temper. Often has it been my delight to behold sullenness and discontent converted into gratitude and satisfaction; and even to hear from the lips of the pupils themselves, acknowledgments that their parents at home have remarked a striking change upon their temper, from the period of their entering our institution."-Wood's Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School, p. 300.

One of the apprehensions of the anti-educationists is, that education will produce discontent, turbulence, jealousy, and strife; will disturb the gradation of the orders, indispose to patient industry, unsettle the national mind, and finally lead to revolution. What was the result of the education of Mr. Wood?

"It is quite needless to theorize upon the subject. We are daily sending out from the Sessional School multitudes of shoemakers and tailors, infected with its most dangerous poison, and are daily receiving the most gratifying assurances from their masters, of the manner in which they conduct themselves. The industry and skill in their various occupations, is in direct proportion to their success at school; and those who have been fortunate enough to get our best scholars, have been known to enquire whether we have any others of the like description to give them. Our greatest proficients are still content to dwell among their own people,' and to follow the occupations of their fathers.""

They were in many instances requested "to follow the profession of teaching," but

"This request, though strongly urged, has on more than one occasion been declined by the boys themselves, who preferred entering into ordinary, mechanical occupations. Still, however, this fondness for their original studies remained. Some of them requested permission from their friends to continue at the evening school; while others, who were patterns of diligence in the workshop, employed their vacant hours at home in useful reading."—p. 308.

Such were the evils of education. But we proceed a little farther.

"On this subject, it gives us peculiar satisfaction to add, that all who have been so honoured have been not less distinguished for their attention, steadiness, ability, and zeal, in the discharge of the duties of their respective callings, which has been most satisfactorily established by very ample certificates from their masters, produced by the author, at his request."-Idem.

But these results, it may be thought, are to be looked for only from very favourable circumstances, acting on well-prepared physical and moral organisations. We will take another case, presenting none of these advantages, and yet exhibiting, in its effects, a still more striking evidence of the potency of good education. The Hackney-Wick School was established by the benevolent Captain Brenton about five years ago, and the Victoria

Asylum at Chiswick somewhat later, for the reform of young criminals. These are schools, as their very title intimates, not selecting from the élite of our population, not taking up an education already well commenced, not aided by the best of all allies, the kindly domestic affections in the pupil's own heart,but institutions dealing only with all that is perverted, and contaminated, and abandoned in childhood; stretching out its arms to the deserted orphan, in the streets of a luxurious capital; and to the young convict, in the contagion and vices of our ill-disciplined prisons: venturing, in fact, the great experiment on the most intractable of all natures; and not merely attempting to bring into operation a good education, but to destroy, root and branch, a bad one. This, to some, may appear a generous, but hopeless project; more creditable to the benevolence than to the understanding of its founders. If effected, doubtless they must admit that it places the efficiency of education really such beyond all controversy. No opponent to education can venture to impugn a system which out of death could thus draw life, and thus clothe corruption with incorruptibility. No sceptic can continue to doubt the all-powerful effects of such an instrument on a yet unstained population, if upon sin and crime, upon the worst of habits ingrained into the very nature of the being, it works such sudden and entire revolution. But we again repeat, few will believe in such an efficacy. To such, we have only one answer to give: come and see.' The system has been tried for the long period of five years, and has thoroughly and perfectly succeeded. To judge, however, more accurately of this success, we must contrast for a moment the child before and after education.

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The description of children received in the Hackney-Wick and Victoria Asylums are thus classed, in a highly interesting little account of the methods and progress of these institutions.*

"First class, boys of respectable parents, who are reduced in circumstances, and orphans of ditto. Second class, boys neglected and deserted by their parents, who have gained a living in the streets. Third class, boys from workhouses, who possessing an unsettled or enterprising spirit, have volunteered to emigrate. Fourth class, boys from the Houses of Correction, who, upon shewing signs of penitence, have excited the sympathy of some persons, and these have exerted them

• Practical Remarks upon the Education of the Working Classes, with an Account of the plan pursued, &c. &c. at the Brenton Asylum, Hackney-Wick, 1835, by Charles Forss, agricultural teacher and second master of that institution. Charles Forss, as the preface states, was educated as a simple agriculturalist and carpenter in Dorsetshire, and left his native county for the purpose only of undertaking the situation he at present holds at Hackney-Wick.

VOL. II.-NO. III.

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selves to get them admitted into our Asylum, on the expiration of their imprisonment."

Each of these classes present peculiar difficulties, illustrative of similar obstacles, (but at their very highest degree,) in the great masses of the community. Each have yielded to the "true education" system of the institution. After observing, that whilst the industrious in the first class are easily managed, the writer continues:

"Those who have been bred up in idleness and extravagance, and who have their heads filled with notions that were never likely to be realised, are the most useless animals in existence. They are dissatisfied with the accommodations, and always hankering after sweetmeats, fruits, &c. &c. Work is at first out of the question with them; they cannot think of disgracing themselves by digging. Some are so idle, that they will not even wash themselves. Now it takes some time before a boy of this description can be brought to believe, that the only way to be happy is to be industrious; but I rejoice in being able to say, that in many instances reformation has been produced, and boys seemingly hopeless on their admission, have left us with a good character, and are going on well in the situations that have been provided for them."-p. 25.

"The second class boys have claimed my particular observation; in nine cases out of ten, they are active, intelligent, and useful, if young but when of the age of sixteen or seventeen, I find them so confirmed in cunning and bad habits, that it is difficult to be of any use to them: yet were I to take boys from the Asylum into my own service, I should give the preference to the younger boys of this second class, before those of the other three classes; for although care and labour are required to train them, yet they possess a quick sense of kindness, with an activity that amply repays any trouble taken with them."

("N.B. The Matron of the female school has given the same opinion, even as respects girls."-Editor.) p. 26.

