Supplement to the First Plea

THE “Plea” fell much like a small spark 1 among combustibles, calling forth a very general and lively interest in the welfare of the outcast children of society. For some time after its first publication, every day brought letters expressing sympathy and offering cooperation. The public were impatient for the organization of a scheme, and a public meeting at which it might be launched. Such a meeting, patronized by gentlemen of all ranks and denominations, was at length hehl. Our scheme was launched amid the plaudits of a concourse of spectators; and while many watched its progress and followed it with their prayers, off it went to save the castaways, tp (217)

We constructed our scheme after the model of those in Aberdeen and Dundee. These had been in all respects universally approved of; and it was unanimously carried, without a murmur of disapprobation, far less one dissenting voice, that our School should be, in the main, modelled after their fashion of these. This accordingly was done; and in Appendix II., the reader will find the Rules and Constitution of our Edinburgh School, as proposed by the Committee, and unanimously adopted by a large meeting of the citizens. For some short while matters went smoothly enough. There was confidence within our Committee, and no cloud without. And the happy, I will say the holy, spectacle was seen of men who had been at war now cultivating the arts of peace, forgetting differences in a common object, and meeting with swords turned into plowshares, to break up the ground which had long lain fallow.

At first we did not attempt much. There was great difiiculty found in procuring suitable accommodation for the Schools in a central part of the city.* Besides, the objects of our charity, being unaccustomed to subordination, had to be disciplined and broken in. There could not be a greater mistake, or a grosser misrepresentation, than to allege, as was done, that the small number of our scholars was owing to any aversion which the Roman Catholics felt to participate in the benefits of our School. I was warned against sweeping in an unmanageable number at first, by a circumstance which I heard, when Lord Ashley took me to one of the Ragged Schools in London. It was situated in Westminster, and had a remarkable history. Some time before it was turned to its present purpose, this building had been used as a tavern. It was the favorite rendezvous of the thieves of that district. There they met to plan, and from thence they issued forth to execute, their deeds of crime. Even then, they had a sort of Sabbath-school

* ‘J’his difficulty has been in a great measure removed through the kindness of the Rev. Mr. Smith and the Kirkeessioii of the Tolbooth parish, who have in the meantime accommodated us with a large and commodious achool-room at Ramsay Garden, CastlehilL in it; but what a school! The room was filled with the ruffians and robbers of the neighborhood. At one end the younger thieyes, — those who were in training, — pursued the art of pocket-picking. If the lesson was not wellperformed, the bungler was apprehended and dragged by a sham policeman to the other end of the room. There, in caricature of a court of justice, sat a presiding ruffian, dressed out in the wig, and gown, and garb of a Judge, by whom, amid all the formalities of the law, the culprit was tried. In the course of this mock assize, he was taught how to fence and evade — when to be silent, and how to speak — so as to prepare him for the time when this farce should pass into a dreadful tragedy. Beneath that very roof where unhappy outcasts had been trained in wickedness and sin, we found a Ragged School in admirable order — filled with the very objects of such a charity. Among others, we remember two. A boy was pointed out to us, whose bed, during winter, had been the hollow of the iron roller in one of the parks. The other had been brought to the school by one of the most notorious thieves in the neighborhood, who implored them to receive tha child as the only means of saving him from ruin; adding, when his strange request was granted, and he looked round on the scene, these touching words, “Had there Ijeen such a school as this when I was a boy, I had not been a thief.”

In this, or in another school, the circumstances happened which were a warning to us against gathering all at once a large number of these neglected and undisciplined children. A school had been opened in another and very wild and wicked part of London. When a considerable number of boys had been brought together, the teacher ordered them, if I remember aright, to produce the books with which they had previously been furnished. Each of them put his hand into his pocket, and produced, not a book, but a tobacco-pipe. He remonstrated. They answered him with clouds of smoke. The upshot was a row; and the master, over-mastered, was glad to escape with life and limb. Such an issue here was not to 19* be risked. We began with a small number; and were gradually filling up, when symptoms of that controversy began to appear which has now ended in an open rupture.

In a newspaper of this city, it was asserted by an anonymous writer, that Roman Catholics were excluded from our School. Our Committee was most unwilling to waste on controversy the time and attention which might be better employed; so we neither took in sail, nor shifted our course, nor stayed one moment, to answer these random shots. People, however, being ready to suppose that what is not answered is unanswerable, the Committee at length found it necessary to give this reckless assertion the answer which it admitted and deserved — a distinct denial. At the very time that charge was made, one half of the children were the children of nominally Roman Catholic parents. Obliged to abandon this position, the ground of attack was shifted; and now it was asserted that we were violating the Constitution of the Society, and conducting the Schools so as virtually to exclude Romao

