SUPPRESSION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. 11 powers contemplated by the Bill, if made law, may be expected to remove this difficulty. "Difficulties have been found in obtaining sufficient funds for the support of such institutions; and the Bill contemplates that, failing the parents, those public funds which otherwise, and to a much heavier amount, must be burdened with the delinquents, should pay for their remedial training in habits of industry." DRAFT OF PROPOSED BILL: "WHEREAS juvenile delinquency has greatly increased in Scotland, and punishment by imprisonment has been found unavailing for its suppression : Be it therefore enacted, etc., "First. That from and after the passing of this Act, when any boy or girl, apparently under the age of sixteen years, shall be brought before any sheriff or magistrate, charged with any offence which it is competent for him to try summarily, and where it appears to such sheriff or magistrate that the accused party has been neglected in education, or moral and industrial training, or that it is otherwise expedient, it shall be lawful for such sheriff or magistrate, instead of adjudging the offender, upon conviction, to suffer punishment by imprisonment, to continue the diet for passing sentence sine die, and, by a writing under his hand, to order the offender to be sent to any School of Industry, or other similar institution, where industrial training forms a prominent part of the system pursued therein, for such period of time as may be found necessary for his or her proper secular and moral education, and training in habits of industry. Providing that the said school or other institution has been sanctioned by the Lord Advocate for Scotland, or the sheriff of the county within which it is situated; and that the directors thereof are willing to receive and retain the offender for such period as may be found proper and necessary for his or her thorough education and training. And in the event of any such offender deserting from said school before being regularly discharged therefrom, then he or she may and shall be brought up under the recorded conviction, and sentence may and shall be given in such manner as might have been given at the time when first convicted; and that notwithstanding the lapse of year and day from the date of conviction, or any other rule or form usually observed in criminal proceedings. But in the event of the said young person remaining in said school or institution until regularly discharged therefrom, then said conviction shall be held as quashed, and no sentence or punishment shall follow thereon. "Second. That when any idle or vagrant boy or girl, apparently under the age aforesaid, shall, from and after the passing of this Act, be brought before any sheriff or magistrate, though not accused of any actual offence, it shall be lawful for the said sheriff or magistrate, with consent of the parents, or other ostensible guardians of such young person, to order, by a writing under his hand, such young person forthwith to be transmitted to, and received at, any School of Industry, or other similar institution, sanctioned as aforesaid, and the directors of which may be willing to receive and retain such young person for such period of time as may appear necessary for his or her thorough education and training in habits of industry. And the said sheriff or magistrate shall take from the said parents or guardians such obligation as he deems fit; for or to account of the board of such young person. "Third. That when any boy or girl has been sent by any sheriff or magistrate to such school or similar institution as aforesaid, such young person wilfully deserting therefrom_before being discharged, and refusing immediately to return thereto on being brought before any sheriff or magistrate of the jurisdiction within which such institution is situated, may, on the complaint of any person who may prosecute, upon confession or proof of the fact, be ordered, such boy to be privately whipped, not exceeding twenty stripes, in presence of a surgeon appointed for that purpose, who shall have power to stay the punishment, where such becomes necessary, in its progress, and under the regulations after provided, and immediately sent back to the institution; and on a second desertion to be again similarly whipped, not exceeding forty stripes; and such girl to be imprisoned in separate confinement, and fed on bread and water, for a period not exceeding twenty days; and so for every such wilful desertion of such boy or girl. 66 'Fourth. That when any boy or girl has been sent to such institution as aforesaid, by any sheriff or magistrate, any person who shall directly or indirectly withdraw, or attempt to withdraw, such young person from such institution, before he or she has been regularly discharged therefrom, or conceal or harbour such young person, or otherwise wilfully prevent his or her return, then such person so offending shall, on the complaint of any person who may prosecute, be liable in a penalty not exceeding five pounds sterling, to be recovered on summary complaint before any sheriff or magistrate, on confession or proof by the oath of one credible witness; and failing payment, the offender may be imprisoned for any period not exceeding sixty days, unless said penalty be sooner paid; and such penalty, deducting the expense of prosecution, shall be paid over to the treasurer of the institution in which such young person was placed, for behoof thereof; and the prosecution shall be conducted in the form, (as nearly as may be,) and subject to all the provisions of the Act 9 Geo. IV., cap. 29. Fifth. That in every case where any boy or girl has been sent by any sheriff or magistrate to such institution as aforesaid, it shall be competent for the treasurer, or other officer of such institution, to prosecute the parents of such young persons for the cost of their support therein, and to recover the same from the means and effects of such parents; and in respect of the alimentary nature of the claim, with power to imprison on the decree; and such debt shall be preferable to all and every other claim. 