FOURTEENTH MEETING. 23 



That the Institute concurs in the recommendation of the Prisoners' 

 Aid Society, and deems it advisable that the Government appoint a 

 commission to visit prisons and collect information for the guidance 

 of the Government on the question of Prison Reform, and that the 

 secretary send a copy of this resolution to the Government. 



Dr. Meredith referred to the cheering fact that so many men 

 of cultivated minds were devoting attention to the subject of 

 Prison Reform. He thought that the consensus of opinion 

 was with the conclusions at which Dr. Rosebrugh had arrived. 

 He considered it as cruelty of the worst character to send 

 young boys and girls to the County jails, where they would 

 associate with the most hardened criminals. It was in truth 

 sending them the high road to the gallows. He was of opin- 

 ion that boys and girls under fourteen years of age should in 

 no case be sent to the County jails. He thought that they 

 should receive some corporal punishment before a special 

 Magistrate and be dismissed. 



Mr. Massie, Warden of the Central Prison, Toronto, said he 

 fully agreed with Dr. Rosebrugh, in all his remarks. After 

 eight years experience he was convinced that reform must 

 commence with the County jails. It would take a long time 

 to eradicate their evil influence. Some of the measures advo- 

 cated by Dr. Rosebrugh may be considered as too radical, but 

 he was convinced that they were in the right direction. He 

 was glad to notice that crime had not increased in Canada, 

 He referred to the too great severity of punishments at an 

 earlier period, and mentioned his recollection of a circum- 

 stance that had occurred at the coronation of Queen Victoria, 

 when a man who under circumstances of great want had stolen 

 a sheet, was sent for ten years to Botany Bay. A very respect- 

 able woman who had reared a family of nine, had written to 

 him about a boy of hers. He found the boy, who was very 

 reluctant to see his mother. She had lost seven children, but 

 she felt more trouble on account of the boy than for the loss 

 of all the others. He enjoyed very much the reading of the 



