INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SCHOOLS. "It is very easy to look at our gaols, our reformatories, our places of penal servitude, our well-organised police, and to think of the enormous sums which are paid year by year by the country to these institutions; but it appears to me that it would be going much more to the root of the matter to reflect what it is that leads to the necessity for these institutions, and to remember that it is partly, if not wholly, owing to the neglect of the little boys, who are growing up over the country without attention and without care."-Speech of Lord Cairns. ANOTHER Public Institution ?-Well may this question be asked by every person invited to subscribe more money to benevolent designs, especially after taking the pains to look at the great number of charities that exist, and the enormous sums of money received and administered by them. To any such inquirer the following facts are earnestly offered in justification of the claims advanced for Industrial Schools. In Fry's Catalogue we find a list of nearly 1,000 London Charities, the annual incomes of 606 of these are given, and the gross amount of them is £3,857,109. In this enumeration, however, numerous Institutions are found, the charitable operations of which are not in London, and the total amount of their annual incomes is £1,259,089; deducting this from the gross amount, the sum left for distribution in the metropolis is found to be £2,598,020. If we calculate the probable incomes of the remaining charities whose incomes are not reported, at the same ratio as the first, we must add another sum of £1,499,176, making together a total of £4,211,630. If we ask how the first sum is distributed, we find as follows:1. To Charities intended for the relief of diseases (bodily and mental), £503,198; or about 1-5th of the whole. 2. To Charities intended for the relief of the necessaries of life, as food, dwelling, clothing, firing, &c., £948,048, or approximating 2-5ths of the whole. 3. To Charities intended for instruction and training and for religious purposes, £1,146,774, or more than 2-5ths of the whole amount. It must be admitted that this estimate is very rough and imperfect; in some instances there may be errors of statement or addition, but on the other hand the list is by no means complete, and there are many more charities collecting subscriptions than the number included in this catalogue. It is also probable that the estimate of the income of the charities which have not published these particulars may be considerably overrated,—yet allowing for all these possible reductions, and supposing for argument's sake, that the actual total amount might be reduced 1867 shew an increase of 8,443 commitments over the preceding year, and the public prints teem with protests against the insecurity of life and property. Transportation having been discontinued, it is found that 1,000 convicts are now annually let loose upon society, and the gaol authorities discharge about 100,000 persons per annum, who from the habit of depravity and the difficulty of access to respectable employment, again swell the criminal ranks to prey on society, and become teachers and leaders of crime to others. Moreover, it is estimated that upwards of 100,000 children are in London destitute of proper guardianship, and exposed to the training of beggars and thieves. In illustration of the way in which the race of the pauper and criminal classes is maintained, the following recent case may be briefly cited. A dirty and wretched-looking young woman called, a few Saturday evenings since, at the house of a member of this committee, and stated that her father had been unable to work for a long time, in consequence of an accident, but that being now recovered, and work being offered to him, he could not go to it for want of clothes. In reply the woman was told that nothing could be given without first ascertaining the truth of her statement, and a promise to visit the man next day was made. In fulfilment of this undertaking the neighbourhood of St. Giles was traversed, and many a dirty court was passed, in all of which poor little children were playing in their rags or nakedness, as if for them green fields or sunshine had no existence. The particular court sought for at last was reached, and found to be occupied by dwellings that looked like converted cowsheds, so rude, irregular, and broken down were they. Searching from one nearly obliterated chalk mark on the doors to another to find that called "23"-a woman, evidently on the look out, came forward and said, "This is it, your honour." Following her into a recess, a ladder presented itself to view, and an invitation was given to ascend, on doing which access was obtained to a room like a large loft, in which, though sufficiently light and roomy, the appearance of filth and the odour of it made the visit very insupportable and disgusting; the eye glanced round for an unsuspicious spot on which to rest an umbrella, and in vain for one to put down a hat, which of necessity had to be retained on the head. In this den lived the man and his wife-aged each about 50 to 55-the daughter, supposed to be married, and her two young children. There was one bed, made up apparently of bundles of dirty rags. The statements made by this family were, in outline, that the man