2 The Statistical Society of London. IV. The Statistics of Protection; or constitutional, judicial, legal, military, and criminal Statistics. V. The Statistics of Life, Consumption, and Enjoyment; or, of population, health, the distribution and consumption of the commodities of life, and public and private charity. All the departments of Statistics above described may be cultivated to the development of as many branches of moral science, and to the attainment of that true insight into the actual condition of Society, without which the application of remedial measures is purely empirical. Under this conviction, the original prospectus announced the intention of the Society carefully to exclude all "opinions" from its publications; not, assuredly, with the view of discouraging the proper use of hypothetical reasoning, but for the purpose of devoting the pages of its transactions to facts, and not to systems. In the pursuit of almost every investigation, the inquirer will adopt some hypothesis; but its truth and completeness, or its fallaciousness and insufficiency, must be demonstrated by observation and experiment. It is therefore the main purpose of scientific associations to call forth and register the results obtained by these processes; and observation in the wide field of human interest supplies those "facts calculated to illustrate the condition and prospects of society," which it is the design of the Statistical Society to "collect, arrange, and publish." The pursuit of Statistical inquiries has already made such progress, not in England alone, but throughout Europe, as henceforth to be a necessity of the age, and one of its most honourable characteristics. Thus, errors as to the actual condition and prospects of society are daily exploded, and more just data are supplied to guide the exertions of the philanthropist, the judgment of the legislator, and the speculations of the reasoner. The labours of the Statist, indeed, can alone assure us that we are really advancing in that knowledge of human interests in the aggregate to which it is no longer possible to deny the name of Science. The Statistical Society of London consists of an unlimited number of Fellows, admitted by ballot, without any entrance fee, but paying a subscription of two guineas per annum; of foreign Honorary Members; and of Honorary Corresponding Members, resident out of the United Kingdom; and it carefully cultivates à connexion with the several local societies of the Empire, and a correspondence with those of Foreign Countries. Fellows elected in or after the month of June are exempt from paying their subscription for the current year. The Journal of the Society, published quarterly, is distributed gratuitously to all the Fellows; its library is one of circulation; and its Rooms and its Monthly Meetings are of great resort. STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF London, QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. APRIL, 1852. Statistics of the Farm School System of the Continent, and of its applicability to the Preventive and Reformatory Education of Pauper and Criminal Children in England. By JOSEPH FLETCHER, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Honorary Secretary. [Read before the Statistical Society of London, 16th February, 1851.] AMONG the various classes of facts, which, in the language of our original prospectus, are "calculated to illustrate the condition and prospects of society," there is none of more immediate interest or more general importance than that which, if studied without preconceived bias, may teach us how best to administer the grave trust involved in the custody of a pauper or criminal population, and especially of that portion of it whose youthfulness and plasticity of character render it probable that mismanagement on our part will be its total ruin, and entail upon ourselves no small weight of retribution. Solicitude in this matter is not limited to those who imagine that there is some power latent in the corporate being of "society" or "government" which ought to be used to the education of all, so that they shall of necessity be good citizens; and, placing themselves in high imagination aloof from all social ills, with folded hands, complacently reproach this corporate being for allowing their existence. It is even shared by many who would formerly have been content to use up human beings, of whatever age, by an instrumentality of mere punishment, in which they would have considered that the magistrate was simply doing the work which God had assigned to him, and with which it was no business of theirs to interfere. And it has long possessed the minds of, I trust, a still larger number, who, neither vainly denying the power of evil, nor vainly assuming to exercise divine justice without mercy, regard the criminal jurisprudence of a country as a mere code of human expediency, elaborated in supersedence of the personal conflicts which would otherwise tear society to pieces; and would fain