The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-02 00:00:00

Reformatory and Industrial Schools,

Mr. Sydney Turner's seventh annual report states
that at the close of the year 1863 there were in the
64 reformatories in Great Britain, nominally, 3,677
boys and 1,000 girls; but in fact 227 boys and 36
girls were out on license, 9 boys and four girls were
in prison, and 85 boys and 14 girls had absconded
and were not yet recovered, leaving actually in the
schools 3,356 boys and 946 girls, of whom 618 boys
and 263 girls were iu Catholic reformatories. The
total is not very much larger than in 1862, and
there appears no reason to apprehend any material
addition to the charges which the reformatory school
system entails. The admissions in the year fell from
1,338 in 1862, to 1,209 in 1863, a diminution attri-
butable chiefly to increased caution and more careful
inquiry into the circumstances of each case on the
part of the committing magistrates. There are no
signs of any serious increase in the amount of juve-
nile crime. The committals of juvenile offenders di-
minished in Scotland in 1863, and in England in-
creased only at about the same rate as the increase
of population, and at less than half the rate of in-
crease of adult committals. With regard to the sues
cess of reformatory schools Mr Turner is able to
report, in relation to England, that of the 1,423
Protestant boys discharged in the three years 1860-
62, 916 are known to be doing well, 114 are of doubt-
ful or indifferent character, 181 have been convicted
of crime, 33 have died, the remaining 179 are un-
known, and probably half of them may be added to
the number convicted, making that number 270, or
one in every five discharged and still alive, Of the
Catholic boys a much larger proportion are unknown;
the re-convictions, on the same calculations as above,
must have been above 38 per cent. A considerable
proportion of this unfavourable result must be laid
to the account of Mount St. Bernard's Reformatory,
but Mr. Turner attributes it mainly to the want of
a more independent vigorous tone in the discipline,
and of more cars and exertion i.n the arrangements
for discharge. The returns for the girls' schools in
England show, on the same calculation, a percentage
of reconviction or relapse of about 19 per cent.
among the Protestants, and about 18 per cent. among
the Catholics. In Scotland the reformatories for
boys give more favourable results, but the girls'
schools are not so successful as in England. Mr.
Turner is able to report that during the past year
the internal working of the schools has been gene-
rally very satisfactory. 01' Mount St. Bernard's he
continues to believe that the institution will finally
overcome all the difficulties which beset it. He has
still to state that more than half the admissions to
reformatories are of children who have not been
previously convicted; that is to say, they have been
sent without haying the trial first made whether
they could not be checked or turned from their
criminal courses by an appropriate punishment
without incurring the cost and responsibility of a
long detention at the public eepence. The average
annual cost exceeds the Treasury allowance of
115 125., and there is no prospect of reformatories
ever becoming self.supporting by the labour of the
inmates. Of the forty-seven certified industrial
schools in Great Britain we learn that at the end
of the year 1863 they contained 1,349 children
ander detention—a great increase ;on 1862; but
most of these schools have been too recently in
operation to make it useful to analyze their
expenditure at present. Of 153 children discharged
from them in England up to the end of 1862, 81 are
known to have done well, but there is a large num-
ber of " unknown." Mr. Turner is satisfied with

the general condition of these schools. The pay-
ments from parents and parochial boards amounted
in the year to :C1,150 ; in reformatories to £2,450.
