The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-21 00:00:00

NATIONAL REPO m A TORY UNION:

A conference of the friends of this institution com-
menced yesterday afternoon at Bristol, and will be con-
tinued to-day and to-morrow.
The first meeting took place in the hall of the Society of
Merchant Venturers, which, in spite of unfavourable wea-
ther, was completely filled. Lord Stanley presided on the
occasion, and was supported on the platform by the Mayor
of Bristol, the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, Mr. W.
Miles, M.P., Lord R. Cecil, M.P. ; Col. Pinney, M.P.,
Mr. Commissioner Hill, Col. Burrows, the Dean of Bristol,
Re v. Canon Girdlestone, Rev. W. Turner, of Redhill ;
Roy. W. C. Osborn, Chaplain of Bath Gaol ; Rev. W.
Tyler, of Spitalfields ; Mr. J. Hassell, Masterof the Society
of Merchant Venturers; Messrs. B. Baker, of Hardwicke;
J. Symons, E. A. Sandford, E. B. Wheatley, G. W. Has.
tinge, W. Morgan, W. Gillow, G. Bowyer, W. Marsh, L.
Thornton, T. P. Jose, R. Leonard, Dr. Wallis, &c.
The MAYOR of BRISTOL, in a brief speech, introduced
Lord Stanley to the meeting.
His LORDSHIP commenced his observations by expres-
sing his regret at the absence of the President of the Union
(Lord Brougham), from whom the following letter had
been received by Mr. Commissioner Hill :
" Brougham, Aug. 16.
"My dear Hill,—lt is needless to say how very much
grieved I have been by the impossibility ofattending the Bris-
tol meeting of our Reformatory Union, over which I have
always deemed it a high honour that I was called upon to pre-
side at its formation. But my relief has been great in finding
my place on this occasion supplied by ono whom all his col-
leagues so highly esteem for his capacity and habits of hard
work, his eminent abilities, and the truly noble use he makes
of them.
" We can hardly overrate the importance of these proceed-
ings. It is not very agreeable to reflect upon the number of
years that have elapsed since I came to the conviction, which
subsequent experience and discussion with others, in and out
of the profession, have only confirmed, how very much we
over estimate the deterring effect of penal legislation unac-
companied with other measures, and how necessary it is both
to apply means of prevention, to make"punishment reforma-
tory, and to reclaim those on whom we have been obliged to
inflict it. I have taken the liberty, through you, of laying
before the Union my reflections upon this subject. I look
forward to the happiest results from the present meeting,and
to an ample extension of the great benefits already derived
from the trials that have, both in this and other countries,
been made of the system.
"No one can have a greater respect than I have for the
benevolent and enlightened labours of M. de Metz and
late colleague, M. de Courteilles ; and my visit to Mettray,
two years ago, enabled me pointedly to contradict in Parlia-
ment some assertions and expose misapprehensions prevalent
on the subject. It is not, however, true that Mettray was
the first experiment of the kind. The Philanthmpic Society
many years before (long before Stretton-on-Dunmore, in-
deed) had even adopted the family principle, perhaps the
distinguishing feature of the Mettray plan, and only gave it
up, I believe, when they were enabled to erect their building
in St. George's-fields. Stretton-on-Dunsmoro was begun as
I early as 1818 ; and while we hcnour the memory of that truly
admirable man, Townsend Powell, who devoted himself to its
support, we must feel no little shame in the reflection that,
after he had for many years, through good and evil report,
and with the utmost difficulty, kept it alive, for want of
funds it did not survive him, and I was grieved to find last
year that it had been abandoned. I take for granted that its
condition could not have boon known to the great and weal-
thy towns of Warwickshire and Staffordshire, which must
have benefitted most by Mr. Powell's labours, carried on as
they purposely were in a remote district, in order that the
liberated convicts might be separated as much as possible
from the haunts of their former associates.
