him, but rather to discourage, depress, and debase him. These Prisons are not fit places for such boys. They are not such places as the state, in the exercise of her guardianship over them, ought to provide.

Nor can there be any question of the pernicious influence, on juvenile offenders against the laws, of allowing them to go on unrestrained in the career of crime which they have commenced.

On the other hand, there can be no doubt of the reforming influence upon such boys of such an institution as we have described. This we might safely infer from the nature of a Reform School as it has just been set forth. But we have better evidence than any inferences of this kind the evidence of actual results.

"Of the 4397 boys and girls" (we quote from an able pamphlet on the design and advantages of the House of Refuge, recently published in Philadelphia, pp. 31, 32) received into the New York House of Refuge previous to January 1, 1849, it is believed that THREE FOURTHS have been saved from ruin and reformed. The public confidence in the value of this reformatory influence is silently evinced by the fact that the number of inmates has steadily increased from 182, in 1831, to 304, in 1848, and 355, in 1849; and now strenuous exertions are in progress greatly to enlarge the premises.

"Of the condition of the 2250 inmates received into the Philadelphia House of Refuge previous to January, 1849, quite as favorable a report would be fully warranted. The accounts received of many of them show not only the uprightness and respectability of their character, but their enterprise as men of business, and their worth as contributors to the welfare and advancement of the communities in which they live. The evidence of this is drawn from a variety of sources, from the masters and mistresses of the children in various parts of the country, and from neighbors whose knowledge is obtained from personal observation and general report, and though disappointment is sometimes experienced, and a reformation supposed to be radical turns out to be superficial, yet, on the whole, the known results of the system abundantly sustain its claims to public confidence."

The following extract from the presentment of the grand jury of New York to the Court of General Sessions, on the 23d of June, 1848, is weighty testimony on this point:

"House of Refuge, at the foot of Twenty-third Street. Here, for nearly a quarter of a century, has been in active and successful operation one of the noblest and most beneficent reformatory systems ever devised by human philanthropy. The physical, moral, and intellectual redemption of thousands, who were almost lost, has been achieved, and still the good work is going on faithfully and efficiently under the intelligent administration of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, and of the various officers to whom the execution of its design is intrusted. There are now in the Refuge 250 boys and 60 girls, chiefly supplied from the city, though small additions are made from other parts of the state. The inmates are carefully instructed in the useful branches of a plain English education, and are besides usefully employed in various handicrafts, qualifying them to fill reputable and advantageous stations in society, when they are fitted for a return to its duties and its privileges a great step to such return being effected by the system of binding out those whose conduct in the Refuge proves them worthy to such employers residing in the country as are willing to take apprentices from the institution. The records abound with proofs and illustrations

of the happy agency exerted in this way by the Refuge.

"The best evidences that can be afforded of good and humane management, on the part of those having the charge of these youthful candidates for reform, is the fact that, notwithstanding the unfavorable influences among which their childhood was generally passed,naturally tending to sow the seeds of disease, the grand jury found only two girls, and not one boy, on the sick list. Equally strong testimony to the moral care employed is presented in the established certainty that about three fourths of those who enter the institution leave it thoroughly reformed. Visits are continually received from such, now become prosperous and respected members of society." Report of the Prison Discipline Society for 1849, pp. 343, 344.

The trustees of the State Reform School of Massachusetts, in their last Annual Report, give their testimony thus: "The trustees do not hesitate to pronounce it as the result of their observation, that the experiment, so far as it has been tried, has proved a successful one. We can already, in looking over our three hundred boys, select not a few who are giving hopeful evidence that they have been stayed in their career of vice and crime; that new thoughts and better feelings are fast finding place in their bosoms; and that they are forming resolutions, which, if strengthened by right example and timely encouragement, will make them a future blessing to the society whose fundamental institutions their former training was rapidly preparing them to lay waste and to destroy."

We add the following paragraph from the Report of the Superintendent: "Owing to the short time since the school was opened, but little has been done in binding out boys- -seven only having been apprenticed, most of them under favorable circumstances, who are doing well, as far as heard from. All the letters received in relation to or from them may be found in the appendix attached to this report.

"We now have many promising boys, who are, or will soon be, ready for apprenticeship; and it is to be hoped that the philanthropic, in retired, agricultural portions of the state, will make an effort to procure good men to whom these unfortunate, though we may hope not ruined youth, may be indented, under such circumstances as will secure the great end of the establishmentwhich is, their reformation.

"The executive committee are authorized to indent boys, to persons of good character, one month after the application in writing shall have been made to the superintendent. Many boys should be apprenticed during the coming winter and spring, to enable us to make room for further admissions." pp. 19, 20.

We quote also from the appendix referred to as follows:

"The following letter is from the master of a lad indented in the early part of autumn: — "November 28, 1849.

I am getting along. Mr. is a very good man indeed, and I like my place very well, and trade also. I have been reading your letter, and think it contains very good advice for any boy who leaves that institution. I think that the State Reform School has been the means of saving nie from ruin. I thank God I was permitted to enter that school; and I hope that it will save a great many others. I am now out of the city, where there are not so many temptations, and can now learn a good trade and become a respectable man. I have not been here long enough to let you know much about this place, but it is quite a village. I attend meeting every Sabbath. "Yours respectfully, D.'

