Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-10-25
THE NAUTICAL SCHOOL CoNTRIvANCE.

The bill to establish a nautical school for
boys, as a branch of the Westboro' institution,
was passed to be engrossed in the Senate, last
Saturday. The passageAof this bill is one of
the most renlafkable proceedings of the pres
ent legislature 1t was framed in hot haste,
and then hurried, yes, driven through both
houses, without discussion, and without allow
ing the public time to understand and consider
what was going on. Those who devised the
bill and contrived for it this swift passage
through the Legislature, have appeared TO feel
that the work must be done ION the sly, =
that tbe matter would not bear open and faith
full discussion,-and that if they did not steal
march on the public, their scheme could have
no chance of success. Nothing else has been
done or undertaken towards restoring the Re-
form School for Boys, because nobody has
similar reasons for such censurable haste with
anything else in contemplation.
As this bill for reforming boys by means
of prison ship and the discipline OF man OF
war, has not deemed it worth while to consult
public opinion, it is nowise likely that public
opinion will hereafter feel obliged to treat it
with much ceremony. That discussion which
it has contrived to cvade now, will come here
after, and public sentiment is sure to treat the
scheme as it deserves. A measure which vio-
lates splits upon, and tramplcs under foot, the
very idea which gave existence to the Reform
School, cannot possibly secure long lease of
public favor. 1t will fail utterly, and at length
be repealed. But the experiment will be cost
ly The estimates of the committee by which
it was reported are sufficiently serious in the
way of expense; but no man who has taken
pains to consider the subject carefully believes
this nautical school can be established and car
ried on for anything like the amount of money
which they suggest. Time will show what it
will do for the treasury, well as for the boys,
and public opinion is sure to turn against it
with such force that nobody will be very anx-
ious to have himself counted among its origin
al contrivers
We do not mean to say that nautical
school of an unexceptionable and useful
character cannot be established in Boston har-
Dor; but we protest earnestly against any
such measure as a part of our Reform School
even the selfinterest of commerce in Boston,
is found willing to contrive or tolerate it. We
cannot believe that those Boston gentlemen
whose influence has procured the passage Of
this bill, have given serious attention to its
actual significance to all disinterested obServ-
ers who look to Massachusetts for the highest
style of philanthropic and reformatory institu-
tons. II the commercial interest of Boston
wants nautical school for educating young
men to the business of seamanship, it certainly
does not follow either that the state should
provide such an institution and bear the ex-
pense of it, or that it should be allowed to in
terfere with the Reform School, with which,
from the nature OF the case, it can have moth
ing in common. The ship provided for sucha
school should not be prison ship, nor should
the pupils be taken from retnrmatnry in
stitution, the commercial interest should not
look beyond itself, or, at any rate, not beyond
the city where it operates and prospers.