66 Sixth. That where the boy or girl shall be sent to such institution as aforesaid, instead of being sent to prison, on conviction of offence, and where the cost of the support of such young person has not been recovered from the parents of such child, it shall be competent for the treasurer, or other officer of such institution, to receive and recover the cost of such support from the prison board of the county within which the offence was committed; and such cost is hereby declared to be a valid charge upon the funds under the management of the prison board, under the Acts 2nd and 3rd Victoria, cap. 42, and 7th and 8th Victoria, cap. 34: And wherever the said boy or girl is sent to such institution without conviction of actual offence, then it shall be competent for the treasurer, or other officer of such institution, to receive and recover the amount of such support from the parochial board of the parish on which such young person would be chargeable if a pauper, wherever the parochial board by its inspector has previously consented to the admission of such young person to such institution; and such cost is hereby declared to form a valid charge upon the funds within the management of the said parochial board, under the Act 8 and 9 Victoria, cap. 83; and declaring that the amount of such cost shall be taxed and ascertained by a certificate under the hand of the treasurer, or other officer of the said institution, and certified by any two justices of the peace for the county wherein such institution is situated; and such sums shall be annually, and as on the 31st day of December in every year, charged against the said prison board and parochial board for the year then ending, and shall be recoverable and sued for within three months after the lapse of every such year, and not thereafter; and the amount may be competently sued for under the Sheriff Small Debt Act, 1st Victoria, cap. 41, although the amount be greater than the sum to which the prosecutions by the said Act is limited; and on payment of said sums, the said prison board and parochial board shall have all competent remedy for relief and recovery of the sums so paid against all parties bound in relief and payment thereof. PRIESTLY INTIMIDATION. 13 "Seventh. That where a boy, apparently not exceeding in age sixteen years, accused for the first time of any crime or offence for which imprisonment is the proper and recognised punishment, shall be brought before any sheriff or magistrate competent to try the offence, it shall be lawful for such sheriff or magistrate, upon conviction, and wherever it appears to him expedient, instead of passing sentence of imprisonment, or sending him to an institution, as aforesaid, to adjudge the offender to be chastised by private whipping, not exceeding twenty stripes, to be inflicted in presence of a surgeon appointed for that purpose, and who shall have power to stay the punishment wherever such become necessary in its progress, and under such other and farther regulations as may from time to time be made by the sheriff of each county, and approved of by Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department. "Eighth. That where such offender, after being once so punished, shall be again convicted of the like offence, with the aggravation of previous conviction, and still apparently under the age aforesaid, it shall be lawful for such sheriff or magistrate, without or in addition to imprisonment, to adjudge the offender to similar punishment, and this as often as the same party may be convicted of said offence, while apparently under the said age, but the number of stripes in no case to exceed forty under any one conviction and sentence, always under the regulations above provided for." PRIESTLY INTIMIDATION. (To the Editor of the Liverpool Courier.) SIR,-As many false reports have been made respecting the doings at Hodson Street, will you kindly favour me by inserting the following: 66 On Wednesday evening, December 4th, 1850, the first open attack was made upon our Ragged School, Hodson Street, by the priests. Two priests, both connected with Holy Cross Chapel, in Great Crosshall Street, accompanied by a layman, presented themselves at the door of our school. Admission was demanded on behalf of the Catholic children" who attended there. This was most decidedly refused. They then tried to force their way in, and were only prevented by the threat of being given in charge to the police as trespassers. They then left the door for a little, and went up Hodson Street, about thirty yards, and endeavoured to collect the parents together. They succeeded in gathering about twenty, to which a crowd amounting to about two or three hundred people added themselves. With this mob they then returned to the school, and one of the priests, whose name is Father Noble, called upon the parents to come forward and demand their children. This the parents did; and after having got about fourteen children out of our school, (for every child that was asked for by the parents was immediately sent out,) they then began to speak to the mob, and Priest Noble said, in my hearing, that this was a soup school. I interrupted him by telling him that that was false-no soup or any provision being given to the children to secure their attendance. He said "he was determined it should cease." I said I was determined, with God's help, it should not cease. He then asserted that nothing good was taught them in the school, but everything bad and tending to bad. This I politely told him was also false. He then said that, "If, after that night, any parent sent their children, or allowed them to go to this Protestant school, he would not attend them on their death-bed." This told more upon the mob than anything else that he said. He then told them all to go home, which, after some little time, they did. A circumstance occurred afterwards worthy of note. Many of the children, though beaten by their mothers