children have been returned to their friends. This course has never been pursued, except under peculiar circumstances, which appeared to the managers not only to justify the proceeding, but to render it more advisable than the ordinary mode of indenturing apprentices. It was done, for example, in one instance, in which a child's parents, of respectable characters, had removed from the city to the country, and settled on a farm with a view to permanent agricultural pursuits, and offered perhaps the most advantageous apprenticeship which it was in the power of the managers to procure. In another instance, it was satisfactorily proved that the charge on which a boy had been sent to the Refuge was utterly unfounded, and the magistrates before whom he had been arraigned united in a certificate of his innocence. One little boy of very tender years, afflicted by a disease which ultimately terminated in his death, was surrendered, temporarily, to the care of an anxious mother. This departure from the usual disposition of the children has been allowed only when, on the best consideration, it seems preferable to any other course which could be pursued in relation to the child.

In indenturing the children committed to the managers' care, the most patient consideration is bestowed upon the selection of suitable occupations and places of abode, and every means within the power of the managers is diligently employed in the investigation of the character and circumstances of the person to whom an apprentice is indentured. The wishes of the child are carefully attended to, and an apprenticeship rarely takes place without the perfect accordance of his feelings. The execution of this important branch of the directors' duties involves in it perhaps the greatest degree of labour attending the management of the institution. Three of the managers, forming what is termed the indenturing committee, are specially charged with this employment. This committee meets always once, and frequently twice or three times a-week at the House of Refuge, often spending the greater part of a day in a meeting. Before this committee are laid the applications for apprentices; and all such certificates and evidence as it is possible to obtain of the character and circumstances of the applicants, are required and minutely examined; and as far as a personal investigation into every circumstance connected with the proposed indenture is within their power, it is industriously prosecuted by the members of the committee in the recess of their meeting.

It is felt by the managers to be due to the gentlemen to whom this important department of the management of the institution has been confided, to bestow a farther remark upon the additional labours with which they charge themselves. The supervision of this committee over the children of the Refuge ceases not with the departure of the latter from our walls. As far as is practicable, a tutelary observation is still maintained over the situation of the youth who have been indentured, and particularly over the treatment which they receive from their employers. And in some instances, where an interference on behalf of the apprentice was demanded, as where it was discovered that he had been cruelly treated, or that his morals had been neglected, or that the character of his master was different from what it had been represented, and likely to affect injuriously the welfare of the indentured boy, a

change was effected by the exertions of the committee, and the child transferred to a more humane and advantageous situation.

The discipline and government of the children within the House of Refuge are enforced and improved by the collateral labours of the indenturing committee. In guiding their judgments in the selection of apprentices, the members of the committee render themselves minutely acquainted with the individual character and circumstances of the different children, and are enabled to assist the officers of the institution by their counsel, in the details of their treatment of the inmates of the house. The children are separately called before them, and examined in private; their good or bad standing is inquired into, and its causes ascertained; those who are subject to censure are exhorted, advised, and reproved, while the meritorious are commended and encouraged to persevere in the performance of their duties; and a regular classification of all the persons in the house is made, with a view to the relative standing of each individual, and the distribution of rewards or the application of punishments. The effect of these services is perceived by the managers on the whole operation of the institution, and draws from them this acknowledgment to the gentlemen whose gratuitous labours, at the cost of so much time and active exertion, have been faithfully and unremittedly performed. The tables above given exhibit the different occupations selected by the managers for the apprentices whom they have indentured.

One of the occupations, which may strike the observer, on the first consideration, as the most hazardous and doubtful in its effects on youth -we allude to that of a seaman-has been proved by experience to be among the most benign and favourable. The young men (for those indentured as seamen were the oldest boys in the establishment) shipped as sailors were mostly sent on the South-Sea whaling voyages, of which the results appear to have been favourable to their morals, as well as to their pecuniary interests. The superintendent, in a letter to the managers, of which we give an extract, has pointed out this class of our boys as deserving of particular notice. "I shall," he remarks, "feel much gratified in speaking of the happy results of sending our boys on the long South-Sea whaling voyages. A large number have returned this season, and almost uniformly come to see us; dressed without exception like gentlemen; some with watches in their pockets, the fruits of their own industry. The greater part of them return to the same employ again. Many are shipped as boat-steerers, and one, I am informed, has been made second mate of one of the whaling ships."

