something about the early training and care of children as an important factor of preventive work. Parents and the State both have a duty to perform in this particular. I am glad to see that of late the State considers it to be necessary, where parents notoriously fail in their duty to their children, to step in and do some official fathering and mothering of these neglected children and possible criminals. It is also the duty of the State, in various ways, especially in mental, moral and physical education, to help parents in the important work of nurturing worthy citizens.

I am glad that one blot upon our administration of justice is likely to be removed by carrying out the provisions of the recent "Act for the Better Protection of Children." One weakness of the Act seems to be that it requires the endorsation of the Dominion Parliament to make compulsory the separate trial and -confinement of children. The following was clipped from the

Globe of March 6th, 1894:

"Two young girls were up in the Police Court yesterday morning charged with larceny. One was thirteen years of age and the other sixteen. They had never been in a police cell or police court before. Both were arrested on Saturday night at their homes and were locked up in the station all night. On Sunday morning they were taken in the van with a crowd of adults to the gaol, where they were placed in the same corridor as the women now awaiting trial for a flagrant crime. After spending a day and night in the gaol they were bundled into the "Black Maria" this morning, with about forty others, and were carted to the Police Court to stand trial. One was accused of stealing a hat belonging to her sister, the other was charged by her mistress with the larceny of sixty cents. They were placed on trial at eleven o'clock in the midst of the court business, and with an audience of over one hundred men, who had gathered to take in all the interesting features of the show. When the children's cases were called, Mr. E. A. DuVernet, acting for J. J. Kelso, Provincial Superintendent of Neglected Children, asked Magistrate Denison to hold over the charges until the end of the court, so that they could be investigated privately. This his Worship peremptorily refused to do, remarking that the law only required this to be done "where expedient," and it was not expedient for him to take the matter up except at that present moment. One of the girls pleaded guilty and was allowed out on suspended sentence. The other pleaded not guilty, and was remanded for a day. The whole process was degrading and hardening, and not at all calculated to accomplish the object aimed at, viz., the reformation of those showing signs of way wardness. The Children's Aid Society and other organizations intend applying to Sir John Thompson for legislation making the separate trial and confinement of young children compulsory."

Mr. S. H. Blake, at a meeting of the Prisoners' Aid Association, spoke as follows:

"It is a monstrous thing, where a lad is found who has broken one of

the pancs of glass in one of our city lamps, which has injured the community to the extent of twenty cents, that he should for a mere child's fault be sent to jail, and, with ten days of contamination be, by the State, for the twenty cents of injury, damned for life."

But the State can never fully take the place of the parents, and only should attempt to do so where absolutely necessary for purposes of protection and for the prevention of crime. The importance of home training in shaping the life and character of children is not estimated as highly as it ought to be. Too many fathers give the freshness of their faculties, and the majority of their waking hours, to business and the clubs or societies, and bestow upon their children the fag-ends of time and nervous irritability of manner. Too many mothers are more fond of the attractions of society and the adornments of dress than of the claims of the nursery or family circle. They too often prefer to leave the care and unconscious shaping of their children's character to servants, while they bestow their personal attention on pet dogs or social fads.

Another dangerous sign in our social economy is the general disappearance of old-fashioned, English respect for parental authority. This is the case not only among the lower classes, but also with the so-called upper classes. The boys and girls who grow up with this dangerous disregard of authority will most likely, as young citizens, be restive and fractious when they feel the restraints of State control, and what is still worse, all Christian workers find it much harder to bring such rebellious spirits to the state of surrender that must precede conversion and Christian service.

Another cause of child contamination is the pernicious effects of street education. Here again the State may properly step in and do positive good by providing suitable and sufficient playgrounds for children, and do negative good by establishing the old custom of ringing the curfew bell, for which provision is made in the recent "Child's Charter Act." I am not advocating the development of a hot-house type of childhood. I would rather see cultivated a Spartan, self-reliant type of youth that are prepared to stand the stress of temptation. If parents do their duty properly, children should go forth into the world so morally magnetized that they will repel the wrong and be drawn toward the right.

Among the other causes of criminality idleness should be mentioned. The lack of manual training in our schools, the unwise scorn of labour, and the absence of the self-reliant spirit, are some of the causes of voluntary idleness which soon breeds mis

chief to the community and to the individual himself. Too often, however, enforced idleness has driven men to the desperation of an unlawful extremity. It would pay the State well to have bureaus of employment and devise liberal measures for the labouring classes. Thus large amounts of money would be spent in a more economic and self-respecting way than in charity and in the care of criminals who are helped into prison life by continued idleness. No doubt poverty, with its various causes, such as drinking, idleness, spendthrift habits, etc., contributes its quota also as a producer of crime.

