The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-14 00:00:00

temptation, and as affording confidence to those
who might be disposed to give him employment.
Of the palpable repugnance of the ill-disp sed con-
vict I think we are bound to take little heed. On
this head I will quote a passage from his recent
notes in answer to Col. Jebb : " When I further
add that from 50 to 60 discharged co IN icts are un-
der constant notice in the city of Da lin, and that
amongst them are those whose evil and daring deeds
have formerly made them but too notorious to the
police ; that many of these have for upwards of two
years been in daily work ; that I am in the habit
of constantly and regularly communicating with
the police for the purpose of checking and correct-
ing any report I may receive, it will, I think, be
evident how much the intermediate system and its
training have accomplished, not alone, but in con-
junction with the firm, judicious, and not inquisi-
torial use of the police. The proportion of crimi-
nals reckoned capable of profiting by admission to
the intermediate prisons is still considered, by
Capt. Crofton, to amount to about 75 per cent. of
the whole. The improvement adverted to by Mr.
Hill, in the bodily health of the prisoners, as hav-
ing decreased, in two years, from a mortality of 8
per cent. in 1854, to one of 2 per cent. in 1856, still
happily subsists, or rather advances. The last
annual report of the directors for the year 1857
states that the mortality has been 45 deaths in
2,442 prisoners, averaging 1.8 per cent. on the
entire prison population. Feeling, then, a right to
be thus encouraged and corroborated by actual re-
sults, and by dry figures, I may the more safely seek
to convey the impressions derived from ocular ob-
servation. I never made a visit to Smithfield dur-
ing the hours allotted to the evening schooling and
lecture without being most pleasantly impressed by
the propriety and alertness of demeanour, and by
the general absence of all sulkiness or sullenness of
either countenance or manner, which distinguished
the prisoners. I may here perhaps mention that,
although I stood among them on these occasions
with the full power of giving immediate pardon and
freedom to any or all of them, and although occa-
sionally anything particularly striking in the bear-
ing or expressions of some among them might have
tempted me to an exercise of partiality in their
behalf, I never once allowed myself to interfere with
any sentence except in the regular routine, upon
the recommendation of the responsible authorities.
I almost feel compunction at having proceeded so
far without having made mention of the lecturer at
the Smithfield and Lusk Reformatories, Mr. Organ.
I am quite confident that he is one of the privileged
number who will have left a mark on their age, not
perhaps in the ordinary records of fame or preced-
ence, but in the extent and amount of the quiet,
unnoticed good he has accomplished, and the whole-
some and healing influences he has wrought upon
the dispositions and destinies of his fellow-creatures.
Accustomed from his youth to pursue the occupa-
tion of a teacher among the humblest and the
poorest, he has now given his whole heart to the
work of instruction and reclaiming the crimi-
nal ; and, in addition to the higher qualifications of
benevolence and zeal for such an office, he possesses,
I believe, I should say beyond any person I have
ever met with, the faculty of interesting the atten-
tion and of making a subject clear to the most obtuse
apprehensions. lam quite willing to believe that the
system now adopted in Jr eland rests upon principles
so sound and so true to human experience as to make
it in a great degree independent of individual quali-
ties, provided that it be steadily upheld ; but I think
it would be singularly ungrateful not to admit that
for its early and rapid success it was largely in-
debted to the capacity of Mr. Organ to make power-
ful impressions upon the minds, sometimes sluggish
and sullen, sometimes quick and impulsive, with
which he was brought
.into contact, as well as to
the wholly voluntary and disinterested tenacity
with which he clung to the discharged prisoner in his
subsequent career, diminishing its risks and shield-
ing him from its temptations. 'With respect to the
general conduct of the prisoners, it is pleasing to
find this testimony given by the superintendent of
Smithfield, Mr. Good, who had been master of
works in the same prison for ten years under the
old system, and whom I know to be a very deserv-
ing public servant. He says :—" With reference to
the conduct of the prisoners, it is gratifying to find
that the best feeling exists among them ; and since
the introduction of the 'license system only five
light breaches of discipline occurred. Most remark-
able is the contrast between the men now placed in
this establishment and those who were confined
here when this was an ordinary convict prison.
Now they evinse a kind obliging disposition, and a
docile spirit ; they take advice in, good part ; they
go to work with alacrity, are ready to volunteer
their assistance wherever they think it may be re-
quired ; they seem to have got a new spring of
mind, and constantly talk over and ask advice with
respect to their future-prospects and destinations.
Nearly three times the amount of work is obtained
as heretofore from the same number of prisoners."
I have referred to the hold which Mr. Organ
endeavours to establish upon the- after careers of
discharged prisoners. The law provided a map of
the county of Dublin, upon- which are marked the
various stations where they are employed, or where
there is a likelihood of employment being procured
for them. He visits these stations frequently,
either for the purpose of inquiring into the conduct
and position of the men, or of securing fresh em-
ployment. Of 60 discharged prisoners now in the
city of Dublin, not one has been out of employment
for more than a few days, except from the failure of
health. In many cases, as might have been antici-
pated, the labour has been of a description not
much sought after by those whose previous lives en-
title them justly to greater latitude of choice, such
as vitriol works and the like. This however speaks
volumes for those who prefer even such labour to dis-
honesty and a recurrence to crime ; it speaks surely
not a little for the system which has thus trained
and reclaimed them. As a mark of the influence
Mr. Organ has been enabled to obtain over the
men, even after their period of confinement is over,
he has generally induced them to place or put £1
or £2 in the hands of their employers as a security,
not so much for their honesty as for their regularity
and continuance at work; and in the case of the
man having no earnings, or next to none, to his
_ _

