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To the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Sir, — Believing that the present is a favorable time to urge upon the consideration of both the Govern- ment and people of the Province the claims of a class of unfortunates who can neither plead for them- selves nor understand the wretchedness of their condi- tion, I shall beg for a little space in your columns, to act the part of an advocate for them, and will be great- ly mistaken if sufficient philanthropy is not found in this city and province, or of justice and wisdom in the Government, to recognize the claim and ameliorate the condition of those to whom I refer. The clasSj sir, whose case I would bring before the public, consists not only of juvenile offendersi, but em- braces non-oifending juveniles as well. It comprises young persons of both sexes who have entered upon a life ot crime, and children of every age, who, from the circumstances in which they are placed, must of neces- sity become criminals as soon as they are capable. The case of Mrs. Turner and her four hapless chil- dren, who were sent to gaol a few days ago, though very erroneously reported in some of the city papers, stirred up the public sympathy in a very remarkable degree. But it is neither from erroneous statements, nor from temporary excitement founded upon a highly colored painting of a case that sound and beneficial re- forms can be expected to proceed ; and it is not a little remarkable that the sympathy created in favor of Mrs. Turner would seem to have expended itself already. True Mrs. Turner is proved to be, not the virtuous de- siring pei.':on she had represented herself ; but can that fact weaken the claims of little Eliza, Samuel, Sarah, and Ann Turner, aged 10, 8, 5, and 3 years? Does not that very fact become the strongest plea in favor of those unoffending little creatures? If indeed the mother was sober and virtuous, wrestling against poverty, her chil- dren might often teel the pinching cold and the keen cravings of hunger ; but virtue would be instilled into them, and every year would see their troubles dimin- ishing, till ere long they would all, if spared, be sure to eat the «weet and wholesome bread of their own in- dustry. Leave those children under the tuition and care of this bad mother, and sad experience tells me what they must all become. Their state at this mo- ment is indeed bad enough. Convicted and sent to gaol, to be kept at hard labour — placed in the unwhole- some atmosphere of a crowded ward, and associated with depravity in its lowest state ; and all this ere they had been taught to know any\;hing either of the laws of God or man ! Surely this is sending them to school with a vengeance — the school of vice. Will they not learn? Yes, reader, they will learn. Experience knows they will, if they are not something more or less than human. At present they are sheltered fom cold and hunger : — two months hence they will be upon the streets again, and the feelings that prompted the PoUce Magistrate to send them to gaol at first, will doubtless be called into exercise again, and thus matters will go on, the family meanwhile increasing in number, and sinking down into deeper depravity. Let us now anti- cipate the family history of the Turners by two or three years to come. The name will then be quite familiar to every reader of the Police reports, and the gaol will be the only home on earth known to those unfortunate children Time however will have done its work ; sympathy will not then dictate their commitment, and society will not be moved to pity them any more. Pu- nitive justice will deal with them, and society will ap- prove its necessary award, consigning to a long impri- sonment the incorrigible pests. The wise man said, — *'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Three years training by a depraved mother, with the gaol and its associations for a school-house, what will it not effect 1 That little girl often years will, in three more, have practically joined the ranks of the abandoned. Little Samuel will be an expert young pick-pocket, and the other children will be pressing close upon their heels along the same downward path. Justice will look with unfeigned astonishment upon such precious depravity, while it punishes the young delinquents /or having lear^ ned the only lesson they were ever taught. If the case of the little Turners was a solitary one, it would be no reason why society should not put forth the hand to save those poor little girls from a life of prostitution, and the boys from a felon's fate. But alas ! this case, in all its features, is by no means a solitary one. The children of vagrants are growing up to a life of crime, and yet society looks on with folded arms. Occasionally a growl is heard against the mal- construction of our prison, and the absence of proper classification and discipline a- niong its inmates, and for the moment every eye is turn- ed to the gaol as the origin of all evil. Or, as in the present instance, the benevolence of society is appealed to, and the better feelings of our nature find vent in projecting plans for amelioration. But so long as the evil keeps a safe distance from the persons and proper- ties of those who have influence, few will be found to take any further trouble about the matter, and so it falls to the ground. Both the remedy and the true cause of the disease are allowed to remain as before. The treatment of juveniles is one of first importance and the state of our prisons physically as well as mor- ally, in whatever light the subject may be viewed, can hardly be regarded as one of minor importance. But society must not be allowed to suppose that the whole of the evil is to be found in these, or can be cured in them. Bad laws, and the maladministration of them, lie more nearly at the foundation of the evil