see such collective efforts at self-preservation guided, like those of the individual, by principles of a recognized responsibility, in that conflict against sin and sorrow,-in that struggle for virtue and happiness,—into which we were born and baptized, from which there is no earthly escape, and which we can wage with success only so long as we wage it humbly, forgivingly, and earnestly. An improving moral VOL. XV. PART I. B sense in the individual will often work the most important and happy changes in his course of action; and the time is perhaps arrived when an improving moral sense in society at large will find it equally consistent with policy and economy to distinguish between crime and the criminal, at least to the extent of leaving a chance of redemption to those who are not altogether hardened in their evil courses. Repression, of a severity as great as a scale graduated by the enormity of the offences will permit, is apparently unavoidable in dealing with those hardened both by age and habit; but if we would meet the greater proportion of those who ultimately become confirmed criminals at the very commencement of their evil courses, with a more merciful and more enlightened severity, they might in many cases be saved from a darker doom, and society from its ultimate infliction, after enduring a lengthened series of injuries. That it is no small subject of solicitude to which it is desired to rouse the public attention, will appear from the fact that the number of prisoners in the gaols of England and Wales classed as "juvenile” in the prison-inspectors' returns was, in the course of the year 1849, no fewer than 12,955; of which number 1,431 were under 12 years of age, 2,912 from 12 to 14, and the remaining 8,617 from 14 to 17*. Although these were not in prison for the whole year, it must be concluded that there is more than this amount of juvenile population constantly on the verge of commitment, and virtually thrown upon society in a criminal character; and its near connexion with another vast mass to which society stands in parental relation (that of the pauper children), is but too painfully established by Colonel Jebb's assertion in his Report, dated the 14th of June, 1851, on the discipline and management of the convict prisons in 1850, that "it is from this mass that the convicts who fill our prisons are in a great measure recruited." "I cannot," he adds, "too strongly impress the vast importance, were it only in a social and economical point of view, of vigorous and systematic efforts of prevention, directed against the causes of crime, so far as they may be traced to the want of moral, religious, and industrial training for pauper children.†” This moral relationship between the pauper and the criminal children is a painful fact, which we cannot witness with any degree of satisfaction; and, combined with their analogous economical condition (as being wholly supported by the benevolence or necessities of society at large, and not by the affection of parents or natural guardians), it compels us to take an enlarged view of the interests of both classes. The number of pauper children and young persons under sixteen receiving in-door support, as destitute of natural guardianship, and wholly dependent on society, was, in England and Wales, on the 1st day of January, 1850, no fewer than 26,841, being 23,596 orphans, or other children relieved without the parents being aided, 2,280 children of infirm pauper inmates of the workhouses, and 965 illegitimate children of such persons. The number of orphans or other children relieved out of the union workhouses, without the parents receiving relief, was, at the same date, no fewer than 17,854, and of children relieved out-of-doors, with their parents, as many as 37,161. * Fifteenth Report of Inspectors of Prisons, Home District, 1851, p. 234. † Report, p. 27. Omitting the whole of the latter, as, we may hope, a temporary burthen, we have thus all the responsibilities of parentage resting upon society, in the guardianship of Those who are best acquainted with the mode in which we at present deal with this responsibility, will say least in its praise; and it is therefore a first duty to search the varied experience of our neighbours, in dealing with the like difficulties under somewhat varying circumstances, for some useful hints to guide us in the amendment of our own practice. A great body of this experience has been brought together in a perspicuous manner by our valued honorary member, M. Edouard Ducpetiaux, Inspector-General of Prisons and Institutions of Public Charity in Belgium, in a report to the Minister of Justice for that kingdom, containing the results of inquiries made principally with a view to the guidance of his own judgment, in carrying out the instructions of his Government for the organization of the great reformatory farm-school at Ruysselede. It is, in fact, a summary of the experience of all the principal systems of public charity tending towards farm industry