by Greenacre, and other similar atrocities, are among the most common exhibitions." The low theatres, shows, penny hops, &c. are found to be the proximate cause of ruin in fifty-two cases out of the ninety, and connected more or less with the practice of crime in others.*

This may be true; but these places of assemblage would have no existence if there were not previously a class of persons likely to be visitors; and though where a nursery of evil is thus established, it may carry corruption among those, who, having no mental principles at all, are at the mercy of every temptation; still these are not the causes but the effects of a seething corruption which here finds vent; and the suppression of these would do very little more towards the cure, than an endeavour to suppress the eruption of the small pox, otherwise than by lessening the fever which causes it. The moral fever no doubt will leave ugly spots and scars upon the face of society; but it is only by alleviating the disease, of which these things are but the symptomatic eruption, that the evil can be lessened. It is not, therefore, by suppressing penny Gaffs, or Flash houses, that we shall mend

*Sixth Report of Prisons, p. 123.

the "Dangerous Classes," but by preventing the growth of that portion of the population which forms their constantly increasing strength. Youth can be bent by instruction, and it was to the credit of that government of France which is now overthrown, that, under it, an enlightened attempt was made to meet the danger by the true remedy. The following account of the salles d'asile in Paris might afford useful hints for London.

"The salles d'asile have been established solely for children of the poorer classes. They are designed for the cultivation of the growing intelligence, and the religious and moral instruction of a considerable number of children of from two to seven years of age." The style of teaching seems to resemble that of our infant schools with this difference, that a meal or meals seemed to be provided for them.*

"L'institution des Salles d'asile est due à la necessité de protéger la première enfance contre l'abandon, l'incurie des parens, et contre les accidens de toutes sortes auxquels elle est exposée, par suite de l'impossibilité ou ces mêmes parens se trouvent quelquefois de les surveiller, en raison des exigences de leur profession. Les classes pauvres et laborieuses sont, en effet, tellement commandées par les nécessités du travail dont elles tirent leur subsistence ainsi que celle de leur famille, qu'il y aurait

"The restlessness natural to their age not allowing the masters and mistresses to require them to fix their attention long on the same thing, they are led from one occupation to another, so as not to fatigue them, till the hour for meals or recreation: and this well arranged distribution of business and pleasure makes the asylum very pleasant to them. Many of these halls in Paris contain from an hundred to an hundred and fifty children; that in the rue de l'Homme armé is the most remarkable, on account of the extreme indigence of the parents who take their children thither, and the variety of their religious opinions. There are many Jews mixed with Christians, and notwithstanding the different creeds of their relations, as the religious ideas inculcated are those merely of the knowledge and love of God, no conscience is

de l'injustice a ni pas peser cette circonstance indépendante de leur volonté, dans l'appréciation de la conduite qu'ils tiennent à l'égard de leur enfans. Cependant quelque opinion que l'on puisse avoir de la situation de ceux-ci avant l'ouverture des salles d'asile, toujours est il que l'hospitalité qui leur est offerte par la cité dans ces établissemens, constitue pour eux une véritable assurance contre les dangers de toute espèce auxquels ils étoient exposés avant la réalisation d'un projet aussi simple, et dont la première pensée a été si tardive."-FREGIER des Classes Dangereuses, tom. ii. p. 6.

offended..

The salles d'asile are under the inspection of a committee of ladies, to whom the warmest thanks are due, since from the moment that the municipal administration took charge of these establishments, they have watched over them with a zeal and care which have never for a moment relaxed. This committee now forms a necessary part of the establishment, and indeed, who are so fit to watch over so fragile and delicate a deposit as the mothers of families, when animated by a disinterested benevolence? who better than they can bestow the kindness and attention which childhood stands so much in need of? Paid teachers and inspectors would not bring to their functions the same moral energy, the same warm and gentle charity .. We have remarked that the children in these asylums belong to the lowest classes, the ladies charged with their inspection, on the contrary, occupy a high rank in society; they have leisure, they have wealth, or at least a competent fortune. Their functions are not confined to the watching over the intellectual and moral state of the pupils; they hear from the chiefs of the establishment all the wants, not only of the children, in regard to clothing, but also those of the parents who may be in extreme poverty. Not

unfrequently these ladies themselves carry their benevolent assistance to the homes of the wretched. . . . .

"These salles d'asile are amongst the most useful and popular institutions of our time. In a great part of the manufacturing towns, where the municipality have had the wisdom to establish them, the workmen, after a short hesitation, have seen the advantage, and have sent their children. And there is this special benefit arising from these establishments, - i. e. that the children who were many of them prematurely employed in the manufactories, now gain strength of constitution no less than intellectual and moral culture, during their attendance there .... If public benevolence," adds M. Frégier, from whose account the foregoing is abridged,

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can ever be applied with success to the moral amendment of the people, it will certainly be by active concurrence in the establishment and multiplication of these asylums, no less by gifts than by advice. One of the most essential and urgent questions of social œconomy is that which has for its object the fixing the legal age at which children may be employed in the manufactories, without injury to their health or their morals; or at least, in the way that shall lessen