The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-28 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 28, 1858.

CHERBOURG AND SIR C. NAPIER.

the other way. Were the Royal Albert to meet the Bre-
tagne is a sea-way, both ships full of coals, the Royal Albert
would have the advantage, as she carries her lower deck-
ports nearly a foot higher than the Bretagne. This is a
great point. Mr. Lindsay gives the dimensions of the
basins, dockyards, &c., all much larger than ours ; and he
observes that the French may whirl down 100,000 men to
Cherbourg, but unless they command the Channel, and have
a different class of ships, they cannot come to England. As
far as commanding the Channel goes, Mr. Lindsay is
quite right; but as to his opinion of their ships, he is
quite wrong. The French build, and indeed always did build,
as fine ships as ours ; and some of the best ships we had last
war were taken from the French, or copied from them. And
Mr. Lindsay never saw a finer two-decked ship than the one
launched the other day at Cherbourg. Mr. Lindsay then
comes to the point. He observes :—" France never built
those arsenals unless they intended building ships to put
into them, and we cannot shut our eyes to the great fact
we have seen, that there is one thing in which we are defi-
cient." He says :—" We have abundance of seamen, we are
a maritime people, but in the hour of emergency we have
had a difficulty in obtaining seamen to man our ships; but
I am happy to tell you this evening—for I think it is the
only difficulty we have now to contend with—that the
Government are now zealously devoting themselves to the
question."

I am glad to hear it ; but, I regret to add, that the com-
mission has done nothing except examine half a dozen
witnesses, and then adjourned till November.—l remain,
sir, your obedient servant,

