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MENSURATION AS AN INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE.

and when he is capable, by the tracing of the necessary lines, to make an approximate estimate of the height or distance of a house or tree, and can clearly comprehend the principle on which the distances and magnitudes of the sun, moon, and planets are discovered, it will be time enough to instruct him in the application of arithmetical and trigonometrical calculations; of the importance of which, in supplying instrumental deficiency, he will then be fully sensible. It is intended to furnish, in the next number, some easy examples and exercises, suitable for beginners, by way of illustration.

OFFICIAL REPORTS ON REFORMATORIES.

N interesting volume of Reports has just been issued by the Committee of Council, on Reformatories and Union Schools. Four of H. M. Inspectors specially employed in the superintendence of these Schools, have reported with more or less fulness upon the former, and extracts are subjoined such as will serve to show the general character of the views which their respective experience and S observation have led these gentlemen to form in their separate districts, not only on the existing state of Reformatories, but on their practical bearing, and on the improvements desirable in their future organization and managememt. They are given seriatim.

I. FROM MR. TUFNELL'S REPORT, INSPECTOR OF THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT.

a. Pauper and Criminal Children should be treated separately. The treatment of those children who are simply destitute must be essentially different from those who are criminal, and I believe that the distinction to be observed in training these two classes is now pretty generally admitted. The distinction exists in this, that, as wide experience shows, simply destitute children may be educated in masses, and congregated in large schools; while children thoroughly abandoned and vicious can only be satisfactorily educated on the family system, in small schools. This principle is now so well understood that I find it carried into full operation in nearly all the refuges and reformatories which I have visited.

b. Family System recommended."There is one admirably designed 'Society for the Rescue of Young Women and Children,' that proceeds systematically in founding small reformatory schools in different parts of London. Its method is to select an ordinary small house, and to place in it a limited number, not exceeding that of a good sized family, under the care of a man and his wife, whose object will be to gain the affection of those placed under their charge, and, by persevering kindness and family discipline, to endeavour to be instrumental in their reformation. I have visited four of the establishments thus set up, and in each case the whole of the arrangements appear to me extremely well designed to infuse new hearts and christian principles into the unhappy girls who have become inmates. The building, in each case, differs in nothing from any other house in the row, and contains from fifteen to twenty girls, presided over by a matron who is responsible for everything. I believe that much of the success depends upon thus concentrating responsibility on a single head; and as, in every case I made

minute inquiries of what becomes of the inmates when they leave, I was presented with most satisfactory proofs that a real reformation had in nearly every case been brought about.

c. Increased Cost no Loss.-At first sight it may appear that this plan of founding small separate establishments would involve a great expense. If, however, it is more successful than any other, and I believe it to be so, in reforming the inmates, the increased expense is a very secondary consideration. The advantage to the general community in turning a single criminal into an honest person, taking even the low money view of the case, cannot be less than £100. But, on looking into and comparing the accounts of large and small establishments, I cannot find that the former have really any advantage in the point of cost. Any small house will answer on the 'family home" system, and thus the vast expense which always attends the building a school, or adapting old buildings, is saved. The expense is of course represented by so much rent, but this I do not find, on comparison, to exceed the interest of the money laid out on ordinary school buildings where the children are lodged. Thus the rent paid for the "Hampstead Family Home"-a model of such establishments-which contains twenty inmates, presided over by a matron, is £46 per annum, or an average of £2. 6s. per head.

d. Moral Training. In all such establishments, if the head is well selected, education in its highest sense may be imparted. The inmates may be trained in morals or behaviour, and in industry, to a very high point; in fact they may be made good Christians and good workers. These results may seem to include all that could be wished, but I cannot help thinking that the good seed thus sown would be more firmly rooted, and less liable to decay in future years, if a little more intellectual instruction were imparted. The head of such an establishment, by his or her example and conversation and manners, educates highly, but seems rarely to possess in addition the art of a good teacher, and hence I would suggest whether an improvement might not ensue by the engagement of a trained teacher, to come daily for a couple of hours, to instruct the inmates in ordinary school subjects. The expense would not be great; the superior, often overworked, would be somewhat relieved; and what seems to me a small defect in these institutions would be remedied.

