the lofty heights of religion, pity, humanity, justice, and mercy, to pounds, shillings, and pence. Yet I can demonstrate that ours, the kindest and holiest, is also the cheapest policy. It has been calculated, as I have already stated, that every child, left to grow up into a criminal, costs the country, on an average, not less than 3007. Let us suppose that but one-half of the five hundred, whom this single school has saved, had run a career of crime; they would have involved the state in an outlay of 75,000l. Now, during the twelve years of its existence, our school has cost some 24,0007.; the amount, therefore, saved to the country is just the difference between that sum and 75,000l.—that is, 51,000%. But make a much more probable supposition, that at least two-thirds of these children would, but for our school, have developed into full-blown criminals, then, besides rescuing them from a life of crime and misery, we have saved the state in actual money, a sun, in round figures, equal to the difference between 24,000l. and 96,000l.' It must have given all the joy he describes to this devoted philanthropist, and his generous constituents and fellow-labourers, to meet no fewer than 150 old scholars who accepted an invitation to a tea-party in Edinburgh. They were all genteelly dressed, all self-supporting, many married, and all well doing. It was a sight worth living for: it was our harvest home.' It was indeed; and the man who was mainly instrumental in gaining that glorious issue is worthy of the highest laurels which a grateful country can bestow. But these are not the deeds for which royalty reserves her stars. Their record is on high, and their recognition will be by a more exalted Monarch, who, as He bestows his meed of praise, will say, 'Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto ME.' In England ragged schools have been making rapid progress; but they have not so fully met the necessity in any locality as in those two cities concerning which we have been recently furnished with such full returns. London has institutions for the children of the perishing and dangerous classes' of various kinds—refuges, where upwards of 500 are clothed, fed, and educated; about 100 week-day schools, with 15,000 scholars; 120 week-night schools, with nearly 10,000 scholars; 130 sabbath-schools, with 17,000 scholars; 85 industrial classes, with 3,500 scholars, making a total of at least 30,000 actually under instruction. The results of these efforts for good are most encouraging, and of a nature corresponding with those referred to in the preceding pages. Scattered over the ragged-school magazines, the reports of the Reformatory and Refuge Unions, and of the shoe-black brigades, are details of the deepest interest. The industry, honesty, and piety of the shoe-blacks do them the highest credit, and afford an unanswerable argument to those who still refuse their sympathy or aid to a movement which has wrought so many reforms. The letters received from those who, after passing through the ragged schools, have emigrated to the colonies, give a like encouraging testimony. The establishment of reformatories by Government was a great step step in advance for the treatment of delinquent juveniles. There are now twenty such institutions in England, and nearly as many in Scotland, all in accordance with the Acts of Parliament. Much is due to the labours of the philanthropists who assembled in Birmingham in 1851, whose influence aided the passing of the Acts. This has been followed up by the institution, in 1856, of a REFORMATORY AND REFUGE UNION, whose annual reports present most interesting facts, fully corroborative of all that has been said in favour of prevention instead of punishment. On the Continent similar benevolent efforts have been made during late years on behalf of the ragged and criminal children of large towns. There are two institutions whose fame has become world-wide, chiefly through the rare powers and earnest characters in their respective founders. We refer to Mettray and Hamburg, where M. de Metz and Dr. Wichern have wrought such wonders in philanthropy. We shall confine our attention to the latter in the small space now at our disposal. Dr. Wichern began his work on a very small scale in the old Rauhe Haus (Rough House), near Hamburg. He had two objects in view-training young men and women for the office of social reformers, and actually attempting the desired reform of the criminal youth. He first began with the children: twelve of whom were admitted in the end of December, 1833. "They varied in age from five years up to eighteen; their variations in vice were not so great, for they were uniformly bad. Eight of them were illegitimate; four were under the influence of criminal and drunken parents; one lad of twelve was known to the police by ninety-two thefts; one had escaped from prison; one had sinned till he had become imbecile; they were all thoroughly wild; lying and stealing was their second nature. They were poor street wanderers, such as