luxuries • that they are rather medicines than comforts; that
such children's ideas of enjoyment are much better realised
in the closeness, dirt, and disorderly freedom of the common
lodging-house ; and were the dietaries better than they are,
and the buildings finer, few boys would stay to enjoy them
at the price of digging, trenching, brickmaking, and stock-
keeping, in all weathers, at all seasons, with the Scripture
regulation in full force—if a man will not work, neither
should he eat. Wherever the labour test is steadily carried
out, and restrictive discipline as to dirt, disorder, quarrel-
ling, and bad language regularly enforced, all fear that the
reformatory will be seductive to the children themselves may
be safely thrown aside. With respect to its attractions to the
parents, I shall have occasion to speak presently. But I am
fully confident that the instances in which the boy or girl
thinks the reformatory school a place of privilege, or wishes
to retnain in it for the physical comforts or advantages it
affords, are very rare. The frequent endeavours to desert
from the schools and return to the haunts and habits of their
previous life, la hick give the superintendents of reformatories
so muck anxiety and trouble, are of themselves sufficient
reformatory acts have operated very beneficially on
proofs
The oftliis.
the internal discipline and management of the schools certi-
fied under them—placing the children under legal detention
and restraint, investing the managers and superintendents
of the schools with clear and definite powers of custody
and control, and making reformatory agency a recognised
part of the social system, and those engaged in it directly
and distinctly responsible to public opinion and subject to
inquiry. They have already done away with much of the
looseness, and irregularity, and insubordination, that used
to be met with. A manly, straightforward, and strengthen-
ing tone pervades the discipline, far more useful and just to
the young offender himself than the sentimentality and pet-
ting and indulgence that might formerly be often complained
of; much more order and obedience are found in the school,
and much more activity and exertion in the field
and workshop than was the case a year or two ago.
The superintendents have more experience in theirdnties,
and are more equal to them, and inspire more confidence in
those those who employ them and overlook their proceed-
ings. Their management is more systematic, and mere kind-
ness superseded by intelligent and gentle firmness. It must
be acknowledged, however, that there is still room for im-
provement, and reason to wish for it, in several institutions.
The supply of really efficient masters and mistresses is still
inadequate, and some have still tole retained who are but
ill-suited to a work which, to be well done, requires so large
a combination of religious earnestness, sound judgment,
kindly temper, and steady perseverance in its agents.
Some serious drawbacks exist also in the construction and
arrangement of the reformatories themselves, especially of
those first opened. With such a class as they contain corpo-
ral punishments are not very effective or advisable. They
may be advantageously resorted to occasionally for such faults
as indecency, lying, and impudence ; but, as a general rule,
the boy has been too familiar with blows and rough usage
at home to make him care muck for the cane or the strap
in the school, and his passionate and violent impulses
are much better dealt with by a few days' solitary confine-
ment on bread and water. Hence two or three cells, placed
so as to be secluded and inaccessible to the boy's companions,
and at the same time directly under the master's supervi- '
sion, and in easy communication with him, are essential in a 1
reformatory. It is again of great importance that the mas-
ter's apartments should be so placed as to enable him to
have a ready and easy oversight of the boys in the school-
ooin and yard by day, and in their sleeping rooms by night.
correction
°tinh the common soomamn od nt the
entrance er°:: d passage
ased by the boys. The neglect of simple things such as
be shuta u dosff orf cr
0- rm
these has caused many efficient masters to be greatly hin-
deredkitchen or harassed, the boys being often able to elude their
vigilance or defy their authority.
Another obstacle to the success of a reformatory will
always be an insufficient staff. Where the master is over-
tasked as to the amount and variety of the work imposed
upon him, he cannot adequately discharge his duty. No
one man, however willing or earnest, can he always doing
or attempting to do everything. To expect the same officer
to manage and teach and look after the employment of
thirty or forty boys from morning till night, without relief,
exercising general vigilance, and yet attending to each par-
ticular exigency as it arises; instructing in the school-room,
looking after the meals, inspecting the clothing and bedding,
keeping the books and registers, directing and sharing in
the out-door labour—is to impose a burden of toil and re-
sponsibility that no man can successfully bear, for at least
any length of time. An adequate staff, dividing the moral
and the industrial training, and the domestic and external
management fairly between the officers employed, is a fun-
damental requisite.
Considering the amount which the Treasury now allows
for the care and maintenance of the children in these schools,
I think that the Government, acting as the trustees for
the due application of the grant, have a right to require
that suitable superintendents, and an adequate number of
them, be employed. I have pressed this on the attention of
the managers of those reformatories which have appeared
to me to be defective on this point, and In most cases I have
had the satisfaction of finding my views entered into and
acted on as far as circumstances would allow. I feel bound,
indeed, to say that all the suggestions which I have thought
it my duty to make, as to the better organisation and ma-
nagement of the schools under my inspection, have been met
with readiness by their founders and directors. The spirit
of kindly unostentatious earnestness with which these gen-
tlemen arc actuated seems to give every reason for antici-
pating a continuous and successful progress to the great
social work they have undertaken.
The educational state of the reformatories is at present
more directly under the control of the Committee of Council
for Education. I shall confine myself to saying that in the
majority of them mental training is comparatively little
attended to. Managers generally look upon labour and
industrial exertion as more powerful reformatory instruments
than school instruction. These are no doubt the great essen-
tials, set we have no right to neglect the other; and I/lope
that in time all children under detention will be taught to
read, to write, and to cypher correctly, and will be instructed
in so much of 7 economic science as may make them under-
stand the duties and relations of the labourer and mechanic
to his employers, and the true conditions of their own wel-
fare and success in industrial life.

The religious instruction given in Protestant reformatories
is usually superior to the secular and general teaching. The
teachers in most cases believe the Bible as well as teach

from it. They are mostly earnest, and in many cases intelli-
gent, Christians, with much seriousness of character and
considerable individual:experience ; able to be the interpre-
ters of scripture, and to interest the minds and feelings of
their scholars i❑ it; not merely lecturing on its geography
or history, but openin 2 its practical meaning, and leading
them to realise for themselves its intimate relations with
their own daily habits and pursuits. Where such is the
case, the result is easily seen in the brighter aspect, the
more refined and respectful manner, the more steady and
earnest conduct of the children.