e. School subjects to be taught.-Lest it should be supposed that I am advocating any extravagant scheme of instruction, I will briefly explain to what extent I would have the teaching to proceed in such schools. I need not insist on the necessity of a well grounded knowledge of the doctrines of Christianity, as there can be no controversy on such a point. In arithmetic, the pupils should be able to make up accounts and cast up shop bills with facility. In writing, they should be able to write a small hand readily, and to express themselves without difficulty, and especially they should be able to write letters. The utility of the requirement in arithmetic will be evident, but the power of writing with ease is of still greater importance. Children of this low origin have rarely any friends in their own rank, or among their relations, or such as they have, ought to be avoided. The habit of corresponding with a respectable person, like the teacher of the school where they have been educated, is found to be one of the best supports of good conduct, and the strongest preservative against falling into evil courses. *** The practice of writing English with facility ought to be enforced in every poor school and reformatory.

f. Industrial Training.-In refuges for girls the almost invariable practice is to prepare them for household service; but, where boys are admitted, the question of what work they shall be employed upon is not of so easy a solution. On perusing a great number of reports from different London institutions, I find that those who have obviously paid the deepest attention to the subject have come to the same conclusion to which I had previously arrived from inspecting the large London pauper schools. This conclusion is well expressed in the following resolution passed at the last public meeting of the "Belvidere Crescent Reformatory,"—an establishment worthy of all praise :- "That it is of less consequence to prepare the inmates of a town reformatory for any special occupation which they are hereafter to pursue, than to train them to habits of industry upon some uniform system which shall be most profitable to the institution." I had long ago observed that the children from pauper schools did not usually betake themselves to the occupations in which they had been specially instructed, and that, in industry, as in intellectual education, the right policy is, not to educate for special pursuits, but, to give such a development to the various powers of mind and body as shall enable a youth to turn his talents to account in whatever situation he may be placed. Mr. M. D. Hill and Mr. R. Hall, the Recorders of Birmingham and Doncaster, than whom none can be better qualified to give opinions on this matter, both concur in this view; the former remarking,-"during a pretty long experience of life, it has often occurred to me to observe how quickly one who brings to the contest a general development of his powers overcomes an antagonist greatly superior to him at first in his acquaintance and familiarity with the particular subject of their conflict." In agricultural refuges, situated in the country, and filled with country youths, possibly it may be advantageous to bring up the inmates as husbandmen,-especially as such a training admirably fits them for the colonies; but for town youths, unless they are intended for a colonial life, I do not think that agricultural employment is best fitted.

The

g. Common School Children do not attend Ragged Schools.-I had anticipated, when the Minute of 2 June was first brought into operation, that some ordinary parish schools might be turned into feeding schools, with the view of participating in the large pecuniary benefits held out under that Minute. I am bound to say that, hitherto, I have not visited any establishment under that Minute which does not entirely consist of the criminal or abandoned children who are alone contemplated by it. money distributed under the Minute is so large, that I think it would be unfair to charge the public funds as heavily in favour of any other than this particular class of children. But, as I believe that most of the children who are benefited by it are saved from a life of crime, this peculiar disbursement of the educational grant fulfils the requirements of humanity as well as of economy.

II. FROM MR. BOWYER'S REPORT, INSPECTOR OF THE EASTERN AND MIDLAND DISTRICT.

a. Difficulty of forming a correct opinion on the state of a reformatory.-No opinion relative to the actual work of reformation effected in any of these establishments can be much more than a conjecture, if grounded solely on the impression produced in the minds of the Inspectors. The instruction, both religious and secular, the industrial training, the general management of the institution, may be outwardly unexceptionable. The officers may appear exemplary in their moral qualifications and devotedness to their duties;

and yet it is obvious to any person who has noted the tendency exhibited by all institutions, and especially those whose objects are the highest, to conceal their shortcomings, and to appear all the more perfect the less they are conscious of being so, that all those fair appearances may possibly cover a far different reality.

