200 REPORT—1858. 
periods of imprisonment are inflicted, and the frequency with which previous con- 
victions are overlooked ; and though high authorities have seen insuperable difficul- 
ties in the way of establishing any fixed rule, he insisted upon the possibility of some 
better system being devised. At present it is a lottery of punishments, which ought 
not to exist. He then took up the Juvenile Offenders’ Acts. For the administration 
of these, he showed that we have the guidance of principles carefully and rationally 
defined by Mr. Barwick Baker of Hardwicke, whose experience and unwearied 
attention to the subject give him the weight of authority. The course Mr. Baker 
proposes is, with rare exceptions, to inflict for a first offence 7 days’ imprisonment ; 
for a second offence 14 days, with (invariably) the Reformatory. Should it fail in 
its effect, he recommends that, on a relapse into crime, the offender should be sent 
to the quarter sessions, where he may be sentenced to penal servitude; and for this 
mode of treatment satisfactory reasons are adduced. Yet what is the practice? 
The terms of imprisonment, coupled with a sentence to reformatory discipline (which 
is often reserved for a third or even a fourth offence), vary from a week up to the 
maximum of three months, frequently without any perceptible reason; juvenile offenders 
are dealt with, both at petty sessions and at the police courts, as though the Acts 
had no existence ; and when reformatory discipline has failed, and fresh crimes have 
been committed, instead of sending the offender to be treated as Mr. Baker recom- 
mends, the mischievous system of repeated short imprisonments is, too often, again 
resorted to. In proof of it, several examples were cited. Returns were also referred 
to in evidence of the partial manner in which the law had hitherto been carried into 
effect as respects the contributions to be levied upon parents towards the support of 
their children while under detention. It was inferred from official papers, that the 
number of parents actually contributing was not a third of those who might be com- 
pelled to do so. 
But whatever may have been the errors committed in applying the law, it is will- 
ingly allowed that there can be no doubt as to the beneficial effects of the reformatory 
system in the diminution of crime. Mr. Tartt gave sufficient facts to prove that, out 
of 100 boys, 50 may be considered as reclaimed; 25 only as certainly bad; and the 
remainder are either middling, doubtful, or lost sight of. As regards its individual 
effects, all this (he observed) is very satisfactory ; indeed it would be so if we reduced 
our estimate of the successes by one half; and, in other respects, the good effects 
were equally shown. When it was the practice to sentence juvenile offenders to two 
or three weeks’ imprisonment, they were, on the expiration of their terms, usually 
met or welcomed by their former companions, and were reconducted to the haunts 
and habits from which they would, often, have been willingly freed. The conse- 
quence was a continued course of petty crime, followed by punishments repeated 
with more or less frequency, according to the degree of vigilance in the police or of 
dexterity in the criminal. Since it has been permitted to send them toareformatory, 
society is relieved from their depredations during the time of their detention; the 
schools and associations for crime are broken up; and even if the individual is not 
reclaimed, he is generally removed from the scene of his former pursuits; or is 
relieved by employment, either at home or abroad, from immediate temptation. That 
the aggregate of crime has thus been lessened there cannot be a doubt. The Judi- 
cial Statistics, prepared at the Home Office, and several other returns, were cited in 
evidence. In connexion with his subject, Mr. Tartt referred to the ‘ Report on 
Criminal Returns,’ which he presented to the Section at last year’s meeting. The 
introduction of changes (he observed) is slowly admitted, partly on account of the 
difficulty they present in comparing previous with succeeding years, and partly on 
account of the official arrangements not being sufficiently extensive for the superin- 
tendence of more extensive work; but he again urged the adoption of two of the 
suggestions contained in the Report; one of them, the careful distinction between 
resident and non-resident offenders ; the other, the establishment of something similar 
to the Casters Judiciaires in France, for acquiring better knowledge than we can obtain 
at present of a criminal’s antecedents. Whatever tended to an improved knowledge 
and classification of the criminal, would assist in the suppression of crime. 