The report notices with approbation the Catholic
school for girls in Queen-square (St. Margaret's
Home), but Mr. Turner has to express his regret
that so little is done by Protestants in using the In-
dustrial Schools Act in London, with reference to
the large number of young girls who are sent out to
beg about the streets and crossings. It seems strange
that with such powers as the Act gives, and such
excellent schools as exist, the girls should be left to
ripen into thieves or prostitutes from simple want of
interference.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—At length the German war against Den-
mark, which has so long engaged the attention of
the world, has come to an end. At the third meet-
ing of the Conference at Vienna Denmark made a
full concession of all that had been demanded of her,
and M. von Quaade, having received the necessary
instructions, agreed to sign the preliminaries of
peace. A three months' armistice has been accepted,
and King Christian has promised to cede the Duchies
of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, with the
appertaining islands, and will retain a diminished
territory with a million and a half of inhabitants,
burdened by the expenses of war or exhausted
by the ravages of the enemy. Although it has
been long apparent that the war could have no
other termination, yet now that the final catastrophe
has occurred it is impossible to hear of it without
sympathy and regret. A people admitted by all
intelligent observers to be among the most esti-
mable in Europe, have seen their territory invaded,
their overmatched armies defeated, their home-
steads occupied by the enemy, and their wealth
both in money and kind wrung from them by piti-
less military commanders. The provinces which had
been united to their country for four centuries, and
the possession of which had been approved by every
European State 12 years ago, have been severed
from it for ever; the best harbour of the Baltic is
no longer theirs; a large number of their country-
men, Danes in race and language, are included
within the limits of the conquered Duchies, and
must in no long time suffer all that denationalisa-
tion which. WoB the chief grievance of the Germans
in the same provinces before the war. It is of little
use in an hour of such evil fortune to deal in the
commonplaces of consolation. The calamity which
the Danes have undergone is the greatest that can
fall on a State. A loss of territory as the conse-
quence of unsuccessful war, which not only lowers
the reputation of a country, but cripples its finances
for years, is a misfortune beyond any that a people
can be called upon to bear with resignation. Poll•
tical standing, military honour, population, wealth,
national security, are all impaired together. It
must be with feelings almost of despair that the race
which has for so long maintained its country as an
independent and respected State can see it limited
to two narrow islands and the overrun province of
Jutland. The mortification of recognising German
superiority is a less evil than the apprehension which
the manifest power of Germany to repeat the invasion
must inspire. Yet even now it may be said that the
position of Denmark is not hopeless. There is com-
fort to be extraated even from defeat and disruption.
After all, though the peace has been imposed on the
Dines by a victorious enemy, it is still a peace. The
strain of war will cease, the men and money which
have been hitherto devoted to resisting the Germans
will find other employments. What is left of Den-
mark may in a few years become a prosperous and
contented kingdom. The happiness of nations does
not depend on their importance; it is, indeed,
often in an inverse ratio to their magnitude in
their neighbours' eyes and their own. Small States
need keep up only a small army, and no navy at, all.
if Denmark be reduced to the rank of Hanover, or
the late Duchy of Tuscany, the Danes may bo all
the more fortunate in being able to imitate the
more moderate establishments of minor States ;
and, when the first bitterness of conquest is past,
they may even he able to console themselves for
the less of the Duchies. Denmark will not be the
first State that has been benefited by losing un-
willing subjects. England never made such ad-
vances as after the loss of the American colonies ;
Austria has already gained by the cession of Lom-
bardy and her enforced noninterference in the rest
of Italy ; she would gain more largely still by the
cession of Venetia. If it be now abundantly manic
fest that the pore° of the Duchies, whether rightly
or wrongly, desired separation from Denmark, and
that the retention of them subjected the kind=

to continued danger of war, it may prove a blessing
that they are gone at last. Certainly for the last
twenty years the Danish people have had an enemy
within their own nominal territory who has taxed
their national resources to the utmost. They fought
the Schleswig-Holsteiners and conquered them in
1851, but it was at a great cost, both in actual out-
lay at the time and in the necessity for keeping up
oppressive armaments in order to prevent another
rising. If the expenses which the possession of the
Duchies has brought on the Danish people be com-
