REVIEWS. 427 



from various motives, will refuse to avail themselves of it ; and, if we 

 are to enjoy the benefit of general education, as a preventive of crime, 

 we must compel those to come to our schools whom the indifference, 

 poverty, or wickedness of their parents would keep away. 



In England, what are called Ragged Schools aim to provide, in 

 some degree, good influences and useful instruction for the most neg- 

 lected class. They have been found, in various places, to be attended 

 with the greatest advantage to the scholars and the community at 

 large ; but, to extend them sufficiently, and place them on a solid 

 basis, they absolutely need government aid, which has hitherto been 

 sought in vain, and the claim for which is energetically and powerfully 

 urged by our author. The concluding chapter of the work is on 

 " the co-operation of society ; " a short extract will show its spirit : — 



" It has been a painful task, probably, both to reader and to writer, to follow 

 our Convicts in their lawless career, living in defiance of God and of man ; to see 

 them dogged and defiant in incarceration ; to behold them, when in partial liberty, 

 only more daring, more hostile to society, gathering strength for new outrages ; 

 to find them again in the world, schooled to new modes of wickedness, corrupting 

 all within their sphere, preying on the peaceful part of society, and, as it were, 

 licensed marauders, until they should, by some extraordinary deed of wickedness* 

 again put themselves within the grasp of the law. It was necessary to know the 

 evil, in order to seek for a cure ; — to learn the causes of it, that we may discover 

 means of preventing its constant recurrence. 



"We have not, however, been exclusively occupied with scenes of vice. We 

 have had the happiness of contemplating order, diligence, a spirit of brotherly 

 kindness and Christian obedience, succeeding a life of reckless lawlessness, — and 

 this in a Convict Prison. We have seen the men who formerly were ruffians of 

 various descriptions, skilful house-breakers, men who preferred a life of dishonest 

 idleness to one of honest labour, — we have seen these very men, after their time 

 of penal servitude had been completed, go forth in voluntary subjection to the 

 law of the land, engaging in humble laborious work among their fellows, atoning 

 to society for their past misdeeds by their present virtuous lives. 



" We trust, then, that faith in human nature, and in the power of the good and 

 the true, has thus been strengthened, not shaken by the foregoing survey, and 

 that many have been incited to put to themselves the question, — " What shall we, . 

 — shall /do ? " It is the objeet of this concluding chapter to point out some of 

 the ways in which society may thus cooperate with the Government." 



The object of our notice is to induce as many as possible to read the 

 book. 



If we consider the experience on the subject, which a life devoted' 

 to philanthropic labours has given her, and the diligence, cafe, and 

 sound judgment displayed in the selection of materials, we shall see 



