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thought that such a rule would press hard on parents, let it always be remembered that the loss and expense must fall on somebody; and surely it is less hard that it should fall on the child's parent than on any one else. Nevertheless, to provide for peculiar cases, it might be proper, as it certainly would be liberal, when a parent could show to the satisfaction of the court, or other appointed authority, that he had used all reasonable means to prevent his child from becoming a criminal, for the State to pay part of the expense entailed by the child's misconduct."

Those who are desirous of learning the effects produced by a prison discipline, and by the properly managed silent, or solitary, or mixed discipline, and the changes of food and labor, we refer to the eighth chapter of Mr. Hill's book. The systems advocated by him, when through their means it is proposed to heal the monstrous evils we have in this paper displayed, may appear weak, more especially when we remember the unwil lingness so frequently shown by the legislature, which is so prompt in punishment and tardy in prevention. But when we recollect that our system of factory labor was, thirty-two years ago, so cruel, so demoralising, so unchristian, and so brutal, that parents cursed the day that children were born to them; children just in age beyond infancy tottered from their labor with hungergnawing, and yet so worn and so exhausted, that they sank in uneasy slumber over their wretched food; they were beaten with iron rods, buffeted and kicked like brutes; their language was so obscene that married women refused to work in the same room with boys and girls, and so great was their immorality, that openly in these factories the common subject of inquiry was the safest method to prevent conception. These things were all proved in the Factory Committee of 1818, but till that indefatigable philanthropist, Sadler, broke down the grasping power of the millocracy in the committee of 1833, this system was in great part, if not wholly, defended; and as he succeeded in his efforts to repair the blunders, or guilty omissions, of the legislature, because the evils were patent, we know not why those who are anxious for the moral and social advancement of the poor, should despair in days like these, when on all sides it is admitted that crime and sin lurk in every corner of the land, and increase, at least sin increases, because those whose bounden duty it is to educate and to elevate the poorer section of the people, forget their sacred

trust. Lord Ingestrie and Lord Ashley have done much in the cause of humanity; they have gone in amongst the poor, have seen with their own eyes, believing with one who had sounded most of the heart's deepest depths-Sydney Smith, that—

"He who only knows the misfortunes of mankind at second hand, and by description, has but a faint idea of what is really suffered in the world. A want of charity is not always to be attributed to a want of compassion; the seeds of this virtue are too deeply fixed in the human constitution, to be easily eradicated; but the appeal to this class of feelings is not sufficiently strong; men do not put themselves into situations where such feelings are likely to be called forth; they judge of the misfortunes of the poor through the medium of the understanding, not from the lively and ardent pictures of sensation. We feel, it may be said, the eloquence of description; but what is all the eloquence of art to that mighty and original eloquence with which natnre pleads her cause; to the eloquence of paleness, and of hunger; to the eloquence of sickness, and of wounds; to the eloquence of extreme old age, of helpless infancy, of friendless want? What persuasiveness like the melancholy appearance of nature badly supported, and that fixed look of sadness, which a long struggle with misfortune rivets on the human countenance! What pleadings so powerful as the wretched hovels of the

It is to be regretted that, whilst the Rev. Sydney Smith's contributions to literature, as a critic and as a lecturer, are so well known and so fully appreciated, his sermons, preached at the Foundling Hospital, and at the Berkeley and Fitzroy Chapels, London, are so much neglected. They were published by Cadell in the year 1809, in two vols. 8vo. Their style may be judged from the three sermons given in the third volume of the collected edition of his works, published by Longman in 1845. The sermons are upon various subjects that from which we have selected our extract is "Upon the Best Mode of Charity," Vol. I., p. 274, the text being from Deuteronomy xv., verse 11. Amongst the sermons are one on Scepticism; On the Errors of Youth; On Self-Examination; On the Mode of Passing the Sabbath; On the Judgments we Form of Others, &c. &c. About all these there is a Christian spirit which reminds us of the best sermons of that Protestant De Sales, Jeremy Taylor. To those who only know Sydney Smith the Reviewer, the following prayer, composed, and read in St. Paul's Cathedral, the Sunday after the birth of the present Prince of Wales, by Sydney Smith the Priest, must prove interesting:-" We pray also for that infant of the royal race, whom, in thy good Providence, thou hast given us for our future king. We beseech thee so to mould his heart, and fashion his spirit, that he may be a blessing, and not an evil to the land of his birth. May he grow in favor with man, by leaving to its own force and direction the energy of a free people. May he grow in favor with God, by holding the faith in Christ, fervently and feelingly, without feebleness, without fanaticism, without folly! As he will be the first man in these realms, so may he be the best-disdaining to hide bad actions by high station, and endeavouring always, by the example of a strict and moral life, to repay those gifts which a loyal people are so willing to spare from their own necessities to a good king."

