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1828: The Police Report. 493 
power of Parliament stops short of this; but a much stronger power 
begins then to operate—the common feelings of humanity, aided by that 
spread of virtuous habits to which the Committee triumphantly allude, 
and by the influence of education, which is proved, in spite of the old 
women who decry it, to have a most beneficial effect upon all the classes 
of the community to which it reaches, are powerful agents to counte- 
ract the evil complained of, and to those it must be left. It should, 
however, be remembered, that the offences of youthful criminals bear in 
their consequences, directly and personally, upon the parents, and are 
to them so much more immediate and burdensome than those which fall, 
from this cause, upon the state, that the evil, so far as it is produced by 
their neglect alone, can hardly extend very far. It cannot be denied 
that juvenile delinquency has lamentably increased; but we should be 
more disposed to assign as its cause the facilities which a defective police 
afford to the commission of crime, and the natural tendency of youth 
and inexperience to receive the infection of bad example and corrupt 
association. 
Connected with this part of the inquiry is a most wholesome and 
valuable suggestion by the Committee, that a prison should be appro- 
priated for the reception of juvenile offenders, where, besides the 
punishment and coercion to which their offences have exposed them, 
they shall have the benefit of such instruction as may enable them, their ~ 
imprisonment being over, to enter society once more—not as regene- 
rated—not with more profound sentiments of religion, or hearts more 
disposed to virtue, because all such results from imprisonment, however 
desirable, if they could be attained, have been proved to be impracticable 
—but with a conviction of the necessity of honest and regular exertion, 
with their old disinclination to industry removed by the force of a con- 
trary habit, and with the means of procuring by honest labour that 
which they before perhaps knew only to gain by fraud. This is the 
magic by which the Committee propose that the reformation of juvenile 
offenders only (for all attempts on older thieves must fail) shall be tried. 
They propose, too, that the boys shall be taught just so much as may be 
necessary to fit them for the naval or merchant services, to which they 
are to be transferred as soon as may be expedient, and where they are 
to remain for certain periods in the character of apprentices. Every 
body, whose opinion on the subject is worth listening to, has approved 
of the transportation of offenders as the only effectual method of prevent- 
ing the recurrence of crime. The monstrous expense of this system has 
hitherto prevented its being fully carried into practice (and this failure is 
one of the causes of increased crime not adverted to by the Committee) ; 
but if their present suggestion shall be adopted, the same benefit will be 
produced at a very trifling charge to the state. The criminals will 
“ thus be separated from their former associates, weaned from their for- 
mer habits, and a better security against the repetition of their offences 
rovided, than could be hoped for from any improvement of their morals 
that could be effected by the discipline of a prison.” (Report, page 8.) 
This suggestion is not only consistent with the recognised principles of 
all good systems of police, but is obviously wise, and founded upon a 
knowledge of human nature. Is it not clear, that a boy who goes into 
a prison for aflimited time, and who knows that, from the moment he 
enters its walls, his character, if he ever had one, is irretrievably lost, 