Another cause of criminality is infidelity, and the consequent weakening of that high regard for human and divine law which constitutes the chief safeguard of society. This weakening of conscientiousness springs from the worldly morality that pays attention only to a utilitarian treatment of one's fellow-man, and ignores man's positive duties to God. No man is firmly braced against the temptation to do wrong who does not live his whole life consciously under the searching but loving scrutiny of the eye of God, and like the steadfast Joseph can say to every tempter, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

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Mr. Cook declares that many, very many, who languish in "durance vile," when questioned confess that they would never have been where they are but for the teachings of infidelity. They became lawless in proportion as they threw off the fear of God. He quotes the statement of one prisoner as follows. "I am one of thirteen infidels: what has become of my friends? I will tell you. One became a Christian, six were sentenced to long terms of penal servitude, four were hanged, one is in the cell above, a prisoner for life, and I am to be hanged to-morrow." Mr. Blake lately stated that the daily newspaper, with its detailed accounts of crimes, and the clever methods of escaping detection, aids largely in the manufacture of criminals.

Another most prolific cause of criminality is the drink habit. Instances could be furnished by almost everyone of the demoralizing and criminalizing effects of drinking. When will Christian nations rise up and banish entirely this drink demon, that dethrones reason, fires the passions, and drives men into crime? Mr. Cook relates a typical case in Portsmouth Prison:

"Passing through the carpenter's shop I noticed an intelligent-looking man at work; and seeing by his arm that he was a 'lifer,' by the letter ‘L' being there in place of a figure or a number-I inquired the cause, and was told, Manslaughter;' and within a quarter of an hour I had spoken to two other convicts whose cases were almost identical. One of them said, 'I woke up one morning in a police cell, and when the constable brought

me some breakfast I asked him what I was there for, and he answered "Murder." I thought he was joking, and asked him to tell me what I was locked up for, and he said, "Last night you were brought in drunk and charged with the murder of a fellow workman." It was too true. I was tried and sentenced to death, but it was commuted to a life sentence; but, sir, I have no more recollection of having killed a man than you have." The three cases cited above were so alike that in telling one I have explained the three."

In this important work of prevention we all must feel it to bemore than ever our duty to cultivate in ourselves and others about us the trinity of safeguards-trust in a personal God, productive industry and temperance of all kinds, including chastity of thought and act.

I wish to call the reader's attention now to Prison Work. Much might be said upon the qualifications of governors, deputies, wardens, matrons and other prison officers. There are all classesof officials, the unfeeling, mean-spirited, officious warder, as well as the sympathetic, considerate matron or turnkey. I shall only have space to treat briefly a few things in the general management of prisons. One subject demanding attention is the more thorough classification of prisoners. The present system, in both county and city gaols, is far from satisfactory. The herding together of such a motley crowd of inmates as can. be seen sometimes in our gaols is a discredit to our civilization. Scrutinize the condition of these inmates and you will probably find unfortunate paupers, pitiable drunkards, tender novices and hardened adepts in the art of crime, with an occasional lunatic to give weirdness to the gathering. The words of the Inspector of Prisons for Ontario cannot be repeated too often, until our Government takes wiser action than at present:

"It is a disgrace to the people of this Province to allow the aged poor, who have committed no crime against the laws of the land, to be incarcerated within prison walls and clothed in the distinguishing garb of prison criminals. It is inhuman, un-Christian, and unpatriotic, and should be prevented by most stringent legislation, if not immediately remedied by the authorities of the various counties."

When one visits the Police Court, sees the endless grist of drunks and disorderlies passed through that legal mill, and hears the imperious edict, "Two dollars and costs, or thirty days in gaol," the question suggests itself Is there not some better way of disposing of these unfortunates? Surely it would seem wiser and more humane for the Government to erect and efficiently equip inebriate asylums, at least while it legally ruins men body and soul through the license system. Then the poor drunkard would

have a place of cure and protection from temptation as well as his richer brother, whose means can now procure him such a refuge without arrest and consequent disgrace.

Most of our county gaols need reorganizing in this matter of classification, and our city gaol should have added to it a new wing with the cells constructed on the English system, so that first offenders, and those awaiting trial, may be kept absolutely separate, not only from all other prisoners but from each other as well. It would be well, also, if the Reformatory at Penetanguishene were reorganized on the cottage plan, so that the family idea could be carried out and the home instincts cultivated, while the spread of vice would be in a large measure prevented. Another important matter demanding more attention in some of our gaols is systematic employment. Enforced labour of some kind should be regularly engaged in by every capable inmate of prisons and reformatories, for surely if idleness is injurious in its effects outside it will be much more so inside. Enforced idleness has always a depressing effect on spirits and morals. One prisoner wrote on his cell wall, "twenty-one thousand times have I walked round this cell in a week; three thousand three hundred and thirty bricks in this cell."

Idleness, or slight and irregular employment, is likely to constitute an inducement for repeated returns to gaol. The chief warder of a Belfast prison tells of a prisoner who was discharged with a few shillings in his pocket. He returned after three days absence. When the "Black Maria" discharged its contents at the gaol door, the man leaped out, and, passing through the gates, struck a comical attitude, exclaiming quite enthusiastically"Home! sweet home! Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home! Mr. Cook gives another sample of Irish prison wit. An officer overheard two prisoners chaffing each other-one had stolen a cow and the other had robbed a man of his watch. "Tim," said the first man, "what's the toime?" "Bedad," answered the other, "shure it's just milking toime." As a proof of one prisoner's poetic genius and of his love for an easy time in gaol, I quote part of a poem that was left behind in a cell of Portland Gaol: