56 report — 1859. 



an undeniable fact. Man}' anxious meetings were held, and many searching 

 inquiries were made, but for a long time they could only point to the ordi- 

 nary producing causes of juvenile crime, — drunkenness of parents, parental 

 neglect, cheap theatres and dancing saloons, and the facilities afforded by 

 brokers' shops for the sale of small stolen articles ; at last the active cause 

 was discovered. 



Rival institutions had been set up ; schools attended by large numbers 

 were in active operation, not to teach honesty and virtue, but to teach theft 

 and crime ; and at the same time to provide every facility for the disposal of 

 stolen property, and to prevent the detection of the offenders. 



Various wicked inducements were also held out to the unfortunate juve- 

 niles, tempting them in a manner utterly opposed to all good order and even 

 decency, but which were not wanting in their results ; they had their attrac- 

 tions, and they did their work. 



From 1852 or 1853 to 1855 there were two if not more of these " schools 

 for crime " attended by parties of from 12 or 14 up to 30 or 40. 



This appalling discovery explained the whole mystery. Ultimately several 

 of the teachers of crime were brought to trial, convicted, and their establish- 

 ments broken up, and then the number of offenders speedily diminished, 

 though, of course, time was required for the complete wearing out of the 

 effects of such a nefarious system. 



It is worthy of notice that these teachers of crime were tried and con- 

 victed of theft, or of receiving stolen property — not one of them for the infinitely 

 more atrocious crime of teaching little children to be criminals. 



There seems to be at present no law which can touch them for so doing, 

 and yet there is scarcely a greater crime which man or woman can commit. 



With this exception, which only proves in the strongest manner the value 

 of Industrial Feeding Schools, the whole institutions have gone on and pros- 

 pered, quietly doing their work, with those trifling alternations which occur 

 in all children's schools, and which are of the greatest use in keeping the 

 energies of managers and teachers in constant activity. 



It would be useless to read, for no one could follow, statistical details 

 exhibiting all the particulars of each school for each year, with the ages, 

 parentage, and disposal of each child, but they are now produced for the in- 

 formation of those who choose to examine them ; and they will be found full 

 of interesting and instructive facts, all tending in one direction — to demon- 

 strate that well-managed schools on the Aberdeen principles have, without 

 doubt, solved the important question how the annual supply of juvenile 

 criminals may be cut off at the fountain-head, and how multitudes hitherto 

 allowed, if not constrained by the force of surrounding influences, to grow 

 up into criminals, a torment to themselves and to society, may, by God's 

 blessing, be transformed into self-supporting respectable members of society. 



The first ten years of the schools saw them, after all their trials and vicis- 

 situdes, firmly established in Aberdeen, and not confined to it, but already 

 extended to most parts of the country. The history of their introduction 

 and progress elsewhere lies beyond the purpose of this paper. 



The subject gradually took more and more hold of the public mind. The 

 managers in Aberdeen early saw the importance of their schools receiving 

 public sanction, and brought forward the subject in reports, memorials, and 

 petitions, until at length it was taken up by the Legislature ; and the stamp of 

 the nation's approval of the system of Industrial Feeding Schools was inde- 

 libly fixed upon them by the passing of " Dunlop's" Act, on the 7th of August, 

 1854, applicable to Scotland only; and on the 10th of the same month, of 

 "Palmerston's" Act, applicable to the whole of Great Britain. 