Oatliolk cWVLen. In their own defence, and in answer to xh i charge of introducing “a system of re]ig“»u3 tests into the Schools, and of excluding, in Roman Catholic children, the largest portion of those children for whom the Schools were designed,” the Acting Committee published a “Statement,” which, along with a “Minute of the General Committee,” approving of that Statement, will be found in the Appendix to this “Supplement.” Though the efforts of the Committee were successful in satisfying a large portion of the public, there still remained some of our original subscribers, between whom and the Committee there was an important, and, as it proved to be, an irreconcilable difference. Tluese gentlemen requested the Lord Provost to call a meeting, for the purpose of having “it clearly ascertained whether the Schools will be conducted on a system which must necessarily exclude children of the Roman Catholic, or any faith which differs from that of Protestant teachers.” It was now feared, though not openly proclaimed, that an attempt would be made to exclude the word of God from the Ragged School, and limit the education to secuUir instruction, leaving the Protestant and Roman Catholic parties to manage the religious interests of the children as they best might. The question whether the Committee had acted honestly and fairly on the regulations approved of at the first public meeting, now sunk into comparative insignificance. It was swallowed up in the larger and far more important question, Shall the candle of Divine truth shine in these Schools, or not? Shall God’s saving Word be taught to these unhappy outcasts, or not? The battle which had begun in Aberdeen and Dundee had now extended to the capital; and the jmblic meeting which had been called by the Lord Provost was, more than any meeting which had been for a long time held in Edinburgh, looked forward to with the liveliest interest by the warmest friends of Bible truth, and the wisest friends of these unhappy children. An attempt was made by some parties to represent the Committee as the enemies of religious toleration. Large bills covered the walls of our city, summoning the friends of toleration to rally in the Music Hall, to counteract our sectarian proceedings. This attempt to pack the meeting met with a signal failure. The Music Hall was crowded, but not with the parties whom this bill was meant to call out. Whether they were ashamed of it or not, we do not know — but, with the exception of a very small portion of the audience, that immense and influential assembly, embracing Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Independents, expressed its entire and hearty approval of the step which the Committee had taken, in resolving that the Word of God should be taught during the ordinary school hours, and that true religion should form an essential part of education. Edinburgh never uttered its voice more distinctly or more decidedly on any question, or on any occasion. We never went to a meeting with so much anxiety, nor left one with so much thankfulness. It was a blessed sight to see Protestants of all Evangelical donominations, and those of them who but a few years before had been arrayed against each other in the Yoluntar j and Non-Intrusion controversies, now fighting, side by side; rallying around the Bible with the kindness of brethren, and the keenness of men in earnest.

Holding it to be the very principle of Protestantism that every man should be free to judge in matters of religion, uninfluenced either by fear or favor, we would tamper with no man’s conscience. By the bread of a Ragged School, to bribe a person to abandon his faith, is in principle as bad as it would be to revive the fires and tortures of the Inquisition. We abhor the use of all such means; but we as much abhor the claim which Romish priests or their tools make to limit the free, full, and unrestricted use of God’s revealed Word. Imaged by the sun of heaven, the Bible is common to all, needed by all, and the right of all. He violates as much my spiritual rights, who stands between me and the Word of God, as he does my natural, who stands between me and the light of day: and certainly the greatest favor which the Roman Catholic priests could confer on those to whom they offer their servi?es, would be to do for them what the philosopher in his tub requested might be done for him by Alexander the Great — “Stand out,” said Diogenes, “between me and the sun.”

The ground we took up may be stated in a single sentence. Considering the condition of the children, and the character of the parents, who are living without the fear either of God or man, and do not even make a profession of religion, the principles which might rule a national system of education do not apply here. Here the question cannot even be entertained, whether the religious instruction might not be safely left to the parents. Those for whom these schools are established are untaught, uncared-for, helpless outcasts. As to the state of their parents, that may be well illustrated by this fact. In a mixed population of nominal Roman Catholics and Protestants, out of the first two hundred and fifty individuals in the Old Greyfriars’ parish whom we visited on first coming to Edinburg)i, there were not more than five who ever darkened the door of church or chapel. To the children of families, therefore, which are to all intents and purposes heathen, we are bound to act as if they were heathen children. One of the first things we have to do, as the best for their well-being both in this life and in the life to come, is to teach them the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. Their souls, not less than their bodies, are cast upon our care; and in such a case we dare not and cannot plead the excuse of Cain, — “Am I my brother’s keeper?” If, however, it should happen that some decent Roman Catholic parents found it necessary to send their children to our Ragged School, the Committee, as will be seen from one of their regulations, were willing to commit them to their parents’ charge upon the Sabbath day. Beyond this they could not go. They could not yield to a Roman Catholic priest the right of withholding from any child of Adam the Word of God. It is a matter of thankfulness to find, that in the resolution which we have adopted, and the position which we have taken up, -we have met with so much Christian sympathy; and I cannot afi*ord a bettor example of this, nor, perhaps, more effectively close this Supplement, than by submitting to the public the following letter, which I had the honor to receive from the Duke of Argyll: —

“RosENEATH, July 8th.

