The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-25 00:00:00

PROVISION FOR DESTITUTE BOYS.

The first public meeting in aid of the Boys
Home and Industrial Training Schools for boys not
convicted of crime, 44 and 46, Euston-road, St.
Pancras, was held yesterday afternoon at Willis's
Rooms, St. James's. The Bishop of London occu-
pied the chair, and was supported by the Marquis
of Westminster, Sir H. Hoare, Mr. T. Hughes, and
other gentlemen warmly interested in the prosperity
of the institution. _

The Rev. Mr. ANDREWs, chaplain to the Home,
having offered up a brief prefatory prayer.
Mr. A. SANDERS (secretary) read the report of
the committee, which stated that the institution
had been at work for four years : that the first
Home, No. 44, Euston-road, was opened in February,
1858, the adjoining house being added in the fol-
lowing year, and a third Home, at Church ,Farm,
East Barnet, having since been established, the
whole giving accommodation to about 69 boys. The
aim of the institution is preventitive rather than
curative, and it is the object of the committee to
give the boys a moral, religious, and industrial
training, so that they may become steady indus-
trious working men ; nearly all the boys sent out
from the institution are doing well, and bear good
characters. During the pastfour years 144 boys
have been admitted, 53 of whom have been placed
out in various situations. Of the 64 now in the
Home, 8 are total orphans, 36 have lost one parent,
20 are believed to have both parents living, but the
fathers of many of them are disabled from earning
their livelihood—one is blind, one is lunatic, and
two are invalids from chronic rheumatism. To a
small extent, the labour of the boys helps to sup-
port them; but to render them entirely self-
supporting the numbers and machinery of the
establishment must be very much increased, since
only a portion of each day is taken up with re•
munerativo work. The committee, therefore, in
conclusion, earnestly appealed for public sympathy
and support.
The cash account for the past year, as circulated
at the meeting, exhibited a total income—including
a balance left over from the preceding year of £2BO
15s. 6d.—of £3,121 Bs. 5d., and a total expenditure
of £2,930 as., leaving a balance towards the ex-
penses of the current year of £l9l 2s. sd.
The Rev. Dr. IRONS (in the absence of Earl de
Grey) moved the first resolution, which asserted
that no better means could be devised for the pre-
vention of crime than the rescue of destitute child-
ren not yet convicted. The rev. gentleman spoke
at considerable length in support of this resolution,
asserting that the establishment of such homes was
a great missionary effort to rescue from crime and
bring into the bosom of the church those outlying
classes, more especially among the male sex, which
the church could not reach in the ordinary course
of its ministrations.
Sir H. HOARE, in seconding the motion, contended
that it was better to prevent crime by establishing
educational establishments than to be compelled to
have recourse to more expensive curative attempts
after its commission.
The motion having been adopted,

Mr. T. Humus moved the second resolution,
which asserted that the metropolis might be bene-
fited by the working of such institutions generally,
and that the Boys' Home in particular fulfilled every
condition m hich rendered it worthy of support. He
explained the mode of management adopted in the

institution, with the viev.r of showing that it was
founded upon the true domestic principles of a real
home, master, mistress, and boys all living together
as one family, while everything was done that was
within the power of man to give to the boys a moral
and religious development. Upon the point of
management he remarked that the expense did not
reach £l2 per head, an instance of economy almost
unprecedent in the history of similar establishments.
In conclusion the speaker earnestly insisted upon the
necessity of continuing the movement, or of other-
wise meeting the existing evil, until every destitute
boy in England should be provided with that home
to which he had an undoubted claim.
The Bishop of LONDON said it was important to
remember that the institution was not a reformatory
one. It was intended for boys who were uncon-
victed of crime, and who had as good a character as
he (the bishop) as any of those in the meeting ; and
they should consider those boys in the same light,
in this respect, as they would their own children,
or any of those with whom they were acquainted.
(Hear, hear.) It was stated in the printed report
that some of those who had been admitted into the
Home had formerly led a vagrant and disorderly
life. Well, if they were vagrant, what did that
mean except that they had no visible means of ex-
istence ; and if disorderly was added, why, what
would become of boys in any station of life, if they
had no friends at home to look after them ? He
saw also from the report that many of the boys,
after leaving the Home, had entered the army and
navy_ These boys had now before them those two
glorious professions, which opened up to them as
great a career as had ever been open to English-
men. (Applause.) They should be taught that
the same road was before them as was before every
free-born Englishman ; that there was the same
prospect of a useful and honourable life as there
was for those who might be born in any of the great
mansions of St. James's-square, and educated at any
of our great public establishments. (Hear, hear.)
It might be said that these boys, being destitute,
might have gone to the union ; but he honoured
them for not having done so. They did not like to
go into the union, and it was quite right in them;
and it was quite right in the supporters of the
Home to hold out to them a helping hand, and to
enable them to adopt a manly career and assert their
own independence. Some reference was made to
Whittington in the report; if Whittington had lived
in these days he would likely have been taken up
and sent either to the workhouse or to a refor-
matory. But they knew what had happened to
Whittington, and there was no reason why any of
these boys around the chair should not prosper as
much as Whittington had done. He (the Bishop of
London) knew of the case of a boy whose parents
received parochial relief. This boy, however, exerted
himself in life. By the time he was forty he made
a fortune, and he then paid back to the parochial
authorities all the money that his parents had re-
ceived from them. (Hear, hear.) This was an
example such as should be set before these boys, so
as to teach them to lead honest, manly, and useful
ives. (Applause.)
Mr. BELL, a member of the committee, on second-

ing the motion previously moved by Mr. Hughes
(the right rev. chairman having interposed) re-
marked that the object of the institution was to
provide for disorderly boys, who were disorderly
but not entirely destitute, as well as for those who,
being destitute, might or might not be disorderly
—a portion of the cost of maintenance being de-
frayed by the parent or parents of those who were
so received at the Home.
The motion was then unanimously adopted, as
was qtlso a vote of thanks to the right rev. chairman,
proposed by Mr. A. Hill.
The Bishop of LONDON then pronounced a bene-
diction, and the boys (or a considerable portion of
them) belonging to the Home sang—and sang well
—a selection of songs, &c., commencing with Dib-
din's soul-stirring " Hearts of Oak," and ending
with " God Save the Queen," while the meeting
dispersed.