The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-15 00:00:00

7HE WORK OF REFORMAT DRIES.

The value of the reformatory system for the diminution
and prevention of crime may to some extent be estimated
by observing first, the reduction effected in the number of
young offenders committed to prison since the establish-
ment of reformatories, and secondly, the proportion of those
placed under reformatory treatment,who have relapsed into
criminal courses after their discharge from the institutions
to which they were sent.
The results under the first head are very satisfactory so
far as they can be ascertained :—the number of commit-
ments of offenders under sixteen years of age has fallen in
England and Wales from 13,981 in 1856 to 8,801 in 1862,
showing a decrease for 1861 as compared with 1856 of 37
per cent., or, allowing for the increase of p opulation, of 43
per cent These figures are not strictly accurate, inasmuch
as our criminal returns give only the total commitments to
each prison in each year, without noticing how many of
these belong to each individual, but as the same plan was
in use in each of the years under notice, the amount of
error is inconsiderable. The number of young offenders com-
mitted to prison after steadily decreasing in each year from
1856 to 1860, rose in 1861 about 9 per cent. on the preced-
ing pair. One cause which has tended to bring about this
reaction, is to be found in the exceptional circumstances
under which our labouring poor, especially in the manu-
facturing districts, have been suffering during the year.
The inspector remarks that scarcity of employment and
dearness of food affect more especially the discharged
criminals, " a class which is every year considerably
augmenting, mid Cella cozy netiutully cci+
amount of juvenile delinquency." He also gives his opi-
nion that some of the increase in juvenile commitments in
1861 must be attributed to the mis-use and over-use of re-
formatories. Out of the 1,545 young offenders sent to
reformatories in 1861, 976, or over 60 per cent., were
sentenced on a first commitment, and nearly one •fourth were
under twelve years of age. The commitments, in many
instances, were for very light offences, and the sentence
was awarded rather in anticipation of what the child might
become, than for its actual criminality of viciousness. From
the reformatories in England and Scotland, 1,866 persons
have been discharged up to December 31st, 1860. Of these,
at the time of the Inspector's inquiry, 1,140 were " doing
well," 186 had been " again convicted" of crime, 161 were
" of doubtful character," 43 were since dead, and 336 were
reported as " unknown." These figures give the following
per. centage of success and failure, taking the numbers of
these known to be doing well, and of those again convicte d
We do not clearly see the connection between creed and
crime, but as the report denotes the religious denominations
—so far at least as to distinguish between Protestants and
Roman Catholics—we give the per-centages under the
I same headings. _

Doing well. Re-convicted
English Protestant Boys 65 per cent. 10.6 per cent
„ Catholic „ 49 „ 11.5 „
„ Protestant Girls 42 ~ 6 1,
„ Catholic „ 54 „ 4 71
Scotch Protestant Boys 74 „ 9
~ I,
7, Girls 42 ~ 7 ~

Dependence is most to be placed upon the numbers which
are known to be doing well, which the figures above show
to be 54 per cent., or rather more than one half of the total
number discharged. This result is rather below our anti-
cipations, and it is also below the estimate given by the in-
spector in another part of the report, where he states the
amount of success to be at least 70 per cent—Social Science
Review.

VIC7OR HUGO AND HIS "INDIGENT

MILE FRIENDS."

In a letter to the Paris publisher, Victor Hugo says :
" I have lately established in my house in Guernsey, a
little institution or practical fraternity which I should be
glad to see developed, and yet more, imitated. It is so
slight an affair that I may venture to mention it. It is a
weekly meal given to indigent children. Every week the
mothers of these poor children do me the honour to bring
them to dine at my house. At first I had eight of them,
then fifteen ; now I have twenty-three. All these childien
dine together—English, French, Irish, Catholics, Protes-
tants—all are mingled together, without distinction of re-
ligion or of nation. I invite them that they may be
happy and merry. I say to them, be free.' They begin
and end their respect with a thanksgiving to God, perfectly
simple, and apart ;from anything dogmatic, or that could
be construed into the profession of anything sectarian. My
wife, my sister, my sister-in-law, my sons, and my ser-
vants, all wait upon these children. They eat meat and
drink wine, both necessary elements of the food of child-
hood. After dinner they play, and then go to school.
Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, men addicted to
philosophical speculation, and exiled democrats some-
times assist at this modest communion; and I do not
see that anyone looks dissatisfied on quitting us. I cut short
my recital, but it appears to me that I have said enough to
show that this idea, the introduction of poor families into
families less poor than themselves—an introduction of equa-
lity in which all stand for the moment on the same level—
if developed by better men than myself—by the heart of
women, above all—might not be a bad thing. I believe it
to be practicable and likely to bear good fruit; and this is
why a speak of it in the hope that those who can and will
imitate it may do so. It is not almsgiving, but fraternisation.
This bringing of the families of the indigent into our midst
is as profitable to ourselves as to them. It gives, as it were,
a first outline of solidarity ; it bring before us, into play and
into actiont.as a living fact, the holy democratic formula—
liberty, equality, fraternity. It is a communion with our
less fortunate brethren. We learn to serve them and they
learn to love us." He gives his consent to a proposal for
the inquiry and publication of "certain sketches done by
him in those dreamy hours when one is scarcely consciouscious
of what one is doing, with the drops of ink remaining in his
pen, on the margins or crvers of manuscripts"—the pro-
ceeds to constitute the civil lists of little indigent friends.
" Winter," he says, " is at hand; I shall not be sorry to
give clothes to those who come to us in rags, and shoes to
those who are going barefoot."

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