I have already alluded to the industrial training. There
can be no doubt that in most reformatories this is both real
and satisfactory. I cannot he!p hoping that the example
given in reformatory schools may ere long produce an effect
on our workhouse and common schools. It seems a just
cruse for regret that the advantages of the practical train-
ing by which boys and girls are led and used to working
habits, and so brought up to "eat their own bread" and
" work with their own hands the thing that is good,"
should be confined to that class which, by personal miscon-
duct, or by parental or social neglect, has become amenable
to the penalties of crime. Out-door labour is found more
effectual as a reformatory instrument than sedentary and in-
door occupations, and I think that, on the whole, it is found
quite as remunerative. With reference to the profits of
school farms and workshops, no considerable returns have
as yet been realised, nor, so far as my experience enables
me to judge, are likely to be. The cost of superintend-
ence and instruction must always bear heavily on the
profits of the children's labour. By the time that
they are well instructed and have become practically
useful, they are, in most cases, old enough, or have been de-
tained in the school long enough, to make it advisable to
discharge them and place them out in the. world ; and while
very frequently a considerable return might be realised from
a few for whom profitable employment would naturally pre-
sent itself, this is reduced and almost neutralised when num-
bers have to be dealt with, by the necessity of finding and
inventing occupation, and, in fact, employing the majority
in practically useless and unremunerative woak. The ex-
penditure and industrial profits and net cost per head of
those reformatories which have been long enough in opera-
tion to make their results practically available will he found
appended to this report. The returns and financial state-
meats which have been furnished to me for 1837 vary, how-
ever, so much as to the form they are drawn up in, and
the items they embrace, that they can scarcely be made the
basis of any accurate conclusions. This is especially the case
with regard to the accounts of profit and loss on the industrial
departments. Estimates of the value of work done, or even
of produce consumed, are apt to be very loose, and the
item of "stock in hand" is one that particularly requires

an impartial vigilance. I hope that I shall- be suc-
cessful in the end, in inducing all reformatory mana-
gers to adopt one uniform system in keeping and stating
their accounts, ;to make them up in all cases to the same
date, to exclude all rough estimates of value, to charge ac-
curately all supplies of vegetables, timber, labour, &c.,
which the schools may have frem the farm or estate they are
situated on, and not to be satisfied with anything but a re-
gularly balanced account, showing the ordinary expenses
for maintenance, superintendence, repairs, clothing, &c.,
distinct from the extraordinary items of building or outfit
on discharge. The auditor of the Redhill farm school (Mr.
Moxon) has placed the book-keeping and accounts of that
institution on a very clear and satisfactory basis. They
afford, I think, a model that might well be generally fol-
lowed ; and I add, therefore, the annual statements of re-
ceipt and expenditure of both the school and the farm at
Redhill for 1857 to this report.
At present it is very difficult to pronounce with any accu-
racy what ought to be the average cost per head in
reforma-
tories, and what really is the industrial profit or loss ofno
the
farming, or trades carried on there. As :yet I know of
to
instance in which a reformatory has made any approach
,
being self-supporting, independent, that is, of
allowance, or large voluntary subscription
s_
:e
fl e" rE
ev
ae
snu royf
both together. The utmost that has been done has been to
realise a profit of one shilling per week per head for each
of
child detained in the school, after paying the expenses
materials and instructors, or, in farm schools, of rent, seed,
manure, extra labour, &c. Girls' reformatories are occa-
sionally more productive; where that is, they are so situated
as to take in washing, and to have enough of it to employ all
their older inmates.
I am aware that institutions are to be
found in which much larger returns appear to be realised,
and which are sometimes spoken ofas nearly self-supporting.
But I think that in such cases it will also be tound---Ist,
That the employment of the inmates is supplied from some
particular - source, or carried on under some exceptional and
special circumstances, from which no general inference can
be
That the inmates are mostly
andarennot detained under any legal restraint or
years
drawnof
age,;
2d'
compulsion, and are subject to a far more lax and indulgent
discipline anti would suit a certified refortnatoroy. I hope,
however, that the cost of reformatory institutions will he
gradually lessened, both by their greater industrial produc-
tiveness and by more ec )nomical management. I think
there is reason to expect that as the reformatory system be-
Comes more familiar and more practically understood, the
schools in which it is carried on will be less expensive. The
mere feeding and clothing of the child is not the most cogly
part of his detention. Most reformatories defray these ex-
penses for less than four shillings a week. It is in the con-
stant superintendence and moral discipline that so much ad-
ditional cost is incurred. A single act of desertion may entail
at once half the expense of the child's board for a year, in
the charges fur apprehension and recovery. A rough, undis-
ciplined spirit among the children will entail in waste,
disorder, damage, attempts to abscond, &c., as much as
would maintain three or four additional inmates. Hence it