“Rev. Sir, — I beg to be allowed to have my name placed on the list of Subscribers to the Ragged School which you have had such a principal share in founding, and the management of which, as regards the subject of religious instruction, you have so ably, and, I think, so triumphantly defended.

“I must apologize for the smallness of a contribution which, but for the urgent claims of a large and necessitous population, would have been somewhat more commensurate with my sense of the value and importance of the object.

“I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without expressing my humble but entire approval of the course which the Committee lias pursued on the point above referred to. Between all those bodies which are commonly included under the term Protestant communions, there is so largo a common ground, thai 20 there ought to be no difficulty whatever in teaching effectively, and with purpose, yet without sectarian bias, the doctrines and precepts of ChristiaD truth. But the differences between them and the Roman Church are so numerous, pervading, and important, that the teaching which avoids them all must, I think, be formal, vague, and pointless. The nearest approach to anything which can be called religious teaching, compatible with such a system, is probably that contemplated by the Irish national scheme, in which readings are selected from the Bible. This has been supported by many excellent and able men. Not having any abstract objection, as some’ have, to the principle of selections, but thinking that everything depends on how large and ample such selections are, I should be sorry to say a word against a scheme which may be the best or the only one possible in the peculiar circumstances of that country. But certainly I hold that such a scheme, as applied to the ’ ragged ’ children of our great towns, would sacrifice a very large amount of positive and practical good for the attainment of very small and very doubtful benefits. Where it can be reasonably expected that children, in addition to such (comparatively meagre) readings, will receive more positive instruction from parents, or guardians, or others interested in their welfare, the plan may not in itself be objectionable: Protestants will then not lose by the omissions — Romanists may l)e allowed their benefit. But where no such expectation can reasonably be formed, the Protestants must lose much, and may lose all that is positive in religion; whilst the Romanists will be in danger of being bound to their own communion only by its grosser ties — by its observances, its priesthood, or its absolutions — and lose all those deeper influences which have raised, and doubtless are raising, in the Roman church, as earnest, as devoted, and as spiritually-minded Christians as the best who have believed in purer creeds.

“On these grounds, as well as on others which I cannot now refer to, I conceive such a plan to be essentially bad as applied to Ragged Schools: and as the Committee seems to me to have been unjustly assailed, I think it the duty of those who approve of your course in thia respect to come forward now in its support. “I am, Rev. Sir, yours faithfully,

Argyll.”
“The Rev. Thomas Guthrie.”

No. n.

CONSTITUTION AND RULES of the Asso-CIATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RaGGED

Industrial Schools for Destitute Children IN Edinburgh.

1. It is the object of this Association to reclaim the neglected and destitute children of Edinburgh, by affording them the benefits of a good common and Christian Education, and by training them to habits of regular industry, so as to enable them to earn an honest livelihood, and fit them for the duties of life.

2. With this view the Association shall establish and maintain one or more schools for such children, in such parts of the city or suburbs as may be found most advisable.

APPENDIX. 2’5’i

3. The following classes of children shall ])e excluded: — 1st, Those who are already r(lirnlarly attending Day-Schools; — 2d, Those wliosc parents are earning a regular income, and able to procure education for their children; — lid, Those who are receiving, or entitled to receive, support and education from the Parochial Boards ;-^with this declaration, that it shall be in the power of the Acting Committee to deal with special cases, although falling under any of these classes, having regard always to the special objects of the Association.

4. The Association shall consist of all Subscribers of Ten. Shillings per annum and upwards, and of all Donors of Five Pounds and upwards.

5. It shall be governed by a General Committee, consisting of fifty Members (fifteen being a quorum), and an Acting Committee, consisting of twenty-five Members (five being a quorum), with a Secretary and Treasurer. The Acting Committee shall be entitled to be present and vote at all Meetings of the General Committee.

6. A Meeting of the Association shall be held annually, in April, when a Report of the proceedings shall be read, and the Committees and Office-Bearers elected for the ensuing year. The Acting Committee shall meet at least once every month.

7. The Acting Committee shall have power to elect the Office-Bearers, to appoint Local Committees, and to make laws and regulations to be observed in conducting the business of the Association; and all Schools to be established by the Association shall be subject to such laws and regulations; but no school shall be established without the consent of the General Committee.

8. The appointment of Teachers, and other officers, shall be made by the Acting Committee.

9. The general plan upon which the Schools Bhall be conducted shall be as follows, viz. —

To give the children an allowance of
food for their daily support.

To instruct them in reading, writing,
and arithmetic.

APPENDIX. 23r)

To train them in habits of industry, h
instructing and employing them daily
in such sorts of work as are suited
to their years.

To teach them the truths of the gospel, making the Holy Scriptures the groundwork of instruction.

On Sabbath the children shall receive food as on other days, and such religious instruction as shall be arranged by the Acting Committee.

No. m.

STATEMENT .^y the Acting Committee of the Association for Establishing Ragged or Industrial Schools.

The Committee having their attention called to certain articles and letters in a respectable newspaper in this city, of a nature fitted to cause misconception and distrust in the mind of the public on the suiiject of religious teaching in their schools, think it necessary to publish the folic wing statement: —

By the Constitution and Rules of the Association it is declared, that “It is the object of this Association to reclaim the neglected or profligate children of Edinburgh, by affording them the benefits of a good common and Christian education, and by training them to habits of regular industry, so as to enable them to earn an honest livelihood, and fit them for the duties of life;” and, in regard to the general plan upon which the schools are to be conducted, it is declared that the children shall be taught “the truths of the gospel, making the Holy Scriptures the groundwork of instruction;” and that “on Sabbath the children shall receive food as on other days, and such religious instruction as shall be arranged by the Acting Committee.”

The Constitution and Rules, from which these quotations are taken, were fully discussed at a large meeting, in the Council Chambers, of the Preliminary Committee appointed by the Lord Provost, and approved (?f by them. They were thereafter submitted to the public meeting in the Music Hall, and received the unanimous approval of that meeting; ami the general plan of the schools has been kept prominently in the view (if the public in all the statements and appeals issued bj the Committee with a view to obtaining contributions for the schools. From the large amount of subscriptions that have already been received, the Committee are happy to think that the principles of the Association have met with the general confidence of the public.

These principles have been, and will continue to be, faithfully adhered to in the management of the schools. The religious instruction conveyed at these schools must necessarily be of the most simple and elementary kind, so as to be adai)ted to the tender years and gross ignorance of the children. Its entire freedom from all sectarian bias is effectually secured by the superintendence of a Committee impartially selected from the various religious bodies composing the great bulk of the coinmunity. The only books hitherto used in the school have been the Bible and the First and Second Books of Education, published under the superintend

ence of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland. The Committee feel that they cannot hope for a blessing on their schools if religion is not the pervading principle of the instruction given to the children.

The instruction on the Lords day is conducted on like principles as on week-days, though, of course, it bears a more purely religious character. In order to meet the case of those parents who may have conscientious objections to their children receiving the more special religious instruction communicated on Sabbath, or attending public worship with the teacher, provision is made that such parents, provided they ai*e in a condition to be entrusted with the care of their children, shall be allowed to withdraw them for the purpose of attending their own place of worship, of whatever denomination.

The Committee feel assured that this explanatory statement will be sufficie:^ to satisfy the public that the accusations brought against them, of introducing a “system of religious tests” into the schools, and of *’ excluding the

APPENDIX. 2:V.«

largest portion of those children for whom the schools were designed,” are entirely without foundation.

It must be obvious that an institution of this kind, intended to provide a home, food, moral and industrial training, as well as the ordinary branches of scholarship, for children otherwise utterly destitute of all these, is l)y no means on the same footing with ordinary day schools, in which applicants may select the branches they may wish to attend; and cannot, therefore, be judged of on the same i)i’inciples. The Committee view themselves as not in the position of mere ordinary instructors, but as coming, in the great majority of cases, in the place of parents, with regard to the temporal as well as spiritual interests of the children. As parents, they cannot throw off the responsibility attaching to them of enlightening the minds of the children; and, in so doing, they cannot but give them that instruction which is best calculated to reclaim lli’” children from the miserable condition in which they are found. It would be utterly ruinous

240 PLEAS POTl RAOrrED SCHOOLS.

to the plan, and defeat all its benevolent purposes, especially considering the criminal and vagrant habits of the children who are to be benefited by it, if any other system were adopted than that of subjecting them all to the entire moral and religious discipline — simply based upon the Word of God — which it purposes to bring to bear upon them.

It may be added, that although it has been alleged that those principles of this Association which are now attacked are peculiar to it, the Committee do not know of any institution of the kind now in existence in Scotland which is not founded on the very same principles.

The Committee conclude with expressing their unanimous and earnest desire to follow out thoroughly the sound principles on which the Association is founded. They ask to be nidged by what they are now doing; and to be believed when they state, in the strongest manner, their anxious wish to avoid sectarianism, and to pursue their work earnestly and cheei-fully in the spirit of their Divine Master, who went about doing good. They request the public to visit the soliools, and to judge for themselves whether they are efficiently and properly conducted.

By appointment of the Acting Committee,

And. Jameson, Convener,
Edinburgh, 14th June, 1847.