than the casual observer would be likely to imagine. I shall, with your permission, devote my spare hours to these subjects, giving the result in your journal. In the mean time, I have the honor be, Your obedient servant, Montreal, 7th February, 1857. PHILANTHROPY. LETTER IL To the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Sir, — That there is scaicely any question which can occupy the public mind of greater importance to the best interests of society, nnd that there is not one which presents greater difficulties to the Legislature of this Provi ice, than the enactment of laws for juvenile delin- quents and the proper mode ot treating this claas of offenders or unfortunates, are statements that will appear greatly exaggerated to the vast majority even of persons of considerable intelligence, and yet I make them advisedly and with ample opportunities for obser- vation and reflection- Tho truth of these statements has been felt in its full proportions where legislation has been brought to bear upon the question^ and it is further confirmed by the acknowledged failures which have been the result in the majority of cases. Doubtless our own Legislature have felt the difticultieii of the case and have in consequence delayed to enact laws which it were better not to pass at all, than, having been pass- ed, to prove not only a failure, but also an obstacle to further legislation. To the mere speculator and the theorist who hastily glance over annual reports, official returns, &c, little or no difficulty will appear — they could sit down and compile a few pithy extracts from such printed reports and essays, and in a few hours give a perfect recipe for juvenile delinquency and its treatment with as much confidence as quack medicines are puffed in the public newspapers, and with about as much real knowledge of the disease, and chance of success in one case as in the other. I feel that 1 can- not too earnestly insist upon the difficulty that sur- rounds this subject, and more especially in a community like our own, made up as it is of persons professing different creeds, speaking different language's, and claiming different national descent. Every one of these separate, and in some degree rival distinctions, may become powerful to throw obstacles in the way of legis- lation on this subject, while not one of them can be of any practical use or be so much as recognised in work- ing out a well digested and comprehensive law for the juvenile. On this point, however, I shall speak more fully hereafter. In the mean time I would lay it down as a proposition that the Legislature, and the Legis- lature alone, must assume the responsibility both of framing laws and superintending their execution for the treatment and prevention of juvenile delinquency. But before the correctness of this proposition can be established it will be necessary that we somevvhiii care- fully examine the main question, viz juvenile delin- quency as it exists in this district, together wiui its causes and consequences. ? The loud alarm rung by the press when Mrs. Turner and her four little children were sent to gaol, and the excitement it caused among the more chari- 8 table and intelligent portion of the community, would seem to indicate that instances of what I shall denomi- nate wholesale family commitments, are supposed to be of very rare occurrence. Such, however, is not the fact; the Turners' is the eighth commitment of this kind since the commencement of the year — the number of the family of course was not the same in every case, but all consisted of two or more children. And by the term children I do not mean babes upon the breast — this would swell the list fearfully — I mean those only who have arrived at such a degree of maturity as to be sus- ceptible of external influences for good or evil. Juven- ile delinquency, however, is a term much too compre- hensive to be rf^stricted to cases of this nature ; chil- dren of this class receive much of their education in gaol ; but there is another class who have made great proficiency before they are brought to gaol for the first time. But before having ths prison let me state that there are at this moment, sheltered and fed within its walls, no less than twenty children of fourteen years and under. Nearly all of these have one or both parents with them, but same have none, and are friendless and alone in the world. During eleven and a half months of this year, one hundred and eighty-three commitments have been fyled in the gaol, consigning to that <'den of vice" as it is not inaptly called, a like number of young people of both sexes of seventeen years and under. Many of these have been committed several times al- ready, and are entered on the books of the gaol as "old offenders." Girls of twelve years and upwards have already become unblushing prostitutes, and boys of eleven are already expert thieves. How sad ! How sickening is the thought, that there are now in this city more than one hundred young persons for whom courts and prisons have lost all their terrors, and to whom a sentence of imprisonment in the gaol, or even in the penitentiary, appears in no worse light than a tempo- rary interruption in the pursuit of their ordinary avo- 9 cations ! But, with many of them, even tliis restraint is not felt, young as they are, and without another home. The prison is an indispensable retreat. In it medical attendance, with proper care and comfort, cost nothing, and the tedium of confinement is more than compeu' sated by the society of others of like character, the recital of whose lives and ad ventures enlivens the scene, lends a charm to crime, and stifles the voice of con- science which, in the absence of such companions, would assert its power and make its voice heard. Now, this cannot be too strongly impressed upon the public mind, that imprisonment under existing circumstances is