personal inquiry, an account of the efforts
that have been made from time to time to
amend their condition. It is a matter not
only of national, but, one would think, of
personal, interest to every thoughtful citizen.
Let us consider what the words "juvenile
offenders" mean—not in blue-books, but in
the book of Nature. Look at those rosy little
boys, lolling in carriages, elegantly attired and
pompously attended. It is only the accident
of birth which has prevented them being
pickpockets, and from being now and then
"privately whipped." Your playful little
Tommy, my dear madam, who has a slight
tendency to mischief, might—if born of somebody
who, instead of being an example to
her sex (with a snug income), had been
brought up in squalor and among the base
—have been corrected with a heavier hand,
and in altogether a ruder manner than is
his present lot. Not that one wishes to say
that propriety is not propriety, because it has
had only favourable circumstances to grow
in; but the immense force of circumstances
must not, and ought not, to be forgotten; it
is cruel, useless; and, ultimately, will prove
fatal to do so.

We start with a very plain announcement,
quoted from the evidence of Mr. Pearson
before the Select Committee of the House of
Lords, that "the number of commitments
and convictions for crime has increased in
this country greatly beyond the increase of
population." He adds, citing later
documents, that the "number of juvenile criminals
has increased in a greater degree than even
the mass of criminals at large. Thus, the
number of criminals under twenty years of age
committed to prison in the year 1835, was six
thousand eight hundred and three, or one in
four hundred and forty-nine of the population;
while in 1844 they amounted to eleven thousand
three hundred and forty-eight, or one in
three hundred and four upon the population
of the same age." This is one of those facts
which startle, and well they may, at first
sight. "Poverty and ignorance!" exclaims the
reader. True, but the country has been
increasing in wealth and the means of education
all the time.

Although there had been a decrease within
the last three years of convictions all over the
country, yet it has only applied to the adult
population; for the number of commitments
and convictions of juvenile offenders has
increased in the three latter years upwards of
seven per cent." Another gleam of comfort
comes when we hear that crimes have "been
less aggravated in character;" but, on the
other hand, (there is always something on the
other hand!) the number of summary convictions,
which do not form part of this account,
amount to more than three times the number
of convictions, which form the basis of such
evidence. The observer has hope after hope
knocked away from him. You fancy that the
spectre has vanished from the premises; and
here he is, busier than ever, in the
"cellarage!"

Serjeant Adams states, that the "large
towns" are the places where juvenile offenders
are generally met: accordingly, Liverpool
shows considerable increase in that way. Miss
Carpenter quotes an extract from the report
of Captain Williams, Inspector of Prisons, for
1840. It seems from that, that "during one
year the number of male juvenile prisoners
committed to the Liverpool Borough Prison
was, in proportion to the whole number of
male prisoners, much greater than in any of
the gaols selected for comparison;" and, also,
that "of the worst class of recommittals (those
who had been in gaol four times or oftener),
the proportion in Liverpool was upwards of
seven times the average proportion in the
metropolitan gaols, and nine times more than
in the five provincial gaols." One is glad to
learn that in 1847—thanks to the exertion of
the chaplain and governor—the per-centage
of "relapses into crime" was got reduced
about eight per cent, though it "still remains
very high." To speak of "relapses into crime,"
is a loose, vague way of talking: it seems to
imply that the little fellows had been once well
raised out of it, and had so "fallen" again by
some moral backsliding—the case being, that
on leaving the gaol they return generally to the
old circumstances under which they just
offended: they can scarcely be said to "relapse,"
when they are no ways raised above their old
level. What these "circumstances" are, and
their connexion with crime, may be gathered
from such accounts as we proceed to examine.
We learn from Serjeant Adams's evidence, that
''of the one hundred prisoners whom he has
to try every fortnight, from sixteen to forty
are boys; some even of the age of seven, a
few of eight, and a great number of nine and
upwards; of these children" (mark this) "the
offences are for the most part of a pilfering
description, to which the young children are
tempted by older persons."

They, in fact, seem to hop about like wild
birds, pilfering the crumbs that fall from the
table of the country's wealth. It seems
difficult to see how they can have any higher
relation to the moral view of crime, than
blackbirds among currant bushes. They
certainly have no higher notion of what we call
justice, than blackbirds have of nets, scarecrows,
and guns.

Being, therefore, destitute and abandoned,
children become what is called "criminals."
Abandoned by everybody, the nursing-mother
Britannia takes them to her bosom, imprisons,
transports, and privately whips them, with the
kindliest intentions; and at the same time
the ghastliest feeling that it is not all right.
Nothing is more curious to watch in this
inquiry than the uneasy despair of all the
officials. "What am I to do?" asks the
judge. The judge himself looks with terror
at the unhappy little youngster perched in the
dock before him, and is to all appearance