The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-06 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS-(YESTERDAY.)

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the wool-
sack at 5 o'clock.

The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH called the attention
of the Government to a statement which had lately ap-
peared in the public papers of the death of Sheik Ali
Hossian, who had been one of the chief witnesses against
Ali Morad. This person on his deathbed, it was said,
had confessed that all the evidence he bad given against
Aii Morad was false, and had been given for the pur-
pose of revenge. He wished that the Government
should inquire into the truth of that statement, and if
it should turn 'out to be true to take into their consi-
deration how far it affected the value of all the testimony
given against Ali Morad.
Earl GRANVILLE said the Government had no of-
ficial knowledge of the circumstances.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH then laid on the
table a bill to comprise ole of the clauses of the India.
Bill now in the other house, empowering the East India
Company to increase the number of their European
forces from 12,200 to 20,000 men. His object for
introducing this in the form of a separate bill, was that
it might pass into law six or eight weeks sooner than it
otherwise would if it came up from the other house only
as one of the clauses of the India Bill.
The bill was then read a first time.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from Brad-
ford, praying for amendment of the bankruptcy laws.
CORK AND BANDON RAILWAY BILL.
The Earl of BANDON Lioved t.te £ vond reading of
this bill.

Lord REDESDALE opposed the motion.
Lord STANLEY of Alderley suppoi.ed the second
reading.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE and the Earl of WICK-
LOW also suppoi;,ed the second rending.
Their lordships then divided, when there appeared—
For the second reading
Against it

Majority . 17
The bill was then read a second time, and ordered to
be committed.

JUVENILE MENDICANCY BILL.