credit, then to consent to a corresponding stoppage,
for a certain time, from his wages. With the men
who are further removed Mr. Organ endeavours to
keep up frequent correspondence. I may very
briefly mention one or two of their statements. One
man tells him :—" I must let you know that I am
what you will like to hear, and that is a non-com-
missioned officer, lam full corporal, and very soon
to be platoon sergeant. lam doing very well. I.
hope you will tell all the men in Smithfield to do
as Mr. Organ will tell them." Another tells him :
" I am earning from 14s. to 16s. a week." Another,
whom he mentions, "is also doing well, and turns
out very well dressed, and earns plenty of money
in the coal pit ; he is earning from 3s. 6d. to 4s. a
day, and wishes you long life and good health."
Another asks for some of his gratuity money that
he may get a kit. Another is going to Corfu. The
parish priest writes of one :—" I am glad to be able
to make a favourable report of him. He is well con-
ducted and industrious; and has even purchased a
boat, in which he works himself at present." A
housebreaker writes :—" Words cannot express the
gratitude I felt when I received your kind letter
with the favourable lines contained in it. I sin-

cerely hope I shall never belie the character you
were pleased to entertain of me. I have been
working at hay this short time back." The hay
reminds me that I perceived on one occasion a dis-
charged prisoner forming one of a gang of haymakers
on my own grounds in the Phcemx-park. He was
pointed out to me by the contractor for the job, who
gave a good account of him, but I distinctly saw, on my
approaching him, that he did not wish for much con-

versation—he felt anxious that his antecedents

should not be known to his fellow-workmen,-and,
for my part, I felt quite resigned, all victory as I
was at the moment, to be cut by a convict. I will
only cite one more comment, which, among other
things, shows that the supervision of the police is
not necessarily considered irksome by discharged
prisoners themselves. This is from a man convicted
of larceny, it being his seventh conviction :—" I am
living with my father ever since, and I am going on
very well. The constabulary are doing everything
in their power for my welfare. Your lectures and
advice are as fresh in my mind as when I sat there
listening to your fatherly expressions, and I will
always think of the advice you gave e before we left
you. No matter who returns you ingratitude after
all your trouble, you will always find me grateful,
because you acted a father to every one as well as
to me. I conclude for the present, thanking God
and you for my deliverance from bondage; and may
the Almighty reward you, and every benevolent
man who in the course of time will be an aid in the

works of mercy." My remarks have hitherto
chiefly applied to male prisoners. The treatment
of female prisoners will probably be rendered more
systematic when the large metropolitan prison at
Mountjoy, specially intended for them, shall have
been completed. It can never become so easy, in
their case to apply the same number of progressive
stages which public works out of doors makes
available for the men ; but the system of drafting
off the best behaved and most promising female pri-
soners into refuges has been tried with the happiest
results. The government have been fortunate
enough to find establishments where this pious
office has been voluntarily undertaken both in the
Protestant and Roman Catholic communities of
Dublin. Of the Protestant establishMents, beyond
rendering a just tribute to the conscientious care
with which they appear to be managed, I need say
but little, for a reason which certainly ought not
to give any:umbrage to that community—l mean
the very small number of prisoners which
haw belonged to that persuasion, The care