not regarded by the juvenile who has commenced a vicious course as a punishment, and especially when the terra of imprisonment is limited to a few weeks or months. In some cases as already stated, such a sentence is desirable, and in the others, at most, it is felt as an inconvenience. But this is a digression. •''> •" Having shewn that nearly two hundred commitments of juveniles took place during the year, or about one- ninth of che whole number of prisoners for the same period, the casual reader will be apt to imagine that he has seen the full extent of the evil and its causes too ; and he naturally exclaims — the gaol is indeed a " den of vice," a very hot-bed of iniquity. He will cry out, improve the prison and place its inmates under proper classification and discipline, and it will be well. The gaol is indeed a sink of evil, but what else can it be ? Has it not been built designedly to be the recep- tacle of the depraved? Do3s not every polluted streamlet in the district discharge its foul droppings into it ? And if this were not enough, have not the sweepings of the poor houses in Ireland been cast into it 1 Will fermentation be checked by collecting the damp grain into a large heap ? Will it not rather pro- ceed with greater rapidity ? In such circumstances, will not a little leaven leaven the whole lump 1 Will not the depraved emigrant, who has figured before B 10 I) the Courts of Justice in Europe, and left a record of his deeds upon the prison calendar there, pass for a sort of hero among homely thieves and prostitutes 1 And will not the lessons of the gaol hecome more varied, and crimes not before attempted be introduced by such adventurers'? As an illustration of this, I would ask, have not new crimes sprung up and fearfully increased of late, that were at one time hardly known in Canada — incendiarism for instance 1 And might not the pros- titutes of this city, twenty years ago, be regarded as modest, when compared with the abandoned street- walker of the present day ? .^ ^V - I would close this letter by urging the improvement of the prison and discipline at any cost. But if we stop here, we would be merely pouring water on the smoke, while the fire that caused it continued to rage unchecked. The evil must be reached at its source ; the noxious weed must be nipped in the bud ; the child must be separated from parents who would only train it up to vice. As we pull down a worthless shed or stable to stay the conflagration, so must the family tie, sacred though it be, be snapped asunder when it becomes manifest that it could only be tolerated for evil to all concerned. Society must act on the defensive, and in protecting itself against juvenile delinquents under a well digested system, none will feel the benefit or profit so much by its operation as juvenile delinquents themselves. > ^ .. r. ? I have the honor to be. Sir, «. v.i.' Your obedient servant, i* *> '. ; PHILANTHROPY. Montreal, March 17th, 1857. /. . , i ■ .: «*; .V; ■ iu:d 11 LETTER III. 'li-'*** ' .' ':'.:o'l.'. ' ' To the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. r vj Sir, — The proposition with which I closed my last letter, will doubtless appear a little startling to many. To snap asunder the parental tie, undo the law of na- ture, and I may add the law of God ; — say to the parent your authority over the child shall cease ; and to the child, you shall cease to honor and obey your parent, are words of indeed solemn import. And to carry out the proposition would be to incur very serious respon- sibility. It therefore becomes those who would suggest such a course, and those who are called upon to adopt It to weigh the matter well. Can expediency require, or can such a necessity arise as would justify such an exercise of power? VVhen I glance from this sheet at that romping little flock with their happy faces, my feelings revolt against the base idea of any power on earth presuming to stand between me and my children, and deprive me of one of God's choicest blessings. And when I reflect that in the rudest hovel, as much as in the lordly mansion, such a separation as the one under consideration, would be regarded as the greatest of earthly calamities, I feel, assuming that separation is justifiable, and even necessary, it should not be lightly made. Society should have the best guarantee that such power should be entrusted only to hands that would use it with prudence. But I return to ex- amine whether there be such a necessity as would justify, and even demand the exercise of such power. Let us follow Mrs. Turner and her four hapless children to the gaol, and look at another family picture — but how different. There, in that long room, you can count no less than ten children of all ages, from ten years down to eight months. They are all with their mother under the same circumstances as the little Turners. The history of one is substantially the history of them all ; 12 li vll the gaol is their home, and the city is their begging ground. From one to two months makes up their average stay in the gaol at one time, and the interval of their absence from it seldom exceeds a few days in winter, and as many weeks in summer. What a care- worn anxious expression — the unmistakable evidence of hardship — sits already upon some of their young faces, where mirth and health should beam. Poor little crea- tures, their lot is hard indeed. Treated as criminals before they can discern evil from good, and without any act or will of their own, locked up in a prison, sur- rounded by its demoralizing associations, there to re- ceive first lessons and to have impressions made upon memory which will not be effaced through life. Will the gaol, or the sentence of the Judge, have any terrors for children who have been prisoners ever since they can remember, and who have found more of the comforts of life in the prison than any where else 