The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-25 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

SOUSE OF COMMONB.—WzDxrBDAT, Arm. 24.
TIN SriAxsa took Ow &Aar shortly after 12 (Mock.
PUBLIC BUSINESS.
JUVENILE OFFENDERS BILL.
. _ _

11r. M. 111 LNES, i moviog the sewed read*, of the
Juvenile °faller' Bill, soil that this was a subject which
had lose attracted public etteellee. In 1847 a committee
of the Howse et Lords, eseriefert of the Lard Chancellor,
Lord Brougham, Lord Campbell, sad ether legal authorities
made a report, is whisk they stated that the sootamination
of • owl mioht ofm prom fatal, sad must be hurtful to
boys who had been c^maitted for the Ant antes. The
or gave a frightful picture of the offsets thus produced.
In Liverpool several boys nadir twelve years of ere
had been committed fltura times, sad the average was
Mae times. The report proceeded to sossider the gustiest
of punishment of iento& offenders, and the commit..e wow
dimmed to recommend the adoption of reformatory mea-
sure. This portion of the report was the foundation of the
bill which he had laid on the table. They recommended
the inareesed liability of the parents of then children, and
the establiiiiment of • reformatory asylum. la 1847 the
magistrates of Warwickshire addressed to the government a
most stringeat request on this subject, and implored govern-
meat to interfere, end establish some more economical and
el lsieht system. The map lenity of Liverpool also presented
• memorial to the Hoene office. Sian then (Tequia appli-
cable. had been made to goverment upon the subject, and
yesterday a memorial was presented to the Home Secretary,
mimed by 60 of the chaplains of the priutpal gaols of this cons-
try. The number imprisoned in 1848 was 8.148, as appeared
from the reopen of the inspector of primes. The umber com-
mitted twice was 934; the numberoommitted three times 438;
four times 673. lathe metropolitan prisons, the proportion of
recommittals had averaged 51 per c:nt. Is Liverpool 2311 per
cent had been in prison four times. Surprising as tale
Wags might be, a little consideration would lead to the eon•
elusion that they wen =use consequence of the way
in which gout wane er were treated in this (vestry.
Crime with these children Mame a protession, and took the
chances of • profession. A carious instance of this woe fa
the adoption of the words of these children. A piece *kr
bited by thieves always went by the name of 'Mob, and the
act of sashes *.ways west by the name of wore. Coe*
dais, the stet. of the prisms to which these children mem
committed, how esuld things be otherwise than t‘ey *ow
were ? The hon. member thee suffer, dto the account give
by Dr. Dodd, who had bees cutieed in Newest* ha 1722,
end oho quoted **evidence of Capt. William's, the hugsseeseef
prison, sad the SiStellitaill of Jeremy Bentham. He the**
thatmhoelleg is prisons leader the present system weld
work se good. The system of eduestio• at present was
very imperfect. Oat of 3,781 aisle children who were con-
victed in 1343 there were only 747 who while is prison had
loomed to write or reed, sad that badly ; and out of
235 females there were only 22 who weld rood or write.
The present treatmeat of javelins offenders wee to itself
bed ; and in the It. clause of this bill he proposed that no
child over 14 years of age should receive corporal potash-
ment,and the jurisdiction in the eases of criminals uader
the bi 1 wee vested in two marinates. On criminals over
that age corporal punialusest had a degrading et et. The
only change which he proposed to make with regard to
summary cone ctiors was, that he proposed that offenders
guilty for the first time of small [hero should not be tent to
prison, but corporally punished at the nest police statics,
and then discharged. As regarded female children who
were found pH* of • petty theft an the first charge, he
prop --sod that they should be reprimanded and diehard.
The bill also astound classes which threw the responsibi-
lity of the child to a certain extent on the parent. It may
be said that by introdadrg clauses to that sleet he was
asking as Marred .n in law. but they had the authority of
sommittee of the Howe of Lords, composed of the highest
legal fitactimaries in the land, who recommended such • err
tem. He proposed that when a child was convicted of theft
the magistrates sL:uld have the power of summoning the
parents, and if it was found that they had incited the child
to the deed they should be considered guilty of • misde-
meanour, and he thought it would be advisable also to make
the parents, in eases where they could not be proved to be s
immediately connee.ed with the crime of the child, enter
into recogninaces for its farms good behaviour. He read a
statement made by the /menhir of the Reading Owl, show.
ing how advaatmeous it would be to carry nth • proposition
into praetix. This bill would also give to the magistrates
the power of erecting industrial schools if they thought it
*fernery where juves-ile offenders could be removed ; these
sahoo's would prove highly beneficial in themselves, and
would cause a neat saving to the country. The system had
been tried in France to some eaten?, and was found to be
highly successful. It wee partially tried in England at the
Philaattiropie Institution, sad succeeded admirably. Emi-
gration of criminals was now tried as a means of getting rid
of the bad portion of society is this country, but he thought
from circumstances wbiclt had occurred lately, at the Cape of
(Wad Hope, for instance, it won doubtful whether they could
go on with that system. His bill would be found eoesistent
with cutting penal enactment,, merely adding a clams pro.
vidag for the industrial reformation of the children under
certain circumstances.ls other clauses he gave power to
. .