of the Roman Catholic pr igoners of this
class has been undertaken by tlr e ladies of the
Sisterhood of Mercy at Calder Brit/we. Feeble and
wholly inadequate, indeed, would be any words of
mine to do justice to the unremitting self-devotion
and cheerful alacrity with which the manager of
refuge, herself well born and refined (I ought, I sup-
pose, to confine myself to her assumed name of Sis-
ter Mary Magdalen), with her coadjutoro' discharges
this labour of great love. To prove that lam not
using the language of mere compliment, an idle
sentiment, I may present the following results,
Which, I believe have never yet been given in so
complete a form, at least from the first opening of
the St. Vincent's Reformatory in April, 1856, down
to the present month :-152 have been received; 67
are at present there ; 85 have been disposed of—
you will remember that these were women, for the
most part reared and steeped in crime, and from
general experience if discharged in ordinary course,
would have given no hope of reformation ; 21 have
been sent to situations in Ireland, and are all ascer-
tained to be doing well ; 26 are in the colonies ; 24
have returned to their homes ; 16 were married, an d
are now living respectably; 8 were re ceived by
their parents ; 5 have been received into an asy-
mm ; 3 have been married in Ireland., and are
we_ reported of ; 6 have been sent back to prison.
So that out of the whole 85 there are only 6 to
whom subsequent misconduct can be traced. I
should be inclined, then, to sum up somewhat thus
the principles which pervade the system of convict
discipline in Ireland, and which form the ground-
work of whatever success it has obtained :—At the
outset, the strictest form of penal discipline, the
least amount of communication, except with the
few privileged persons, and the lowest scale of diet
consistent with health ; subsequently progressive
stages of employment and treatment, giving scope
to hope, stimulus to exertion, and room for the dis-
play of meritorious habits and trustworthy quali-
ties ; finally, at the last stage (intended to form the
transition to freedom), actual tests of obedience and
honesty, and what I certainly should be dis-
posed to put the chief stress upon, the sur-
rounding of their prisoners, by the choice of agents
adapted and qualified for the purpose, with an
atmoslghere of sympathy, encouragement, and bene-
ficent influences ; the power of individualising them,
and bringing the battery of advice and persua-
sion to bear upon their special cases • the causing
them to feel that there are those in the world who
care for them and will watch their course, and
glory in their good conduct. The proper agents for
such a ministry of reformation may be difficult to
find, but I am confident they are to be found; in-
deed I may say in Ireland they are turned up for
us ready for use as soon as they are wanted. To
give proper verge for such a system to work, sen-
tences of imprisonment ought to be of adequate
length ; I believe that the discretion of remitting
the later periods of actual imprisonment, upon the
condition of strict supervision and liability to re-
imprisonment, might be advantageously extended.
From all I can hear of the results of the experi-
ment in Ireland, the supervision of discharged con-
victs by the police works extremely well, both as a
guarantee to the public arid a protection and pre-
ventive to the late criminal. The mode in which
this very difficult and momentous subject has
been dealt with in Ireland has now, for the second
time, been brought under the notice of the National
Association. It has been the subject of distinct in-
quiry from foreign Governments; and I sincerely
trust that its benefits will, before any long lapse of
time, be extended to other communities and over
wider fields. I now turn to the subject of the refor-
matories established for criminals in England. The
establishments in Scotland, to a great extent, have
more the character of ragged or industrial training
schools, but about these I have no details to give.
The act authorising institutions in Ireland corres-
ponding clearly with those now existing in Eng-
land, was only passed in the late session of Parlia-
ment. The first report of the Inspector of Reforma-
tory Schools in Great Britain has recently been
issued; and it is of happy omen for these institu-
tions that they are placed under an overlooker who
brings to the work so much congenial experience,
and so much gennine benevolence as Mr. Sydney
Turner. We learn from his report that 40 English
certified reformatories have come under his inspec-
tion, and he gives a brief but interesting and sug-
gestive summary of their respective conditions. I
have the less need, however, to dwell upon the
contents, as they are probably in all, hands,
and especially in Liverpool, where Mr. Turner states
that the Reformatory Act has been more exten-
sively applied than in any other place. I have as
yet only had the opportunity of seeing four refor-
matories, and three of these only very cursorily ;
these three are Calder Farm, near Mirfield, estab-
lished by the thoughtful benevolencelef Mr. W.
Balme, most happily situated in a meaded range of
hills, overlooking the valley of the winding Calder,
and happier in the more important elements of
kindly and efficient management ; next, one still in
its infancy, at Adel, near Leeds, where the lads are
still employed in the rougher parts of the build-
ing work, and in reclaiming a piece of stony moor-
land, with an obvious will and vigour, wluch pro-
mises as well for their health as it speaks well for
the wholesome moral influences of the master set
over them; another, at Market Weighton, is ap-
propriated to Roman Catholics; it now contains 85
boys, and ultimately will have accommodation for
200 ; it is built with more attention to architectural
effect than any of the kind I have yet seen, and is
managed by a staff belonging to one of the con-
fraternities of the Roman Catholic Church, appa-
rently with a devotedness which so often distin-
guishes these bodies. The remaining school to
which I have referred is nestled among my- own
meads at Castle Howard, and I can say with truth
that I regard it as one of the chief attractions of a
place not deficient in its adornments. The main
cause of the success which the institution has
hitherto obtained, for it must be remembered that
with respect to all of them, we are as yet speaking
only by the light of very early experience, as well
as of its special attraction for myself, is undoubt-
edly to be found in the character and qualities of
the superintendent chaplain, Mr. Fish. I have
already borne my testimony to the merits of Mr.
Organ, and I should wish to dwell for a moment on
those which exhibit a large amount both of corre-
spondence and contrast with them. I feel the less
hesitation to indulge in this line of remark, from
my thorough conviction that the speedy success of
all reformatory influence, whether upon the
adult or youthful criminal, must under the
divine blessing be mainly dependent upon the men
who are employed as its conductors and agents.
The same single-minded devotedness to duty, the
same straightforward simplicity of character, the
same tenderness of sympathy for the working
classes, amongst whom they have both spent their
young years of toil, distinguish alike the Church of
England chaplain and the Irish Roman Catholic
teacher. But the appearance and the disposition of
the Englishman have that mild, mellow, pensive
character, which would seem to have retained

