Five times and upwards. The number discharged from the School during the same twelve months was 114. 35 were assisted to employment in England by means of their friends and relatives, 5 Were apprenticed or sent to sea. 3 Absconded and were not recovered. 9 Were discharged as hopeless cases-6 of whom are now in prison, and the remaining 3 have been re-admitted. The number of boys under the care of the Society on December 31st. 1856, was ... ... ... The average number maintained during the year The number of boys admitted to Redhill from the opening of the School in 1849, to the 31st December, 1856, including readmissions of cases discharged in preceding years The number of boys discharged in the same interval of whom 449 emigrated. ... 255 236 1066 751 Of the results of this large emigration they had good cause to speak most thankfully. The school had again been favoured with a special visit from the Bishop of Winchester, for the purpose of confirmation, and encouraged by his marked approbation of the manner and spirit in which the rite was received and witnessed. The eighth year of the establishment at Redhill is now ending, and of upwards of 1000 boys they had not lost one by death. Our treasurer's noble donation of 1000l. had enabled the commit. tee to add another House, which already contained nearly forty inmates. The laying of the foundation-stone was distinguished by the attendance of Mons. Demetz, whose coming was as highly We understood the Rule, as it indeed appears in the fifth page of the Report, "no boy can be received above 15 years of age."-ED. 1 appreciated by the boys and their teachers as by the numerous friends of the institution who met him on the occasion. Our boys made a collection of from 51. to 61. among themselves as a little mark of fellowship and good-will to the lads at Mettray, and every one contributed with a hearty good-will to give the Apostle of the Reformatory movement a heartfelt welcome. There was a large increase in the farm profits this year, arising not only from the higher prices of grain, but from the evident improvement in the quality and quantity of the produce. A legacy of 3007. had been received from Madame Schimmelpenninck. Contributions of grains to the farm stock to the value of 851 from Messrs. Barclay and Co.; and 50l. from William Ellis, Esq., for the improvement of the teachers and school apparatus. Mr. Ellis also kindly gave three most valuable lectures or illustrative lessons on the teaching of social economy. The school was certified under the Reformatory Act 17 & 18 Vict,, cap 86, in September. Arrangements have been entered into with the neighbouring counties of Sussex and Kent, and lately with Nottinghamshire, Leeds, &c., under which young offenders recommended by the Reformatory Associations of those districts are received into the institution on payment of 2s. weekly per head, in addition to the Treasury allowance. Mr. Turner then speaks feelingly of his recent appointment of Inspector to the English and Scotch Reformatories, and concludes thus: I have been requested to undertake the office of Inspector of our English and Scotch Reformatories, with the special view of more effectually procuring and cansolidating the various reformatory efforts which the last two or three years have seen so cheeringly developed. I cannot consistently with my general duties give that close and personal attention to the supervision and management of the Farm School which its importance deserves and which is essential to its permanence and success. I am obliged therefore to request you to entrust the administration of the school to another. Looking back as I can through sixteen years on the numberless instances of confidence and friendly sympathy, and devoted selfsacrifice which I have met with, I feel unequal to express all that I owe, and that, through me, the good cause itself owes, to our treasurer and the many gentlemen who have laboured with me in the work. I can wish my successor no better fortune than that his experience may be like mine, and he will then know the privilege and pleasure of being associated for the highest purposes with men who are above all personal jealousies or petty motives-who understand and value the Christian aspects of their work, and who give unsparingly time, talents, and pecuniary exertion to the due fulfilling of its responsibilities. Assuredly no help that I can render in counsel and in influence shall be wanting to promote and insure his success. Deeply thankful am I to feel that I can surrender my charge to him with the strongest conviction that he will find his fellow-workers in the task both teachers and directors, such as will effectually help and cheer him in the performance of his duties. That he will have not so much to win a blessing hitherto unbestowed, but to retain and increase that which is already so richly given. SYDNEY TURNER. The Philanthropic Society's Farm School, Redhill, March, 1857. At the Gloucester Quarter Sessions, on Tuesday, June 30th, 1857, Mr. T. B. Ll. BAKER read the following statement upon the Hardwicke Reformatory School, which, with the accompanying letter, is well worthy of consideration: "GENTLEMEN, Forgive my asking your attention for a moment to a return of the boys of our own country and city received into the Reformatory at Hardwicke since our commencement. I partly drew it up for Lord Caernarvon's use in bringing forward his Bill for the extension of the reformatory principle, but the results struck me so much that I ventured to carry them out more closely, on the chance that they might interest you "For the first two years the school was merely experimental. Up to December, 1852, we only received 13 boys, seven of whom were of our county. In 1853 we received 11 boys, of whom six were of our county. The school was now fairly in