country or raised by
local rates—these are questions 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 humble protest to the masterly
speech of Sir John Pakington in Parliament, the fervid
appeals of Dr. Guthrie, and the unanswerable remon-
strance of Mary Carpenter, against the huckstering
frugality with which our ministers let go their coin,
shilling by shilling, to the ragged schools—a parsimony
which, when contrasted with the plenitude of their muni-
ficence in favour of classes of the community able and
willing to contribute to the education of their children,
strikes me as the most astounding example of incon-
sistency which has occurred in my time."
While we trust that this appeal will not be
without its effect on the Government, let the
public do their duty, in the meantime, by sub-
scribing liberally for the support of those useful
institutions already, or in course of being, esta-
blished. The inhabitants of Liverpool have not
been chargeable with remissness. in this respect ;
but the field is still most inadequately occupied.
It was only yesterday we had occasion to refer to
the fact that the new Ragged Schools at Kirlcdale
are at a stand-still for want of funds to complete
the erection. While we warmly second every
appeal to Government, let us shew an earnestness
in the cause by making some immediate personal
sacrifice in the good cause, the fruits of which
cannot fail sooner or later to tell powerfully on
the public mind, and to arouse the whole body of
the people to demand of the Legislature, with a
voice that dare not be denied, AMPLE JUSTICE TO
RAGGED AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

THE BATTLE OF CASTELFIDARDO.-
AN APOLOGY FOR THE DEFEAT OF
GENERAL LAMORICIERE•

(From the journal of Rome.)
The General-in-chief of the Pontifical army, M.
de Lamoriciere, has never alluded to the great
disproportion between his forces and that of the
enemy. He had scattered his best troops through-
out all the towns of the frontier, in order to
endeavour to arrest the advance of the Pied-
montese army, and he had concentrated around
Ancona all his new volunteers, seeking to exer-
cise them and discipline them. He had brought
together „at Spoleto and at Ancona, his chief
central points, most of the troops he could collect,
but he never for a moment expected an invasion
of the Pontifical States by a Power, especially a
Catholic Power, without a preliminary declara-
tion of war, which would have enabled him to
make suitable dispositions for meeting it. It was
in these unforeseen circumstances that he saw
himself attacked by imposing forces, amounting
to 70,000 men, with a numerous artillery.
When General Lamoriciere, at Spoleto, received
intelligence of the movements of the Piedmon-
tese army, notwithstanding the
disproportion of
force, he resolved to attack the enemy without
counting their numbers, with the object of being
able to penetrate into Ancona. During the night
of the 18th Generals Lamoriciere and Pimodan
found themselves in the neighbourhood of Loretto
and of Recanati, in face of the entire corps of
General Cialdini, which numbered several strong
squadrons of cavalry, and
was also very strong
in artillery. He had only 11,000 men to oppose
to them, a mere handful of horse, and 14 pieces
of cannon, which were rifled. These guns were
also very difficult to manage. He had only four
horses for each gun, in consequence of the non-
arrival of 200 horses, ex”ected from Trieste.
General de Pimodan, at the head of a part of this
little army, advanced on the side of Castelfi-
dardo, straight at the enemy, without the least
,
regard to their numbers, and offered battle.
After a terrible melfle, which lasted several hours,
and in which 60 pieces of artillery took a part,
this undaunted General,
fourth time the enemy's• •
position on the Corvetto,
fell, pierced with several balls, on the field ren-
dered The glorioushutih sbyefhtihse in charging for the
a
bSimarvdeirnYian journals admit
loss of 1,000 killed and, wounded in the battle,
in this list, of whom one washe
whoand theyai.eincl
umentionded t names of seventeen officers
a major, Their brigade of Ravenna was almost
annhihilated, and a battalion of riflemen has been
sent to Urbino to be re-organised there. These
same bulletins say that on the side of the Ponti-

eais, there remained on the field Of battle SOO
men, of whom 114 were }tilled, and the rest
wounded. This confirms the first
that the partiality of the enemy les6ened
~ • • •
their own losses rind o**geratecl ours:
The el-Act toss of the Pontifical army cannot yet
fti'icertained. We only
.know that the corps or
riflemen lost 180 out of 270 present at the opening
of the engagement, that after the battle the passage
of General Lamoriciere into Ancona could not be
prevented, and that the Piedmontese did not
venture to pursue the Pontificals, who during the
night of the 18th slept in their encampment;
only on the 19th, on the arrival of other corps of the
Sardinian army, that part of the army of Pimodan,
which was not able to effect a junction at Ancona,
surrounded by infinitely superior numbers, capitu-
lated, obtaining all the honours of war. General
Lamoriciere was able to realise his object, which
was to share the perils of the garrison of Ancona—
that was his great ambition.