At a meeting of the General Committee of the Association for Establishing Ragged or Industrial Schools in Edinburgh, held in No. 6 York Place, on 18th June, 1847,

The Lord Provost in the Chair,

The following resolutions were moved by James Craufurd, Esq., Advocate, seconded by Dr. W. P. Alison, and agreed to: —

That this meeting approve of the “Statement of the Acting Committee;” but since it appears that some misapprehension prevails in regard to the principles on which the schools are conducted,

Be-fiolved, 1st, That the General Committee emphatically disclaim all intention of using the advantages held out bj these schools as a means of tempting Roman Catholics to the abandonment or compromise of opinions which they conscientiously entertain. The reclaiming of children from ignorance and crime, not their conversion from Romanism, is the aim of the Committee and the object of the schools; and the Committee rejoice to know that, both m Aberdeen, and hitherto in Edinburgh, the children of Roman Catholic parents have attended the schools without any objection being made.

2d, That no catechism, or other formula of doctrine, is or shall be taught to any child whose parents object to it.

3d, That children are and shall be excused from attendance at school, or at worship, on the Sabbath day, whose parents object to their attendance, and undertake that the children are otherwise religiously instructed, according to the tenets of the communion to which they belong, provided they are in a condition to be entrusted with the care of their children.

No. IV.

The childrci are at school twelve hours each day in summer, and eleven in winter. At present they meet in the morning at eight, and p:o away in the evening shortly after seven o’clock. The eleven hours are disposed of as follows: —

Meals and

I’lay. Lt’ssous. Work

From 8 to

8^, Ablutions -
” 8|to

9i, All Working
“9^0 lOj, Breakfast and Play
” lOi to 11, Calling RoU and Bible [
Lesson - - J

11 to

1, One-half in school- )

room, and other”
half in work-room -’

“1 to

2, All walking -
2 to

2., Dinner - - -
ti

“2Ho

3, All in school-room
3 to

5, One-half in school- )

room, other half in r
work-room ’

“5 to

6J, All working -” 6i to 7i, Supper and closing 3J 34 4J Only one hour is counted from eleven to one, and from three to five, as then only half of the boys are in school-room and work-room.

No. Y.

27 York Place, December 25th, 1848.

My dear Mr. Guthrie, — The table showing the composition of the Original Ragged Schools is made up of terrible details. It affords subject-matter for the wisest men to ponder, constituting, as it does, an analysis of a sample only of the largest and sorest evil which afflicts the body social of this country.

One item, not included in the table, might appear to many to be a strange one. Thirty per cent, of the children ran away from the Ragged Schools, “and came back, or were brought back, and then attended.” It may seem strange that they ran away, and this after food had been given to them, clothing had been put upon them, and kind treatment had been exercised towards them. The key to the explanation o: the phenomenon is to be found in this: they arc callous to what we understand by hardship. Tlicy don’t know lionio, noitlicr do they know aught about friendship. From infancy they have catered for themselves; they are ignorant of what is expressed by the word risk; they are independent; they resist the very gentlest restraint, and their first impulse is to escape from it; they have no love for what they never experienced; and they don’t fear that with which they are familiar. Hence the smallest offence to their freer than Arab feelings is cause enough for them to endeavor to escape from school, and resume the more than savage life to wdiich they have been habituated from their earliest infancy. It is very encouraging to know that “running away from school” is daily becoming less frequent; and that of those who run away, the number of instances in which the parents bring them back is on the increase. This, I think, affords evidence of two things; — first, that the schools are gaining character in the estimation of the children; and, secondly, that they are acting reflexly ou the class to which the children belong. 21*

The title of the famous “Plea,” by which vod stirred the towns of Scotland, and of England likewise, not excepting the metropolis, has been proven to embody a truth, wherever it has been tested by the establishment of Ragged Schools on the principles so clearly propounded in the “Plea,” and so manfully vindicated when they were impugned. “Prevention is better than cure;” and it is likewise cheaper than cure. In contrasting the cost of cure with the cost of prevention, let it be borne -in mind that it is the “ragged” children who either are or become the thieves and vagabonds for whose detection such an immense police is maintained in thiS country, and for whose safe custody such giga vtic prison establishments are necessary. The. children by degrees acquire a title to be transported; and, ere they grow to be men and women, very many of them are sent to join their parents and acquaintances, who constitute the almost devil population of Norfolk Island. The supply of these “ragged” children is very great; the cost of their maintenance (they live by plunder) is enormous; and the price of them to the country, when they arc recognized by the law, is prodigious.

Mr. Smith, the admirable Governor of the Edinburgh Prison, permitted me some time since to study a set of tables of jail statistics, which he made two years ago, and which are perhaps the best, as well as the most extensive, that were ever constructed. Among other memoranda, I extracted this one: — In the years 1841-42-43, the cost of prisoners committed to the Edinburgh Jail for “theft and reset” was £11,632 6s. The numbers committed for this crime during these years respectively, were 1963, 1811, 1932 — in all, 5706; and the yearly average therefore was 1902. The total average number of commitments for all offences during these three years was 16,653. Thus the commitments for theft amounted to no less than 34 per cent, of the whole. These prisoners were maintained in prison at the rate of £12 per annum. Now I am quite safe in saying, that nearly all these prisoners belonged to the class to which the “ragged” boy belongs. Is the questif>A one of finance? Then look, dear sir, at the other side of the account. Here I laust quote from the Original Ragged School Report of last year. It is dated March 31,

1848 : —

Boys. Girls. Total.

