570 Education a National Concern. 



communicate with the parents as to their power to provide for the prisoner, 

 and, upon their inability to do so, to lay the case before the next quarter- 

 sessions held nearest to the residence of the parents, upon due notice to the 

 parents, and call upon them to show why the child should not be apprenticed 

 out, under the authority of the board, for such period as the court should 

 sanction. In none of these cases should it be necessary to- produce the 

 prisoner in court, unless at the order of the court itself; being, as it appears 

 to us, most undesirable that a young offender should ever be placed unneces- 

 sarily at the bar of a court of justice, and there be, as Mr. Alderman Harmer 

 observes, the hero of the piece, with a sympathizing auditory around him. 



" That the court should also have the power to make an order on the parent 

 for such weekly allowance as his means should afford. 



" That it should be in the power of the board to apprentice the children 

 either at home or abroad, as they may see fit ; and that for the purpose of 

 having the requisite information at home, of the locality, nature, and extent 

 of a demand for labour, the Boards of Guardians under the Poor Law Com- 

 missioners should be required to furnish returns from unions of parishes, 

 showing whether there is any, and what is the nature of the labour, in de- 

 mand in the several parishes of every union. 



" That cases which should be shown to be incorrigible, from frequent acts 

 of insubordination during the confinement of the prisoner, by the board, .. 

 should be presented as such to the quarter- sessions, and, upon the verdict of l 

 a jury, the culprit should be at the disposal of the board, under the secretary * 

 of state, and be subject to apprenticeship, at home or abroad, for such period 

 as the board shall determine. 



" It may be objectionable to give a further power of summary jurisdiction to 

 our magistracy as at present constituted; but we can see no reasonable objec- 

 tion to giving such power to stipendiary magistrates in all our large towns. 

 There courts might be provided wherever they do not already exist, to be 

 presided over by a single justice, adequately paid and perfectly* qualified for 

 his office. By such means, and by making all such courts, courts of re- 

 cord, men of ability and standing at the Bar would be found willing to un- 

 dertake the office. 



"Here then are the outlines of the government, and of the penal conditions 

 annexed to these Houses of Detention. The discipline we should form on a 

 system very similar to that adopted by the Children's Friend Society. 



"We extract an account of this society, first established by the persevering 

 benevolence of Captain Brenton, R.N., from a tract published by the society 

 and written by the second master. 



"' The boys are classed according to their moral character, and not accord- 

 ing to extent of acquirement. The classes are marked A, B, C. The A class 

 has a subdivision ; each class has a monitor, and the first boy in class A, is 

 called a general monitor : in school they are placed according to their acquire- 

 ments, as, Bible class, Testament class, monosyllable class, spelling class, 

 writing class, and so on ; and of course there are then some monitors who at 

 other times cease to act in that capacity. 



" ' The first division of class A, are boys who are able to read and write, and 

 whose moral habits are so good as to fit them to be recommended to a situa- 

 tion, or to be apprenticed the first opportunity. The second division are 

 those whose moral character is good, but whose acquirements are not suffi- 

 cient for them to be placed out. Class B, are those who endeavour to do 

 right generally, and whose faults proceed from carelessness rather than from 

 any vicious propensity; and class C, consists of those who are still bad and 

 seem determined to do wrong. 



'"When a boy is admitted, he is placed at the bottom of class B. A journal 

 of conduct for every half-day is kept by the master, and the names are regu- 

 lated every Tuesday; if a boy's conduct is generally good, he gradually rises 

 to class A; if bad, he sinks into class C. The boys composing this class are 



