The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-22 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING-, AUGUST 22, 1856.

NATIONAL REFORMATORY UNION.

The business of the sections commenced at 11 o'c',ock
yesterday mornirg. Section A met in the billiard.-room
of the Queen's Hotel, Mr. Commissioner Hill presiding,
an d Mr. Bengough officiating as secretary.
Mr. WIIHATELY, chairman of the West Riding see.
sions, read a paper on punishments in reformatory
schools. There were, perhaps, he said, differences of
opinion among them as to the right principles of penal
legislation, and still more as to the administration of

punishment for crime. Some might view it merely as

a deterrent ; others might regard the reformation of the
individual as the sole end to be sought in the adminis•
-tration of punishment. Others again, though regarding

such reformation as a chief end, might still believe that
the satisfaction due to the public sense of justice is ain
element not to be ignored or forgotten. There might he
differences of opinion, more especially with regard to the
young criminal, as to whether he should be made the sub-
ject of penal treatment in a prison previously to his ad-
mission to a reformatory school or not ; but, whatever dif-
ferences there might be on these points, he trusted they
would all Agree in this, that the treatment of the R Aron,
matory School itself should not be penal, by which he
meant that the school was not to he a plac3 for the ad-
ministration of the punishment assigned by law to crime.
This principle was most distinctly embodied in the first
Reformatory School Act, the 17 and 18 Vic.; c. 86, by
which the magistrates were empowered to direct the de-
tan tion of tlao young offender in 6he school, to commence
at the expiration of the sentence passed upon him as a
punishment for his offence. But punishments, even to
severity, would be needed in a reformatory, because they
had to do with children whom neglected or vicious edu•
cation had more or less made deaf to the voice of eon-

science. He was of opinion that if the young criminal
were to undergo penal treatment it should be in a colic.
hr prison, away from the reformatory, rather than, as
bad been proposed, in a penal ward within its precincts.
The prison was the fitting termination ofaeourse of crime
—the reformatory the commencement of a new life. Let
them not he brought together ; let them not bridge over,
but rather widen, the gulf between them. The punish.
ment of the reformatory differed from the punishment of
the prison in that, while the latter had reference to past
crimes, the former had reference only to moral faults
committed there, and for these faults it would bs often
needed. It was with the profoundest deference that he
ventured to express the opinion that the discipline of
Mettray was too severe. In an establishment so large
he fully believed that such severity was necessary, but,
for that very reason, among others, it did seem to him
that it was not desirable to form these establishments
upon so large a scale, especially in this country, where,
from the difference of national character, such severity
would probably operate more prej adicially than in France.
He was bound to say that, so far as his experience went,
it entirely confirmed the opinion of theconductors of Met-
tray as to the beneficial effects of the cell as a means of re-

forniatory discipline. Our prison records showed that in
them, though constructed with all the best appliances for
separate confinement, the same beneficial results had not
been obtained. Having briefly explained what he con-
ceived to be the cause of this, difference, Mr. Wheately
offered a few remarks upon corporal punishment. He was
one of those inclined to the old-fashioned idea that in case 8
of acute moral disease, the outbreaks of uncontrolled
passion and wilful disobedience, to which ordinary chil-
dren were so liable, a counter-irritation, judiciously ap-
plied, might often be useful to draw down, as the old
herbalist would say, the bad humours from the nobler
parts. But he believed its usefulness was limited to
cases in which the general tone of the moral constitution
was healthy. He had little faith in its efficacy in the
chronic diseases with which they had for the most part
to deal in their reformatories. From being rather an
advocate of corporal punishment for young criminals, he
was first led to the opposite view by observations de-
rived from their vast prison in the West Riding of York-
shire and from the black books at quarter sessions, in
which it was remarkable how often in those long lists
of previous convictions which appeared against young
criminals a whipping had been one of the early punish-
ments, and as far as his inquiries into the primary cause
of youthful crime had gone, be found none more com-
mon than over severity of parents, step-parants, or
others. Considered merely as a deterrent, he believed
corporal punishment to be less effective than the cell,
which waa more really formidable, because, though less
severe, its mild discipline could be continued almost in-
definitely. Considered as a correction, the cell could be
adjusted with a nicety, which corporal punishment did
not admit of, to the requirements of the case, and under
proper arrangements prolonged from simple temporary
preventiro detention to long-continued isolation, as the
moral symptoms of the patients developed from time to