"Third class, or those from workhouses. Of this class I scarcely know how to give an opinion; but from what I have observed, I am led to conclude that the character of a boy chiefly depends on the mode of management pursued in the particular house from which he comes. In some workhouses, there is a class of paupers who have been hanging about them for two or three generations, and who are so entirely void of any sense of independence, that to be idle is the height of their ambition. The boys having access and intercourse with adults of this description, is a serious evil; where this is allowed, I find them tutored in every description of cunning and deceit, dishonesty, lying, and idleness. In those workhouses where the boys are allowed no access to adults, their character is better. The boys from the former are quite brokenspirited, and so much hardened by beating, than nothing but coercion seems to make any impression upon them. From the latter they possess an open countenance, and they are more cheerful and obedient."p. 27.

It may easily be imagined that the fourth class presents the greatest impediments. They are indeed serious.*

"The boys in the fourth class are generally gone too far in crime, to be reformed very rapidly. The connexions they have made during the time of imprisonment have so contaminated their minds, that their countenances alone betray them to a practised observer. Their propensity to cheating, thieving, gambling, and all dishonest practices, exceeds belief; yet the only hope of reforming them is by kind treatment, good examples, and keeping them out of the way of temptation."-p. 28.

But now for the results. Whatever the Manchester schoolmaster might expect-" these brutes have been managed.”

"The lasting influence of our discipline is apparent in the character of those who have been provided with situations, all of whom, (six hundred have passed through the Asylums) with very few exceptions, are doing well, and give satisfaction to their employers; indeed, the success of this institution has far exceeded my most sanguine expectations."-p. 15.

This will appear still more striking, on descending to particulars. We take, with reference to the girls, the evidence of Mrs. Rebecca Boushill, head of the Asylum at Chiswick, before the Select Committee on Gaols, in the House of Lords.

Q. Are any of them children who have been brought up ill, and engaged in criminal habits?

A." Yes; the majority are of that description.

To appreciate fully the obstacles interposed to reform by prison "discipline," as it is termed, we ought to know what it is. The late Reports of the Inspectors offer abundant materials. They represent the majority of our gaols as schools of every vice; and there are few who enter them at an early age, but are recommitted. In the Westminster Bridewell, it appears that of 215 boys of sixteen years of age and under, committed to that prison, between Midsummer and Christmas, 1834, not less than 62 were recommitted; of whom 31 had been once before, 7 twice, 12 three times, and 22 repeatedly in imprisonment. Of 174 committed to Bridewell Hospital, 100 had been in before; of 511 boys to Clerkenwell, in 1835, 302 before, &c. The cause of this lies in the state of the prisons. All classes of crime are mixed together. Cards, obscene books, dice, replace the Bible; gaming of all kinds, especially the lowest, employ their idle hours. There is a school; but the schoolmaster is a convict, and with the mind of one. Prostitutes frequent the cells, under the name of sisters the utmost licence in language and manners prevails.

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Before trial, the prisoners are taken to the bail-dock; sometimes as many as sixty or seventy together. There, for hours and days together, they are mixed up with the most horrid characters, like wild beasts in a den. They conduct themselves "as if they were going rather to a fair than a trial." After locking up, "there would be some," say the prisoners themselves, "gambling at one end of the tables; others would be sitting around the fire, singing, and smoking, and talking all kinds of beastly talk, and of their crimes," &c. If there be a few quiet ones amongst them, the others are all down upon them; and if they complain to the Governor or Turnkey, "they are afraid of their lives at night, after locking up."

From such sinks of iniquity came many of the pupils mentioned in the text; against such education had the education of Hackney-Wick to contend. Yet the men who rail again st education, praise gaols!

your system reforms them?

Q. "Do you think that A. "Yes; we had one girl from St. Saviour's workhouse, who was very vicious; she bit a piece out of one of her companion's shoulders, just after she came; she was then a very bad girl, a thief, and much given to falsehood. She turned out so particularly well, that I petitioned the Ladies' Committees to leave her longer, as an example to the others; but it was thought advisable to send her to the Cape. She was with us seven months.

Q. "Do you ever take them from the gaols, after they have undergone their sentences?

A. "We are always ready to receive such; but it is difficult to say how many we have had, because the fact is not willingly mentioned by them. We have now four from Tothill Fields under those circumstances, who all give promise of doing well."

The evidence of Mr. Charles Forss, whose report we have already quoted, is not less striking.

Q. "Have you any boys now under your charge, that have been in prison?

A. "We have several.

Q. Can you state the offences which they had committed ?

A. "I do not know their offences; two, who had been sent by the Lord Mayor from the Mansion House, had been in prison before. Q." Have you reformed any of those that have been sent to you

from the prisons?

A. "Yes, several; we have had several who have been in Newgate, and some in Brixton House of Correction. They have gone out with good characters."

The history of some of these children is highly illustrative.

"James Mayo" (we still quote Mr. Charles Forss) "was admitted to the Asylum the first week in January, 1834. He had been wandering about the streets of London for six months before; he stated himself to be sixteen years of age."

He was at first very refractory, refused to work at the order of the master. He was placed in solitary confinement. After four hours, he begged to be liberated.

"I took him out, and spoke to him in a manner that appeared to make some impression. The next day he went cheerfully to his work, and upon one of the boys shewing some inclination to disobedience, I overheard him advise him to mind what he was about, as it would not do to be stubborn here. From that moment, Mayo was industrious, civil, and obedient; so much so, that on the 23rd he was appointed general monitor, and continued in that situation up to the 14th of March, when he embarked for Cape Town, with twenty boys under his care. His general character was firm and determined, with a strong sense of justice; and I believe he left the Asylum with deep feelings of gratitude, at the age of seventeen."-p. 46.