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

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