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

is that so much depends on the moral condition of the school,
and therefore on the influence and efficiency of the master
or mistress in charge of it. As teachers and superintendents
rise in the scale of experience and ability, and as the schools
become more and more settled, and a wholesome tone is
more and more developed in them, the extra sources of ex-
pense may be expected to decrease, and their total cost,
therefore, to be gradually diminished.
But, on the other hand, the expenses attendant on the
disposal of inmates on their discharge will become greater
as the number entitled to their discharge increases ; and the
managers of reformatories will find themselves calle I on to
provide considerable funds to defray these, if they wish to
make the work they have done permanent and complete.
There is no doubt that a large proportion of juvenile crime is
the result rather of the offenders' circumstances than their
dispositions. Their relations, their homes, their early asso-
ciations, the haunts and connections they have been made
familiar with, produce the greater part of the depravity and
Tice which the reformatory has to cure or eradicate ; and if,
after two or three years' better training, the child, still young
and impressible, is put back among the same people and
under the same corrupting influences which produced its
perversion at the first, it can scarcely be expected to escape
from depravation again ; and though it may not appear in
the list of our juvenile convicts it will swell the ranks of the
adult class, and all we shall have done by reformatory in-
terference will have been to postpone or interrupt the pro-
cess of its moral ruin and social mischief for a time. Nothing
can meet this difficulty but foresight and exertion on the
part of the managers and supporters of the reformatories
themselves. Many of the children under their care, espe-
cially in agricultural districts, may he advantageously placed
with the farmers or other employers of the neighbourhood ;
sometimes the relatives and connexions are of a more respect-
able character, and can safely undertake the care of them ;
but often, and particularly as regards yeung offenders from
large towns, permanent separation from their old haunts and
comp anions until the age of manhood is indispensable, and in
such cases emigration offers the best method of provision.
Tire managers of the, Redhill School have for many years
acted on this principle, and with great success, and I am glad
to report that the committees of several other schools are
adopting the same system. Emigration, however, involves
heavy charges, and however economically carried on, must
considerably swell the expenditure of the reformatory which
resorts to it. The reformatory acts make uo provision for
the costs of this or any other method of disposal. As, how-
ever, no speccial limits -re assigned to the amounts that may
be contributed from the rates for " care and maintenance,"
there seems no reason why these should not be made liberal
enough to enable the managers of the schools to defray some
portion of the costs of ultimate provision from them. Enlist-
ment in the army anti engagement in the navy or the mer-
chant service, afford excellent means of providing effectually
for boys when fitted by age and constitution for these lines
of life. Many lads have been enlisted from reformatory
schools during the year, many have also gone to sea. The
reformatory school ship " Akbar," at Liverpool, shows in its
remarkable efficiency and success how well adapted the
training and discipline of a well-ordered ship are for lads of
a more resolute and adventurous disposition. I hope that
before long a similar establishment will be completed for the
south of England. _ _ .