something of the sadness which familiarity with the
scenes of suffering, and contact with rude and bit-
ter tempers, might naturally have imparted ; while
the moods of the Irishmen were so impulsive and
racy of his own soil, of its quick-witted humour and
gleaming pathos, as to make one of his common
grammar lessons as entertaining as any play. I
think it not unimpFtant to show that minds of

various texture may be drawn into this service of
mercy, provided there be the indispensable ingre-
dients of earnestness and discretion. Whether there
be good reason or not for indulging in the hope of
a large amount of adult reformation, there is every
ground for expecting. palpable and extensive re-
sults in the matter of juvenile reformation. I be-
lieve it will be found that all those who have most

considered the subject, as well as have been most
engaged in its practical operations, entertain the
conviction that, in by far the greatest number of
cases of youthful crime, the training of the chil-
dren has been such as to give a criminal direction
to their habits, and they have thus become what
their parents or their circumstances have made
them. The distinguished president of the first pro-
vincial meeting of the National Reformatory Union,
held at Bristol, in 1856 (Lord Stanley), put the
case of 100 criminal children thus:—

Born of dishonest parents
„ profligate
/, honest and industrious
The Castle Howard Reformatory statistics nearly
confirm these proportions. Sixty-four have passed
through the school, and are now inmates. Of
these there are :

Born of dishonest parents
„ profligate .
honest and industrious .
ft
I will adduce one local illustration, which, I think,
throws considerable light upon more than one
branch of reformatory inquiry. It shall be that of
the very first they committed to the Castle Howard
School. He had been a worker in a cotton. mill,
the foreman of which apparently discovered special
aptitudes in him extending beyond his work, so he
kept him when the other hands were dismissed,
and taught him to pick pockets. For two years
our boy Tom regularly picked pockets on the pier
of Hull and the High Church, giving the proceeds
to his instructor. In return he was comfortably
lodged and fed, and often taken to the theatre. He
remembers instances of robbery from the person,
the aggregate proceeds of which exceeded £2OO, all
of which were perpetrated before he was convicted
at all. When once he had been caught, convictions
followed in rapid succession until they had reached
seven, at which point the Castle Howard School
was opened, in his person. After the treat-
ment of two years, partly there, and partly. at Cal-
der Farm, he is now pursuing an industrious and
honest career. From this short narrative I would