pared with the revenue contributed by them to the
common Treasury, perhaps it may be found that
the connexion was not so profitable as to make
the present events a cause for complete de-
spondency. It is more the manner in
which the Duchies have been lost than the loss
itself which is the real affliction the Danes have to
bear. If we turn to Germany, we do not find such
a tone of rejoicing as so great a victory should pro-
duce. The nation, headed by such patriots as the
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Baron Beust, have now,
seemingly, accomplished all their objects. They
have freed Schleswig and Holstein—that is, they
have broken the connexion between them and Den-
mark. These Duchies are now German soil ; Kiel
will be a German port, Rendsburg probably a Ger-
man fortress. The dream of a generation has been
realised, and with the happy accompaniment of
unwonted military glory, And yet from north to
south the Germans are grumbling or storming
against those who have done their work. Never
has there been so ill a feeling against Prussia as
now that Denmark has surrendered at discretion,
and every printshop in German is full of the glorious
victory of Dappel. In Hanover, in Saxony, in
Bavaria, the press is railing against Berlin, and
taunting the Austrian Emperor and Count Rechberg
with unworthy concessions. The affair at Rendsburg
indicates the relations between King William's
Government and the minor States. There was no-

thing in the matter which would have given any
political trouble, if it had not been for the soreness
which already existed. On the 17th a quarrel began
in a dancing-house between some Prussian soldiers
on one side and some Saxons and Hanoverians on

the other. The next day there was a fight between
the respective parties, and the ill•feeling increasing,
General Von Hake, commanding the Federal forces,
telegraphed the news to Berlin, whereupon, very
unexpectedly to this officer, Prince Frederick
Charles of Prussia ordered General Von Goben to
occupy the town, and informed General Von Hake
that this was done by special order from Berlin.
" General Von Goben," said the Prince," will present
himself before Rendsburg at neon upon the 21st
with 6,000 men and two batteries, in readiness to
undertake the occupation of the posts." Von Hake
protested against this very cavalier proceeding. but
declared that he should " for the present withdraw
the troops from Rendsburg to avoid a conflict."
This is the occurrence which has set Germany in
a flame. The people of the minor States are furious
at hearing that the Federal Commander and his
garrison were ordered out of the town by a
Prussian General, and the decree enforced by
6,000 Prussians. The Princes share the indignation
of their subjects ; the Frankfort Diet is appalled at
the want of respect shown to its deputy ; even the
Emperor of Austria has been obliged by the re-
clamations of the minor States and the discontent
of his own subjects to ask explanations of M. von
Bismark. It is said that an apology has been
offered for this high-handed proceeding, but that
the minor states are not satisfied and will accept
nothing less than the restoration of the town to
Federal troops. In all this it is easy to perceive a
deeply-rooted jealousy of Prussia, and a conviction
that this Rendsburg affair is only one of a long
series of assumptions the end and object of which
are the incorporation of the Duchies with Prussia
itself. Such is the temper of the Germans now that
a serious difference between the Confederation and
Prussia is an event not beyond the bounds of pos-
sibility. The policy of M. von Bismark has filled
his allies with suspicion. The desire of the Prussian
Government is to reimburse Austria for her outlay
in the war, and to keep its own troops in Schleswig
until tho expenses, estimated at 20,000,000 thalers,
have been paid out of the surplus revenue of the
Duchy, which is to be collected by Prussian
officials. This, of course, is thought to mean that
the Prussians should occupy Schleswig as long as
they like, or until it is convenient for them to de-
clare its annexation to their own country, for the
payment of such a sum by the impoverished Duchy
is out of the question. Hence, day after day, the
bitterness between the German spoilers increases,
and probably they will no sooner be at peace with
Denmark than tneir mutual animosities may give
rise to new difficulties. This country will, we trust,
not commit the error of again interfering in these
disputes; but we may well look with satisfaction on
our endeavours to restore an equitable peace when
we find these provinces, the freedom of which was
the ostensible purpose of the war, still occupied by
troops and compelled to maintain them until heavy
war debts are liquidated ; when we see the easy Go-
vernment of Denmark replaced by a military ad-
ministration ; and when, moreover, it appears that
the nation which hes treated a neighbour with this
violence i.e almost tempted to turn its arms against
itseif. in civil strife.
HERALD.—The virtues of benevolence and gene-
rosity have, like most other virtues, numerous
counterfeits afloat, which pass current with the
majority of mankind who do not reason very deeply
on the phenomena brought beneath their notice.