time might seem to require. In both points of view,
both as a corrective and as a deterrent, the plan adopted
at Mettray was most important—viz , that the period of
detention in the cell should never be fixed beforehand,
but should be regulated according to the effect apparent
during its continuance. He would not have corporal
punishments absolutely excluded from the reformatory,
because in the infinite variety of cases and characters it
might occasionally be useful and even necessary, yet be
strongly believed that it should be used rarely and with
the utmost caution. In the school let no fault be unpun-
ished, but never let them use one morsel more of punish-
ment than was absolutely necessary for its correction. To
do so was, independently of any consideration of justice
or benevolence, bad economy—a waste of motive power.
Considering punishment as a deterrent, it was rather
certainty than severity that was wanted. Considering it
as a reformatory agent, they needed not that which
would produce a sudden and violent impression, but that
which would operate surely, continuously, and so perma-
nently--not the rush of the torrent, but the drop that
wore the stone.

At the conclusion of the papers a lengthened discus.
sion arose upon the question of punishments and rewards,
in which part was taken by Lord Stanley, Lord R.
Cecil, M.P., the Rev. S. Turner, Dr. Wallis, Mr. Baker,
Mr. Adderley, M.P., and the Chairman, who proposed a
vote of thanks to Mr. Wheately for his valuable paper.
Mr. G. W. HASTINGS next read a paper by Mr. F.
Hill, late Inspector of Prisons in Scotland, " On a visit
to Mettray," which has &ready appeared in The Sun,
The section then adjourned.

forwarded to our Government eselutions highly IT-
proving the reformatory system.
DUNLOP'S AC.
Mr. HILL said the managementand diminution of the
criminal and vagrant class in this ountry was one of the
most pressing difficulties of the ag, ; and the class might
be divided into those who were atlarge, those who were
in prison, those who were in reformatories, and those who
were in industrial schools. There:ould be no doubt that
those who were at large were by fa; the most costly to the
public. Some 30 years ago witness examined upon the
question of the establishment of th, metropolitan police
Estimated the amount of property ainually stolen in Lon-
don at 1,500,0001. Criminals in irison, too, were very
costly, and the expenses of punisling and prosecuting
prisoners in England and Scotlaid was estimated at
355,000/. Matters were much bette• in reformatories and
industrial schools ; he especially urged an extensive
establishment of the latter. More hdustrial schools had
been established in Scotland than elsewhere, and with
better effects. It was at first hoped that the schools
might be made self-supporting, but this was not the
oa.e either at Aberdeen or elsewhere. Of the children
who were induced to enter the scoool, some were re-
moved by parents who preferred to lave what they could
ibtain by begging, some deserted because they could
oot endura the discipline of the school, but the majority
remained and attended regularly. In all the schools
the number of children who had lost one or both pa-
rents was very large, and 6f the other. most cases
the parents had forsaken the children, or were aban-
loned characters, frequently in prison. It was proved
by experience in every town where an industrial school
had been established that the number of children in
the school and the number in the gaol were like the
two ends of a beam, and, as the one rose the other fell.
[n Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, Greenock, Perth, ang
Arbroath these schools had been established, and had
uroduced most important results. They d ffered from
each other only in the mode of imparting religious in-
struction. From the commencement of the Edinburgh
schools in 1847 the number of children under 14 years of
age committed to the Edinburgh gaol had diminished
rom 260 to 81. At Perth an interesting experiment was
tried by employing the boys to cultivate four acres of
land. This succeeded so well that it was determined to
cake a much larger piece of ground, but, neighbouring
landowners objecting to this plan, it was not carried
into effect. An important feature was the habit which
had sprung up for parishes, on whom children had a
claim, to sand them to industrial schools, paying a sti-
pend for their board ; and it was difficult to conceive of a
more advantageous mode of supporting pauper children.
Another circumstance was, that when children left the
school they were put oat to employment where they were
not boarded, but that was frequently found fur them
at the school, their wages being drawn and placed against
mile cost. There was a difference of opinion in Scotland
on the policy of Dunlop's Act, but, as far as he could
learn, the weight of testimony was greatly in its favour,
and an indirect benefit was probably derived from the
act, in that the fear of its being enforced induced pa-
rents and parishes to board children at the school by ar-
rangement, or otherwise provide for them, so that they
did not continue to be vagrants.

