The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-10 00:00:00

(Stamped Id. Additional) [ '4% OPENCE.

.
they will attract to us all the destitution of the rural
districts in a flood; but this objection, whatever
force it might have had some time since, is becoming
weaker and weaker every day. We are happy to
find, from one of the pamphlets just published by
the Central Union, that all the greet towns are
rapidly imitating the example of London, and that
to look after the juvenile delinquency and destitu-
tion of their own neighbourhoods is beginning to be
ranked by our provincial friends amongst the fore-
most of their municipal duties. Let us not then be
deterred from the good work of establishing Reforma-
tories and Houses of Refuge by the cold calculations
of the economist, or the still colder reasoning of the
philosopher. Let us not be ashamed to re-
member that the heart has a place in the
human physiology as well as the head, and
that its impulses may sometimes be taken
as a guide, as well as the more frigid dic-
tates of reason. And even when following the latter,
let us not confuse effect with cause, far Reformato-
ries and Refuges have to deal with effects, which
effects are direful facts that cannot be got rid of by
the most ingenious reasoning in the world.
We shall now take a passing glance at the list of
Reformatories and Refuges in the metropolis which
has just been published by the Reformatory Union,
and we shall do so with a double view—first, in order
that the economists need not be alarmed lest they
should speedily abeerh all the vegrawy of tie king-
dom ; and, secondly, that the golden harvest which
is daily pouring with such concentrated abundance
into the coffers of one or two may be more impar-
tially distributed, and thereby made more univer-
sally beneficial in its results. It appears that within
the metropolitan districts there are in all 33 institu-
tions coming under the denomination of Reformato-
ries or Refuges, 18 for males and 15 for females, and
that they have accommodation for males 1,017,
females 731, in all, 1,748—a mere drop in the ocean
of our vagrancy and delinquency, but speak-
ing trumpet-tongued in favour of further develop-
ment. Ot tbese,l4—namely Britannia-court, Brook-
street, Bryan-street, Field-lane, Grotto-passage,
Maida-hill, Bt. Giles'', and St. George's (for males),
and Albert-street, Dolphin's-court, " Elizabeth Fry's,"
Female Refuge and Cripples' Home, Refuge for the
Destitute, Bt. Giles's and St.George'e Training Refuge,
are "Refugee," either temporary or permanent ; three
are the homes of the highly successful " Shoeblack
Brigades," and the remainder are Reformatories for
juvenile criminals, or incorrigible" children, who
may be sent there and ;paid for by their parents.
The oldest of all the refuges is the Refuge for the
Destitute at the Manor-house, Dalton, which was
founded so far back as 1806. It was originally
intended for both sexes, but in 1849 it was appro-
priated exclusively to females; but the importance
of such institutions is evidenced by the gross number
reclaimed sirce the foundation being no less than
8,100. The Field-lane Refuge has already received
prominent notice in the columns of a contemporary,
but it is to be hoped that its claims on the charity of
the public will not be allowed altogether to eclipse
those of kindred institutions. It would be, of course,
impossible to enumerate in detail all the Refuges and
Reformatories in London, but there is one of the
latter which, although only founded in 1832, has
already risen, mainly through the exertions of one
benevolent gentleman, Mr. George L. Bowyer, to
a high degree of importance and efficiency.
Commencing with only six inmates in a hired
house, it rose within the last year to the dignity of
a large separate establishment, accommodating its
100 boys, who on their release from prison are taken
in here, reformed, and ultimately enabled to earn an
honest livelihood. It is curious to observe in the
case of this, as of nearly all is kindred institutions,
that they all started with the very smallest begin-
nings, that the zeal of *is single individual, generally
speaking, set them going, and that the public by
their support at once recognised their necessity and
usefulness. The same may be said of the nightly
Refugee, which only require further extension to
have their advantage more generally felt, and which
it is to be hoped may before long be established in
every parish in the metropolis. Now that the pub-
lic attention is thoroughly awakened it is to be
hoped that charity will flow in an equitable stream
to all the charities above enumerated, and that the
advantages which have been proved to result from
the existing Reformatories and Refuges may stimu-
late the more general establishment of other institu-
tions of a similar description.