1 Will vice even in its lowest and most revolting aspect, create any alarm in the minds of children whose ears have been familiarized with the filthy conversation of the most depraved while in prison, and whose eyes have witnessed the licentious conduct of their own mothers when out of prison ? Reader, I am not drawing a pic- ture, I am writing facts. I am writing from knowledge, but decency must check words. The facts that may not be stated, but which must be left to the imagination, would appear incredible to many. It is right, however, I should state that instances are not rare of daugh- ters who have been trained up in the manner I am now describing, viz. from gaol to the streets with their mothers, who have become prostitutes at the age of twelve or thirteen. And I have a painful apprehension upon my mind, that such will be the fate of the little girls now in g^ol with their mothers if they are allowed to remain with them. Reader, let me now introduce you to a poor young creature, whose brief history is full o my purpose. In that bed in the same long room, lies 13 one of those poor victims of neglect and prison com- panioni>hip. That poor wast i form was a pretty little girl when I saw her first, .bout three years ago. She then came to the gaol to visit the McG family, a mother and her daughters, who were frequent inmates of the gaol. She was not suffered to see them ; but in a very little while after, she was committed to gaol with this family, and has been but little out of it ever since. Now let her own tongue tell her tale : — " My father died while I was very young, and my mother got married again when I was about eight years of a^e. I was not kept at school, but allowed to run about and ask for coppers in the streets. I got acquainted with other little girls who did the same ; they were Mrs. McG 's daughters ; they were often sent to gaol with their mother. I went to see them, but was not allowed. About three years ago my mother took a fever and was sent to the hospital ; my step- father, who had never been kind to me, now left me and went to a boarding house, and as I had no friend to stay with, I got myself committed to gaol with the McG 's, and before I came out my mother died and I had no friend in the world, so I stuck to the McG 's and I hare been a great many times in gaol since then. We used to beg when we came out of gaol, but for the last year I have been doing worse. It was the McG girls that led me into it, (prostitution) but I had no other way of living." 1 Such is the history of little Mary H — n, aged sixteen years. Now, who is to blame for all this ? Has this child most sinned, or been most sinned against ? Has society performed its part to her 1 Would any father in the whole community desire that his daughter should be so dealt with ? Well then, we have not done our duty. Reader, you doubtless feel for the hard fate of this poor young outcast. You may drop a tear when you read this short story. Yes, you would unloose the ptirse string and feel that money would be well spent 14 in snatching such an one from destruction ; but ah, it is too late. Money cannot help her now — death has marked her out for his prey, and the virtue she has forfeited cannot be brought back. We are powerless to repair what we might have prevented. Not so with little Sarah and Mary Ann Turner; they are still within our reach. Two or three years and they will have passed beyond it forever ; that insatiable demon (lust) will have seized upon them, and have dragged them into that fearful gulf that has swallowed up so many — oh ! how many of the lovliest of our race. Christians, citizens, rulers, I would call upon you for help. Put forth the hand even now, and do what may be done to arrest juvenile delinquency. Do you ask for further evidence to prove the necessity of prompt action in this matter, and to justify the taking of children fro»n bad parents who would only train them up to evil 1 Well here it is. I shall not select, but take the first case that comes to hand ;it is the family referred to — the McG*s. This family appear upon the gaol calendar for the last four or five years ; the daughters were mere children when first committed, but they have made rapid pro- gress in learning what they were taught. In November 1854 Jane was 12 years of age, but she was already a bold and hardened prostitute ; a sentence of two months was mere pass-time to her. She therefore adds theft to her other accomplishments, and was convicted of her first larcency on the 9th of January, 1855, and sentenced to four months in the House of Correction. Her sister Mary is two years older than this girl, and though she has not been detected in any felony as yet, she has been a public prostitute since she was twelve years of age. Unlike the first poor orphan who was led to de- struction by these bad girls, they have a mother, and mother and girls go together in their abandoned career. Cases of this kind might be multiplied, but for the present these must suffice. My object is not to write the history of the gaol, but to demonstrate that a state 15 of things does exist, and to an extent not only to justify, but to render the separation of children from their pa- rents a bounden duty. Where, it will be asked, shall such a work begin 1 I answer, it must begin with the people. The Legislature must work the matter into shape, and the Executive Government must assume the responsibility of carrying out the law, when once it shall have passed. But society must rise up and ask for the measure which shall deal with juvenile delin- quency, as well for its prevention as for its cure. Thousands of pounds can be raised to celebrate the opening of a piece of road, and prodigally expended in rich feasts for the affluent, who never knew what it was to want a single meal. And tens of thousands can be raised to erect colleges, where the sons of