The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-31 00:00:00

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.

PUBLIC MEETING.
Orr Thursday last, a public meeting, called by his
worship the Mayor, in compliance with a respectably and
numerously signed requisition, was held in the Borough
Sessions-house, for the purpose of directing legislative
attention to the subject of juvenile delinquency. The
meeting, which was of a highly respectable character, was
presided over by the Mayor, and amongst the gentlemen
present were the Venerable Archdeacon Brooks, Mr. J.
A. Tinne, Mr. G. Holt, Mr. R. M. Beckwith, Rev. W.
F.Taylor, Mr. J. B. Aspinall, the Rev. Dr. Goss,
Romish bishop of Liverpool, Mr. John Yates, jun.,
Mr. C. Turner, Mr. D. Rowland, Rev. J. Martineau, Mr.
W. Romilly, Mr. Thomas Thornely, M.P., Mr. Joseph
Pollock, Mr. T. B. Horsfall, M.P., Mr. W. Rathbone,
Rev. T. Carter, chaplain to the borough gaol, Rev. Mr.
Appleton, Rev. H. Hampton, Mr. A. Hodgson, Rev. J.
Bishop, Rev. Dr. Raffles, Mr. William Earle, Mr. J. H.
Turner, Mr. John Cropper, Mr. T. Avison, Rev. J. Holmes,
Mr. R. E. Harvey, Mr. Thomas Bolton, Mr. J. Hubback,
Mr. T. Urquhart, &c., &c.
His WORSHIP, in explaining the object of the meeting,
remarked that no subject could be of more importance to
the community than that of juvenile delinquency, and
referred to the interest taken in it by legislators and
philanthropists.
Letters were then read from the Right. Hon. the Earl
of Derby, the Earl of Harrowby, Lord Stanley, and the
Hon. H. T. Liddell, M.P., apologising for unavoidable
absence from the meeting, and expressing sympathy in
its objects.
The Rev. Rector CAMPBELL moved the first resolution,
which was to the effect, that the large amount of ignorance
and vice existing in this country demanded the most
serious consideration of a Christian people ; that it was
productive of crime for which the system of prison discip-
line provided no adequate remedy ; and that additiona
legislation for the subversion of the evil was imperatively
called for. With a view to point out the reality of the
evil of juvenile delinquency, he said that 12,508 boys and
girls were, it was estimated, punished for crime during
one year in this country ; and, reckoning that each, of
these individuals had five or six satellites, there were
probably about 50,000 depraved and vicious young people
professionally living on the plunder of the public. The
remedy which it was proposed to adopt had been already
tried, and with marked success, in France ; where, in.
consequence of the system of correctional detention, there
were only half as many commitments of offenders under
seventeen years as in England.
Mr. BROWN, M.P., seconded the resolution, remarking
that to commit juvenile offenders to prison was to commit
them to destruction. He hoped the question of reforma-
tories, which was of national importance, would also soon
be regarded as of national necessity. He should be happy
to lend his aid to any well-digested plan which might be
brought forward to meet the case.
The Rev. Mr. CARTEU, Chaplain of the Borough Gaol,
said he had no misgiving as to the cause they all had at
heart, and be felt bound to bear his testimony to the ex-
tent of the evil they all deplored. The extent of the evil was
painfully evident to all classes, without the aid of statistics
or I blue-books, for our streets and newspapers told us
daily of the enormous number of ragged, destitute, and neg-
lected children who frequented our docks and public places
of amusement, with no means of obtaining a livelihood
except by robbery and other overt acts of professional
crime. The rev. gentleman then read some facts from
the [reports issued by himself and the governor of the
Borough Gaol, relative to the number of juvenile commit-
ments in the town. Juvenile delinquency had, during
the last year, fortunately declined in Liverpool and Edin-
burgh, a fact due, he thought, to the establishment of
Ragged Schools. In Manchester it had rapidly increased,
but whether it was increasing or decreasing it was our 1
duty to do all in our power to repress it. With respect to
its repression, he felt assured, from his experience, that
the present prison system was totally inadequate to that
duty, and it was morally certain that some otherrneans
must be tried. He gave a brief history of a lad nineteen
years of age, who, after about twenty commitments to
prison, wound up a series of crimes by murder. This
might, perhaps, have been prevented, if, instead of being
sent to prison over and over again, he had been arrested
lin his career of crimes. Prison associations had also a bad
effect on a female—who cared little fOr prison restraints—
while her connexion with her fellow-prisoners also
strengthened her mind in crime. These facts proved that
we must have legislative interference. We certainly can
and do send children, conditionally pardoned, to Redhill,
in Surrey, and to Kingswood, near Bristol, where, with
two exceptions, all had done well ; but he thought it was
a great pity we should have to send so far. (Cheers.)
Still, children could not be sent to reformatories without
the will of the parents, and it would be advisable that in
such matters they should have no power of interference.
Mr. T. B. HORSFALL, M.P., moved the second resolu-
tion, which affirmed the necessity for Reformatory Insti-
tutions, but advocated also the establishment of training
schools where the young who had not yet become criminals
might find that protection and instruction which would
be the means of preventing their resorting to crime. He
then proceeded to say, it was admitted on all hands that
prevention was better than cure, and the object they had
this day met to cmider was, how preyeAtiou could be