180 REPORT — 1855. 



of a penny. The average of the yearly produce of each scholar is about ^3 I6s., 

 and the average of yearly cost of a child, including labour and learning, and after 

 deducting the value of the work, is about ^5 4s. It thus appears that the cost of a 

 child, including his own labour, is about ^9 a year. This, however, does not include 

 interest on the cost of the buildings, schools, dormitories, &c. These were of a very 

 frugal and ordinary description, but not the less fitted for the work of reclaiming the 

 child. This system of training under De Fellenberg, and the enlightened family he 

 reared around him, continued for nearly forty years, and was the means of setting 

 an example and instructing kindred spirits throughout all Switzerland. The fruits 

 of his benevolent exertions are now seen, not only in the reclamation from ignorance 

 and vice of many thousands of his fellow men, but in the impetus it ultimately gave 

 to the foundation and promotion of other similar institutions in various pairts of 

 Switzerland. 



The next example in point of date is that of Count von der Recke, member of a 

 noble Prussian family. He renounced, like De Fellenberg, his station in life, and 

 its accompanying pleasures and comforts, to devote himself to the education of poor, 

 destitute, and fatherless children. At Dusselthal Alley, near Dusseldorf, about the 

 year 181G, he commenced an institution and refuge for the destitute, following up 

 the same views and principles as have been alluded to. The number of destitute 

 children and others, together with servants and teachers, seems to have amounted 

 at one time to 220 persons, among whom Von der Recke seems to have lived as a 

 father, improving their minds, training their various talents, and, by the undeviating 

 law of love, reclaiming the most vicious and the most destitute among the inmates. 

 The Dusselthal school exhausted the strength and injured the health of its benevolent 

 founder, and, after suffering from pecuniary difficulties, it is now partially supported 

 •by the inhabitants of Dusseldorf. 



The next institution to which attention was directed is that of J. H. Wichern — 

 a man originally in a humble position — of the village of Horn, near Hamburg. 

 In the year 1833, Wichern and his mother resolved to devote their minds and 

 labours to an attempt at the solution of the difficulty which besets all civilized life 

 — the permanent reclamation of the lowest grades of society. With this end in view 

 he acquired a small house in. the village of Horn, near Hamburg, to which was 

 attached about an acre of land. In this domicile he began his work, first with those 

 unfortunates taken from the streets of Hamburg. These soon increased in number 

 to fourteen, ranging in age from 5 to 18 years, and all versed in the practices and 

 haunts of ignorance and vice ; nearly all had been trained to beggary, theft, and un- 

 truthfulness ; one of them had been convicted of 93 thefts, and yet had only reached 

 his twelfth year. Their calling by day was beggary and theft, their domicile at night 

 was under carts, in door-ways, or herding with the lower animals. These children 

 found themselves of an evening sitting in the cottage, around a blazing fire, with the 

 inmates of Wichen's family. According to the report of 1851, there had been created 

 quite a village of children families ; and besides the dwellings for them, there are work- 

 shops, wash and dyeing-house, printing office, bakehouses, schools, and chapel, &c. 

 The institution has about 70 boys and 25 girls. They constitute four boy families - 

 and two girl families, ranging in age from eight to sixteen years. 



During the period of almost thirteen years since the foundation of this establish- 

 ment in 1833, a total number of 207 children, viz. 157 boys and 50 girls, have been 

 received into it at the period of this report ; 90 of these are still in the establishment 

 up to the present time ; therefore 117 have quitted the narrow circle of our pupils. 

 Six of these have died at various periods ; 111 remain, who have adopted some social 

 calling, or at least quitted the establishment. To these 111 may be added six, who 

 are, indeed, still living in our institution, but occupy there the position of apprentices, 

 inasmuch as they are learning a trade for their future subsistence. These 117 stand 

 thus in detail : — Restored to their parents, in order that the latter might complete 

 the education of the children, or provide for their future maintenance, after confirma- 

 tion. — In these cases, therefore, the institution has only taken a partial position : 

 including the six received for one year during the year of the fire, 21 ; emigrated, 6 ; 

 agriculturists, labourers, and gardeners, 5 ; seamen, 9 ; shipbuilder, 1 ; sailmaker, 1 ; 

 carpenters, 2; joiners, 7; smiths and locksmiths, 6; coppersmith, 1 ; wheelwrights, 2; 

 strapcutters, 2 ; tailors, 5 ; shoemakers, 6 ; weaver, 1 ; tinman, 1 ; plasterer, 1 ; 