the wealthy may receive the ftnishing touch and polish to make them shine through life. And hundreds of thousands are annually spent in keeping up prisons and penitentiaries, and in mantaining the costly machinery of criminal justice. But, save the Marsteller bequest, no hand has been as yet stretched in the direction of the class for whom I write. Doubtless there have been large sums spent every winter in what is called charity, by the different churches ; and temporary relief in the shape of food, clothing and fuel, has been liberally dispensed ; but so far from this effecting any permanent good, it has* fostered the very evil I am considering. Now the project I advocate, if carried out judiciously, will not add to the burdens of either Church or State ; but it will bring hundreds who would never darken a church-door within the reach of its instruction ; it will save the public purse thousands annually ; and, what is infinitely more, it may save hundreds of young per- sons of both sexes from guiU and misery in this life, and from eternal misery in that which is to come. I have the honor to be, Sir, : i iM » Your obedient servant, ' ' - ; ■ H ■ ; ; . PHILANTHROPY. Montreal, Feb. 25, 1857. 16 '^1 LETTER IV. . To the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. ' >., \\ _,/ .-,'■.• -■ '• . '■ '■ '■> ' Sir,— It will gratify many of your readers to know that since the publication of my last letter, the Ladies of the Benevolent Society have through the agency of Mr. Carson, City Missionary, received Eliza, Samuel, and Sarah Jane Turner into their noble institution. What intense delight does the mind experience, (as we read such statements as sometimes meet the eye,) when a child is saved from the very jaws of death — taken from the window of a burning room just as the devour- ing element was about to swallow it up. Well here are three little children plucked as brands from the burning ; and, oh ! \''hat a burning ! How little can they realize its horrors of loathsomeness and misery, who have never been placed in a position to contem- plate the darkest shades of human depravity, as exhi- bited among congregated masses of profligate men and women. Could I ever have conceived what the expe- rience of more than sixteen years has made so amazingly familiar to my mind, if I had not actually witnessed it ? What arithmetic can sum up the good which this one act may be the means of accomplishing ; or the fearful amount of wretchedness and guilt it has averted from these children and from society by this well-timed act? But if there be one sordid soul who could stand unmo- ved by considerations such as these, I can still approach such an one with arguments which even he can com- prehend. And I would ask such an one, to look at the vast annual expenditure of the public funds for the ad:ninistration of criminal justice— the effect of all which is acknowledged to be, that the criminals grow worse and worse— and then let him calculate if he can the vast amount that will be saved to the revenues of the Province by transferring these three children from prison to the Benevolent Institution. So much, then, 17 for what h?s been or may be done by individual bene- volence, or by charitable associations, without legis- lation. To all who have not made the difficulties of the subject a matter of special reflection, it may appear that we already possess all the requisites, if we only have the will to put an end to juvenile delinquency. Hence we find the warm, generous impulses of our na- ture manifesting their power, in plans and projects which, however erroneous in principle, and inadequate for the accomplishment aimed at, nevertheless prove that the necessity for making prompt exertions to turn the fearful tide of juvenile delinquency into the chan- nels of virtue and industry, is strongly pressing itself upon the public mind. I shall briefly notice one of these projects which is partly before the public, to show how much reflection is needed upon this very impor- tant subject. A correspondent writing in the Gazette of the 8th inst. calls my attention to the columns of the Montreal Witness, in which he says "it will be found that an offer was made by one of our citizens to be one of thirty who would give a hundred pounds towards the erection of a Protestant Juvenile Reformatory and House of Refuge, and to be one of six to take, if required, an active management in its affairs." This juvenile pro- ject is brought forward by your correspondent both to disprove my statement, that "save the Marsteller be- quest, no hand has as yet been stretched forth in the direction of this class for whom I write," and also to test the justice of my title to the signature over which I write, by challenging me to subscribe a hundred pounds towards the erection of the proposed Reforma- tory. Let me say to your correspondent, that there is some little difference between making an offer to do a thing, and doing it ; but, if the thing proposed by him was actually done, it would hardly affect the correct- ness of ray statement. The class for whom I write is neither Protestant nor Catholic. No, poor things, they know little about either, except the name ; and it is to c 18 be feared that their parents are scarcely better off in this respect. But if it were otherwise, " Philanthropy" has yet to learn whether there is one whit more of merit, or less of duty, in trying to save from a life of untold misery and guilt, a poor little boy or girl, because the father or grand-father is called a Protestant, than if he had been a Hottentot. If that be Protestantism which would limit its efforts to rescue juveniles from the paths and influences leading to the felon's dock or to the brothel, to children who could pronounce some secta- rian shibboleth, then I should tremble before Him who " hath made of one blood all nations of men," if I did not in my