Total number of children admitted since

e opening of the Schools,.

. 310
Of whom, born in Scotland,

. 186
” in England,

. 11
” in Ireland,.

. 113. 310 Number above ten years of age,. 161 118 279

Number under ten years of age,. 149 81 230 Number that have died,.. 9 7 16

Number that have gone home to

Ireland, 3 4 7

Number that have left, or been discharged as not fit objects, .119 54 173

Number that have found employment,..... 21 14 35

Number that have removed to a

higher class of Schools,.. 5 8 13

Number on the Roll at 31st March,

1848, 153 112 205 The number on the roll at this date are

distributed as follows: — In the Juvenile School (under ten years

of age), 70

2G5

Of those on the roll at this date there are, —

Pohce cases, i. e., children ascertained to have once or oftener passed through the Police

Courts, 78

Note. — Of these, 18 are under 10 y’rs of age. Children with both parents dead,.. 20

Children with one parent dead,.. .118 Children deserted by parents, ... 24 Children that could not read the alphabet on entering the School: — And nearly all in the Juvenile School The Report says that the current expenses of the schools amounted to £820 105. d. Taking the number on the roll (265) at the date of the Report as a daily average, and deducting from it, say 50, as the daily number of absentees from sickness and other causes, we find that the children are fed and educated at the rate of about £4 per annum. The financial view of the question, therefore, involves contrast, and not comparison. £4 are paid for the ragged boy; £12 are paid for the incarcerated thief ;* and the question is, which sum does the public prefer to pay? But I am much below the mark when I say that £12 is the sum paid for the incarcerated thief; for the law expenditure, a large per centage of jail expense, and the value of the property stolen by the thief, are not included in the account. What these amount to I do not know; but this I am aware of, — they are enormous, and the public pay for them.

I have said that nearly all the prisoners referred to belong to the class whose cause you have adopted, and advocate with such power. This cla?s is hcloio the pauper; it is not protected by the law. It is never noticed by the law until one of those belonging to it has been murdered, or one almost equally unfortunate

* The average cost per head of prisoners in all the prisons in Scotland is £16 7*. 4rf. per annum. — Ninth Report of Gtn irol Board of Directors of Prisons for Scotland, p. 121. has stolen a loaf, impelled by hunger, and undeterred by any moral sense. This class is entitled to be cared for before the members of it become criminals. It is just, it is politic, and it is economic.

I am unwilling to extend this letter; but the opportunity, is a good one for placing a few criminal statistics before the public, that bear upon the cause which you advocate.

In the year 1841, at least 240 children, fourteen years old and under, were committed to prison. These cost at the rate of £10 each, which is equal to £2400 per annum. Is it not better to endeavor to save a boy at the rate of £4, than to harden him in sin and crime at the rate of £10, per annum?

Perhaps many of the readers of your appeal may perceive that the following memoranda, extracted from Mr. Smith’s tables, contain an argument in favor of the extension of the Ragged School system.

During the years 1842-43-44 the number of children under ten years of age who were committed to prison amounted to 243.

During these three years, 232 individuals were transported; 64 of these committed their first offence when sixteen years of age and under; and it is remarked of many of them, that their nearest relatives were often in prison, and that not a few of them were transported.

Up to the year 1846, 3152 families, consisting of 3509 individuals, had furnished 10,706 commitments, being on an average three commitments to each person. Of these families —

193 had sent 2 individuals to prison.
28 “3”

20 “4”

8 “6
4 “6”

1 “7”

I must reiterate the observation, that the mass of the individuals to whom these memoranda refer belonged to the class which supplies the Ragged School with pupils.

You, in common with other accurate observers and just thinkers, trace famine, misery, and crime to the dram-shops, which are planted thickly in all the populous parts of our cities, as if with the design to i-uin men, body and soul. With whom the resy)oi!sibility of this ruination rests it is not for me to say, although I have an opinion on the subject.

The statistics of the Edinburgh Jail show that fifty-four per cent, of the offences for wliicli individuals are committed to prison are the direct effects of drunkenness.

Seventy-three per cent, of the crimes are committed in the localities where sixty per cent, of the drinking-houses, properly so called, are situated, and fifty per cent, of the spiritlicenses are held. Further, seventy-three per cent, of the crimes committed in Edinburgh and the suburbs are committed by persons residing in the localities where the crimes are perpetrated.