" Nothing can be more candid than M. De Metz's admis-
sions on all occasions of having profited by the experience
and the suggestions of others, especially those of Wichern,
founder of the Rauhe-baus, near Hamburg. But it is greatly
to the honour of M. De Metz's sagacity that he perceived the
advantages of the family principle where it had been adopted,
as it probably was by the Philanthropic Society of London,
from necessity and the want of accommodation, not design-
edly. He saw through its great importance, and voluntarily
made it part of his system.
" I trust that the meeting will not separate without fully
discussing and exposing the evils of short imprisonments. In
the paper which I have sent you will find that this is dwelt
upon as one exception among the errors into which Mr. Ben-
tham fell upon the reformatory operation of penal inflictions
I well recollect how entirely he agreed with us upon this im-
portant point, when Sir S. Romilly and I were discussing
with him what we took leave to regard as fundamental errors
en other points. It really is of such paramount importance
that it may bo said to make all the difference between punish-
ment being an evil or a remedy, a prevention or an (moon
ragement of crime, a mitigation or an aggravation of its mis
chiefs.

Among many other subjects which will of course be
brought before the meeting, one surely is the error of some
distinctions taken in the plans of the patronage societies that
are formed. Some, I see, are confined to females, others to
males, while the same might well take care of both. A more
prevailing mistake is restricting our care to the young. There
can be no reason why the same society should not charge
itself also With adults, assuming, what I apprehend can hardly
be disputed, that it is against all principle and all the results
of experience to confine our labours to the care of juvenile
offenders.
"I ought to apologise for occupying you with the perusal
of a long letter from a distance, when you must be so fully
and so much better employed nearer home. My disappoint-
ment is really great that I am not with you and oar col-
leagues, to whom I desire my kindest regards and respects. I
observe lthat Sir J. Pakington is expected to attend, for
whom I need not say how great is my esteem, having long
been his fellow-labourerin important measures for the amend-
ment of the law, and it would have given me no little satis-
faction to make the acquaintance of so excellent a person ae
Mr. Miles, to whom the Union is greatly indebted.
" Believe me, sincerely yours,
" li. Baouonam."
Lord Stanley then delivered the following inaugural
address :—Ladies and gentlemen,—l will not detain you
with any preface to the remarks which it will be my duty
to make, nor apologise for the inevitable length to which
they may extend. The subject of reformatories is to you
deeply interesting—your presence in this room proves that.
The subject is beset with difficulties, else why the contro-
versies, the debates, the writing and speaking that have
taken place concerning it during the last five years. The
subject is one on which action, and prompt action, is
needed, otherwise it would hardly, in this practical
country and age, occupy the most intelligent minds ...od
lead to the most strenuous exertions. The Le
iosiature
has taken up, as regards the reformatory
snovement, a
peculiar, though, I think, a wise posit ...on. It assists the
founders of schools ; it gives thorn ',egal powers ; it makes
use of their agency ; but it dol.! not supersede their efforts.
The law under which we e:a tikes for granted the existence
of so much public sr.eirit in the community as that indi-
viduals may be 1.... ct to initiate a movement which in ether
fall within the especial province of the
countries wo
It is our duty and our purpose to-day to show
tEhxaetcuive..
4.oie confidence of Parliament is not misplaced ; that
t/eote who frame the laws and those who administer them
have not reckoned in too sanguine a spirit on the philan-
thropy and the patriotism of English citizens. I propose, so
far as time allows, to lay before you an outline sketch of
this vast subject. Now, in the first place, in order to know
clearly the magnitude of the evil for which we have to pro-
vide a remedy, let us endeavour to ascertain the actual and
relative amount in this country of adult and juvenile crime.
I don't apprehend that this can be done in a very exact
manner. Prison returns can draw no distinction, though
morally the distinction is a very wide one, between trivial
broaches of law, compatible with habitual innocence, and
offences which are of a nature to indicate habitual crime.