heart protest against it. The bare recogni- tion of the claim, deliberately giving themselves up to a profligate life, to rank among nominal professions, goes to encourage them in their downward course. What an idea ! — A protestant prostitute ! or, a Catholic Mistress of a Brothel ! Will the pestiferous influence of the wretched prostitute be less hurtful to society, be- cause, foroooth, her father or mother had been a few times to church during a long liie-time ; or, will it com- pensate the citizen, that the pick-pocket who abstracted his purse, calls himself a Protestant 1 Let me however take higher ground, and ask what part of the Divine Record directs us to limit our charitable endeavors to children whose parents make some sort of profession ? Now for the challenges. Your correspondent has doubt- less read the parable of the poor widow. Well, sir, I am too poor, and have so many juveniles of my own to provide for, that I must beg to decline the challenge, together with the fame of being ennobled and glorified in the columns of a public newspaper for the munifi- cent subscription, 4'c. But I do not repine that I have not hundreds to give away at once, and especially in the present instance ; believing, as I do, that the scheme proposed is essentially defective. The Ladies Benevo- lent Institution is in every respect adequate to the per- formance of all that may be accomplished without Le- 19 gislatioii. Better cond the promised hundreds to the ladies whose unwearied attention and long experience give them high superiority over any similar institution lacking such experience, than to start a rival, entailing heavy preliminary outlays. Let me now return to my starting point. The public will doubtless be anxious to learn what has become of Mrs. Turner's fourth child. Has she died in the gaol, or would the ladies not receive her 1 Not so, reader. Little Annie is quite well, and the ladies would wil- lingly receive her with the others ; but this bad mother positively refused to part with her, and the ladies have no alternative. The absence of such a law as that for which I am contending, allows the caprice of a profli- gate mother to triumph over the benevolent efforts made to save this little girl from the path of vice, and the unknown horrors of a life of prostitution. Poor little Annie, what a fearful penalty you are doomed to pay lor being "mammy's pet" ! Now let me ask — what could "six active managers of a Protestant Juvenile Reformatory and House of Refuge" do for this child, or for any child similarly circumstanced 1 Could they force little Annie from her mother ? Or, if in the Re- formatory, could they legally prevent the mother from taking her away whenever she pleased 1 Is it not therefore manilest, that the Reformatory could only ex- ist by the consent of such parents as Mrs. Turner? Let me therefore intreat "one of the thirty," and every true philanthropist, irrespective of creed or sect, to turn his influence in the right direction — begin the house at the foundation. First obtain the enactment of laws that will authorise the taking away from bad parents, children who could only grow up under their evil example, to become pests to society, in order that they may be trained up to industry and virtue. Let a public meeting be called, to sanction a petition to the different branches of the Legislature, praying for the enactment of necessary laws, and for the founding of 80 an institution into which children may be placed by competent authority without the distinction of race or creed. Let the maintenance and supervision of this institution rest with the Government as the common parent of all ; and let the diiferent teachers of religion have free access to the children belonging to the differ- ent creeds; and then the Juvenile Reformatory, armed with lull power, will possess adequate means, without waiting till the boy or girl has been contaminated or branded with crime. Nip the evil in the bud — not with a partial or palsied hand. For such an in- stitution soc' ty would have cause to be thankful, and the Govern.aent, in it, will have raised to their lasting honor, a monument of which Canada would have cause to be proud. Children will not then be doomed to the education of the prison and the brothel, but will re- ceive from society the attention and kindness which profligate parents deny them. In my next letter, I shall endeavour to define the limits within which the law I am contending for should be circumscribed ; and I shall further demonstrate that without Legislation, anything deserving the name of a Juvenile Reformatory is an impossibility. I have the honor to be. Sir, Your obedient servant. PHILANTHROPY. Montreal, January 17, 1857. LETTER V. To the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Sir — The Court of Quarter Sessions, which has just closed its sittings, furnished many strong arguments in favor of a Juvenile Reformatory ; and doubtless the presiding judge keenly felt the need of such an iustitu- 21 * tion, as one after another — scarcely tall enough to shew their heads above the dock — rose to receive sentence. Some had deserted their homes to get rid of parental restraint ; some had lost one of both of their parents, and the parents of others were either in the gaol or the penitentiary. Each one had a history peculiar to him- self, but there was one point which was common to them all, viz— left to themselves they had all by a longer or shorter course, met together in the felon's dock ; and young as they were, with most of them it was not the first time. But the difficulty was, how to dispose of them. They had already been punished with a few months in the gaol, and admonished that if they ever returned again, they would receive a more severe sen- tence. To send them to the penitentiary for a period of two years, would scarcely be an improvement upon sending them to