RAGGED AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

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happiness, and give great relief, physical, moral, and financial to Great Britain.

Great honour belongs to the country that gives much of her wealth and some of the choicest of her sons to the cause of humanity, but to search for Franklin and his crew is an infinitely smaller duty than that of saving and protecting the children of our cities. Why should the one be done, and the other left undone? Nothing is impossible to Great Britain.

The Emigration of the product of Ragged Industrial Schools must be a national affair, because it is beyond the reach, financially and otherwise, of private enterprize. We do not ask the country to go into this matter blindfold-we only ask her to institute an experiment, which we ourselves have already successfully tried. We have furnished large samples of work executed by a necessarily imperfect model machine, and these samples are proved to be good. Why should not a perfect machinery be erected, and a testing experiment made? Let the Government or any other party take this business in hand, and we will gather in the raw material, put it through the primary processes, and hand it to them ready for the loom.

Before we conclude, we will just indicate the kind of plan which we think might be adopted.

Our idea is, that there should be a State establishment in Australia or some other of the colonies, in the form of a large tract of land, with plain buildings suited for the accommodation of a given number of young persons.

Those educated and trained in the Ragged Industrial Schools should be sent to such an establishment as soon after they have reached the age of 14 years as may be, and kept there until they are 16 and not more than 17 years of age.

The object in view is :

1st. To continue the general education and training of the youth until they are of a suitable age for labour properly so called, and

2nd. To initiate them in the special mode by which they are to earn their living.

Government has a command of the soil which would render this simple matter if they took it in hand; and it is more than probable that in a very short time such an establishment as that which we have indi cated would be self-sustaining, and in the end a source of revenue.

The staff necessary for the practical working of such a scheme as this is neither a large nor an expensive one, and we think that after the primary expenses are paid, the cost of each lad would not be more than £6 per annum. Thus, if there were 500 lads in the establishment, the cost would be about £3,000 per annum. But the labour of a lad is always worth something over and above his maintenance, and seeing that his maintenance and education are all that he would receive in return for his labour, we think we are justified in anticipating that in a very short time each lad would reimburse those who sent him out, took care of him, and prepared him to take care of himself.

The Ragged Industrial School is the approved substitute for the Prison, and our proposal is that the Government should substitute the Colony for the Penal Settlement.

We are aware that a measure of such importance as that which we have indicated requires to be carefully examined. Its fitness to meet

the case of the class to be provided for must be considered, and while it is studied, the interests of the mother-country and of the colonies must not be forgotten. We trust that it will be deemed worthy of attention. But what are we to do in the meantime? Are the boys and girls educated and trained in the Ragged Industrial Schools of England, Scotland, and Ireland to return to the streets and pavements with their intelligence enlarged by culture, and their wants exaggerated by civilization? Are these creatures, towards whom our best feelings have been extended and on whom our means and energies have been perseveringly spent, to be exposed to the terrible influences that are bred and fostered in our cities? Will England have it so? Must they go back to the steaming hot-beds of corruption whence they were transplanted? Unless a suitable outlet is provided for them such is their inevitable fate, and the School will prove to them only an oasis in the desert. We cannot bear to think of their again becoming the creatures of a necessity that drags to vice and urges imperiously to crime. To permit this is To SIN. We beseech the Government to help us in the meantime to place these children in a position of safety, and all the help we ask until a permanent arrangement is made, is a passage across from this country, which is to them a place full of dangers, to yon great continent in the west, or that one in the south, which would prove to them lands of safety. We venture to assert, that if Government were to charter ships for this purpose, more than a sufficient number of the best men in the navy would gladly volunteer their services in the enterprise on behalf of humanity. The ships could be officered free of expense to the country. We have endeavoured in the foregoing article to give an outline of the proof that it is the duty of this country to afford a suitable outlet for the industry created through the instrumentality of Ragged Industrial Schools, and that this outlet should be in the colonies. An elaborate proof would occupy several articles, and might not be more expressive than a sketch.

In elaborating the proof which we have given in outline, or rather, which we have indicated, a great variety of topics must come under review. For example, the meaning and power of Ragged Industrial Schools must be explained. This is a large subject in itself, and it is very large when regarded in its relation to other subjects, such as Sanitary Reform, Poor Law Reform, National Education, Emigration in general, etc. etc. It likewise involves a reference to a subject which we will call "The Distribution of the Population." This again would lead to our remarking that there may be surplus population in an underpopulated country, and that Britain exemplifies this seeming paradox. Then we could not escape from making more than an allusion to the subject of Prison Discipline-its efficacy or the reverse--the soundness or the contrary of the principles on which the system is based, and so forth. In a word, the subject on which we have been writing is small and simple when considered per se, but it is not compressible when regarded in its relations and as a branch of a healing policy.