Nor is the shape of our statistical information on these
subjects convenient. The difficulty I have found in
ascertaining, even imperfectly as I may have done
it, the facts required, supply me, if it wore
needed, with a fresh reason to envy and to hail up for
imitation the complete, uniform, and simple mode in
such materials as we possess we may use ; and look-
which the judicial statistics of France are compiled. Never-
'the 19th report, just P
stpnheeeltoossrs of England and Wales,ubsilwhich
d ,
supplies
uPsr Pis on
tlhne-
sseturns of 1853, I find it there stated that the numbers "for
71,851—making a total of those who have
trial er tried at anises or sessions" were 26,801 ; the sum-
mary convictions,
come under the law, 98,654, or, in round numbers, about
100,000. Now, in that same year there were of juvenile
offenders (that is, under 17 years) tried or for trial, 2,105;
summarily convicted, 9,348—t0ta1, 11,453. We have,
then, the proportion of juvenile to all crime for that year
fixed at 11i per cent., and the figures for 1852 show a
generally similar result. I will not weary you with sta-
tistics, but it is worth notice—and proof of what I state
may be found in this same report— that while the propor-
tion of juvenile crime, that is, of crime committed under
thee ago of 17 does not exceed the figure I have mentioned,
the amount committed between the ages of 17 and 21 is
absolutely enormous, forming, for these four years of life
alone, nearly 25 per cent. of the whole. This fact is par.
ticularly corroborated by the census returns:of 1851, where
of all the prisoners under sentence in Greet Britain on a
particular day, just 25 per cent. was found to be under 20
years of ago, and a result almost identical with this was ob-
tained by Mr. Redgrave, from the census of 1841. It is,
indeed, a startling fact in the investigation of mime, that
while the number of persons living at any one time be-
tween the ages of 15 and 20 forms only 1-10th of the en-
tire population at that time, this tenth part of the popu-
lation is guilty of nearly one-fourth of the whole amount
of detected crime. Now, I don't think that prison re-
turns, or any returns, can give us an exact idea of the num-
ber of those with whom the reformatory movement may
have to deal ; there are lads who break tbo law, and not
punished, who are yet in no sense habitual offenders ;
there is, perhaps, still a good deal of undetected crime in
counties where no efficient police exists, and no statement
of the number annually imprisoned can help us, except it,
the roughest way, to estimate the number of those 1714
may be at large. This only wo know, that more than
11,000 children, a large majority of them boys, pass yearly
through the hands of justice ; with how little refor-
matory effect in general, the large proportion of recom
mittals— nearly 4,000 out of 11,000 shows plainly
enough. I can hardly imagine anything more vitally its..
portant for us, in carrying on this reformatory work, te
ascertain than the scale on which wo shall have to conduct
our operations. Unfortunately, thero is no part of the

1
All inquiry tends to show that is crime, as] in pauperism,
there is a tendency to beoome hereditary; and the effect
of teglect in developing crime is demonstrated by the
large proportion of illegitimate children in gaols. It
seems, then, that unless we could deal with the parent
we cannot prevent the corrupting process from going on.
We cannot hinder children being driven or allured out of
miserable homes to seek a living by plunder in tile streets.
