this heart, which has pillowed so many loved ones in its turn; her hand locked in mine, her eyes fixed upon her husband. * * * * * In our "For nearly two years afterward he remained with me. deep affliction I had realised the sanctity of our tie. Before she died, even when rejoicing in returning tranquillity, I needed still to discipline myself, but now all thoughts, save the love a sister's heart might freely avow, were buried in her grave. "With him it seemed the same: the indescribable manner in which a sense of my inferiority was implied had disappeared; we took counsel together, we talked of her, we watched over her child, kindly, trustingly, unitedly,-drawn together by the bond of a common sorrow and a common charge,—with no reference to days which many persons fancied were not yet sufficiently remote to be forgotten. Some rumours of the kind became known to me at length, invading the sanctity of the home over which the spirit of the early dead yet hovered; they sounded like a desecration to my ears; I shrank from their reaching Eustace. 66 Many of his friends had already pressed his return to active service; even before this I too advocated this course, fearing it was on my account he continued secluded and unemployed. Now I urged this step more seriously. He had been listless about it at first, but when he perceived I recommended it sincerely, he showed more energy, and was soon appointed to a regiment in the Ionian islands. "He placed Harry in my arms before he went away, and told me that in four or five years, if his life was spared, he would return, but never to take him from me. 6 Your heart is bound up in that boy, Anne, and whatever affection he may show you in return, is but your due.' Then, for the first time since he had become my brother, he pressed his lips upon my brow, and telling me to pray for him, blessed me and went his way. "I was very desolate, but I knew it was for his good. His letters soon became an unfailing source of comfort, from their tone of cheerful resignation, of manly faith and endeavor. I saw that in a sphere of activity and usefulness the darkness was passing away from his soul, and I rejoiced more and more that I counselled him as I did. Years passed on. He rose in his profession, he began to speak of his return, of settling down at Les Ormeaux, of the delight his son's education would afford him. I, too, anticipated a bright sun-set; and spent many pleasant hours in picturing to myself our reunion, and the pride with which I should show him his noble boy but on earth that meeting was never to take place. "A few lines from one of his officers, to say he had sunk under a lingering fever, respected and beloved by the regiment he commanded; a sealed packet in his hand-writing directed to me; his books and papers transmitted, according to his instructions, to his son; that was all I ever learned of his last moments, those were the only memorials of him that ever reached us. The packet con tained his will, some injunctions relative to Harry, and a letter to me, written a few days previous to his death, in which, as one standing on the brink of the grave, he spoke unreservedly of the past. He told me that soon after Alice died, he found in her desk a letter, in which, under the impression she would not survive her confinement, she disclosed the remorse that haunted her-thus she worded it, poor, poor child!-for having been the destroyer of my happiness. She then went on to tell of her own early passion, of her having so frenziedly revealed it on the day which preceded my falling ill, of her misgivings as to the wrong she had done, of her earnest desire, by a full confession, even at the cost of irreparably humbling herself in his dear eyes, to repair it. She proffered as her last request, that, if the objections she well knew I entertained upon this subject could be overcome, we should marry, and forgetting her grievous error, think only of her repentance and her love. But he dared not, the letter continued, ever speak to me of rekindling, upon the ashes of my sister, the love sacrificed to her; and therefore it was, that when the surmises in circulation reached him likewise, judging by my earnestness that he should go abroad how deeply my soul revolted from their import, he had obeyed my wishes without a murmur; praying me now, for every harsh word or misconstruction, to include him in the forgiveness his poor Alice had implored." Right or Wrong? Aunt Anne, let this record of your sufferings, your nobleness, your patience-your weakness too, may be-go forth. Amongst those who read it, amongst those who will blame and sneer at you, some will do you justice. Earthly censure or praise are now alike to you; it is for the encouragement of the weary and desponding I have written the story of your life. The lesson it conveys to them, these few lines of Longfellow's express better than any commentary I could furnish. You were of those who still "Remind us We can make our lives sublime, "Footprints that perhaps another LX.-MANCHESTER AND SALFORD REFORMATORY FOR JUVENILE CRIMINALS. PLEASANTLY situated on rising ground overlooking the church and village of Blackley, stands a plain modest looking building, conspicuous alike from its position and the tout ensemble of its red brick wall, relieved by the white curtained windows which overlook a delightful garden. In this home reside forty boys, thirty-nine of whom are acknowledged criminals. Thirty-nine little social pests, housed, clothed, educated, and undergoing such a gradual transformation, as may eventually make them useful members of society. Thirty-nine young "Fingersmiths" (as they term themselves) studying mechanical arts, which may bring to them a happiness, and to society at large a benefit, never realised from the handicraft they have forsaken. Thirty-nine immortal souls, whom Satan had entangled in the web of mischief, rescued from the abyss of misery, and pursuing the right path. Poor waifs and strays, drifting down the current of destruction, rescued and brought into such a harbour. The Manchester and Salford Reformatory is the offspring of a ragged and industrial school for boys and girls, opened July 1854, in the Angel Meadow and Ancoats district. From the number of applications received from criminal boys, it soon became necessary to decide whether criminals should be considered admissible or not; and, as the report says, "The committee agreed to a resolution that whilst they wished it to be understood that the school was not established for the reformation of criminals, but for the reclamation of vagrants and beggars, yet they would not exclude hopeful cases of children not exceeding fourteen years of age, slightly tainted with crime. They still, however, did not contemplate the admission of children who had been actually committed to prison, except in very peculiar cases. But it is not too much to affirm that the reception of a far larger number of the criminal class than they had at first intended, was absolutely forced upon them by circumstances which were constantly presenting themselves to their notice. Case after case was brought before them of young lads released from the gaol, expressing an earnest desire for reformation, but having no means of escape from their former associates, no hope of obtaining honest