The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-23 00:00:00

THE House of Peers, at the instance of Lord

Whether or not the power of imprisonment for em-
ploying a child for the purpose of inducing the
ginng of alms may not be used in such a manner
as to lead to stole will has subject fitr.Asecciamittei,
to decide upon. Is it intended, for instance, that the
provisions of this Act should be extended to the case-
of a mother with a child at the mast? This, however,
is a matter of detail which is susceptible otoorrection.
The great point is the enuneiatidn of - tile pritteipli
that society has a right to defend itself frood the pos-
sible consequences of the education of a child in the
mendicancy that recruits the ranks of crime. We have
a right to prevent criminality as well as to punish
it. If a man so far neglects his duty to
his fellow citizens as to bring up his children as
robbers or murderers, society has the right to protect
themselves from the evil consequences of his con-
duct. This is all that is asserted by the bill. Should
it become law, we may hope that it will have the
effect of checking the alarming progress of juvenile
delinquency. In proportion as our means of cleansing
society by transportation become contracted, it be-
comes more and more incumbent upon us to adopt
measures of prevention. No method seems more
likely for this end than the abolition, as far as pee
Bible, of the first degree in crime—mendicancy; and
the putting to good refuge or workhouse schools
i the wretched class of children now used to excite pity
and extort alms. When this is achieved, we may
hope that we have made one step towards the sup-
pression of what the French call the "dangerouss
classes." By checking the growth of the criminal,
we shall be doing our best towards checking the
spread of crime.

SHAFTESBURY, has jest issued a Bill of great interest
and importance upon the subject of juvenile mendi-
cancy. "It is not to be doubted," says Miss CAR-
rENTLR, in her excellent book upon this subject, that
the Gaol is not a true reformatory school, though, at
present, the only one provided by our country; since
thousands of young children annually committed to it
come forth, not to diminish but to swell the ranks of
vice." There are few Fersons who will not echo
Miss CARPENTER'S assertion. The records of juve-
nile crime tell us that the education of the criminal,
if not commenced, has at least been completed, in
Tho great point, then, for the philanthropist
into endeavour to discover whether we may not stop
this extraordinary education at its very source. Is
it really impossible to prevent children from entering
universities of crime, and taking degrees there which
will enable them to assume their position, without
blushing, amongst finished rogues? In other words,
is there any process by which we may arrest inci-
licit thieves in their progress to the place where
they will be sure to receive their finished educa-
tion in %Many ? This Juvenile Mendicancy Bill,
preset ted by Lord SHAFTESBURY and ordered to
be printed on the 13th of this month, appears
to be an attempt in a right direction to solve the
probilm.
Before entering into any discussion on the merits
of the Bill, it may help us to a solution of the gene-
ral question, if we examine a few of the figures in a
return made to an address of the House of Lords for
a copy of any supplemental report on common
lodging houses by Captain HAY, Commissioner of
Police. It appears from this return that there
are (at least) 1,316 children "at large" in
London as mendicanis or thieree below the age of
fourteen. Strange to say, out of this number only
ninety-four are without parents. The rest help to
support the authors of their being oat of the proceeds
of their begging or robbery. The number of chil-
dren found in Common Lodging Houses below the
apparent age of fourteen, and living as mendicants or
thieves, is 1,782, making, with those "at large," a
total of 3,098. The number of children "at large,"
aad living in idleness, without education, and appa-
rently neglected by their parents, who are gene-
rally in the receipt of wages, amounts as near
as tan be ascertained to 20,641 under fifteen years of
age. Has society no rights of its own in opposition
to this large army of actual or incipient.plundereref
Looking at the question in a mere pecuniary point of
view, have we no right to protect oar pockets frogs
the tremendous drain upon them made by a hostile
force of this nature ? Miss Caargwrgri, whom we
have already quoted, gives an account of one of these
worthies who from the ago of fourteen to eighteen
robbed the public of 1,8001.: of a young pick-
pocket who at first gained 31. 10s., and
afterwards 91. to 10/. a week; and of another who
from the age of fourteen to twenty-eight plundered
the public of 5,8001, each of the three averaging
about 3001. a year during their career. Have we no
right to check an education in crime which levies
such a heavy mulct on our property as this? But,
looking a little more closely into the matter, is there
not a point of view from which the prospect is still a
little more dreary than this? These Juvenile vagrants
amp Fly the ranks of the class which sow the
, aegis of immorality broad-cast over the land.
The thieves are partly maintained by, and partly
maintain, the prostitutes. There is a horrible frater-
nity in crime. The violators of one item of the
Decalogue are glad enough to associate with those
who have violated another portion. The twenty
thousand juvenile idlers "at large " in the metro-
polis are familiar with most phases of crime, and not
only prey upon society, but pollute it. The juvenile
mendicants and thieves and prostitutes are so much
immoral matter, ready for the contamination of chil-
-1 Area of other walks of life. The bill introduced by
Lord SnArressrav is really intended to give society
a similar power with respect to this moral contagion
Ito that it has long exercised, at times vexa-
tiously, with respect to physical contagion. We
imprison by quarantine laws, a ship's crew, on the
slightest pretext of danger of the plague or fever.
We make violent incursions into houses, and insist
upon whitewashing rooms, and taking other sani-
tary precautions, when there is an alarm of
cholera. " The Juvenile Mendicancy Act" is
intended to exercise a little purification in the
moral world. The preamble enunciates that "the
bringing up of young persons as beggars ought to be
discouraged," and it makes provision for this dis-
couragement in various ways. Any parent of aisy
young person, or any one having the care or control
of any young person, who causes or knowingly per-
mits the young person in any public or open place to
beg or to be employed ae a beggar, or for the pur-
poses of bagging or of inducing the giving of alms,
will by the provisions of the act be deemed a rogue
and vagabond, and be punishable by imprisonment
for not exceeding thirty days. It is also provided that
any young person found begging may be brought
before • Justice of the Peace, who will be em-
powered to send such person to any House of
Refuge that will receive him, or to the Workhouse,
or Union of the parish in which he was found, there
to be detained and usefully educated.

THE. EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 1853.