As sheer stupidity is sometimes mistaken for har-
dihood, so the conduct which arises from weakness
or incapacity is not seldom confounded with real
liberality of mind. To give away our goods, sur-
render our rights, or abstain from enforcing obli-
gations, may sometimes be the marks of greatness,
but are oftner the fruits of imbecility. Mr.
Windham, no doubt, had the credit of being an
" open-handed gentleman" with a large class of his
associates, and, when he has nothing better to cone
sole himself with, may fall back upon this remi-
niscence. The Ministers of this great country seem
just now very much inclined to seek comfort from
a similar source. To abandon treaties rather than
face the difficulty of supporting them ; to cede de-
pendencies rather than take the trouble of main-
taining them ; and to calmly look on while com-
pacts which this country guaranteed are trampled
under foot before their eyes, are now represented
as so many consummate strokes of policy and as so
many marks of magnanimity. The cession of the
lonian Islands may or may not have been a neces-
sary or a prudent step. But we cannot see that
there is anything in it to be proud of. The feeblest
as well as the greatest political genius could equally
have done that, The same reflection occurs to one
after reading Lord Paluierston's reply to Mr Taylor
relating to the Danubian Principalities. Her
Majesty's Government congratulates itself on the
success whico has attended its mediation between
the Porte and the Prince of Moldo-IVallachia,
Prince Couza. The Principalities are a little further
off than Schleswig-Holstein, and Prince Couza, is a
somewhat inferior potentate to the King of Prussia.
But in other respects there is a curious resemblance
between the two cases. As long ago as 1858, when
the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia were
constituted into one principality under their
present ruler, then an obscure colonel of militia,
and elevated to that high rank as a compromise
between the more powerful boyards, a constitu-
tional form of government was established in those
countries with the assent of the Sultan, and under
the joint guarantee of the Great Powers of Europe.
By the terms of this constitution the possession of
political power was ensured to those classes who
alone represent the property and intelligence of the
country. In Moldo-Wallachia there is no middle
class. There is nothing between the boyards or
landowners and the peasantry, unless, perhaps, it
is a very small class of literary and professional men,
who, however, belong to and sympathise with, the
former. The boyards are a remarkably intelligent
and cultivated race of men. The peasantry, un-
happily, are probably the most ignorant and una
civilised in Europe. Such being the state of the
case, Prince Couza, only following out the universal
instinct of despotism, which necessarily feels uneasy
in the presence of intelligent criticism sanctioned
by constitutional authority, resolved if he could to
get rid of the existing regime, and substitute for it
a system with a much larger infusion of democracy.
To this end he proposed to the Representative
Chamber two laws, the one having for its object the
establishment of universal suffrage, the other an
agrarian law aiming at a redistribution of landed
property on principles almost communistic. The
Chamber, with a liberality which cannot be too
highly praised, did not refuse to take into consider-
ation the propriety of some reform in the existing
state of the law ; but did positively refuse to pass
Prince Couza's measures in their original shape,
amounting as they did to the elevation of ignorance
over intelligence in the Government, and to the
virtual confiscation of half the landed property in the
country. Meeting with this check Prince Couza had
three courses open to him consistent with law and
good faith: Hs might have changed his Ministers,
and submitted a less eweeping measure to the As-
verobly. Ha might have dissolved the Assembly and
called a new one, by way of testing the opinion of
the country. Or If he felt that neither of these
courses would be effective, he might have appealed
Fmooreyouclitahntehael
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to toe. Sultan and the Great Powers to revise the
constitution of 1858, and bring it more into her-
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in
.the articles of the originalp made
But
paniotussand wishes of the people.
rovision
Prince Couza did none of these things- Fired with
noble emulation he resolved upon a coup d'etat. He
w hole
.people ;
appealed from the Representative Assembly to the
had
constitution.b
a plebiscite, nn immense majority of the peasants
and of course secured, by means of
who Were to bnefit so largely by the ';h3uge. He