in the presence of the priests, who did not interfere to prevent them, yet, as soon as the mob dispersed, returned to their teachers; and when we dismissed our school we had an attendance of one hundred and eighty. Many of the children were beaten on their way home, and so would our teachers have been but for the ready attendance and great assistance of some of the police. On Thursday afternoon I am informed that Priest Noble again came into Hodson Street, threatened, as before, any parents who would allow their children to attend; and again on Friday evening, at half-past six, the same priest, in company with three others, mounted upon a cart, before one of the houses nearly opposite our school, and addressed a mob of at least four or five hundred people. The nominal object of the meeting was to advocate temperanceI suppose because he intended to use language without temperance for a more violent, unguarded, and exciting speech I never heard. The chief object of it was our school, and, amongst other words, one of them said he would not be surprised if mothers would see their children burning in hell because they came to this Protestant school. Many other such things were spoken, after which the meeting dispersed, some to go to the Popish school in Blackstock Street, and others to attend a meeting at Holy Cross Chapel. Notwithstanding all this, not one of our teachers absented himself, but all were determined to persevere, and we were amply rewarded by an attendance of 120 children— 66 boys and 54 girls. It was a sad sight to behold the poor children in tears, when forced to leave their kind teachers to encounter the fury and the rage of their parents, excited beyond measure by the false and exciting words of their priests.-I remain, your obedient servant, Liverpool, December 6th, 1850. THE RESCUED ONE. I. List, stranger, to the ragged boy, I've heard some parents love their sons, What care I for yon merry din, II. Weary, and worn, foregone, forgot, ROBERT W. WOLSELEY, Poetry. My heart was wither'd up and dried, Curate of St. John's. Few save the poor, feel for the poor; It is to be of needful food And needful rest debarr'd. Their paths are paths of plenteousness, The weary head lies down. They never by the window lean, L. E. L. Editor's Portfolio. ATHEISM AMONG THE PEOPLE. [UNDER this title Lamartine has issued an earnest protest against the Atheistic Socialism so rife in France, and an eloquent plea for religion as the vital element of reform.-We give the concluding paragraphs:] 66 See Mirabeau on his death-bed. Crown me with flowers,' said he; 'intoxicate me with perfumes; let me die with the sound of delicious music.' Not one word of God or of his soul! A sensual philosopher, he asks of death only a supreme sensualism; he desires to give a last pleasure even to agony. Look at Madam Roland-that strong woman of the Revolution-upon the car that carries her to death. She looks with scorn upon the stupid people, who kill their prophets and their sibyls. Not one glance to Heaven; only an exclamation for the earth she leaves: 'Oh, Liberty!' 66 66 'Approach the prison door of the Girondines: their last night is a banquet, and their last hymn is the Marseillaise! "Follow Camille Desmoulins to punishment:-a cold and indecent pleasantry at the tribunal; one long imprecation on the road to the guillotine; those are the last thoughts of this dying man, about to appear on high! "Listen to Danton upon the platform of the scaffold, one step from God and immortality:-'I have enjoyed much; let me go to sleep,' he says;—then to the executioner, You will show my head to the people; it is worth while!' Annihilation for a confession of faith; vanity for his last sigh: such is the Frenchman of these latter days! "What do you think of the religious sentiment of a free people, whose great characters seem to walk thus in procession to annihilation; and die without even death, that terrible minister, recalling to their minds the fear or the promises of God? Thus, the Republic,-which had no future,-reared by these men, and other parties, was quickly overthrown in blood. Liberty, achieved by so much heroism and genius, did not find in France a conscience to shelter it, a God to revenge it, a people to defend it, against that other Atheism called Glory! All was finished by a soldier, and by the apostasy of republicans travestied into courtiers! And what could you expect? Republican Atheism has no reason to be heroic. If it be terrified, it yields. Would one buy it, it sells itself; it would be most foolish to sacrifice itself. Who would mourn for it ?-the people are ungrateful, and God does not exist. "Thus end Atheistic revolutions! 66 If you wish that this revolution should not have the same end, beware of abject Materialism, degrading Sensualism, gross Socialism, of besotted Communism; of all those doctrines of flesh and blood, of meat and drink, of hunger and thirst, of wages and traffic, which these corrupters of the soul of the people preach to you exclusively as the sole thought, the sole hope, as the only duty and only end of man! They will soon make you slaves of ease, serfs of your desires. 66 6 Are you willing to have inscribed on the tomb of our French race, as on that of the Sybarites, this epitaph: This people ate and drank well, while they browsed upon the earth? No! You desire that History should write thus: This people worshipped well, served God and humanity well, in thought, in philosophy, in religion, in literature, in arts, in arms, in labour, in liberty, in their aristocracies, in their democracies, in their monarchies, and their republics! This nation was the spiritual labourer, the conqueror of truth; the disciple of the highest God, in all the ways of civilization, and to approach nearer to him, it invented the Republic, that government of duties and of rights, that rule of spiritualism, which finds in ideas its only sovereignty.' "Seek God, then. This is your nature and your grandeur. And do not seek him in these Materialisms! For God is not below, he is on high!" |