employment, and no prospect, but that of a speedy return to the prison from which they had just emerged, to be again let loose upon society, more hardened and desperate than before. Upon such applicants the committee could not shut their doors, and so they gradually increased the number of their beds, until the reception of criminal children became the principal feature of their establishment, and up to October 1855 the whole number of criminal applicants admitted was thirty-seven. These we are told, however, formed but a small portion of those who had applied for admission; and during the temporary closing of the institution for sanitary reasons, the committee anxiously deliberated on the advisability of restricting the institution wholly to criminals, and at last decided upon this course. The affairs of the institution having been laid before the public, the sum of £3,614, 6s. was collected towards building a house in a more healthy locality, and in October 1856 nine acres of land were purchased at Blackley for this purpose. The new institution was opened on August 6th, 1857, by the Lord Bishop of Manchester, and has since been restricted almost exclusively to criminals. The accommodation is for forty boys; the number in the institution was until quite recently forty-two, but, as one of the young criminals confidentially remarked to me, Some isn't thankful, and two has run away." Everything in connection with the institution is of the very plainest description, white-washed walls and bare boards meet the eye in every apartment appropriated to the boys. A large room on the ground floor answers as school-room, dining-hall, and chapel; not far from it is a washing-room, with every convenience for ablutions, including a capital swimming bath, in which the inmates regale themselves three times a day in warm weather, and once a week in the winter. Contiguous are kitchen, scullery, pantry, storecloset and probation-room, intended for new comers, but devoted also to other purposes. On the upper floor are three dormitories, each calculated to hold twenty beds, one communicating with the governor's bed-room, the other two with that of the assistant master. On this floor are also a sick-room and linen-store. In the yard are two workshops, in one of which tailoring and shoemaking are practised, in the other carpentering. The tailor resides on the premises, and with the assistance of two boys, who are his pupils, makes the clothes for the establishment. The shoes are entirely the production of the inmates. The entire household work is performed by the boys, under the superintendence of a housekeeper. Each boy has his allotted duties, and each has to continue constant to his one sphere of duty; this arrangement being considered better than an alternation of work. The school is divided into three classes: the first consists of boys newly admitted, not partaking in the privileges of the others, being secluded in the probation-room below stairs, and sleeping together in one dormitory under the charge of a monitor. These are not allowed to assume the dress of the institution, but retain their own dress, often in a very dilapidated condition. The second is composed of those who have passed their first month or so creditably; they are free from most of the restrictions to which the lower grade are subjected, and are allowed one suit of clothes. The third contains the best conducted boys, entitled to the full benefit of the institution, receiving two suits of clothes, an extra allowance of food, etc. The monitors are more plentifully fed than those below them, and have some privileges, not the least of which apparently, in their own estimation, is that of wearing a suit of black clothes bound with crimson, with a cap to correspond. This system is found to stimulate the boys to good behaviour; and degradation to a lower class is a punishment much dreaded. In the category of punishments, I was somewhat surprised to find corporal chastisement so prominent, but the governor assured me that although the actual infliction of the flagellation caused him great pain, there was nothing he desired more than that every new boy should do something to deserve a flogging! Firmly and calmly administered, this flogging process seems at once to decide who is to be the master, and being followed up by extreme tenderness in sickness, and judicious praise when due, is regarded more as an exertion of proper authority than in any other light; which view of the subject, on the part of the boys, is probably a natural result of their previous life. 66 There are two cells for solitary confinement, one tolerably lighted by a small window, the other totally dark, for extreme cases. The term of incarceration is dependent upon the offender himself; he is removed as soon as he expresses his contrition. One lad was lately confined eighteen days, for attempting to abscond. Eighteen days of obduracy passed in solitary wretchedness, till at length the remonstrances of a little brother in sin touched his stony heart and he repented. The boy whose pleadings effected this change was, and still is, an invalid, from the effects of a blow from a cricket ball striking the region of the heart. I felt much interested in this lad, who looks fearfully ill; indeed the excitement of being present during the singing lesson on the day I was there, affected him so deeply that I thought he was dying, but the attack passed off again. The governor informed me respecting this boy, that during a convulsion his hands were brought slowly forward and clasped in a peculiar manner. When the fit was over, he was asked to account for this. He acknowledged that he had been praying, the first time he had ever been known to do so. But the next day he exclaimed "S. threw that cricket ball, and I'll never forgive him as long as I live." "John," said a lady present, do you remember what the governor read to you this morning about the crown of thorns? Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." There was no reply from the sick boy, who seemed to be sinking into a state of insensibility. to see the boy who threw the ball. going to die, and I think that ball was the cause-but I forgive you from my heart-I have been very wicked, and I believe God has laid me on this sick bed for my good, and I want you to be a better boy too." Then he read a chapter from the Bible, making his own simple comments as they proceeded, after which he requested his master to pray. Nor did his efforts end here, other boys were at his own request admitted into his sick-room, and all who went were touched by his earnest appeal, until, through his instrumentality, a large majority of the inmates became earnestly concerned about religion. These have formed themselves into a class, which, by the governor's permission, meets in the probation-room, for reading and religious exercises. But these religious movements have to be most carefully watched, and in a large measure checked. Feeling must be kept down, and principle insisted upon. We all know what harm has been done, and what pestilent characters have been let loose on society under the garb of religion; and in an institution for the reformation of criminals, we can readily understand how VOL. III. Some hours after, he requested "S.," he said, "I think I am 2 G |