for want of a little timely succour at the most trying period of their whole lives, when enduring a moral-almost a mortal conflict between good and evil principles; and when the latter are likely to be the victors. Indeed, the very consciousness of such patronage and after-supervision being exercised, would go far towards rendering reformatory and punitive discipline more effective; would inspire a confidence, and give a potency to moral precepts not otherwise to be expected. "Insure," says Voltaire, "as far as possible a resource to those who shall be tempted to do evil, and you will have less to punish."* A movement has, however, been made in this direction by the formation of some half-dozen Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies; but, I fear, the amount of support they receive is very trivial; so that the advantages obtained through such instrumentality must be correspondingly limited. These societies have no institution; but provide food, lodgings, tools, work, and other assistance, for discharged prisoners, who, it must be admitted, are generally placed in a wretched and difficult position. A boy, who had been recommitted to Parkhurst Prison, once remarked to the governor :-"I had my licence, sir, but to tell you the truth, I could not see that it was of *Comment. on Beccaria, cap. ii. any real value to me-no one would employ me; the money I had taken with me when I was released was all spent; I was miserable and wretched, and I thought I might as well be in prison as starving outside." * The partial abolition of transportation, and the consequent liberation of convicts on tickets-ofleave-irrespective of those prisoners set at large upon the expiration of their sentences-who are now flung back, with damaged characters, upon society, render associations of patronage all the more indispensable. Especially is this the case when discharged juvenile criminals are concerned; for, to cite the trenchant language of the Inspectors of Prisons, "Whatsoever measures may be adopted for the benefit of the juvenile offender, they must in a general sense be inefficacious, unless some arrangements be made by which the destitute may on their liberation be placed in a situation in which they can earn an honest subsistence. The law provides for the boy, who is simply friendless and deserted, an asylum where, by proper arrangements, his moral improvement may be promoted and his vagrant habits reclaimed. There is nothing peculiar in his situation which should prevent him from obtaining, or the parish on whom he has a claim from procuring for him, employment. But * Reports of the Directors of Convict Prisons, 1855. it is far different with the criminal youth. Bereft of character, as well as of friends, he has no resource, but to recur to his former habits, and is thus driven for support to the renewal of depredations."* One fatuous and fatal error will, however, have to be guarded against by those who are taxing their energies in the repression of crime, viz.— indifference to the well-being of the criminallydisposed, but unconvicted, in their unbounded enthusiasm to reclaim convicted offenders. Let them beware, also, lest a premium be offered to crime, or that the law of supply and demand should operate in this case as in others. That instrumentality which will prevent is preferable to all the machinery erected to repress crime. And, assuredly, it should not be necessary that the outcast juveniles of our large towns must "qualify," as it is termed, by the commission of offences, before a friendly hand be held out to save them! First Report for the Home District. THE END. LONDON: J. F. HOPE, 16, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. INDEX. Aberdeen, Mr. Sheriff Watson's In- dustrial Feeding schools in, 401 offenders," passed in 1854-5, 424 Adrets, Auberge des, M. Trégier on Age, the, characteristics of, 68 Alison, Sir A., statistics of the num- ber of children of drunken parents Amusements, Bentham and Channing Arabs of the street, condition of, 21 Argos, Horace's character of a citizen Aristotle on the education of youth, 345 Arnold's, Dr., definition of education, 359 Arnold, Mr. Matthew, report of, on Assizes, cause of the decrease of trials Asylum for the homeless poor, visit 135 Auckland's, Lord, efforts to reform Australia, drunkenness in, 136 re. Austria, Imperial regulations Austria, Number and cost of main- Bank of England notes, annual in- Beccaria on the severity of punitive Belliers, Rev. H. W., report of, on Bentham's rebuke of those favourable Bentham on pauperism and crime, 1, 3 85 "Berkeley Beer Bill," the effects of, in Berne, social condition of, 129 Betting practices, criminal tendency Birmingham, how cottages are built Birmingham, licensed brothels of, 189 274 Birmingham Borough Sessions, ave Blackstone, Sir William, philanthro- G G Blandford, Rev. J. J., report of, on the Boston, juvenile crime and intem- perance in, 136 Bowyer, Mr., on the character of Breweries of Burton-on-Trent, obsta- Brickmaking, impediments to educa- British Pariahs, mere moral instruc- Brixton Prison, cost of salaries, pri- the state of education in the coun- Brown, Dr., on the domestic virtues, 42 Cade, Jack, and the Clerk of Chatham, Caldwell, Dr., on the hereditary Capitation Grant, nature and object Capitation Grant, paucity of scho- Carden, Sir R. W., and the West Lon- Carpenter, Professor, on the mental Casual Reading, marvellous effects Central Criminal Court, average cost Channing, Dr., on unlawful pleasures, Channing, Dr., on the obligation of Chief preventive check to crime, 337 Children attending school, number Children not attending school, num- Children, poor, hostility or indiffer- Christmas, Rev. H., on the difficulty Christianity, its benign influence on Churches, condition of the, 358 Clerkenwell, purlieus of, 7 414 Coldbath-fields Prison, punitive sys- Commitments under each of the six Commitments in 1856, statistics of, Commitments in 1839 and 1856, tabu- Committals in,1856, number of, 292 Committals in 1856, ratio of juvenile Committals of juvenile offenders from Compulsory education in Prussia,349; Compulsory education of Philadel- Compulsory education needed in |