These are memoranda from prison statistics, and they suggest very gloomy thoughts to tlic reflecting; but they don’t tell half of the truth. In a note by Mr. Smith it is observed, — “The number taken to the Police Office in the tin ee years ending December, 184-3, for druJikenucss was 13,858, — a number equal to about one-sixteenth of the population. Probably at least two-thirds of all other cases are caused indirectly by drunkenness. This will be more apparent when it is considered how many lose their character and employment from drunkenness, and are thus turned idle upon the public, with no other alternative than to beg or steal, for either of which offences they are sent to prison. Many of those who are too young to have become addicted to the vice, are the offspring of dissipated parents, and are very often left destitute, either by the desertion and neglect, or death, of those whose duty it was to provide for them. Again, some are compelled by dissipated parents to beg or steal, and thd proceeds are expended in liquor.” This note when we consider who wrote it, and upon what an amount of experience it is based, is invaluable. The children alluded to by Mr. Smith are “ragged boys and girls.”

The ragged .boy has been kept prominently before the reader’s eye, and the ragged girl has been in a measure concealed. Is there no pity for her? Her history is as dismal as that of her brother. I dare not trace it. The whole of it can be seen any day in two hours’ time, by walking through the Grassmarket, — looking into any of the little offices of hell which are rife in that locality, and each one of which is always thronged, — passing up any of the foul closes which open into the market, — entering a house there, and glancing over it (a glance is all that those whose duty has not forced them to tarry often in these dens of infamy can give), — visiting the Police Office and then the Calton Jail. In two hours their whole history can be seen, and much of it heard Contrast the power of a pimpled spirit-dealei with that of a missionary, to influence such a terrible population as that to which I now refer. Why, sir, the spirit-shops are epidemic, and more deadly than the cholera. Each one of them is a centre of contagion, ever in activity, — of a contagion which slays with certainty, recovery from it, when caught, being hopeless. Much has been said against the “wee pawns.” They are dependont things and not worth speaking against or about, so long as that on which their existence depends is not only tolerated, but fostered.

I must now conclude this fragmentary letter; but before doing so, I may allude to the effect which the Ragged Schools have had upon the health of the children. They have had a marked good effect; and it is my belief that the rate of mortality is much reduced among them. Precise observations, however, on this subject are very difficult to make. Imperfect or false mortality statistics are worse than uselass, — they are mischievous; and therefore I refrain from doing more than stating what my belief is regarding the effect which the Ragged Schools have had on the mortality of the children. Believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours most sincerely, G. Bell.

No. YI. Rothesay, 20th December, 1848. My dear Sir, — I have great pleasure in giving my testimony regarding the operation of the Industrial Schools in Edinburgh.

For upwards of five years it has been my duty, as Sheriff Substitute, first of Ayrshire and then of Edinburgh, to try a great nunilior of yoiuig offenders in the Sheriff and Police Courts. The great majority of these, at least in Edinburgh, belonged to the unhappy class for whose benefit the schools have been instituted. It was my practice to examine into their history and lial)its; and I do not remember of one who, according to his own account, attended any church. A few had at one time or other been at a Sabbath-school, and received there the little useful knowledge they possessed. The mass were the children of destitute and profligate parents, or friendless outcasts, without any home. Although living beyond the reach of the ministrations of the pulpit, or the instruction of ordinary schools, the class were well known to the police of the large towns, where increasing numbers and depravity have become one of our most formidable social evils. They frequently appeared at the bar of the Police Courts, charged with petty thefts, and were sentenced repeatedly to short imprisonments, until the num])er of their convictions entitled them to appear before a jury in the Sheriff or Justiciary Court. As far as niv l!5^ PLEAS FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

experience goes, this system of awarding short imprisonments in the case of these young offenders produces none of the eifects for which punishment is intended. It neither deters nor reforms. On the contrary, it seems only to harden the heart and destroy the character. By the time the case permits the Judge to award an imprisonment of sufficient duration to give any rational prospect of benefit to the individual in the way of moral and religious instruction, the character is generally lost irretrievably. The evil is increased by the faulty constitution of the Police Courts, in which a number of unprofessional magistrates sit, who change every month, and who, differing in opinion in regard to the objects of penal discipline, pronounce every variety of sentence. The consequence is, that the punishment being imcertain and variable, as well as inadequate, the evils of short imprisonments are increased: they l)ecome a subject of mockery among the criminals themselves; and these convictions become a sort of training school for crime. Between the three years from 1843 to 1846, as appears from a published Report of the Governor of the Ediuburgli Prison, 740 children under fourteen years of age had been committed to that prison. It is painful to think, that in the case of the mass of these unhappy heino;?, their sentence had no other effect than to extinguish any fear they previously entertained of the prison, and destroy any prospect of obtaining honest employment. You may conceive the distressing situation of the Magistrate who is bound to sentence children from nine to fourteen years of age to repeated short imprisonments, with the moral certainty that each sentence is rendering them more hardened in crime, and diminishing the prospect of any improvement in their cluxracter or habits.