poor, and the whole system of their comfortless economy? These are the moments in which the world and its follies are forgotten, which throw the mind into a new attitude of solemn thought, which have rescued many a human being from dissipation and crime, which have given birth to many admirable characters, and multiplied, more than all exhortation, the friends of man, and the disciples of Christ."

The Model Lodging Houses, the Ragged Schools, the ShoeBlack Brigade, and the Messengers, tutored by the various charitable societies of London, are undoubtedly most admirable. Lord Ashley, Lord Carlisle, Lord Ingestrie, the Rev. Mr. Clay, and that most estimable man, Mr. Thomas Wright, of Manchester, are real benefactors to the kingdom, and have discovered the best means of advancing the social interests of the poor, by teaching them that they are an integral portion of the community, not outcasts, even though branded by poverty, and driven into crime through ignorance and neglect. Old Michael Montaigne wrote of human nature with his usual acuteness"Notre bastiment et public et privé est plein d'imperfection. En toute police, il y'a des offices nécessaires, nonseulment objects, mais encore vicieux : les vices y trouvent leur rang, et s'employent à la conservation de notre santé." So it is with the State; and as no soul is created purposeless, even those who are depraved, and fallen, or, it may be, reprobate, have all the impress of the Almighty upon their hearts; and he who despairs of their amendment may be a sound political economist, but is neither a good Christian, a good philosopher, nor, in the true sense of the word, a good patriot. The very worst offender may be rendered of service to his country-we attempt to accomplish this, after crime has been committed, by the labor of the convict; had we tried the school, and a moral police, whilst he was a juvenile offender, he would not have become, in manhood, a felon.

Our argument, as we have stated, is, that though crime may have slightly decreased, vice and immorality have increased; the latter we have proved, and the real condition of the United Kingdoms, as to the prevalence of crime, is exhibited in the following tables. In the first we show the number of offenders in the kingdoms committed to prison in the years 1850-51; we give the numbers in certain great offences, and the totals in each of the six classes into which the law divides crime. The digest is compiled from the Tables of Criminal Offenders in England, Wales, and Scotland, and from the most able and most valuable Reports of Mr. Galway and Mr. Corry Connellan, Inspectors-General of Prisons in Ireland:

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* This crime seems increasing; the numbers were, in 1847, 42; 1848,

56; 1849, 54.

To this class belong perjury and subornation; the numbers were, as
shown in the following table :-

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In writing of the amount of crime in the nation, and in our cities, it may be well here to state that, by the census of 1851, the population of the three kingdoms is given as follows

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In our chief cities, by the same census, the population is stated thus::

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Having thus far observed on the state of the kingdom at large, and of its moral and social condition, and having included in our observations the great manufacturing cities and towns, and Dublin amongst the others, we now turn to a more particular inquiry into the state of the latter city, and in this we have happily been aided with facts stated to us by a gentleman, whose sources of information are most undoubted and genuine, and whose ability and truth are equalled only by his integrity, usefulness, and experience.

In reference to the Police institutions of the Irish metropolis, and their effect upon society within the scope of their operation, we feel that most important considerations are involved, and that most striking results would arise in a close examination of their nature and working. As to the police force, in point of appearance, they are the finest body of men, not even excepting the grenadier guards, in the British empire; and as for their discipline, the paucity of complaints against the members of a body upwards of 1,209 in number, and possessing, individually, very extensive authority, is really surprising. The Police Commissioners divide, as far as possible, the discharge of the duties devolving upon them; and whilst Mr. O'Ferrall devotes his attention to the investigation of reports, the direction of proceedings on complaints, and all other matters suited for the consideration of a man whose previous life was spent in attaining and practising the legal profession, Colonel Browne attends to the organization and discipline of the force, which he has certainly rendered a model for all similar bodies.

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