The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-07-12

q leave TICKET unaU Uney Shall NC choa
ed to Australia there to receive their
tickets of leave
The Scotch act extends the provision
of the law to Migrants as we'll as convict
ed children, and empower the Education
Committee of the Privy Council to aid In
the establishment OF reformatory schools.
In the United States the system has
met very general legislative endorse
ment and popular approval. The State
of Connecticut at the Session OF the AS
sembly in 1851, appropriated $4,000 for
a State Reform School. Rhode Island es-
tablished the Providence Reform School
in 1850. New Jersey authorized the es-
tablishment of a House Of Refuge, Feb
ruary 90, 1850 There are two of these
institutions in the State of New York;
two in Pennsylvania; one in Ohio; one In
MARYLAND; and one i'll Louisiana. Yer
mont, in 1852, passed an act authorizing
the selection and to obtain the refusal OF
a lot of land not less than fifty acres for
n Manual Labor School. New Hamp-
shire. at a session of the Legislature OF
1854, authorized the selection and to OBJ
tain the refusal of lot of land not less
than fifty acres for site for Manual
Labor School. Massachusetts,, also, au-
thorized the establishment of similar
institution. The training in these insti-
tutions arc to give habits OF industry and
develop the powers of the child, two or
the great ends to be obtained in these re-
formatory institutions.
The utility of these institutions has
been triumphantly demonstrated. Sew
enty-five per cent. of the criminal popu-
lation may be said to originate from the
neglect of juvenile offenders. 1t Is the
pliancy of youth that most frequently
commits the first offence, and in the his
tory of crime it is rarely found that the
first transgression Is committed by the
adult. 1t is the young offenders that
augments the number of criminals and
are the feeders of the dungeons and the
prisons. have seen it stated-"That
the report of the Warden of the New
Hampshire State Prison shows one mel
ancholy and startling fact, and that is,
that one-half of the cOnvicts now in pris
on have not yet reached the fifteenth
year of their age, and that nearly one
third of the whole number are less than
twenty years of age. During the past
year a boy only nine years Of age has
been confined within the prison
Retributive justice has failed to stay
the crime and reclaim the young offend
er. The prison association with old cOn-
victs but renders the young offender the
trained and schooled apprentice in crime.
The Law Review says that the number
of juvenile offenders committed in lS49
was l2, $50, that of these ABA were re
committals, and 76l had been commit
ted four times and upwards. These re-
formatory Institutions have proven the
most efficacious remedy to this evil by
retaining the young offender. The
kindness, the instruction and the EN-
pleyment of these institutions forms an
other character and changes the erring
nature. The reports Of these lnstitu-
lions furnish the most indisputable evil
dence of this: at Mettray the reformed are
eighty two per cent, at Rawhe Hans still
more; at New York about three-fonrths
are reformed, and three to five per cent
in Pennsylvania is the number who have
been found in prison. AS far as the pub
lie economy is involved, the records of
these institutions and the prisons furnish
the most ample evidence that the ex-
pense of reforming offenders in these in
situations is from twenty to twenty five
per cent cheaper than the punishment
in prisons.
The States of this Union have a great
interest in the successful maintenance of
these institutions. The United States
scheme of Government, State sovereign
ty and Federal union has so far not only
proven the best ever devised to secure
popular freedom, but is pregnant with
results that challenge the admiration of
the civilized world. The unparalleled
progress of the past is overshadowed by
the destiny to which it is so rapidly tend
ing. We have territory of twelve hun
dred millions of acres Of unsurveyed
land, enough besides the vast amount of
surveys to give an acre and half to eve
nv man, woman and child on the face of
the earth, territory enough to form one
hundred States, and its average cash val
ue is equal to its immense extent, its
cash value per acre In each State and
Territory is returned at $40 70. At the
rate of our past progress, in sixty years
we shall have one hundred millions of
people. Every pulsation and breath
that moves and governs this vast system
emanates from the popular heart, and de
ponds upon the virtue and intelligence
of the people for its life-giving principle.
By the most recent statistics with
which we are furnished, it appears there
are 1921 churches in the United States,
the total value of church property is
ciChty-siX millions, four hundred and
sixteen thousand. six hundred and thir-
ty-nine dollars, and there is one church
for every GAG of the entire population.
There were four million of orr
youth receiving instructions. in the
various educational institutions Of
the country, on the first of June, 1850, or
at the rate of one i'll every five free per
sons.
1t is said no State in the Union is with
ont its legal provision tor the protection
and support of its INDECENT population.
In many of the States they receive the
care and attention which places them in
an enviable condition compared with
some of the laboring classes Of other
countries Every State III the Union has
one or more State prisons, and III the
counties of States have their county Jail
for the confinement and punishment Of
offenders.
Yet with all these safeguards provided
for the security of persons and property,
and to nurture and sustain our state aud
Federal government with the affections
of an intelligent religion and moral con
stituency, the census of 1850 shows that
the number OF persons convicted of crime
in the United STATES for that ycar was