To Mr. Watson, Slieriff-Substitute of Aberdeenshire, belongs the merit of first organizing an institution for arresting this great evil. Ho has conclusively shown the practical)ility of placing almost tlic whole destitute and neglected children of a lar<z’e town in Industrial Schools, before they arc destroyed by short imprisonments, and, by means of a system of religious instruction and industrial training, reclaiming them from lialnts of idleness and vice.

It has been publicly acknowledged, that thia system has already effected a great saving to the criminal expenditure of the county. Sheriff Watson endeavored to stimulate his brother Sheriff to make a similar experiment in Edinburgh; but it was not until the Rev. Mr. Guthrie took up the cause, that the public attention was awakened to the subject in a way to make the attempt feasible.

Since these schools have been formed in Edinburgh, as Convener of the Acting Committee, as well as in the performance of my public duties, I have watched their progress with deep interest. I have frequently taken it upon me to send very young offenders to the schools instead of the prison, having first made careful inquiry into the circumstances of each case, and the history and habits of the party, and also conversed with and obtained the consent of the parents or nearest relatives, where they could be found. Some of the most interesting children in the schools were admitted in this way. I cannot say that I ever saw cause to regret making the experiment. On the contrary, after watching the conduct and progress

of those young boys and girls for many months, I have been delighted to observe a steady advancement, not only in habits of attention and industry, but also in the knowledge of those Bacred truths which can alone regenerate our fallen nature, and permanently affect the heart. In many instances, those children who had lived in habits of vagrancy, and commenced a course of crime, have given evidence of a degree of improvement under the discipline of these schools, such as I have never known to follow any of the repeated imprisonments I have been obliged to award in other cases. It is a remarkable circumstance, that their teachers find them very easy to manage, and that many show a wonderful aptitude for instruction. In visiting similar children in the prison cells, 1 found them generally sullen and stupid; but in the schools, though one or two have occasionally run off, complaining of the strictness of the discipline and the early hours, the great mass seem to enjoy a happiness and comfort to which, I fear, they have hitherto been strangers. To one engaged in the y)ainful and often depressing duties attending the daily invest)- gation and punishment of crime, I know of nothing which affords a more cheering prospect than the success of these schools. When the itiost powerful minds are perplexed on the question of penal discipline, and those professionally engaged in the administration of criminal justice find themselves compelled to confess the inefficacy of the present system of punishment to deter or reform criminals, or diminish their number, it is a most hopeful circumstance to find that there is an easier, less expensive, and more successful way of checking the gigantic evil, even by taking these neglected outcasts, from whom the criminal ranks are daily recruited, and by giving their minds and habits a new and healthy direction, bringing them under the influence of the fear of God, and milking known to them a Saviour’s love, by means of which their whole moral character may be elevated, and they may become useful members of society. It is enough to visit the institution in Ramsay Lane, to satisfy any reflecting mind regarding the actual good that is effected under this system. A more tangible proof is afforded by the diminution of juvenile eomraitments which has already taken place. This fact is stated in a letter addressed to me last spring by Mr. Smith, the Governor of tlic Edinburgh Prison, and which was referred to by Lord Ashley, in his memorable speech in the House of Commons last session. That an experiment on so limited a scale has already told on this unfortunate and dangerous class of our population, is an incontestible proof of the great permanent benefit that would result, if the schools were sufficiently extended to embrace the whole of this class of children in the city, instead of only including about an eighth or tenth part of them.

It has long been manifest to me, that such an institution, adequate to the state of the population, is as much needed in every large town as an infirmary or hospital .for the sick, or a jail for ordinary offenders. No criminal preventive police system will succeed without it; and vagrants and beggars will swarm in our streets, notwithstanding increasing poor-rates. In this view, such schools should be largely supported by a grant from the public funds, or by local assessment. It has been proved that the existing system, under which these outcasta run the course of convictions in the Police, Sheriff, and Justiciary Courts, is attended with enormous expense; so that the financial or economical argument is, as usual, all on the side of early religious and moral instruction.

In the meantime, and until our statesmen make up their minds on the subject, which is not without its difficulties, I trust the inhabitants of Edinburgh will not be behind those of Aberdeen, Dundee, and Perth, in showing the Government and the public the practicability of carrying on these schools, without -risk of abuse, and in such a manner as to relieve the police and prisons of many poor children, who will otherwise fall into that melancholy course of habitual crime and continually recurring punishment which all deplore; and thus be instrumental, under the Divine blessing, and by means of a sound system of scriptural instruction, and moral and industrial training, in rescuing many who are ready to pcrisli, from a life of guilt and a death of misery. I am, yours, And. Jameson.

Jb Dr. G. Bell, Sec. to the Original Industrial Schooh

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