b. Moral Training all important.-The moral agencies of the school are all important, and the positive instruction and training imparted to the children can only be considered free from danger to society on the assumption that those moral agencies have triumphed, and converted vicious into virtuous natures. Should this assumption not prove correct, the only result of the education imparted in a reformatory will be to expand and invigorate the intellects, and extend the knowledge of the dangerous classes. To watch the involuntary, and generally momentary, workings of the countenance, which betray the real mind within, or the more permanent marks impressed on it by previous habits of thought and action still rooted in the character, and thus to discover to what extent the moral agencies of the school have succeeded in the work of reformation, must be the Inspector's principal object while apparently occupied in ascertaining what the inmates have been taught, and how they have been trained to industry. Now this is no easy task under any circumstances, but its difficulty is greatly increased when the minds to be probed are those of children and youths whose previous lives have trained them to command their countenances, and mould them to any expression which may suit their purpose, and who are bent upon making a favourable impression on the Government Inspector, and on the members of the committee present at the examination. It is, consequently impossible to place implicit confidence in favourable impressions, though a real feeling of shame and religion may often be read in the countenances of many of the younger inmates. Where, on the other hand, the result of the inspection leaves an unfavourable impression, greater reliance may be placed on its correctness; as whatever blemishes may appear must have been involuntarily betrayed. If the characteristic expression of the criminal class is still perceived to pierce in momentary gleams through the staid and demure countenance, it may confidently be concluded that no real reformation has been effected.

c. Difficulty of reforming Juvenile Criminals somewhat underrated.—I am, however, very far from doubting the possibility of reforming a considerable proportion of our juvenile criminals. This has been established beyond controversy, both in England and on the Continent. But I am inclined to think that the difficulty of the undertaking has been somewhat underrated by many of the promoters of reformatories. There is no doubt that these institutions will, even if imperfectly conducted, effect a considerable amount of good. A large proportion of the juvenile criminals are children who have been impelled by want, persuasion, evil example, or even thoughtlessness, to commit petty larcenies, which, had their perpetrators belonged to the middle and upper classes, would have been visited only with domestic correction, But their dispositions are not really worse than those of most children; and the mere refuge afforded to them by the reformatory from the temptations which occasioned their fall, together with the regular life they lead in it, the religious and secular instruction, the industrial training it affords them, and the employment which the benevolent care of the managers procures for them when they leave it, can hardly fail to render them respectable members of society. This result, however, falls far

below the object which the promoters of reformatories have in view, and the expectations which induced the country to support them by annual grants of the public money. The great social evil which has called the reformatory movement into existence, and the removal of which forms its principle aim, is a class of children who are born, bred, and trained to crime as to the calling by which they are to live. They are the rising generation of the caste of professional criminals, whom society does not know how to reform, can no longer banish, and dares not exterminate. It seems to be believed that the young of this caste can be converted into average, and even exemplary, members of society by daily instruction in Scripture, reading, writing, arithmetic, regular hours of work, a life of decent seclusion, and morning and evening prayers, read by the superintendent or the chaplain; all this administered by the watchful care of a steady respectable man, practically acquainted with agriculture and some other trade, while his equally steady and respectable wife performs the duties of matron. This belief is surely at variance with both theory and experience.

d. Qualities required in the master.—It requires, in him who would successfully undertake it, the exercise of the same faculties of the mind as have been employed for the purposes of corruption; and others beside of a far higher and purer character. It calls for a sagacity as unerring, a skill as consummate, a zeal as ardent, and a knowledge of human nature far more profound. It calls, further, for the rarest qualities of the soul; entire forgetfulness of self, singleness of mind, simplicity, and that compassionate love which is not an amiable weakness, but a power, strengthening and animating all the other faculties, and working irresistibly by sympathy on the hearts of those towards whom it is directed. Nor is this theory unconfirmed by experience. I need only mention, in support of my assertion, the Mettray and Ruysselede Institutions, the Rauhe Haus, the Red Hill and Hardwick reformatories." * * * I shall confine myself to stating my conviction that this source of supply is not one that is open to us. Some means must, however, be devised to obtain a sufficient number of men qualified for this arduous and important work; for on this depends the success of the undertaking. Without them all the money expended on reformatories, and all the care bestowed on them, will be thrown away.

e. Large Reformatories recommended.-1. Instead of attempting to create a supply of suitable teachers, sufficient for a considerable number of small reformatories, by any artificial stimulus, the demand might be rendered proportionate to the supply by consolidating the present large number of small reformatories into a lesser number of large ones.

From this reflection springs another :—

2. These large reformatories might be made the means of training a staff of teachers, by incorporating with each of them a training college organized with an especial view to the work for which the students are intended.

It appears to me that these two ideas embrace the only satisfactory solution of the problem.

f. Probable number of Juvenile Criminals for whom reformatories are required.-1. I have attempted to follow up this idea into its practical application, but have been arrested in limine by the impossibility of forming a correct estimate of the number of children in England and Wales for whom reformatory education is required. The tabular statement of the number of criminal offenders issued by the Home Office affords no