Now, nothing is more certain than thalrto deal directly
with the parent is impossible. He is out of our reach. He
is beyond our control. He is proof against snob infinences
as we can bring to boar. So far as he is Concerned, the work
of demoralieatien must and will go on. Indirectly, no
doubt, wo may operate upon that class from whom the
Parents of the criminal population ere mostly taken. 13 it
we can hope to operate upon it only by moans of measures
and movements continued through a long serial of years,
and needing time for their results to appear, by means of
better schooling, of temperance societies, of places of
rational amusement, substituted for the beer-house; of
cheap literature, of every encouragement which society 011
offer to industry and forethought. Meantime, the children
are being misled ; the routine of convictions, imprisert-
ments, recommittals continues. The more I look int 6 the
subject, the more fully assured I feel that fel bath the
present and future diminution of cri esti the „1, direct and
immediate agency that can be ()rapt",
J...ar' dou't sty
.the
best, but virtually the only one-
-eon/ruts in the detention,
the training, and the givi-
, _ag honest employment to crimi-
nal children whom
offenders fe . sue neglect of such means will render
e
lope iife. There are other agencies] which in th e
...an may, and we hope will, affect powerfully the lees
wealthy classes of society, but theta agencies are indirect
only, and do not meet the necessity which lies upon us of
immediate action. Next, let us consider (and I assure you
that I am endeavouring to b 3 as brief ai lies in my power)
whet is the past history an .1 present state of this reform 1-
toty movement. I ant afraid th et we, as a nation, cen
hardly claim the credit of having been foremost to dm :re
nod to act upon the principle which this union Inlets to
provide. It is true that, in 1788, the Philanthropic society
of Lon lon—the society now familiar to as by the name of
its school, Red-hill—way set ou foot by private meens. It
is true that 15 years earlier, Howard had celled attention to
this breech of prison diseipline. It is tree th et in 1315 the
Prison Discipline Society was established, ono of the chief
objectkof which was to save young offenders from the cor-
ruption of contact with titoAo more hardened, that iu 1317
theStretton Institution in Warwickehire was commenoed,
and that at a later period the Children's Friend Society,
under Capt. Brenton, undertook the protection of neglected
bop and girls, whether innocent or criminal. But it has
been chiefly on the continent that the reformatory move-
ment, until of late years, ha s thriven and flourished. (After
referring in termsof cordial commendation to the labours
of Fellenborg, Der Reck°, Wichern. and Mettray, the
noble lord alluded to the establishment at Re I-hill.) Red-
hill school, as you know, dates from 1310; 91i boys have
entered it, of whom 293 remain, 720 having passed
through. Of these about 70 per cent. are known to be doing
well. Those who wish for details on the foreign reforma-
tories will find them in a paper read by Mr. liteclelland
before the British Association at Glasgow, and since re-
printed as a pamphlet. You are aware of the main pro-
visions of the act of 1854, and how it assists the setting up
of reformatory schools. Power is given to detain boys at
such schools during five years, and to receive them at any
age not above 16. Government pays 58. weekly for the
support of each, but does not in practice otherwise inter-
fere. Of this act most of the English counties are avail-
ing themselves already. Nearly all, W 3 hops, will do so.
I say nearly all, because is some instances, where the num-
ber of boys is small, it may be better for more than one
county to join funds and set up a school between them.
The object of the National Reformatory Union, in connoc-
Lion with this movement, is to form, as it were, a centre
of action for these various local efforts ; to enable managers
in different counties to compare their systems reeve readily;
to promote the establishment of reformatories where"noue
yet assist; to enable those who wish to give personal as-
sistance in the cause to discover whore their help is most
required; to assist in placing out the youths who leave
reformatories; to supply opportunities of discussing the
general subject, and suggesting improvements in the me-
thods adopted; and, should changes in the law of refor-
matories be required, to prose ou Parliament the propriety
of such changes. There is in existence —founded nearly at
the same time—another similar body to ours—the Refor-
matory and Refuge Union, formed on a more sectarian
basis, but likely, I hope, to he useful within its own sphere.
I name that body only in order to mention that, though
they work by nearly the same means for nearly the same
objects, there is not —there cannot be—any opposition be-
tween the two. I come now to some practical inquiries.
Is the undertaking necessary? Is it, a priori, likely to
succeed ? Has it succeeded when' tried in other 'coun-
tries? Now, as to the first point, the necessity of set-
ting about this business, I apprehend there can be but
little diversity of opinion. The circumstances of the
time are peculiar. Whetever was the effect of tran-
sportation, ast a punishment, upon Australia, there can
be no doubt but that the effect of the system upon
this country was beneficial. In fact, transportation
as an English institution dates further back then the die-
severe, of the A ustralian continent. We transported once
r,o America; we transported to the West Indies; we tried,
after the American independence, to transport to the Aid-
.= coast ; for half a century we transported to the antipo-
dean settlements. It is only within the last half dozen
Pears that we find ourselves cut off from an easy and effec-
tual, though not economical mode of getting rid of our cri-
minal population—cut off, if I may express au individual
opinion, without much; prospect of being able to re-establish,