During the past year, the inmates of the House of Refuge have been engaged in the following mechanical employments:—in the manufacture of brushes for clothes, shoes, hats, &c.; in cabinet work, making bedsteads, pine and cherry tables, wash-stands, &c.; in the manufacture of bead ear-ring, safety-chains, and necklaces; and, principally, in the manufacture of seats for chairs and settees. The amount of work performed by the boys in these branches will appear in the statements of the superintendent annexed to this report. Shoes for the use of all the children are made within the walls, as are also clothes for the use of the whole establishment. The cooking of the male and female houses is done exclusively by the inmates of the respective houses; and the washing for all

the children is done by the girls. By a recent arrangement, fifteen of the girls are now employed by a tailor in making clothes, on wages of a shilling each per day. And in the above-mentioned trades (except the making of shoes and clothes,) the boys are, in like manner, hired by contractors at wages of 12 1-2 each per day. This method has been adopted by the managers, after a trial of the different dispositions of the children, as on the whole the most advantageous. It is free from the losses and risks attendant on the carrying on of trades for the account of the society, and enables the officers of the institution to bestow more time and greater attention on the moral government of the children, who remain, by the terms of the contracts, exclusively under the discipline and control of the society.

It is with great satisfaction that the managers advert to the health of the Refuge. During the past year not a single death has occurred among the children within the house, nor scarcely a case of serious disease; and at the present moment there is not in our hospital a child whose sickness excites the least apprehension. In a season like the present, of unusual sickliness in the city of New York, the healthy state of the House of Refuge cannot but be considered as a convincing proof of the propriety of the regimen and treatment observed in it. The managers have, however, some time during the late year, felt much solicitude at the existence in the Refuge of a disease of the eyes, which at one period assumed an alarming aspect. At the commencement of 1830, about thirty boys were afflicted with this ophthalmia. The attention of the managers, and of the physicians of the society, was particularly turned to it, and a system of sanitary regulations, under the advice of the latter, adopted, which has been followed by a reduction of the number of those affected by the disease to four, all of whom appear to be on the recovery. In no instance has the eyesight of an individual been lost, and the managers now confidently anticipate the speedy extirpation of this disorder among the children.

The judicious management and skill of Dr. Power, the resident physician of the House of Refuge, in relation to this disease, have been felt and appreciated by the managers; and they avail themselves also of this opportunity to renew to Doctors Stearns and Carter their grateful acknowledgments for their gratuitous services, rendered in the past, as during the preceding year, with indefatigable and persevering attention.

The nature of the government and discipline exercised over the children, will perhaps be better illustrated by a summary account of the routine of a single day in the House of Refuge, than by any other description which it is in the power of the managers to give.

At sun-rise of every day in the year, a bell rings to rouse the children. In fifteen minutes the cells are opened, and each of the children, having made up his own bed, and arranged his little apartment, steps forth at a signal into the hall. They are then marched in order to the wash-room, where the utmost attention to personal cleanliness is required and enforced. From the wash-room they are called to parade in the open air (the

* As far as it could be traced, it was introduced into the house by three boys who b been subject to this distemper in the City Almshouse.

