The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-01-21 00:00:00

munif

goodness I

a night of weariness and unrest. Since that
memorable effort of a kindly and generous nature,
a large addition has been made to the building for

power has 'been

haiitv—

of healing to

. .
the maimed and— afflicted ; but we regret to learn
from the proceedings of the annual meeting of the
trustees held yesterday, a report of which will be
found in our columns, that wealthy Liverpool has

iged by th

dividual -munificence of the
The Southern Hospital pos-

-to dev

)e to the full

£2OOO a year from

tions and donations is found to be

quired

of the chairman and the committee of the insti-
tution, they are deficient of funds to the extent of

Surely, it will
so invaluable

- -
should be restricted

the interest upon which is a millstone round its
neck. Unlike the Southern Hospital and other
charities, the Eye and Ear Infirmary has never
made any public appeal for support, or been
favoured otherwise than by the private contri-
butions of individuals. Surely, something can be
done upon a bold and comprehensive scale to give
freedom to an institution which has given the
inestimable blessings of sight and hearing to so
many hundreds of our afflicted fellow-beings.

THE diminution of juvenile crime, and the refor-
mation of juvenile offenders, are amongst the
greatest problems of the present day. A hundred
different specifics are offered to our notice, all
dictated by good intention and charity, but most
of then, unfortunately, quixotic and impracticable.
The attention of our philanthropists is too much
directed to the reformatory process. They stipulate
that a child must become a criminal first to entitle
him to our sympathy or protection, or, when they
act upon a more generous principle, they offer a
premium to parental neglect, by bestowing an
education superior to that which honest industry
can command. Our attention has been forcibly
called to this subject by the able letter of Mr. Hub-
back, contained in our last publication, the sug-
gestions contained in which are most valuable,
because based upon actual experience.
_ _ . . _

Mr. Hubback recommends tbe establishment of
Industrial Ragged Schools—day schools—into
which our juvenile vagrant population are to he
invited to enter, and those of them who are found
begging are to he compelled to enter for the day at
least, instructions to this effect being given to the
police. In such schools, of which the Soho-street
Industrial Ragged School is, we are told, an excel-
lent model, they are to be taught the usual elemen-
tary branches of education, to be trained in morality
and religion, and, in addition, to he taught some
useful art, by pursuing which they might at least
do something towards earning an honest subsist-
ence. Mr. Hubback shewed that in Aberdeen,
where the plan had been tried, the number of juve-
nile vagrants had been reduced from above an
average of 300 up to 1845, to a single case in 1849,
and that the number of juvenile delinquents, under
twelve years of age, committed to prison had been
reduced from an average of about fifty per annum
to sixteen in 1849. A similar result had followed
the establishment, in 1847, of these schools in
Glasgow.
We entertain not the least doubt that the plan
could be most efficaciously worked in Liverpool,
and would be attended with a vast saving of actual
expenditure, not only to the borough, but to the
public at large. We would, however, not restrict
ourselves to the task of compelling children found
begging in the streets to attend an industrial school,
but extend our care to those numerous unfortunates
who, either driven to it by vicious parents, or
tempted by those fertile provokers of crime—the
marine store dealers—ramble about our docks and
our streets for the purpose of pilfering anything
which falls in their way, however insignificant.
The police know these children well enough.
Hundreds of them are to be found in the town,
and more are being daily introduced, one-fourth of
whose time is spent in one or other of our prisons,
and whose livelihood is wholly derived from the
plunder of the public. It is not correct to assume
that these children are incurably fond of the life
which they have to lead. It is one full of hardship
and privation; and we feel convinced that not
only would they gladly frequent the schools pro-
posed to be provided for them, and in which the
daily food which they want would he supplied to
them, but that the bulk of them would be delighted
to learn any useful art or occupation by which they
would be enabled to earn honestly even the smallest
pittance.