The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-09 00:00:00

vision.

Let him do this so far as he is individually
concerned, and devote his labours and pecuniary
resources to the good cause. Let Lim thus con-
vince Ministers of the sincerity of his professions,
and he will compel them, for very shame sake, to
maintain their own. Ministers have promised
fairly, but it will depend on the people and the
reawakened Administrative Reform Association
whether their pledges be fully and faithfully re-
deemed or scandalously violated.

The reformation of criminals is one of those ob-
jects which will ever attract the attention and

enlist the sympathies of the •hurnane and euligh

ened ; and it is right that this should be the case,
for not only does such reformation involve acts of

charity to individuals whose case is pitiable, but

also the interests of society, both of a moral and

pecuniary nature, it being notorious that the ex-
ample of hardened vice has the most pernicious
effect on the weak and ignorant exposed to its
influence, and that society has thus not only to in-
cur the expenditure necessary to protect itself from
confirmed criminals, but also that required for the
repression of incipient crime.
Praiseworthy, however, though the object be,
and deeply interested as society is in the reforma-
tion of criminals, experience shows that but little
good can be effected among adult offenders. Not
that they are wholly impervious to compunctious
visitings, or that under favourable circumstances
leven their reformation should be despaired of, but
that surrounding circumstances, instead of having
a tendency to wean them from their evil courses,
actually propel them forward in the career of crime
with increased velocity. The ticket-of-leave men,
in general, as the public have found to their cost,

instead of becoming honest and humble members
of society, stalk abroad in the noon of day, as in
the darknesss of night, the most•brutal, the most
villanous, and desperate in the ranks of crime.
And the reason in all probability is this—not that
their apparent amendment, which brought them
liberty, was the fruit of hypocrisy, but that their
nascent virtue was unable to stem the current of
opinion opposed to them, and that those with
whom they had previously come in contact, and
who were at all acquainted with their history, were
so many evil genii, armed with so many " flaming
swords," to repel them from the path of honesty,
a path from which habit had but too much influ-
ence to withdraw them already.
"With the juvenile offender the case is vastly
more hopeful. The force of habit and the influ-
ence of opinion are not near so great with him,
and consequently much less prejudicial ; and,
what is more, not only has he fewer impedi-
ments of the above descriptions in the past, and
therefore so much less to contend against, but
there is less to uproot in him, and he possesses
greater facilities to acquire and to retain good
impressions. Hence the philanthropic efforts of
those who have directed their attention to the re-
formation of this class of offenders have, unlike
the not less benevolent efforts of those who have
endeavoured to promote the reformation of adult
criminals, been crowned with considerable success.
The youthful criminal, unhardened by crime,
though unused to kindness, has listened with
curious ears to teachings strange, yet not wholly
unknown to him ; and,
while melted by the
accents of benevolence, has seen but the more
clearly through his tears the beauty of
honesty
and virtue. To these humanising influences, this
/ kindness, instruction, and awakened, perception,
have been added the practice as well as the
inculcation of habits of industry and order.
The wild Arab of the streets even has been re-
claimed from predatory habits, and taught to
prefer the restrictions of civilised life, insuring
and fencing in the blessings of civilisation, to
prowling about the streets, "lord of himself," but
with no settled home, no one to expend his wealth
of affection upon, and no one to care for him as a
friend. No wonder that, with a more promising
task, la fact with the inducement of great and
all bat assured success, so large a portion, com-
a benevolent effort has been
pdairr.eacttiev(l
e
lYtostpheeakrienfgo'rmation of youthful offenders,
and that here, a in France, we have Reformatory