The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-24 00:00:00

JUVENILE OFFENDERS BILL.

On the order of the day being read for the second
reading of this Bill,
Mr. M. MILNES, after presenting a petition from the
Philanthropic Association in favour a the Bill, prc-
ceedel today he had been long led to consider the
dreadful state of juvenile offenders in this country, and
the cost and inefficacy of the means used f cm time to
time to bring about their reformation. The Right Hon.
Secretary for the Home Department preseettd a petition
the other night to the House, signed by 50 chaplains, of
the principal gaols in the United Kingdom, in which
they stated that a large amount of juvenile crime
might be prevented by the establishment of
industrial settee's, and an effective system of
instruction. They referred in that petition to an
observation cf Mr. Baron Alderson, to the eff_et that the
expenses incurred in trying juvenile cffenders greatly
exceeded the probable cost of an effet tive n form, and,
moreover, that their reform would cut off one of the
most prolific sources of crime. The English law was
peculiarly distinguished by its severity in punishing the
offences of children. In other countries they were
treated with more leniency by the law. By the old civil
law, new extant, no child was punished under ten and a
halt years old, and between that age and fourteen they
were punished in a less degree than in the case of
adults. According to the code of Napoleon, juvenile of-
fenders under sixteen were tett to the jurisdiction cf a
magistrate who was tosay wht titer they:were actuated by
di,csrnment, and if actuated by cite( rnmeet they were
am-lilted t f toe crime, and either sent back to the it pa-
rents or taut to the House of Correction, where they
were educated and treieed unt I they reached the age
cf 21. • In England, however, sere children were treated
with great cruelty, fur the commission of offences which
in other countries would malce them rather objects of re-
lic sympathy and charity. From a return which had just
been laid en the table of the House, it appeared that in
1848 as many as 10,747 ehildren bad been summarily
convicted, and 3,276 sent for trial. Out of the 'Umber
undergoing imprisonment in the same y ear,
1,389 were und-r 12 years, 639 between 12
and fmrteen, and 6,710 between 14 and 17 years of age.
Now if the effect of that imprisonment was to
reform the children he would not have ventured
to introduce the present Bill, but the Lets
showed that nearly one-third of the whole
number had been re•committed. In 1848 the single re-
commitments were 880 ; those who had been re-
committed twice amounted to 954; three times, 458; and
four times, 675. Taking the average from 1838
to 1848 of the trials at the Middlesex Sessions, he
found that the re-commitments amounted to above
a third of the whole number. At the Pies-
ton House of Correction tho re-commitments
were 56 per cent. cf the persons imprisoned.
Some very interesting evidence was given upon this
subject by a gentleman to whose researches and ability,
they were considerably indebn d, namely, the Commis-
goner of toe Morning Chronicle, who held a meeting of
some of the juvenile criminals in the metropolis, of whom
he found that 5 I ad bean imprisoned twice, 3 three times,
4 four times, 2 eighteen times, 5 twenty times,
6 twenty-tour times, 1 twenty -five times, and
a youth only nineteen years of age twenty-nine times.
Mr. lluslitoe, the magistrate, t f Liverpool, also gave
them an instance of the working of the system. In the
case of three brothers, one twelve years of age, the
other eine, and the last eight, the first of whom had
been imprisoned twenty-fcur times, while the other two
were still undergoing a term of imprisonment, a little
attention to the subject would bring the House to the
conclusion that the ex;sting system of treatirg these
offenders inert en eel rather ti,an diminiehel crime. They
were, in fact, brought up to thieving from their earliest
clays .ts a profession, and they looked epee the chances of
detection just as a soldier expected a wound in battle, or
a medical man a patient; and therefore he held that
children so ht.-ought up being look, d upon as responsible
to the law was a philosophical absurdity. The very
lingusge of these offenders proved that they were
ignorant of the criminality of thieving, for the lodg-
ing-houses in which they taught their mal-practices
they called " The School," while being engaged
in thieving they called " week." It It as clear
therefore, to a certain extent, they looked upon
thieving as a justifiable occupation, and the system un-
der which they were treated when detection overtook
them only served to confirm them in teat
• opinion. So long ago as 1777-Dr. Dodd described
the baneful iuflaence of their prison treatment; and,
although they had had many amiable and philan-
thropic Secretaries of State, and persons like
Mrs. Fry, exerting thccorelves to mitigate the
evil, the system still continued as bad as ever.
