TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 181 



butcher, 1 ; coopers, 3 ; bakers, 3 ; lithographic printer, 1 ; grocer, 1 ; bookbinder, 1 ; 

 printers, 5 ; student, ] ; workmen without definite occupation, 8 ; female servants, 

 13 ; homeless (female), 1 ; in prison (1 woman and ] man), 2; total, 117. Well 

 may Wichern ask in his simple language, " What would have become of these 117 

 outcasts from society but for the hand extended to them by the Rauhe Haus ? " 

 M. Wichern goes into the detail of the labour performed by the children in carpentry 

 and joiner work, in the tailors' shop in making and mending clothes, mattresses, 

 pillows, &c., in the shoemaker's and at the wooden shoe manufactory, in wool 

 spinning, in the bakehouse, and in a great number of minor branches of industry', 

 including the work of bricklayers, painters, &c. The produce realized out of the 

 labour and work performed by the children and their family fathers is thus given : — 

 "The produce of the farm cannot be separately stated without entering largely into 

 detail ; suffice it to say that even the smallest harvest from garden or field is accurately 

 entered in our books. We have carried home cabbages and vegetables of various 

 kinds to the amount of 362 marks 13 schillings, fruit to the amount of 16 marks 

 (our 4000 to 5000 fruit trees, many of which have been planted for ten years, have 

 as yet produced little), 578 sacks of potatoes, 213 of oats, 10,000 lbs. of hay and 

 grass, and 80 loads of dung. 6 pigs have been fattened, 4 calves slaughtered, and 

 about 4000 quarts of milk delivered into the kitchen. The produce of the field and 

 garden may be reckoned, according to the market prices, at 300 marks 5 schillings ; 

 the costs at 1685 marks 1 schilling; thus leaving a profit of 1324 marks 4 schillings, 

 or about ^88 12s. sterling." 



The next institution to which special attention and consideration are called is that 

 of M. Deraetz, at Mettrai, in France, conducted under the title of the " Agricultural 

 Colony." The principles adopted by Wichern in the care and management of his 

 reformatory are here systematically and faithfully carried out. 



From a report recently published, it appears the Mettrai School contains about 

 400 boys, arranged on the principle of being a collection of families. 



The principle of the school instruction is, that the boy shall only be taught as 

 much as the average of agricultural and other labourers require, viz. to read, to 

 write, and to cypher. The move advanced boys are taught the elements of drawing 

 and geography. The instruction is in all points made as individual and personal as 

 possible. All the boys are taught music. Industrial training occupies a large 

 portion of the day. It is a principle that the boys shall be continually occupied and 

 thoroughly fatigued. There are about four hours allowed for meals, recreation, 

 morning and evening prayers, dressing, &c. The rest of the day, with exception of 

 one hour appropriated to instruction in the school, is devoted to labour. The accom- 

 modation, dress, and food of all the inmates, officers as well as boys, are of the 

 plainest description. The whole establishment thus feels the effects of the benevolent 

 mind of Demetz. " Since the first establishment of the institution in 1839 there 

 have been received 521. The number of present inmates is 348, leaving a remainder 

 of 173. Of these, 17 have died ; 12 have been sent back to their prisons for mis- 

 conduct ; 144 have been placed out in various situations in the world. Of the 144 

 thus placed out, 7 have relapsed into crime ; 9 are of doubtful characters ; and 128 

 are conducting themselves to the satisfaction of the directors." 



It appears that in the Mettrai school, if you shut out the first cost of the building, 

 or the interest or rent, with the teachers' salaries, taxes, servants, &c., the gross 

 annual cost of each boy is £20. Then his labour, in and out of doors, produces 

 upon an average ^8 a year, thus reducing the annual expense of the reformatory 

 training of a child to ^12 ; and as each child stays, on an average, three years and 

 a half at the institution, the total cost will be .^42. If we contrast the palace 

 prisons of England or Scotland, with the modest requirements of the farm or agri- 

 cultural system at Mettrai, the advantages of the oeconomical system of bringing up 

 the boys, and in working out their own human improvement, will be at once seen. 

 At York Castle the cost of each cell is stated to be ^1200. Other prisons vary from 

 i€l20 up to J?500. Pentonville has cost ^l6l per cell. 



The author describes the further progress of the principles and methods of Dr. 

 Fellenberg and his followers in Switzerland, and concludes by drawing attention to 

 one inaugurated in Holland, about five years ago. It owes its origin and present 

 efficiency to Prof. Suringer, of Amsterdam. This gentleman brought under notice 