Mr. H. COSSIIA.M, in hi; paper, which was not long,
traced juvenile crime, in a great degree, to the drinking
habits of a great mass of the people, and said that two-
thirds of the children now in reformatories had been
brought to their present state by the drunken habits of
their parents.

of all the nations of Europe, was without a public pro-
secutor. The consequence was frequent failures of jus-
tice, it being often possible, for a trifling sum, to buy off
a prosecution. Many things, however, had contributed
to improve our criminal jurisprudence. The amend-
ments in the rules of pleading, the greater frequency
of trials, the improvement of the police in great towns,
the better selection of magistrates—all had a share in
producing this desired result, and public prosecutors and
stipendiary justices were alone wanted to make our cri-
minal code as efficacious as human law could be ex-
pected to be. (Hear.) But we had committed one
serious error. We had always considered crimes insu-
lated—that they originated in occasional gusts of pas-
sion. Nothing, however, could be more certain than
that the great majority of offences committed in every
civilised community were the results of immoral charac-
ter or gross ignorance, the offences themselves being,
only a question of degree. The deterring effect of pu I
nishment was very much lessened to a perverted mind,
and the object should be to induce so radical a change in
the course of thinking of the criminal that he would
not only be deterred from one but from all wrong
actions. The frequency of escape from penal visitation
engendered bad habits, with which the moral percepti n
of the criminal maintained a vain and fruitless conflict,
and, however wi ely penal codes might be framed, they
became feeble and inefficacious in action. The criminals
who irifeste 1 society must be regarded as a elms who
had turned crime into a trade ; and whee it a-as consi-
dered how many offences a thief must commit to earn
his daily bread, it was evident that impunity wag the
rule, and detection the exception. But even certainty of
itself would not be enough. Celerity must be added to
certainty in the punishment of crime, and the accent-
-Oatmeal of both those objects was almost irnpoa ible.
If the sight or
Shearing of punishment could produce
effect, actual experience must produce still more. But
hew stood the fact? By the returns of convictions for
Manchester for 19 years ending in 1827, it was shown
that between a third and a fourth of the whole number
convicted were recommitted to the same gaol for other
felonies. In the same period between 12,000 and 13,000
were committed to the gaols of Salford and Leeds, of
whom 4,000 relapsed, and the magistrates of Liverpool
had Retied that out of 14 boys taken at random one bad
been recommitted no less than 19 times, and another (a
child of 7 years old) in two years had been condemned
three times to imprisonment, and a fourth to transpor-
tation. Now, what has been the means adopted for the
prevention of this recurrence to crime ! Nothing was
more certain than the first offence might by proper treat-
ment be made the last, but almost all magistrates admi-
nistered the law as if each offender was of the self-same
character and belonged to the same class. (Hear.) It
was clear that the State should provide the means of
punishing the youthful and unhardened culprit without
exposing him to the contamination of older criminals,
and, more, should enable him to resume his place in so-
ciety without either the disgrace of exposure or the des-
peration of leaving a prison for a state of destitution.
The Code Napoleon enabled the judge to give up the
young convict to his relative, master, or guardian, on
the undertaking of careful superintendence, with the
power of police watchfulness ; and Mr. Hill, the
learned, able, and humane Recorder of Birmingham,
had adopted a similar course with a success which
was extremely encouraging. (Rear.) It was, however,
the duty of the Government to provide more ample
means for reforming criminals. The gaol must be con-
sidered as a moral hospital and its inmates treated rather
as patients than as criminals. After referring to what
had been done with this object at Stretton-on-Dunsmore,
Horn, near Hamburg, Lyons, Bordeaux, Rouen, Or-
leans, and at Mettray, and giving statistical results of
the success which had attended the establishments at
those places, the noble lord proceeded to remark that,
in contrast with these pleasing details, they could only
reflect w th pain and statue upon the rude and barbar-
ous method hitherto pursued with our convicts. He
need hardly ask, was this wicked system to be con-
tinued ; or were they to amend it only with respect to
the young ? Nothing could be more unreasonable than
drawing a line of demarcation between youthful and
other offenders ; for they had no more right to imprison
a man and then turn him loose on society, as bad or
worse than before, than they had to perpetrate the same