rather than workhouse idleness; and of the efforts which, with growing intelligence, have inevitably grown out of them, to employ the hardiest and best forms of pauper training to the reformation of the juvenile delinquent also, when not already too deeply debased by crime. It will therefore be my first endeavour to give, as nearly as possible in the words of our author, such portions of his work as will rapidly convey to your minds its most important conclusions. Classification of the Home Agricultural Colonies of the Continent. Home agricultural colonies, he says, owe their origin to the efforts made, especially since the commencement of the present century, to relieve misery, resist the progress of pauperism, and give a moral training to the very poor. They tend to relieve the towns of their superabundant population, and stop the influx from the country; they give new life to industry by diminishing on the one hand competition for employment, and, on the other, augmenting the produce of food; and finally, they open a way to the reclamation of waste lands at home and the colonization of unoccupied wilds in foreign countries. Such, at least, has been their design. The colonies which have been brought into existence are of two classes. 1st. Those which contemplate a provision for adults; and 2nd. Those which are directed to the training of children and young persons only. And these again are subdivisible, by reference to their contemplating, 1st, simply the maintenance and training of the destitute to habits of industry; or, 2nd, the actual reformation of those convicted of crime. 1. Free Colonies, or Farm Workhouses (Fermes-hospices).-These establishments, chiefly devoted to indigent adults, exist only in Holland and Belgium. In the former country, they constitute one of the principal elements of the system of home colonization elaborated by General Van den Bosch, and carried on, but without success, by the Charitable Society of Holland. In Belgium, two considerable experiments have been made; one at Wortel, in the Campine of Antwerp, which has completely failed, and the other in Flanders, where the farm-workhouses for the aged, sick, and orphan, are in full and prosperous operation. 2. Colonies for the Repression of Adult Mendicancy and Vagabondage. These are but few; and several have failed or been abolished after a longer or shorter trial. Among others may be mentioned the correctional colony at Merxplas Ryckevorsel, in the Campine of Antwerp; the agricultural colony of Ostwald, near Strasbourg, which has recently been converted into a penitentiary colony for young prisoners; and the colony of Linth, in the canton of Glaris, which, formed at first for adults, has long received only children. It is believed, indeed, that there are no correctional colonies for adults now in existence, except_only those of Ommerschaus and Veenhuizen, in Over-Yssel and La Drenth, in Holland; and, in some respects, the depôt of mendicity at Hoogstraeten, in the province of Antwerp, in Belgium. 3rd. Agricultural Reform Schools, Refuges, and Colonies for Young Paupers, Mendicants, Vagabonds, Orphans, and Foundlings, Deserted Children, and those who are Vicious or in Moral Danger (Moral Orphans).—The number of such establishments is considerable, and increasing every year in Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France, and Belgium; while in England, likewise, they are struggling into existence. 4th. Agricultural Penitentiaries, or Penitentiary Colonies.-These establishments, directed exclusively to the training of children and young persons found guilty, or acquitted only as having acted without knowledge (discernement), but detained for the purpose of being brought up to a stated age, are numerous, and still increasing in several countries such, especially, are the Penitentiary at Parkhurst and the Philanthropic Society's Agricultural Colony at Reigate; in France, the farm-colonies dependent on houses of detention, such as those of Gaillon, Fontevrault, Loos, &c., and the reformatory colonies of Mettray, Petit-Bourg, Ostwald, &c.; in Switzerland, the reformatory school of Bächtelen, in the canton of Berne; in Holland, the colony on the model of that at Mettray, which is being instituted by M. Suringer, &c. All those out-door institutions which contemplate the management of adults have proved decided failures, excepting only the "fermeshospices" of Flanders, which, exemplifying the economical elements with which all home-colonies and philanthropic efforts have to deal, deserve a brief notice, preparatory to a study of that application of the home-colony to purposes of educational and reformatory discipline for children and young persons, which I am more especially desirous to bring before your notice. Fermes-Hospices of Flanders. The "Fermes-Hospices" of Flanders are of very recent origin, and have chiefly originated in efforts of private beneficence to deliver the class which inhabits them, by gifts of land and buildings to the several |