weather permitting), when they are ranged in ranks, and undergo a close and critical inspection as to cleanliness and dress. The parade finished, they are summoned to morning prayers. These various operations consume about a half-hour; and at half-past five o'clock, in the summer, the morning school commences. In school they remain till seven o'clock, when they are dismissed for a few minutes, and until the bell rings for breakfast, which consists, according to the dietary regulations of the managers, of bread, molasses, and rye coffee, occasionally varied by the substitution of Indian meal for bread, and milk for coffee. A half-hour is allowed for breakfast, at the expiration of which the signal for labour is given, and the children are conducted to their respective work-shops, to remain there until noon. By an allotment of tasks, however, these hours of labour are shortened to the industrious. The working day for this purpose is considered as commencing at one o'clock in the afternoon, when a certain task, proportional to his years and capacity, is assigned to each child, and if this task is performed before twelve o'clock at noon of the succeeding day, the child is rewarded by the allowance for his recreation of whatever time he thus gains before twelve and after eleven o'clock, until which hour all are kept in the work-shops. The benefit of this arrangement is sensibly perceived upon the spirits and industry of the boys, and there are few among them who do not thus gain, what all but the wilfully idle are able to gain, some extra time for their own amusements. At twelve o'clock, a bell rings to call all from work, and one hour is allowed for washing (which is again scrupulously attended to) and dinner. The dinner, by the managers' regulations, consists, for five days in the week, of nutritious soups, meat, potatoes, and bread. On Fridays fish is substitued for soup and meat; and on Sunday a dinner of beef and a vegetable of superior quality to those of the other days is allowed. At one o'clock a signal is given for recommencing work, which continues till five in the afternoon, when the bell rings for the termination of the labour of the day. A half-hour is allowed for washing (which is once more enforced) and supper, consisting of mush and milk, molasses and rye coffee. At half-past five the children are conducted to their evening school, in which they are kept till eight o'clock. Evening prayers are now attended to by the superintendent, and the children, ranged in order, are then marched to the sleeping halls, where each takes possession of his separate apartment, and the cells are locked, and silence is enforced for the night.

The above is the history of six days of every week in this year, except that, during the short, winter days, morning school is suspended, and the work-shops are closed at four o'clock in the afternoon. On Sundays, labour of course ceases, and, instead of the morning school, the time allotted on other days for this purpose is taken up in the classification of the children according to their conduct during the preceding week, and the distribution of badges of merit. Religious service is performed twice during the day in the chapel, in the presence of a 'committee of the managers, by the clergymen of the city in rotation. In the interval between the church services, a Sunday school is held for the children; and after the evening service they are allowed to walk about the grounds, under the observation of the officers, until eight o'clock.

The children have been instructed, during the past year, by the assistant superintendent of the respective houses, in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Their progress has been on the whole satisfactory; but the managers have it in contemplation to extend and improve the system of instruction. The duties of the assistant superintendent are necessarily varied and pressing, and it is deemed advisable to appoint a well qualified person to discharge the single duty of instructing and watching over and promoting the moral and religious improvement of the children. The discipline exercised over the inmates of the House of Refuge is of a mild and simple character. The children are divided, with reference to their merit, into four classes, the most worthy being placed in class No. 1. Each wears on his arm a badge of the class to which he belongs. To a station in the third class is annexed a certain slight deprivation of play; and to the fourth class, which consists of the worst boys, who have been guilty of flagrant offences against the rules of the house, is attached, during the first week, the penalty of the third class, with an additional one, consisting of the deprivation of Sunday supper. A second week's continuance in the fourth class, which is the consequence of farther bad conduct during the first week, brings with it the additional punishment of confinement after evening service on Sunday. On the other hand, four weeks' maintenance of a station in class No. 1. which is the result of continued good conduct during this period, entitles a boy to a blue ribbon, and certain slight but highly appreciated privileges: four weeks of farther good conduct entitles the wearers of the blue ribbon to the higher honours of the red and blue:—and if after this he shall, without any special limitation of time, prove himself worthy of the confidence of the officers, he receives the highest reward of merit in the tri-colour badge.

This simple system of rewards and punishments, suffices, in the main, to preserve in contented and cheerful obedience the two hundred little beings confided to our care. Cases, however, do arise, which require severer punishments. Bold and daring attempts to escape, and rude and obstinate disobedience do occasionally occur, when corporal punishment-never however of a severe character-and solitary confinementrarely of a protracted duration—are found indispensably necessary. The misconduct which renders necessary punishments of the last description, is almost invariably committed by those of the youth who are approach

ing the years of manhood. The experience of our institution fully con

firms the common opinion, that the hope of a delinquent's reformation is inversely as his years; and that the benefit which an offender of mature age derives from the discipline of the Refuge, is greatly counterbalanced by the evil which he spreads around him. It must indeed be an obvious truth, that a youth of either sex, who has passed the years of childhood -who adds a thorough acquaintance with vice to the untutored passions of early life, and who has felt all the attractions, and but slightly the bitter consequences of guilt, is not included among those juvenile delinquents, whom, it was the design of this institution, to receive, and cherish, and reform. The means of coercion and government possessed by the House of Refuge were intended moreover for children, in the ordinary meaning of the term, and not for those who in bodily strength,