The expediency and social value of the reformatory school
system are essentially enhanced by the operation of that
most just and wholesome provision of the Reformatory Acts,
under which the parents of delinquent children are liable to
contribute to their maintenance in the schools in which they
ars detninr-i. I inFt.uctui by Sir George Grey on my
..ppui.itnit.nc to make this a special object of attention, and
the results of the few months during which the law has been
put systematically in firce afford considerable ground for
expecting some pecuniary advantage, but still greater moral
benefit from its action. The amount of inquiry and corre-
spondence, and the necessity for continued vigilance and
pressure upon the parties contributing, make this branch of
my duties both laborious and difficult, and some time must
still elapse before the principle of parental responsibility can
be said to have been generally and effectually enforced. As
it is, during the year 1837, authorities for proceeding were
applied for by me from the Secretary of State in 395
cases, and the amount of contributions obtained under these
was—
For the quarter ending June 30
)1 September 30
I 31 December 30

Total
In the majority of the cases inquired into and brought
under contribution, the parties resided in London or in Liver-
pool, for each of which localities a special agent was appointed
to conduct and carry on the necessary investigations and
proceedings, and to collect the payments. The result leads
me to anticipate a similar success in other large towns, as
the system is more completely carried out. Much will de-
pend on the views and feelings of the magistrates on the
reformatory movement, and still more on the activity and
earnestness of the police. As a general principle, I have
urged the importance of exacting some contribution, how-
ever small, is every case. I believe the object of the law
to be, not so much the collecting a considerable sum of
money, as the producing a just sense of parental duty, and
the applying a check to the negligence and the drunken
habits by which so many parents cause their children to be-
come first vagabond and idle, and then vicious and criminal ;
and I have found that the enforcing even so small a pay-
ment as sixpence or ninepence per week has proved effectual
for this purpose in several instances ; examples can now
be referred to in which dissolute and drunken fathers have
been led to be more sober, and the family at home made
more comfortable, by the pressure exercised in exaction of
the payment for the children in the reformatory. I have
not had to resort to legal proceedings in more than a few
cases. Usually it has been sufficient to give notice that a
summons will be applied for, if a fair contribution be not
agreed to. The amonnt to be demanded I have fixed, as a
rule, at one-twelfth of the average wages (i.e., a penny in
the shilling). But a larger payment is reasonably required
where the family is small and the wages large. On the ave-
rage, the payments are one shilling per week for each per-
son actually contributing, er sixpence per week tlir each
person that has been inquired ab,nit or summoned. In a few
cases the penalty of ten days' imprisonment has been in-
flicted in default of payment.
I trust that the magistracy will gradually use the powers
given by the last Reformatory Act more frequently, and
esess the parent at the same time as they sentence the child.
Much trouble and expense will be thereby saved, and a more
direct effect produced on the parents themselves, as well as
on their ueigbours and connexions.
I cannot complete this part of my report without acknow-
ledging the willing and effectual assistance I have generally
received from the police authorities I have had to apply to.
With scarcely an exception, the inquiries I have requested
have been made; the further steps, when necessary, have
been taken; acid the payments received and remitted, and
when in arrear applied for and enforced at the expense of
much personal trouble by the chief constables and superin-
tendents of police, both in most of the large manufacturing
or borough towns, and in many of the country districts, not
only gratuitously, but with great readiness and regularity. I
should especially record the friendly aid afforded by the Rev.
Thomas Carter, chaplai❑ to the borough gaol at Liverpool,
in directing and superintending the inquiriesand proceedings
in this matter iu that large town. The Reformatory Act has
been more extensively applied in Liverpool than in any
other place, and that this has been done with safety, so that
juvenile delinquency has been eactually diminished there,
is very much to be attributed to the judicious earnestness
with which, under Mr. Carter's direction, the parents of all
the young offenders committed for detention during the
last 18 months have been inquired about and called on to
contribute.
In concluding this general report, I would refer to the
gratifying fact that the criminal statistics fur the last year
show so considerable a diminution in the number of juvenile
offenders in England. The commitments of offenders under
sixteen years of age, for the year previous, i.e., to Septem-
ber 30, 1856, amounted to 13,981. Those for the year ending
September 30, 1837, amounted to 12,501, being a decrease
of commitments of 1,480, corresponding to a decrease of
individual children committed of at least 600. There is
reason to hope that the returns for the present year will
show a similar and continuous decline.