the gaol. They would come out again with a still stronger impression of their degradation upon their minds, and before they had acquired moral habits, or a sufiicient knowledge of any business by which they could honestly maintain themselves. But if the sentence was increased, so as to give time for reformation and the acquirement of some industrial art, such a sentence would be manifestly disproportioned to the offence, and would stand in striking contrast with the sentence of older offenders. What a load would be removed from the mind of the Judge in such circumstances, if it were in his power to send these lit- tle pests to an institution that would at once protect society against their depredations, detach them from their evil companions and from careless or vicious pa- rents ; that would keep.them under proper restraint and impart to them moral and industrial training ; and so enable them to become useful members of society. Is there a Judge in either section of the Province, who ever presided at Criminal Courts, who would not re- gard such an institution as an inestimable boon ? Is there a gaoler or superintendent of a House of Correc- 2-2 » tion in Canada, who has the heart ot a parent in his bosom, who would not rejoice that a step had at length been taken iii the right direction 7 Enough has been advanced to demonstrate the necessity of providing an institution for the reception and training of young per- sons of both sexes, who would otherwise grow up in habits of vice and crime ; and also to prove that with- out Legislation, such an institution cannot exist. I shall therefore proceed to define the sphere within which legislation on this subject, to be benificial to all concerned, should operate ; conscious as I am, that the real difficulty of the question lies here. Few would be found to raise any objection against placing under the operation of a law for juveniles, all these little thieves who have figured before the late Court ; and, as a general thing, I presume, the propriety of allowing such a law to include all children convicted of vagrancy as well as the children of vagrant parents, would be freely conceded. But will society as cheerfully allow such a law to take away children who have never been convicted from their parents ? And will they as readily agree under what circumstances and to what extent such a power should be exercised 1 Every proprietor would justify the pulling down of a wortliless shed or tenement, in order to cut off the communication, and save his own valuable dwelling frojn the devouring ele- ment. The owner of the worthless house nriight how- ever have good reasoi' to complain, that the act he was powerless to prevent was fraught with great injustice to him. Now, for the very reason that the class for whom I write have no voice in making our laws, jnust our law-makers be careful that the bounds of justice shall not be exceeded in th-^ir nase. It is right to pull down a worthless fabric, when it becomes obvious that to allow it to stand longer would endanger property of great value, and perchance a nho- j city; but it would be manifestly unjust, to all w caprice or malice to pull 2;{ down the poor man's cot, because circumstances might arise in which danger would ensuot We must not, however, forget that the upright and virtuous are n»^. the only — and they are not even the chief — parties interested in the enactmeiit of law«^ for the separation of children from tht ir pare uts. The children themselves would be the chief gainers in every point of view. We do not, therefore, literally destroy the worthless shed to save the neighboring dwell] '?s ; but we collect all tliat is valuable of its materials, . • ii V W I Sir, — " The Speech from the Throne," delivered by His Excellency the Governor General at the opening of the present Parliament, will doubtless prove highly gratifying to the thousands and tens of thousands throughout Canada who, regardless of party predilec- tions, can rejoice in measures of needful reform. Inter- ested parties will, as a matter of course, fix upon par- ticular points in His Excellency's Speech for praise or animadversion as their interests may seem to be affected, and the rulers of a people generally seize upon great party measures and give them prominence in the Royal Speech, that party support may be secured. But when before have that wretched, helpless class, juvenile delinquents, found such an advocate to plead their cause? When before have this class — powerless as they are for party or political purposes — had their claims so prominently recognised, and so strongly and so feelingly urged upon the Councils of a nation as they have been by His Excellency on the present occasion ? The strong have many friends, but the weak cry long unheard. Factionists will see little to admire in mak- ing the improvement of our prisons and the separation of the mere youth from the hardened offender, questions of state policy ; and even good men who from their position cannot correctly estimate the importance or necessity of such measures, may be induced to think that too much prominence has been given to them on the present occasion. Man at best is selfish, and those who croak loudest against the importance given to prison improvement and the separation of juveniles from old offenders by the present Goverment, would croak as loud on the opposite side if they themselves became interested parties. And let it be remembered that there is no member of the community can say — " I 33 shall never be personally affected by such a measure. How often have I witnessed the feelings of indignation and dismay striving together in the breast of a highly respectable parent, on coming into the gaol to make arrangements for the care and comfort of a wayward son who had been committed a few hours before on suspicion of some crime, and finding that his boy was shut up