The preceding paragraph contains our reason for having decided on treating the subject of Emigration in connection with Ragged Industrial Schools in the way we have done, our great object being to induce our readers to examine the subject for themselves and act upon the conviction they arrive at concerning it.

YORK INDUSTRIAL RAGGED SCHOOL.

Ir was a lovely morning in August as the train travelled rapidly on towards the fine old city of York. Already the fields were white unto the harvest, nature smiled, the reapers were beginning their work of gathering in the golden grain, and all was joy and peace. But soon the fine old cathedral comes in view, and the long line of locomotives and carriages passing under the ancient wall of the city, enters the station just upon the stroke of nine.

On reaching the comfortable inn called the Black Swan, a hearty breakfast was soon disposed of, and we gallied out to see the beauties of the fine old city. Here were many things to attract a stranger, but one above all the others was near our heart. We had often heard of the Industrial Ragged School, an institution designed for the sole benefit of the poor, forlorn, neglected juveniles of York, and being told that it was quite a model in its humble way, we at once determined to pay it a visit. We were fortunate in meeting with the honorary Secretary, to whom the school is deeply indebted for its success, and who seems to live almost for it alone, and off we started for the school. Threading our way by the Post Office and river side, and enjoying the sweet walk by the museum gardens and public baths, we reached Marygate, an old locality, in which the Ragged School, formerly the poorhouse, stands. A strong and massive gate is opened, and you stand in the courtyard of the school. It is a considerable space, clean, open, and cheerful; along one side runs a row of brick buildings, with a broad pavement, and gravel beyond it; a small grass-plat and some sweet flowers give liveliness to the scene, and pleasure to the eye, as it rests on the different apartments of the Ragged School. First, on the right is a small office or receiving-room; next, a model lodging-house, where poor labouring men and women can have a clean comfortable lodging for threepence a night. Some thirty generally occupy the beds. The receipts are adequate to the expenditure. The order observed, and the Scripture reading every evening at nine o'clock, tend to promote a healthy morality among the inmates. The arrangements are very simple, but clean and nice. Then come the Committee room, kitchen, washing room, bath room, etc., all plain, but very clean and convenient. No needless ornament is here, no useless expenditure of public money, but a capital cooking-place and good large oven, where wholesome brown bread is made of the flour called thirds. The kitchen floor, which is of brick, is clean "as a new pin," and the girls assist in cooking, washing, etc., etc. The breakfast consists of India flour made into porridge, and eaten with milk or treacle. This is found to be very wholesome and nice. The dinner consists of rice (Patna at 11s. a cwt.,) one day, suet puddings another, and twice a week soup and bread. In addition to breakfast and dinner, a simple meal of bread or porridge is given ere the children are dimissed for the evening-the cost of the three meals is about three halfpence each.

The washing room is fitted up with slate lavatories, and there is a plunge bath of stone, nine feet square, and four or five feet deep, into which the children descend by steps, and which can be heated in cold weather by a pipe that proceeds from a boiler close by.

The workshops occupy one side of an open gravelled yard. There various trades are taught, such as carpenters' work, shoemaking, tailoring, etc. There is also a fumigating room, where the children's clothes are hung and thoroughly cleansed from all impurities by brimstone and charcoal. The school-rooms occupy the opposite side of the court, where the kitchen, day room, and Committee room are situate, and are large and commodious-one below for boys, and one up-stairs for girls. The latter are taught sewing and knitting. Eight of the most destitute are lodged as well as fed. They are nearly all orphans. Several boys who are homeless are also provided with a lodging, but not on the premises. The schoolmaster is a Yorkshireman, very homely in his way, but of considerable experience in tuition, and with a very

happy knack of interesting children. The girls' schoolmistress is a kind and attentive governess, and the matron, who prepares the food and manages all the domestic matters, is quite like a mother to the poor neglected outcasts who shelter here from the rude storms of the rough world without. The number of the children has of late very much decreased. From one hundred and twenty, they have come down to fifty or even less. This is partly owing to increased means of employment among the poor of late, and cheapness of food, but chiefly in consequence of opposition from the Roman Catholic priesthood, who by persuasion or intimidation draw many children away from the school. The parents, who are many of them Papists, are constantly being either bribed or intimidated, and excited to oppose the efforts of the Committee by removing their children. And this not that they may be wellcared for and well taught elsewhere, but in many cases just to be left to wander the streets as vagrants, It is true the priests are active in schools of their own kind, but the instruction imparted, as is well-known, is formal, and rather tending to keep in ignorance than to open, expand, and improve the minds of the poor children. One instance was detailed to me as follows:

M. H.-Was an orphan girl, neglected entirely by the priests (who knew her case) and by her elder sisters, who were in work, and could have done something to help her. She wandered the streets begging, was taken up by the police, and sent to the Ragged School by the magistrate as a notorious mendicant. There she had food and instruction, and rapidly improved in appearance and in general habits. The only day she had no food at school was Saturday, but even then the sisters gave her none, and all she got was from her schoolfellows clubbing together and giving her part of their food. The Committee ascertaining her neglected condition took her into the house. The sisters, instigated by the priests, then used every exertion to get her away; not, as the Committee believe, to do her good, but just to remove her from the Bible instruction and the Gospel teaching she now receives. Surely such blind guides are among those who love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, and are agents of that wicked one who will not come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved and made manifest that they are not of God.

