the wants and deisires of civilization, or by the effects of general refinement, without being actually within the bosom of civilization. It is on this latter point, that I greatly rest my opinion of the necessity of universal education with the European race. Civilization exists with us; we cannot stop it, even were we desirous of doing so; and the outward effects of civilization without knowledge, is the greatest bane that can befal any class or individual. Ignorance without civilization is no peculiar source of crime; ignorance with civilization, is an abounding source of crime; both, because it lessens the means of subsistence, and lowers the individual in the general and his own esteem-it severs him from the instructed and educated. Instances are afforded to us in the lowest, most ignorant, and destitute classes in all large cities, or in some frontier tribes, who receive certain views and notions of civilization, and yet live without education and instruction. We have arrived at a state of things in which no individual, who cannot read, is actually, in most respects, excluded from the great sphere of civilization, which was not always the case, for instance, in antiquity; and whoever is thus excluded from the general course of civilization, is more exposed to misery, and more liable to be drawn into the snares of crime, than others, who, as I have stated, are more firmly linked to society, upon whom shame, therefore, has a greater power, and who find it easier to gain a livelihood in an honest way. persons has taken place, at others public attention has been roused, and directed to certain crimes until then neglected; an army may have been disbanded: a winter have been peculiarly severe, a famine may have existed, money transactions may have offered new opportunities, &c. in short, a number of causes, some of which are continually exercising their influence upon mankind, may have existed, without the least connection with public instruction; nay, the latter may have continued to exercise its beneficial influence during the whole time that crime was increasing, and may actually have prevented it from still greater increase. It has been stated in the British House of Commons, as I remarked above, that official information had been obtained, showing that public instruction in the state of New York, had by no means realized the hopes of the public, as to its influence upon the decrease of crime, and that in the city of New York, crime had rapidly increased, I neither know how true the statement was, as to its being obtained from an official person, nor whether the fact is true, as to the increase of crime in the city of New York. With regard to the state, it is not true, if dependence can be placed upon official documents. But I consider it very possible that crime has of late increased in the city of New York, for various reasons: First, New York is fast increasing, and has to bear with the advantages of large cities, also their evils, among which the frequency of certain crimes always will be found. Secondly, the more New and consequently, the opportunity for a number of York is enlarged, the more activity of all kinds is there, crimes, especially as she is a large seaport, to which always a number of homeless adventurers will resort. Thirdly, its rapid intercourse with Europe has much increased, and with it the importation of a class of crimi nals who, according to their skill and finesse, may be termed a superior class. Fourthly, there has been of late, such an unprecedented influx of destitute emi That there are educated people among the convicts of all countries, is a fact which does in no degree invalidate what I have said. I even allow that some have become criminals, who, without a certain knowledge, would not have committed the crime which brought them to ruin. So have persons of a more acute sense of shame, or of a more generous heart than others, sometimes become criminal, while, without these live lier feelings, they would have given the law no oppor-grants and actual paupers, from foreign countries, that tunity of punishing them. The best preservatives against crime will always be a well trained mind, early application, and industrious habits, together with good example. There is, I believe, no person who has had an opportunity of various and thorough observation of criminals, who will not agree with me on this point, and it is easy to judge how much a sound school education contributes to a regular training of the youthful mind. they alone would easily account for a great increase of vagrancy and crime. The report by a committee apquiring into this serious subject, exposes frightful pointed by the city corporation, for the purpose of inabuses of the facility with which emigrants may, according to the present laws, settle among us, whether willing and able to support themselves or not. The almshouses have been filled with foreign paupers, and That a universal school system ought never to be it can be easily imagined how many, either driven by wanting in a proper instruction in morals and the culti-want, or already trained in vice and crime, do not provation of religious feelings, as well as in instruction in ceed to the almshouse, but to the penitentiaries. The remark of Messrs. de Beaumont and de Tocque political virtue and morality, is as true as that no systemville, which has been referred to on the floor of the of general education will produce all the good effects which it ought to produce, without proper care being taken for the education of teachers. These are truths acknowledged in those countries where public instruction, has most prospered. But there are so many subjects of high interest connected with public instruction, that I should exceed the limits within which I must confine these observations, were I even but briefly to touch upon them. All I have stated so far is as yet but general assertion, however plausible it may appear. How are we then to test its truth? By comparing the proportion between crime and population, since public instruction has been established in a given country, to that which before ex isted? I have already shown the fallacy of this test in most cases; and I must extend my remark. The increase of crime, or in other words, the increase of indictments, (because most generally, some crime has been committed by some one, where there is an indict ment) is unfitted to serve as test of the increased crimi. nality of a community, if we are not enabled, by a num. ber of concurrent, statements, to judge more precisely of the case. Sometimes the police has become more vigilant, sometimes the laws have been made more pro. portionate to the crime, and the judges are more wil ling to convict; sometimes a great influx of destitute British Parliament, as corroborating the fact, that universal instruction does not tend to decrease the number of crimes, is made by those gentlemen, in a passage of their work, in which they speak of the increase of crime in the State of Connecticut-a State which has fostered general education with at least as much zeal as any other State in the Union. I have given some explanatory notes of this fact so ble work of those gentlemen, and will only add here, startling, at first glance, in my translation of the valuathat according to a letter sent me by Mr. Pilsbury, warden of the Connecticut State Prison, convictions have diminished considerably of late in that State. When the two French commissioners were here, the prison discipline of Connecticut had just been amended, or, rather, entirely re-fashioned, and juries as well as judges were much more willing to let the law take its full and unchecked course, than before this refor. mation of the State prison, when, in fact, the prisoners were in a deplorable situation. Since the commissionthe law or prison discipline, has taken place, to my ers, however, were here, no essential change, either of knowledge, and a decrease of convictions, would au * It is dated Sept. 29, 1834. Document No. 20. thorize us to conclude, at any rate, that crime has not gone on increasing in that State. Whether crime in our Union, has in general, of late, increased or not, I am not able to say. If impressions in matters of this kind were worth any thing, I would say, that my impressionis, that certain crimes, more especially murder, have either increased, or it has become more common with editors of newspapers to mention the details of every murder, in whatever quarter of the Union it may have been committed. Wherever the truth may lie, certain it is that this ready reception of accounts of atrocious deeds, is pernicious in a great many respects. It satisfies one of the worst cravings of the human mind, and affects it in turn, in the same way in which physical stimulants and exciting liquors satisfy, and, in turn, ruin the body; it has a tendency to render the reader callous, and it has a positive and evil effect upon criminally disposed persons. The power of imitation is incalculable, universal, and often operates by imperceptible degrees. Our newspapers ought, certainly, not to be silent on the various crimes, which are committed, for it is equally important that the true state of things be known, but it strikes me, that it would be both beneficial to the people at large, and becoming to the vocation of editors, were they to state but the simple facts of atrocious crimes, and leave their detailed accounts to those papers which avowedly collect the statements of misdeeds, and appear stamped on their face in a way, which makes every honorable reader flee them. It would be certainly a wise measure if the editors of some of our most respectable papers would set the example, and agree to abstain in future from publishing detailed accounts of barbarous crimes. duties toward the Creator, the society he lives in, and toward himself and his family, and assists in producing self-respect. The facts which have lately appeared from the inquiries instituted in England as to the extent and consequences of intemperance in that country, the statements collected by Mr. Casper, as to intemperance in Prussia, and many details given to the public by Mr. Quetelet, with regard to intemperance in France, show that the remark I have just made is also applicable to those countries. But is there no test, then, by which we may ascertain whether universal education tends to prevent crime, or whether ignorance promotes it? It seems to me that there is a means by which we may solve this question to the satisfaction of every fair inquirer, namely, by ascertaining the degree of education which every convict has obtained. If we should find, that in a country in which few individuals grow up without some school instruction, an immense majority of convicts are men who have not received a fair school education, if thus ignorance almost accompanies crime, and if, at the same time, it is easy to