"The following extract is introduced to show the feelings of boys in the Reform School. The writer was committed for a high offence, and during the first part of the time with us was very refractory. It was written by himself to his mother:

"STATE REFORM SCHOOL, "November 14, 1849. "Dear Mother,-Your beautiful letter inspired me with love to God, to think he has preserved you and all the family from that scourge, the cholera, which has destroyed so many of the inhabitants of the United States.

"On Sunday, November 11, Rev. Mr. Dowse preached to us on the subject of honoring all men, but especially on honoring our parents.

"When I heard him speak of honoring our parents, it made me feel as if I had done very wrong in not honoring you, and also that I ought to love and honor you as never before.

"Dear mother, I know that you have done all in your power to make me become a useful and respectable man; but to your many kind advices have I lent a deafening ear. It pains me to think how cruel and unjust I have been to you, in disregarding your kind advice. When I think of these things, it makes me feel as if I was unworthy to call you mother; but I hope the time will soon come when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you bless the day that there ever was such an institution as this."" pp. 39, 40.

In view of this evidence, we may confidently expect the reformation and usefulness to society of three fourths of all the vicious boys committed to the proposed Reform School in this state. Indeed, we may expect that in an institution which shall profit by the experience, combine the advantages, and shun the errors of those already in operation, the proportion will be even greater than this. Now, we ask the humane, benevolent, and Christian citizens of this state to consider this result, and to compare it with the results of committing juvenile offenders to our Prisons, or of allowing them to go unrestrained; to consider, on the one hand, the probable ruin and misery of these children for time and eternity, and their influence to draw others on to ruin and wretchedness, and, on the other hand, their happiness and usefulness in this life, and their hopeful condition with reference to the life to come, and say if such an institution is not worthy of your interest and your benefactions. Will you not decide that we must have one in Connecticut immediately? And we ask the members of our General Assembly, whose honorable office it is to take supervision of the security and welfare of the commonwealth, especially to guard it from the depredations and corrupting influence of criminals, and to assure for it the usefulness and beneficence of intelligent, industrious, and virtuous citizens, to weigh this subject well. We ask, Is it not a duty which the state owes to itself to establish such an institution? Would not its establishment be a measure of high legislative wisdom? Would it not be even a measure of

economy - a saving of money to the state? Is it not cheaper thus to educate and reform juvenile offenders than to punish them in Prisons, or to allow them to go on in crime till society can no longer endure them, and their punishment can be no longer postponed ?

On this point we give the testimony of Judge Washburn, p. 101:

"And though I have almost felt as if it would be a violation of good taste to weigh the expense in dollars and cents of redeeming a fellow-being from the blighting influence of bad associations and corrupt example, yet in a mere economical point of view this enterprise has a high claim upon public favor. I have never seen an estimate of the cost occasioned to any state by the crimes committed within it, and the arrest, trial, punishment, and support of its criminals. But a moment's reflection would satisfy the mind of any one, that, in a government like ours, the charge which these impose upon the industry of the community must be heavy indeed. When, therefore, we remember that every one who shall here be reformed is not only relieving the state from the expense of his support, but is adding his industry to the aggregate wealth which is to bear the burden, we shall see that, as a mere question of profit and loss, the state has a deep stake in the establishment and success of this institution."

In the last Report of the Trustees of the Westboro' institution, they say,

"Perhaps it may not be too hazardous to venture the opinion, that when the institution shall be fairly in operation, and the farm properly cultivated, the amount required from the treasury of the state to sustain it will be a much smaller sum than would be required to be expended from the public coffers if the institution did not exist on the same persons who are now committed to this school; and that the establishment will thus prove to be really a saving of the public money, without regarding the greater good which it is its chief purpose to accomplish." p. 7. Expense and Mode of establishing and sustaining

such an Institution.

Of the expense of establishing and sustaining such an institution, we have not the means of making any other than a general and indefinite estimate.

The expense of the erection of the buildings of the institution at Westboro' was $52,000. The farm of 180 acres cost $9,000. The expense of furnishing the buildings and stocking the farm was $5,000; so that the total amount was $67,000. But we should not need, for a Reform School in this state, a building so large nor a farm so extensive. It would be well if we could have at the outset $50,000; but we might safely begin with $25,000, and extend our buildings afterwards as should be found necessary.

As to the mode of raising this sum, it has been proposed to obtain half of it by donations from the benevolent, and the other half by a grant from the state. And there can be no doubt that if the subject is fully understood by the people of this state, not only this sum, but whatever is found necessary, can be obtained in this mode. One benevolent man in Massachusetts, the Hon Theodore Lyman, gave for the establishment of the institution at Westboro' $10,000, and soon after, $10,000 more on condition that the state would pay the same amount; and during the last year he deceased, leaving to the institution, by his will, the additional sum of $50,000. May we not hope that some wealthy citizen of Connecticut will imitate his example? Certainly we may believe, that from the great number of benevolent men in this state who are accustomed

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