The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

making hard subjects easy for light students,
and giving point as well as weight to important
discoveries.

In this respect we welcome the Birmingham
Conference ; not as having elicited any fact
or brought to light any opinion not already
familiar to persons conversant with that par-
ticular subject ; but as tending singularly,
both by the example of those present and the
cogency of the arguments adduced, to push
forward a measure of practical reform, which
has as yet taken hold only of the judgment
of the few—not of the feelings of the many.
What is meant by reformation of juvenile
offenders? Ask this question, and replies are
given as various as the characters of those
addressed. "It means trying to wash uegroes
white," murmur some would-be men of the
world, trying to gain credit for sagacity by
affecting universal suspicion. "It means en-
" couraging crime by treating young rogues
" better than honest men's children," objects
another critic, more plausible, but equally
mistaken. "It means doing away with
" punishment at once—all stuff and send-
" mentality," exclaims a third, impatient of
certain over-philanthropic reformers whose
visions of the future he has chanced to over-
hear. Nor are these the sole opponents to be
grappled with. One cries aloud about the
rights of parents and the liberty of the sub-
ject ; another fears an increase of the rates,
already high enough; a third prefers the old
plan of all, towards which public opinion in a
certain class seems to be reverting, " Whip
them soundly, and have done with them."
Now let us see what are the real provisions
of the Pakington-Adderley bill. A vast num-
ber of little children—too young, in the
majority of instances, to be held morally ac-
countable for their acts, yet trained and
hardened in crime—are annually caught by
the police, dragged through the streets by a
policeman, locked up at the station-house,
carried before a magistrate, there tried, sen
tented, and rebuked, and lastly sent off to a
prison intended for grown men. What fol-
lows ? Let us recollect that it is almost a
universal law that no person sets much value
on the opinion of any class except that in
which he lives. There are exceptions, but
the general rule holds good. When, there-
fore, the young offender is consigned to gaol,
he thinks not of the magistrate's reproof, nor
of the half-pitying, half-contemptuous eyes
that met his in the dock, nor yet of the ap•
pearanee of his name in the newspapers, but
simply of the comments that will be made on
his arrest within his own immediate circle.
His father, who sent him out to steal, always
warned him that he would be " nabbed "
some day if he were not sharper. Well, he
has been nabbed. It was a mistake to let
himself be caught—au unlucky accident ; it
must not happen again ; lie will be more care-
ful when he is next out. But, meanwhile,
here he is in gaol. What then? It is not
such a bad place after all. The food is not
worse than lie is accustomed to eat; the work
is disagreeable, but it will not last long. A
month passes quickly, anywhere. To be sure
there is the whipping—ho will be revenged
on them for that, one day. But have not all
his acquaintance been in prison, occasionally,
and who thinks the worse of them for it? It
is part of their professional training. What
stories shall he not have to tell of his expe-
rience when he gets back ! Perhaps, too,
before he goes away he may meet sonic one
who will " put him up " to operations on a
larger scale than he has yet attempted. Such,
probably, are our youg hero's meditations in
the solitude of his first cell. Are they particu
larly profitable as regards his future well-
being? It may be that up to that time he had
entertained some thoughts of taking up a
better trade if a chance offered. But now all
that is over. He is known to the police ; one
of the criminal class ; who would employ him
if he asked for work? No—his °destiny is
decided, and for good or bad he must work it
out. Again, though a prison may seem to us
to present little that can minister to vanity,
it is not so with him. He who has been left
to run about from his earliest infancy without
notice from anybody is now treated with all
the dignity that belongs to a prisoner. There
is the chaplain who comes on purpose to talk