in a ward with some dozen or two of all grades of criminals? The tone and manner of the gentle- man would give way to those of an outraged bully, as he indignantly reproved the officer in charge for his cruelty and injustice in placing his dear boy in the same ward with the most hardened and depraved. In vain would the gaoler assure him that he had no means at his disposal to act otherwise. The feelings of the parent could not be pacified by such an excuse. The outrage was too strong — the very idea was maddening, and as if to revenge what could not be prevented, the sense of injury would find vent in large denunciations against the Goverment and all its subordinates. Still more painful to witness the emotion of the virtuous mother whose daughter (perhaps her only one) had been sent to gaol. " Oh sir, you will keep my daughter away from bad characters, she is very young and 1 am sure she is innocent. Oh, say you will, she is my daughter." " Madam, I can sympathise with your very proper feelings, and would if it were m my power keep your daughter from contamination, while she is so un- fortunate as to be in my custody, if that were possible ; but"—" Oh sir, do not tell me you will not ! Name any sum and you shall have it, if I should sell my all to make it up— only say you will not put my poor child among bad women." " Alas, madam, except I were to build a room for your daughter, 1 have no means of complying with your wishes, and truth obliges me to say that the untried female ward contains women of the most abandoned character." Surely, if the mem- bers of the Legislature could witness such scenes as I . ■ ' E ■ // 34 have faintly depicted, and they are not of rare occur- rence, they would for once lay aside all opposition, they would meet the Goverment in the spirit ot justice and true philanthropy, and they would secure to Canada gaols in which the youth who unfortunately enters need not as a necessary consequence lose his health through the effects of bad ventilation, and lose every remain- ing sense of virtue by contact with persons whose very breath is infectious. And they would lay the founda- tions of an institution or institutions that would save from ruin the destitute and fatherless child, and save the Province from the ravages of bands of desperadoes trained up from youth in lessons of vice, and' annually maturing themselves for deeds of greater daring. Need 1 say again and again that such Juvenile Reformatories would in effect save the Province many thousands an- nually. Why is it then that this important subject, second in importance surely to none that can come be- fore this or any other Legislature, meets such a feeble response from the press of the Province ? Can it be that the press has neither heart nor ear for any thing that does not tell upon some opposing party in politics 1 (}ur Governor and his advisers in giving such promi- nence to the claims of juveniles and the improvement of our prisons, in the Royal Speech, have evinced a courageous magnanimity which, however little it may be appreciated or severely censured by mere party men, will, if faithfully carried out, do more for the true in- terests of Canada than has been done by any one Ses- sion of the Legislature since the union of the Provinces. The question of providing a suitable abode and proper training for our destitute juveniles and for chil- dren who are even worse than destitute, viz : children living with depraved parents, is now fairly before the country ; and the object which " Philanthropy" had in view^ on taking up his pen, would seem to be attained. Only let Government and people unite in an earnest endeavor to make our prisons what they should be. 85 and add to our other institutions a monument of our wisdom and philanthropy by founding juvenile refor- matories in such sections of the Province as may be found most suitable, and let those upon whom the respon- sibility rests of framing laws and arranging principles for the founding and management of such institutions see that their praiseworthy efforts be not thwarted by designing men or mere place-hunters. Let the princi- ple enunciated in His Excellency's speech, viz ; " ad- mission to the public offices shall depend on compe- tence, tested by impartial examination, rather than on favor or regard for individuals" — let, I say, this prin- ciple be honestly applied to the question under con- sideration, and the cavillers of the present day will becon.'j the friends and admirers of the institutions which shall spring up out of the measures now recom- mended to the attentive consideration of our Par- liament. A rare opportunity now presents itself to the mem- bers of the Legislature for winning for themselves a name that shall live in the memory of a grateful people after the fame of the mere champion of party politics shall have been forgotten or despised. Who shall lead the van and win the prize ? Who shall be foremost in laying the foundation stone of an institution that shall snatch from the path of crime and the haunts of vice the children of shame and misfortune, and train them up to become useful and valuable citizens 1 Yours will be the reward of a conscience opproving your con- duct— the highest reward a man can possess in his life ; and as the full benefits of the Juvenile Reformatory begin to be felt, you will have the thanks of a whole people ; and when the juveniles saved from the worst species of destruction grow up to experience and ap- preciate the blessings enjoyed by them, you will have their lasting gratitude. Members of Parliament, let not the golden oppor- tunity pass ;— raise your voice in behalf of the juven- I I 36 ile delinquent; — help the helpless, and earn for )^our- selves the testimony of an approving conscience, and a just title to the character ot— '" ■...>.■$: •/ PHILANTHROPY. 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