work, and we began the attempt of clearing out all the worst boys from the county. Hitherto we had had no public money and no law to assist us. In 1854, Government allowed us five shillings a week for all boys received on conditional pardon under Vict. 1 and 2. In June we ventured to offer to the magistrates to receive all that they might think fit to send us, only requesting them not to send very slight cases (no other county has yet been able to do this). We received one of the two leaders of the Cheltenham gang, about five other very bad ones, and for the time broke the gang. In 1855 we cleared most of the old offenders from Cheltenham, Stroud, and Wotton. In the first half of 1856 all the first and most of the second convictions were very slight cases. There were, however, two bad ones. In the second half of 1856, we caught the five youngest apprentices of the old Cheltenham gang, At Christmas there only remained in the county eight boys twice convicted, mostly slight cases, and two very small boys often convicted of vagrancy. In the last six months we have only received seven boys, all on their first conviction. This, of course, cannot be expected to continue. Many boys will be convicted a second time, and probably be sent to Hardwicke; but so long as magistrates send nearly every second conviction to a reformatory, no boy can grow up in the regular habits of crime, or in the feelings of what is commonly called a gaol bird' under the age of 16. I cannot but think you will agree with me that the preventing regular habits of crime from being formed under the age of 16 will do much to prevent such from being formed at all. Should Lord Caernarvon's Bill pass next year, and the formation of such habits be prevented below the age of 20, I think you will have reason to hope that regular crime may be con. siderably diminished." Mr. Baker proceeded to remark that the number of boys now sent to him was so much diminished that he believed he could be of great help in taking a certain number of boys from Bristol. This was a thing he had long been anxious to do, and he thought the present a favourable opportunity, as they could hardly hope to see the county more thoroughly cleared of offenders than it at present appeared to be. The Mayor of Bristol had urged him to try and help them, and he believed that a considerable blow might be inflicted upon the crime of Bristol if he could find room in the school for the worst of the Bristol boys. He (Mr. Baker) had three years ago told his brother magistrates that he was ready to take all the boys they might think fit to send him, only requesting them not to send very trifling cases. Now, for the purpose of enabling him to do what he hoped might be a service to Bristol, might he take the liberty of asking the magistrates to write to him before they committed any boy on his first conviction to Hardwicke? He would take, without hesitation, every boy convicted for the second time; but he trusted that he might, without discourtesy, ask, that when a boy was convicted for a first time, although it was quite possible that there might be good reasons for sending him to a reformatory, that the magistrate would kindly write to him (Mr. Baker) and state those reasons, and ask whether he would receive him. Every second conviction he (Mr. Baker) would receive without hesitation. He mentioned that he had had one little boy sent to him because he had stolen two small pieces of laurel, and he felt great compunction at receiving 18. 5s. per annum from Government in such cases as this. The boy's parents had never been accused of thieving; they were a "rough lot," and his mother was "very untidy;" but it was hardly to be expected that he could undertake to receive every boy whose mother was untidy-and apply to Government for 18. 5s. for his maintenance in school. Mr. Curtis Hayward mentioned, with regard to the Reformatory, that at the last sessions there was only one prisoner under the age of 16 for trial, and at the present sessions there was not a single prisoner under that age. Though some boys were convicted suminarily, the most serious offences were sent to the sessions for trial; and he found that at the present time the whole number of prisoners under 16 years of age in the different gaols amounted to only eight, and one of these was in prison for deserting his service. It was clear, therefore, that some impression had been made upon the juvenile population of the county. Mr. Tart bore testimony to the benefit derived by Cheltenham from the establishment of the Hardwicke Reformatory School. The Chairman remarked that the state of things disclosed by Mr. Baker's report was higly creditable to the county. At a later period of the day, the Chairman stated that during the 40 years he had been a magistrate, there had never been so small a number of prisoners for trial at any quarter sessions as at the present. Mr. T. B. Ll. Baker also read some statistics showing that from the year 1836 up to the establishment of the county police there had been a steady increase in crime. For some time after the establishment of the police, there was still an increase in the number of prisoners, which was attributable to the greater means of detection which the new system furnished; but from that time to the present, there had been a gradual decline in the number of offenders. STATISTICS OF CRIME. To the Editor of the Gloucestershire Chronicle. Dear Sir,-You alluded in your report of the sessions to my having read some statistics referring to the increase or decrease of crime in our county. Perhaps the details, somewhat more fully made out than I had them at that time, may be of interest to your readers. The first few lines are taken at periods of five years apart. NUMBERS TRIED IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING:— |