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY, in moving the recom-
mitment of this bill. observed that the subject of juve-
nile mendicancy, at all times one of great importance,
became still more so, at a time like the present, when
they were about to abolish, at all events to a considera-
ble extent, the system of transportation. People were
weary of speeches and pamphlets respecting secondary
punishments, and, indeed, it would be much wiser if
they were to inquire whether some steps could not be
taken to diminish the amount of crime itself. Now, the
most prolific source of crime was juvenile mendicancy :
for though they ought not to consider the class to whom
he wished to call thei- lordships' attention as exactly de-
linquents, yet they were in a state hi which they must
infallibly become delinquents at no distant period. In
fact, that class, namely, children who had been trained
' to beg by ;heir parents, or those who had the custody of
them—formed the seed plot of at least two-thirds of the
criminaFty of this kingdom. The per aeis most to blame
were the pr-ents, neet society, and, least of all, the un-
fortunate children themselves. From the statements of
90 thieves, who were rvine in one reformatory institu-
tions, it appeared that 62 of that number had begun to
steal when under the age of 15 ; and that 56 had begun
between the ages of 12 and 16. He (the noble lord)
believed that if an inquiry were instituted throughout
all the gaols in the kingdom, the result would be to prove
beyond a doubt that a vast proportion of all the crime
that was committed is th's woe ;,ry .ea I been perpetrated
by persons who had been led into evil habits at an early
ago. He (Lord Shaftesbury) had put the following
question to 100 City missionaries am! Ragged School
teachers :—" How many persons do you think who have
lived an honest life up to 20 years of age, afterwards
fall away and take vieous courses ?" The answer he
had obtained was in every ceee, "not two in a hun-
dred." (Hear, hear.) Tne class to which he was
calling their lordships' attent'.on might be divided
into two classes, mendicants and vagrants. (Hear,
hear.) The former of these bad their different grades,
honours, and emoluments. A juvenile mendicant might
attain to be a begging-letter writer • and he could assure
the noble earl opposite (Lord Aberdeen) that he had
few more comfortable things to dispose of than a suc-
cessful begging-letter writership. (Laughter.) Many
of these children were orphans ; some having lost one
parent, some both. It was a remarkable fact, but no
more remarkable than true, that there was no more pro-
lific source of juvenile vice, misery, And suffering than
the harsh and domineering demeanour of step-mothers,
many of whom in the lower grades of life would not
allow a step-child to remain with them in the house.
(Hear, hear.) But it was also true that many artisans
in the receipt of large wages were in the habit of turn-
ing their children into the streets early in the morning,
forbidding them to come near their home till late at
night, and telling them to live in the meantime as they
could. The noble earl having substantiated this state-
ment by extracts from the report of the Rev. Mr. Clay,
the chaplain of Preston gaol, added that a City mis-
sionary had told him that he could enumerate no fewer
than 100 families in which the parents lived in idleness
and luxury upon what their children picked up in the
course of the day's vagrancy and mendicancy. The
practice of such persoes Wi9 to send out their chil-
dren with chalkstone-, cozea nut husks, and the like.
and to threaten them nah She mc't brutal ill treatment
unless they brought home a certain sum, to be made up
either by selling, begging, or stealing. One great reason
which had been alleged against legislation with a view
to prevent such scandalous misconduct on the part of
parents was the presumed exteet of the evil, which had
led many persons to doubt whether it was not too large
to be dealt with at all. It was, however, consolatory
to know that the extent of the mischief had been
greatly exaggerated. From the second report of Cap-
tain Hay it appeared that the number of children at
large in the metropolis, living in idleness, without edu-
cation, and neglected by their parents, who were, gene-
rally speaking, in the receipt of wages sufficient to
maintain them, was nearly 20,641 under fifteen yer-s of
age. The number of practised and trained mendicants
and vagrants who frequented lodging-houses, did
not, however, exceed 3,098. Of these the number who
had parents able to contribute either wholly or in
part to their maintenance and education was no fewer
than 2,106. This return was confirmed by the inquiries
which had beem made by a person whom he (the noble
earl) had employed last year to investigate the subject.
That person said that he knew himself no fewer than 200
practised medicants and vagrants, whose parents were
in the receipt of at least 16s. per week—a sum that
ought to enable them not merely to give their children
sustenance but education. He really did not think,
then, that the number of juvenile mendicants either in
London or throughout the country (for the proportion
would be found the came hi most of the large towns)
was so large as to discourage legislation. The whole
number of professional thieves and burglars in the whole
of the metropolis was under 6,000 ; and, therefore, he
thought that the estimate of 3,098 mend'cant children
was very likely to be correct. It was true they some-
times heard it said that there were 100,000 persons in
London who rose every morning without knowing where
to get a meal, but he believed that these statements
were immensely exaggerated. He did not think they
had ever been true, and certainly they were never less
so than at the present moment. They could not ascer-
tain the number of offenders from the number of of-
fences, for the latter was swelled by several offences
committed by one person. It was sometimes said that
poverty was the 'cause of crime and beggary. Such was
not the case. Serjeant Adams had told him that the
ability of persons who sent their children into the
streets to have maintained them without doing so was
the rule, and not the exception. Mr. Clay had asked a
great number of thieves a similar question with respect
to stealing; and they said they only knew one case in
which crime had been the result of poverty. (Hear,
hear.) One of the great causes of crime was the
reckless and careles manner in which property was
exposed. Thus it appeared that there were in a
single year in Londen, 1,479 cases of stealing goods
exposed for sale • 596, stealing from unfinished
houses ; 211, stealing from carts • 228, stealing linen
hung to dry; and 1,920, stealing in consequence
of doors being left open. When they considered
the hardships to which poor children were exposed, the
hunger they actually suffered, and the brutality to which
they were exposed if they did not take home a certain
sum, was it to be wondered at if they succumbed to the
temptations thrown in their way. (Hear, hear.) From
the testimony of a number of professional thieves who
had been examined on the point, it was said that the
reason why children were sent out to beg generally lay
in the idle and debauched habits of their parents, that
childeen were hired for begging purposes, sometimes at
as much as 2s. 6d. per diem, and that children often
picked up as much as 3s. a day. The existing law of
vagrancy was utterly inadequate to meet the evil, for
what was really wanting was that the children should
be removed from their parents, and that the latter
should be made to pay for their support. That was the
object of his (Lord Shaft sbery's) bill; and that, he
thought was quite in accordance with the practice of the
corr',,s in cases where r arents or guardians had shown
themselves unfit to have the care of young persons com-
mitted to them. The law which he asked for was de-
manded, not for the individual rights of the children, but
for the exigencies of society. Children were now brought
up by their parents to be pick-pockets, and burglars, and
cut-throats ; and it was a perversion otflasne children from
gueand
eof
facts to maintain that in taking away h
such parents they were refusing them the enjoyment of
any right that they possessed of anything which was ac-
corded them byand
the law of God, according to the princi-
, ples of justice between manman. Bringing up
children in this way was a nuisance to society, and which
he considered ought to be removed as they would remove
any other nuisance. Such parents as he had referred to
were not Christians, were not inen and women • they
were absolutely beasts, and having renounced' their
rights they ought not' to be allowed to resume them ex-
cept under the authority of some competent persons, who
should be able to declare, on due examination, that the
children who were restored to them would be brought up
so as not to be an annoyance to society. Society had a
right to take away children from their parents in order to
bring them up properly, but that did not relieve the
parents from their responsibility for the maintenance of
their children. He knew an instance of a boy who was
found lying on the steps of a house. He was in a fever, and
gentleman who was passing had him conveyed to the
Fever Hospital, where he was placed under the care of
the physician to that institution, Dr. Southwood Smith,
who, when the boy recoveeeC., ascertained his story. He
was sent out by his parents to beg' and when he was
taken ill, he had been wandering about the streets with-
out any sustenance. The boy was subsequently placed
in the Refuge, and when he was recovering, the mother