But, thanks be to God, that in York, as in numerous places besides, there are many who labour for the spreading of Christ's kingdom, and for the diffusion of that knowledge which is to the saving of the soul-that heavenly wisdom which maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow therewith. Such men have many encouragements even as regards the life that now is. In the city of York alone they can already point to twelve or fourteen boys, who were once ragged and forlorn, mere wanderers in the streets, now filling situations, and honestly earning from six to ten shillings a week. They can see many of these lads coming to the Ragged School on Sunday, out of regard to the place where they have received such real good, and out of love to the truths to which they there are privileged to listen. They can trace others who have gone elsewhere with every appearance of doing well, and before their eyes they have every day some forty to fifty poor forlorn children, clothed, and fed, and taught. But beyond all this, such men have the testimony of their own consciences that they are engaged in a work that God approves, and that He will bless both it and them. They have the testimony of all who have tried it, that the reformation of the most depraved, if attempted when they are young, is not hopeless; and they have the declaration of Holy Writ, that children trained up in the way they should go, will, when they are old, not depart from it.

Long may they persevere in their work of faith, and thus be doers of the Word, and not hearers only; and long may success and pleasure_attend the labours of the Committee, Honorary Secretary, and all engaged in the York Industrial Ragged School.

PRISON SCENES.

No. II.

THE CHAPLAIN'S ROOM; OR, CRIMINAL DISCLOsures.

(Continued from page 173.)*

Without entering on the question as to how such "a preventive service" as that advocated might be made available for those who, through want of due education, are exposed to temptation and crime, we merely observe that no difficulties are insurmountable but those arising out of bigotry and sectarianism, and while these remain, thousands are being swept into eternity only to discover their wretchedness where no remedy can be applied to remove it, and where neither "prevention " nor "reformation' are known except as things that might have saved them from “ the worm that dieth not.'

If it be said that hitherto we have advocated preventive measures, and overlooked such as may apply to the reformation of criminals, we reply that we deeply feel the necessity of some appliances of a reformatory character to assist those who are willing to break off their evil course and recover their position in society. We deem prevention to be better than cure—we think the most effectual way to destroy a tree that bears pernicious fruit is not to cut off a few branches, or pull off the fruit as it grows, but to dig it up from the roots. And so with respect to crime and its causes. Nevertheless, we also advocate reformatory measures for the sake of the fallen, and shall, in a subsequent paper, endeavour to express our opinion on that subject. At present we must confine these remarks to such features of the subject of crime as are suggested by what transpires in a chaplain's room, and in doing so we must notice one class of criminals, more numerous, alas! than any or all others put together, of whom great numbers are constantly in prison for crimes of one kind or another. This class is in itself a fruitful cause of crime in others-we allude to fallen females. Indeed, this subject alone would occupy more space in the Magazine than could reasonably be expected for it. It may be sufficient, however to observe, that it surpasses belief the extent to which this monster evil prevails, and the influence it exerts in multiplying crime. We might fill volumes from the disclosures in a chaplain's room on this topic. It may be enough for our present purpose to repeat the opinion of a leading public journal of September 9th, 1851, respecting it. Speaking of the necessity of increased facilities for the reformation of this at first deeply injured, and then deeply injurious class, the editor observes: In such a condition of things we deem it important to state a few startling facts as to the amount of evil which is going on in the midst of us almost unchecked, in the hope that at least some energy may be directed to a subject which is so important to the public morals. It is reckoned that in London there is a population of about 20,000 prostitutes, besides a multitude of what may be called "camp followers" in their train-the whole body being enough to make up a city of no inconsiderable size. These 20,000 are an active, restless body, spending their whole time in polluting the population, obtaining their whole subsistence by a career as infamous as it is contaminating, provoking and exciting vice by every possible art. Money is, it seems, forthcoming sufficient to support this vast army of tempters, who so successfully wander through our streets day and night in search of prey. Supposing that each of these 20,000 earned on an average ten shillings a week, they levy from our male population a weekly revenue of no less than £10,000, a sum which proves, with fearful distinctness, the extent to which the public morals are debased. That so vast a non-industrial multi

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* The third table on page 172 relates to the 81 cases of adults which follow it, and should be read after "haunts of vice and scenes of crime," twelve lines from the bottom of the page.