Under the present system the prison henna() the home
of the adult criminals, and within its walls the juvenile
offender was initiated in the perpetration of crime by the
old offenders, and in many instances parties committed
crime in order to obtain lodgings within prison walls.
He contended that it was exceedingly difficult to give
anything like a proper education or instruction to juve-
nile offenders in gads. Mr. Shepherd, of the Wakefield
Gaol, bore his testimony to the incompatibility of im-
prisonment with education. He trusted he had now
made out a case for an alteration of the law. He migh tsiay
in addition that eat of 10,747 male and feinale children
summarily convicted in 1848, 747 could neither read nor
write, and only 235 could read and write well. By the Bill
which he submitted to the House, he proposed that chil-
dren under 18 years of -age should be dealt with summarily
by two justices or a police magistrate, without being com-
mitted to prison at O. Ile also proposed that no chill
should receive eterpoial punishment above 14 years of age.
He made those provisions because the Act cf
1847, which was a step in the same direction, had
been productive of beneficial effects, and from that
time the number of juvenile offenders had considerably
decreased, especially in Edinburgh. His principal object
in proposing these provisions was to make summary con-
viction, where it was necessary, of a character
which would not contaminate the child's principles.
The change which he proposed was to make parents
enter into recognizeteces for the good be haviour of their
children when they were found guilty of any offence;
the parent was the person on whom punishment should
rest if the child was to be punished at all, and the alte-
ration which he suggested was cot unsupported by pre-
cedent. The chaplain of Tothill-fields Prison stated,
that the great number of the parents of juvenile of-
fenders were dotes t people, and that their chil-
dren were not unprovided with hoaies, but were
generally led away by bad companions. This circum-
stance showed that by making parents eater into re-
cognixanees they would be induced to exert them-
selves to reform their children and to take better
care of their morals. The Bill also provided Ca.
the establishment of industrial schools, where juvenile
offenders might be instructed and learnt some trade or
business, and seeing the success which had attended
some experiments cf the kind in this country,
he thought there could be no valid objection to
such institutions. In France industrial schools for
young criminals bad been for some time in existence,
and they had been productive of the most beneficial re-
sults. He found that the reformations effected by the
Philanthropic Society, which was established in this metro-
polis for the reception of young persons convicted of crime,
was 75 per cent. There was a similar institution at
Warwiek, where the reformations effected had increased
from 45 to 65 per cent.
It might be said that such in-
stitutions would give a premium to crime, by re-
fleeing parents of all responsibility, but the same
objection would apply to the present system
of punishmeht, for a pare_ t had only to
encourage his child in crime to get him transported, and
thus taken off his hands. He did not, however, propose
to take away the stigma of a prison, for the Bill required
that a child should undergo a certain period of
solitary imprisonment, with or without flogging,
previous to entering a reformatory. asylum.
He felt grateful to the House for the attention it had
given to a subject dry in its details,
taut in its results, aril in ex but impor-
tant a hope
that this Bill would become law, he believed
that he was stating the sentiments of the greatest por-
tion of the community.. lie would urge on the House
the great nee e,slty of eaucating thoseluvenile offenders.
—(Hear, hear.) It was a Christian- duty de-
volving upon the House. This Bill was really
of so pacific a character that he trusted he should have
the cordial support of Honourable Members on all
sides of the Douse, He believed, in conclusion, that
this question was one of unusual importance, that it
affected in a great degree the future peace of this
em-
pire, and he bored it would receive from the !louse
the
consideration it deserved.
Sir GEORGE GREY was not in the least disposed
to treat with indifference the question b fore the !louse;
nor did he think the House would ho indifferent
to any practical measure on the subject.—(Hear,
hear.) The Bill now before the House contemplated
the extension of the summary jurisdiction possessed by
magistrates with regard to juvenile offenders. That
was nothing more nor less then to leave the Jaw pre-
cisely es it was under the Juvenile Offenders
Act, introduced by his Honourable Friend the
Member ler Prof twich (Sir John.Pakington). The
Bill, secondly, proposed the adoption of the principle
of the wirninal responsibility of parents; anti he (Sir
George Grey) was not prepared to give such a
latitude of power to the magistrates as was con-