While, however, the juvenile delinquency of Middlesex
and Surrey continues to be comparatively so little interfered
with, the reformatory system cannot be said to be fairly or
effectually tested. The commitments under fifteen years of
age for the metropolitan districts amounted in the year 1857
to 2,696. The long-contemplated Middlesex industrial
schools will now shortly be in operation, and the Surrey
magistrates are taking active steps to place a considerable
number of the juvenile criminals of that county at Redbill
and other reformatories. An effectual itupretsion on this
serious amount of youthful delinquency and vice may now
therefore be looked for. It is to be hoped that the provisions
of the Middlesex Industrial Schools Act for the enforcing
contributions from the parents may be steadily enforced;
so long as reformatory interference was only occasional, an
act of charity in a limited number of cases, there was
no serious risk of holding out any premium to vicious or
negligent parents to throw their children on the streets in
order to be relieved of their maintenance but when this
interference becomes the rule, and is no longer provided for
by individual benevolence, but by a contribution from the
public purse, the question assumes a totally different aspect,
and the interests and moral welfare of the community
demand that while the child shall be reformed, the father
or mother shall be held liable to aid in its reformation.
If this principle be steadily acted en, on the one hand, and
the schools be rightly managed, and their style and furni-
ture, and the dietary and employments of their inmates, suchry
the other,
to
as offer no undue temptation or inducement, on i
society will gain much, and risk little by the re
system, however widely it may be extended.
It. SCOTLAND.

There are four reformatories in Scotland certified under the
17 and 18 Vic., c. 86, four certified under both this act and
the 17 and 18 Vie., c. 74, and fourteen certified under the
last-named statute only.
Of the first and second classes, the well-known houses of
refuge for boys and girls at Glasgow are the most deserving
of special notice. They contained, on the 31st December,
1857, 52,5 children (394 boys and 131 girls), and appear to
be conducted with great earnestness and ability by their
managers. The reformatories at Aberdeen and Montrose are
still
struggling with the difficulties of their first commence-
meat.
In the other Scotch reformatories of the same description
at Greenock, Paisley, Stranraer, and Inverness, convicted
children are mixed with paupers and day-school scholars, a
practice which I cannot think defensible or safe.
It is to be regretted Oa. the provisions for compelling
parents to contribute have remained hitherto a dead letter
in Scotland ; many of the inmates of the houses of refuge are
the children of parents in the receipt of considerable wages.
The schools certified under Mr. Dunlop's act are, in fact,
industtial feeding schools of a superior description. Scarcely
any of the children in them are committed under that act,
the clause enabling the parochial boards to withdraw such
children on giving security for their better protection hav-
ing almost neutralised the direct operation of the statute
altogether. But the indirect operation of the law appears
to be considerable and very advantageous ; large numbers
of children coming voluntarily, or being sent by their
parents—from the knowledge that, if found idling and beg-
ging in the streets, they can and will he sentenced to the
school, and compelled to attend it—l think the value of
these certified industrial schools in Scotland can scarcely
be exaggerated. They seem to offer the cheapest and most
effective means for preventing the evil which the reforma-
tory can only cure. No one can visit Aberdeen, more
especially, without being struck by the absence from the
streets and lanes of that large class of disorderly and ne-
glected children so abundant in most large towns, and ap-
preciatingh the beneficial working of the schools which
Sheriff Watson and Mr. Thomson of Banchory, have
established. I sincerely hope that tbe Industrial Schools
BM of last year ("20 and '2l c. 48) may ere loDg.b4 fully