you may see in London on the dreary winter nights, crouching in doorways and under bridges; little heaps of rags with perhaps bright, hungry eyes, that sparkle on you with a kind of savage fear. They used to sleep on piles of stones or on steps; only, said one, the stars awoke me in winter, for they looked down on me so clear and white. There was a shameless, false, little beggar among them, a poor thing deserted by his mother, and who had risen to be the leader of all the street boys in his neighbourhood, and a notorious plague. There was a boy who had been treated like a beast, and naturally lived like a beast; his so-called adopted parents had bought him for 137.; the woman was an idiot, the man a coarse drunkard, and under them he lived till he was eighteen: no wonder he came shy, full of mistrust, naked within and without. A boy of twelve declared positively that he believed no God, much less a Saviour, no resurrection, no judgment. He had once laid violent hands on himself, and, when angry, he threatened that he would run himself through with a knife; frightful fits of passion seized upon him, culminating in one which lasted twelve hours, and during which four men could scarcely hold Before he came he used to be chained at such times.' him. The very worst boys in Hamburg were in Wichern's Rauhe Haus; but love won them, patient training reformed them, and Christian instruction led them to the Saviour. Four of the twelve settled respectably in Hamburg, four elsewhere, and two went to sea. The faith and prayer and labour of the master triumphed. Wichern Dr. Wichern's Rough House. 245 Wichern had soon his hands full. He therefore entered upon his arranged plan, dividing his boys or girls into families of twelve in separate houses, with a superintendent, four brothers-unpaid, training for reformatory institutions, and a young candidate of theology in each. There are now twenty houses, surrounded by fifty acres of land, and containing 395 boys, with 114 girls. Moral purpose and Christian influence mingle with all instruction, whether of book or of handicraft. Printing is carried on to a great extent. Agriculture employs some, shoemaking others, baking another party, and various industrial arts the remainder. Many have gone forth from the excellent discipline and order of the Rauhe Haus to take respectable places in society. Of the first 200 who left, 145 are doing well, 10 are mediocre, only 22 are bad, while 23 have been lost sight of. Since the commencement, nearly 200 brothers have gone to labour in other establishments, and many theological candidates are now in the parochial ministry, or in the mission-field, highly valued and greatly blessed. Among all the institutions for the reformation of degraded youth none ranks higher than Dr. Wichern's. It has attracted the attention of persons in high social position all over Europe; it has influenced all similar institutions which have been established on the Continent; it has aided to revive religion as well as to diminish crime and promote order, by means of the Inner Mission so closely linked with it; it has promoted a healthy religious literature, much of which is printed and published at the Rough House; and it has taught a grand lesson of what faith and prayer and energy can do. The ragged-school system has practically developed some great principles of social amelioration. It has shown that prevention is better than cure; that the reformation of the young is more certain than of the old; that there is every advantage to society by educating, at the public expense, those who are neglected by their parents; and that the best instruction is when secular knowledge and the useful arts are blended with Christian teaching and daily worship of God. Under this loving and godly influence the worst youths have been reformed, and have been sent out to the world with an ability to read and write, a fitness to work for their bread, and a love to God and man glowing in their renewed breasts. By greater liberality from a Christian public, and more resolute endeavours to leave no destitute children uncared for; by greater compassion in the magistracy, who will send the young delinquents brought up for crimes to the reformatory instead of the prisons; and by wiser legislation on the part of the State to shut up incentives to and new facilities for drunkenness, ragged schools would speedily transform, by the blessing of Heaven, the wretched and mendicant and delinquent youth of our country into honest honest, happy, sober, and pious citizens, and hasten the consummation so devoutly to be wished, when begging, drunkenness, and crime shall be almost extirpated. ART. VI.-1. Report of Parliamentary Committee on Intemperance. 1834. J. S. Buckingham, Chairman. 2. Report of Select Committee on Public-houses. 1854. Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Chairman. 