offence with a boy or child. (Hear.) In truth, we were
guilty of a leis offence by liberating a bby than discharg-
ing an accomplished malefactor. After quoting the opi-
nions of Bentham, Macconochie, and other writers
upon the subject of punishment, the noble lord observed
that how grievously lawyers, magistrates, and specula-
tive reasoners had erred in bestowing so little attention
upon a reformatory process must be plain to every mind.
Every convict leaving the gaol unreclaimed became the
teacher by precept and example of others ; the patient
discharged from the moral hospital uncured carried with
him A cottagious disease which threatened the existence
of society, and from which, unhappily, society could not
escape. How should this mischief be prevented By
taking care that the patient should not be sent forth
uncured. But what was the fact ? Not one, but
thousands of uncured patients were every year
vomited from the moral penthouses of the country,
and the very rules of those establishments required
that they should be cast out uncured. Undoubt-
edly the most important portion of a reformatory
system was the general establishment of infant train-
ing. And how long, continued the noble lord, are see
to wait before the most scandalous disgrace resting on
our character as a people shall be removed ?—how long
before the bitterness of sectarian controversy shall so far
be allayed by the Christian feeling of mutual forbear-
ance, and the heats of polemical conflict be so far tem-
pered by brotherly love as to allow us to feel that "the
greatest of all these things is charity," and that the tri-
umphs of sect over sect are as absolutely nothing com-
pared with the mighty and the holy conquests of sound
knowledge over ignorance ? How long mast it be before
we see the adversaries in such miserable contests prefer
that victory which is far greater than his who conquers
a great city—the victory over their own temper—leading
to the sapping or the storming of the strong but not im•
pregnable fortresses of ignorance, immorality, and irre-
ligion? It is our highest duty to rescue the people from
ignorance and vice by giviug them the inestimable bless-
ing of a sound moral and religious education, to prevent
theegrolvth of crime; while we provide for reclaiming
from their vicious courses those who have been led
astray—a cure only to be effected by making the punish-
ment of criminals the instrument of their reformation.
That duty we have not discharged. But if we have
planted no schools where habits of virtue may be in-
duced, stretched forth no band to extirpate the germs of
vice, we have kept open other schools where vice is
taught with never-failing success, and both hands inces-
santly to stifle the seeds of virtue ere yet they had time
to sprout, and laid down many a hotbed where the
growth of crime in all its rank luxuriousness is assidu-
ously forced. The infant school languishes which a pa-
ternal Government would have cherished ; but Newgate
flourishes—Newgate with her thousand cells to corrupt
their youthful inmates, seducing the guiltless, confirming
the depraved. (Cheers.) The infant school is closed
which a paternal Government would have opened wide
to all its children ; but the penitentiary, where re-
pentance and penance should rather be performed by
the zeal authors of their fall, yawns day and night to
engulf the victims of our stepmother system. The
infant school r. ceives no innocents whom it might
train or hold fast to natural virtue, but the utterly
execrable, the altogether abominable hulk lies moored in
the face of the day which it darkens, within sight of the
land which it insults, riding on the waters which it
stains with every unnatural excess of infernal pollution,
triumphant over all morals! Shall civilised, shall free,
shall Christian rulers any !eager pause in the discharge
of the first of their duties? or shall it be said that be-
tween the claims of contending factions in Church or in
State, the Legislature stands paralysed, and cannot put
forth its hand to save, lest offence should he given to
some of the knots of theologians who bewilder its ears
with their noise, as they have bewildered their nwn
brains with their controversies I Be well assured, that if
you suffer the parent of all evil, all falsehood, all hyp. •
Crisy, all uncharitableness, all self-seeking—him who
covers over with pretexts of conscience the pitfalls that
he digs for the souls on which he preys—to stalk about
the fold and lay waste its inmates—if we stand still and
make no head against him; upon the vain pretext that
our action is obstructed by religious cabals, or the far
more guilty one, that by playing a party game we can
turn the hatred of conflicting professors to our selfish
purposes, we shall be greeted with a shoat of univereal
scorn, which all mankind in all ages will send up against
us. (Cheers )
The reading of this paper concluded the business of the
meeting.