the guardians to provide for the children when trearmsd by
apprenticeship or colonisation, but only in eases when the
teachers and other authorities had restos to think that their
reformation was complete. Re proposed that in the districts
schools should be provided, each capable of containing forty
children, the expense in every case to be defrayed by the
parish in which the offender was entitled t 3 a settlement.
The annual expense of their prosecution and maintenance
was also en enormous item in the national expenditure, so
much so as to render the prospective expense under his bill
a large comparative saving.
Sir G. GREY could assure his hen, friend that he was not
inclined to treat with iadiff,renee any practical plan for the
reformation of juvenile offenders, but as his hon. friend had
appealed to him to sive his opinion as to whether the plan
proposed was deserving of that character, he must beg to
oak attention to some of the provisions of his hon. friend's
bill, after which he would leave it to the house to consider
whether it was one calculated to meet the evil of which every
one admitted the existence. The bill had four different
objects in view. First, it cave a very wide extension to the
summary jurisdiction of magistrates in the cue of offenders
nada sixteen years of a. e, one provision giving a power
4 quiva:ent to transportation for fourteen years. Secondly, it
adopted the principle of attaching criminal responsibility to
the parents of young criminals, binding cum to keep their
&Whom free from evil contact and example, and subjecting
them, in default, to the summary jurisdiction of the magi*
trate:. In this second par: was also comprised the principle of
punkhing the parents of offenders under 16 mire of age.
Ibe third principle of the bill went to the establishment of
district or county tehools for the reception of juvenile offen-
ders who had been convicted the second time—not, be it
observed, at quarter or petty sessions, but by anramary juris-
diction of the magistrates. The fourth involved the liability
of the parish—not that one in which the culprit had happened
to be sent to gall, but that to which he was found, on inquiry,
to have originally belonged. Now, with regard to the first
principle, that of summary jurisdiction, he must say that the
bill, as it had beta recant altered by his hon. friend, was
mere surplusage. If it did anything, it only superseded the
act of the boo. hart the member for Droitwich, the 10th
sad 11th Victoria; while, on the other band, it was
totally silent as to the exercise of penal powers at guar-
ter ~,seas—providing.no powers for enforcing the attend-

sacs of +Basses, ao-fortiof onviction, no -arrangement
for the payment of any. one neesesecy expense. (" Hear," and
• laugh.) His hon. friend memod is attach ranch importance
to the power he proposed ts give—but which wee already
given by law—to magistrates to abstain from. committing to
prison for the first Whom, by merely awarding some slight
corporal punishment. The principle was already established
by law,but the boa. member proposed • very wide extension.
Coming to the see' red clause he found his hon. friend pro-
posing to give • very extensive jurisdiction over adults to
the magistrates. In the first place it was provided that
magistrates should have the power of punishing the father
of • juvenile offender, no matter whether that offender'
might be au illegitimate child. According to the bill the
moiher of such a child, or the putative father, might be
convicted for evil example, ill-treatamat, or neglect, and
punished ea fcr a aulemeanor. (Hear, hear.) In the third
clause this power was carried still further, bat his objection
to the clause was of a different character. The panishmad
extended to all adult piteous who should, by alma
metigatiow, came any child under sixteen
Now,
elf
are to commit a crime. (Hear, hear.) Now, is.
objected to giving to any magistrates summary
jurisdiction in eases of this nature. (Hear, hear.) He took
the cue of • parent ins:irides • child to oontrolt murder.
By this bill the offence was made a matter for summary
jurisdiction, although the law made it a case for capital
punishment. A magistrate might flee a man from 6s. to 31.,
and give him a month's imprisonmeat for what the cosmos
law adjudged that he should suffer death. (Hear, hear.)
He was reminded by his hos. friend that there was a pro-
vilion at the end of the clause, to the effect that nothing la
the bill should override or nullify existing law; but it was
well known that by the laws of England • men could sot
be triAl twice for the use offices, so that by his hon.
friead's bill the convicted instigator of a murder might get
off for a ass of 6. and a month's imprissameat. " (Hear "
sad lwarbter.) litrertier to other portions of the bill,
nod mvertiag to this question of summary juriselle.
ties_ he would refer the house to the 13th, 19th, and
nail clauses, to show how far the pried* was can The 13th clauseh
which
• power to commit to
the industrial schools w were only brought into ope-
ratios on the second ammieden. Here was a power given
et sentencing for the woad communion of DOM trifling of-
hare, to tea weeks' correction and reformatios. But in the
19th clause it was provided that if after the expiration of Iwo
years' detention ia Mae seltood, • child should have on
palest or friend to give security for his good coodnet, the
magistrates shoals' have a power widen he (Sir 0. Orel)
looked upon as ems of the most extraordinary that was ever
Minfided to jostler of the pease. If they were not minded
With the puaishment of the child alter two years' detention,
they were empowered to employ him as • soldier or sailor ia
her Majesty's genic*. (Loud laughter.) How his hon.
friend proposed to compel her Majesty he take Mine children
into her ovals military service it sertabily was not fur him
Mir 0. Gerry) to my. (Coatlassed laughter.) His hon.
fri• red reminded Mat of the !mash code. He could
not say what was the French sod* as regarded sole
diets or sailors, but if such were its prinking.
it would hardly be followed in this couitry. (Ilea bar.)
Thea ia the 2l'ad clause It was prop wed that in tastes of
the third conviction the issiiistrates should base power
to commit these children to prisok(steasearily) for any ps
riod act exceeding seven years. by this was tantameest
to traesporta•ioe ! His hon. friend said that the word
" truseportatioa" was am mention. d ; bet certainly • power
was gives to two libidos macistretet tantmeouat to trans-
ported's fee saves years. (" Meer," and laughter.) His he-
Baled he had now Beim trough the main provisions of the
bill, namely these We se much extended the summary jury.
distils, of thus magistrate', and alter the debates whisk had