had injured his leg by falling from a scaffold, that he had been in hospital, was now recovered, but could not go to work for want of his working clothes-that they had subsisted for a long time by pawning all that would raise a shilling or a few pence-that the workhouse relieved the man with bread for stone-breaking, and that now, if he could get out of pawn his jacket and boots, he could go to work in the morning. The visitor felt that he was in the midst of regular beggars, but having no opportunity to four millions per annum, if we then add to the latter the 1. The Metropolitan poor rates and the Com- 2. The Educational Grant from the Privy Council 6. The alms to street beggars, and assistance £ 1,500,000 180,000 9,600 1,000,000 500,000 Thus a gross amount of more than seven millions sterling is shown to be annually expended in the work of relieving poverty and misfortune, and yet, unhappily, the spectacle of a suffering and degraded population is still so great that observers could hardly credit that any benevolent work was in operation. The cause of this failure becomes one of the most important and pressing inquiries of the day. Is our method unwise? and do we by working too much at the relief of pauperism, and too little at the prevention of the same, offer premiums to idleness and vagabondage, so that the more full and generous the stream of benevolence, the more numerously come the dependent and the idle? Also, is there any portion of this large sum voted to charity which passes off in channels not intended by the donors, especially in the machinery employed in its distribution P That the existing state referred to is real, let us take a few recent statistics : During the last ten years the population has increased 1-6th, but the pauperism during the same time 5-10ths. In 1858 the ratio of pauperism to population was 2.90 per cent. دو Dr. Stallard has shewn, by the following table, the increase of pauperism in London during the last ten years. He gives, as an example, the Holborn Union, in which in 1858, there were 2 paupers in every 15 persons; there are now (1868) nearly 2 paupers in every 11 persons. As to the criminal population the Home Office Reports for 1 1867 shew an increase of 8,443 commitments over the preceding year, and the public prints teem with protests against the insecurity of life and property. Transportation having been discontinued, it is found that 1,000 convicts are now annually let loose upon society, and the gaol authorities discharge about 100,000 persons per annum, who from the habit of depravity and the difficulty of access to respectable employment, again swell the criminal ranks to prey on society, and become teachers and leaders of crime to others. Moreover, it is estimated that upwards of 100,000 children are in London destitute of proper guardianship, and exposed to the training of beggars and thieves. In illustration of the way in which the race of the pauper and criminal classes is maintained, the following recent case may be briefly cited. A dirty and wretched-looking young woman called, a few Saturday evenings since, at the house of a member of this committee, and stated that her father had been unable to work for a long time, in consequence of an accident, but that being now recovered, and work being offered to him, he could not go to it for want of clothes. In reply the woman was told that nothing could be given without first ascertaining the truth of her statement, and a promise to visit the man next day was made. In fulfilment of this undertaking the neighbourhood of St. Giles was traversed, and many a dirty court was passed, in all of which poor little children were playing in their rags or nakedness, as if for them green fields or sunshine had no existence. The particular court sought for at last was reached, and found to be occupied by dwellings that looked like converted cowsheds, so rude, irregular, and broken down were they. Searching from one nearly obliterated chalk mark on the doors to another to find that called "21"- -a woman, evidently on the look out, came forward and said, "This is it, your honour." Following her into a recess, a ladder presented itself to view, and an invitation was given to ascend, on doing which access was obtained to a room like a large loft, in which, though sufficiently light and roomy, the appearance of filth and the odour of it made the visit very insupportable and disgusting; the eye glanced round for an unsuspicious spot on which to rest an umbrella, and in vain for one to put down a hat, which of necessity had to be retained on the head. In this den lived the man and his wife-aged each about 50 to 55—the daughter, supposed to be married, and her two young children. There was one bed, made up apparently of bundles of dirty rags. statements made by this family were, in outline, that the man had injured his leg by falling from a scaffold, that he had been in hospital, was now recovered, but could not go to work for want of his working clothes-that they had subsisted for a long time by pawning all that would raise a shilling or a few pence-that the workhouse relieved the man with bread for stone-breaking, and that now, if he could get out of pawn his jacket and boots, he could go to work in the morning. The visitor felt that he was in the midst of regular beggars, but having no opportunity The |