3. Hansard's Debates. Session of 1860. FEW NEW investigations are so barren as those pursued by parliamentary committees. Day after day during the session do members of the House of Commons spend hours in examining witnesses upon questions of various national interest, and at last, with a sigh of relief that the labour is concluded, the chairmen of the committees present to the House reports to which nobody listens, and these, with the rest of the inquiries, are consigned to the honourable oblivion of blue books. All this exhausting labour, so loudly complained of to constituents, and conducted at an enormous national expense, is intended to furnish desired information to Parliament upon which discreet and safe legislation may be founded. It practically affords information to nobody but to the parties immediately concerned and interested, and to some adventurous student who has courage enough to search for the ore which may be extracted from the mountain of débris which, like the slag of an iron furnace, grows up during the heats and refinements of a parliamentary session. Such is the apathy of members to any but party claims, or to the immediate necessities of foreign or domestic politics, that a suggestion to refer any question to a committee is always considered as a pleasant mode of placing it on the shelf. Rarely, indeed, has the most deliberate and exhaustive inquiry ordered by the House resulted in practical legislation. The various committees which from time to time have reported upon drunkenness, or the laws affecting the trade in strong drink, have presented no exception to this rule. Session after session, from the earliest period of parliamentary records, has the House of Commons been called upon to discuss, in some shape or other, the troublesome question of public-houses. Sometimes bungled in general debate, at others sent up stairs to a committee as inconvenient, a general sentiment has been expressed that a comprehensive measure' ought to be introduced to relieve the House from this constant nuisance; but no one has ventured to embody the suggestions offered in a bill. The committee which, under Mr. Buckingham's presidency, sat in 1834, reported to the House upon the importance of directing the attention of the Govern ment The Beer-house universally condemned. 247 ment to various ameliorations, and especially to the introduction "early in the ensuing session," of some general and comprehensive law for the progressive diminution and ultimate suppression of all the existing facilities and means of intemperance, as the root and parent of almost every other vice.' But no legislation followed. Probably the conclusions were too much allied to common sense, and the suggestions too logical, to recommend themselves to a modern House of Commons, one of the peculiar characteristics of which is, to allow no measure to pass without the introduction of sufficient personal crotchets to mar the symmetry of the construction, and to render difficult the understanding and execution of the act. Nor has the committee which, twenty years later, presented its report through Mr. Villiers, been treated with any greater consideration. The elaborate suggestions offered have not again been referred to; and the present year would, in all probability, have passed away without any disturbance of the unsatisfactory status quo, but for the necessity which lay upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer to provide channels for, and, if possible, to increase the consumption of the French wines admitted by the new treaty. But now the ice has been broken. No one-certainly not a licensed victualler-expects that the legislation of the last session will be final. There is an evident disposition on the part of leading statesmen to deal with the whole question of license laws, and it is not likely that many years will pass without a radical and complete change. It is therefore of some importance that temperance reformers should examine and understand the position in which they are likely to be placed, and agree upon the policy they should pursue in the advancement of their principles. The dissatisfaction of all parties with the beer-house system has grown and developed constantly during the thirty years in which that system has exercised its debasing influence. Alongside of this feeling has also sprung up a distrust of the system of magisterial license, and a desire to break down a monopoly which, in the new era of mercantile competition, appears peculiarly hateful and injurious to ardent free-traders. Between the adherents of these two opinions, there is a necessary antagonism which must probably render the adoption of either alternative difficult. In connection with the former a powerful organization among magistrates, especially of the West Riding, promoted, in 1857, a measure which, under the hands of Mr. Hardy, was submitted to the House of Commons. The second reading was, however, refused by a majority of 213 to 180, the debate turning exclusively on the points we have indicated. The scope of the suggested measure was to withdraw from the excise the power to grant, simply for purposes of revenue, licenses to sell beer, |