account for a connection between the two, on general and simple grounds, drawn from the nature of our mind and of human society in general, I think we are authorized to conclude that there actually does exist a necessary connection between the two, and that by diffusing knowledge of a moral and scientific character, we may hope for a decrease of crime, and be assured that though crime may in reality or apparently have increased for some reason, it would have increased still more without general education. The greatest circumspection, indeed, is necessary, in One of the most active causes in producing crime in drawing conclusions from statistical statements. Many our country, is intemperance. An immense majority opinions, apparently founded in reality, have currentof all murders are either committed during intoxica. ly been believed for many years, and, in the end, been tion, or in consequence of quarrels or misery brought found to be erroneous. But if, as I have stated, reon by intemperance. And if crimes of an atrocious na-peated facts agree with the conclusions at which we ture have increased of late, it will probably be found, would arrive in the most cautious way of reasoning by by minute inquiry, that it is in a great measure owing analogy, and on principles which are always consider. to the increase of intemperance, which some years ago ed to hold-and if, in particular, our conclusions are took place, and which is now showing its melancholy corroborated by those individuals, who, before all otheffects on the intemperate themselves, as well as on ers, have a sound and practical knowledge of criminals, those who, in the mean time, have grown up with such it would seem that we may adopt the result, thus arpernicious examples before them. rived at, as truth. There is no warden or superintenThough this Letter be not the precise place for the dent of any penitentiary of note, with which I am acfollowing remark, I nevertheless cannot refrain from quainted, who does not consider want of education, and making it, since it seems to me of the greatest impor- ignorance, as some of the most active agents in protance that universal attention be directed to the sub-ducing crime; and if there be any subject connected ject; namely, the immoderate use of opium in various with education, or any affairs of human society, reshapes, chiefly by way of laudanum, in families, and es- specting which the knowledge of practical men is more pecially with infants, without the advice of proper phy- indispensable, or reasoning on which, without ample sicians. My inquiries into the subject have led me to knowledge of facts, is more gratuitous, that subject is the conviction, that innumerable parents create in their prison discipline, and the true character of convicts.children that diseased craving for stimulants, which, But, as will be seen from the following letters, there is with so many individuals, ends in open and violent in- but one opinion among these gentlemen. temperance, and with many more, in a constant use of ardent spirits, not much less injurious in its conse.luded at the beginning of this letter, I directed a series quence. The united efforts of medical gentlemen, as of all those who are in the habit of instructing the people on important points, might produce a great change toward the better. Intemperance, however, which on all hands is admitted as the most fruitful source of crime in our country -and should there be any one who doubts it, let him look at the convincing statements in the letters which I shall append to these lines-will be certainly counteracted in a degree by universally spread education, for the reasons already mentioned; namely, because it trains and regulates the mind, connects the individual with stronger links to society, informs him in regard to his Some more remarks on the same subject may be found in a work which I lately edited: Letters to a Gentleman in Germany: Philadelphia, 1834, on page 324 and sequ. When I first saw the statements to which I have al of queries to the wardens of our most prominent penitentiaries, and received from nearly all of them the readiest answers, not, indeed, always, on all of my ques. tions. This would have been taken, in some cases, too much time, yet the statements with which the gentlemen favored me are quite sufficient to prove, that not only education, but instruction, even in the most elementary knowledge, is very deficient in most convicts. Some of my queries tended to ascertain other facts, and some of the statements of those gentlemen touch upon statistics of the highest interest, besides the points in question, so that I have finally concluded to give their whole letters, of which I am convinced every one will approve. The more statistics we can possibly collect fespecting crimes and criminals, the causes of the first, and the social stations of the latter, the better it is. The Rev. Mr. Dwight, to whom I directed a similar series of inquiries, with regard to the Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown, received my letter when setting out for a journey, but wrote me,-"This report (the ninth of the Boston Prison Discipline Society) contains much information touching the point proposed in your letter, and enables me more effectually to con tribute to the object of your inquiry than any other document in my possession, or that I can at present ob tain," &c. This report has not yet reached me, and I am, therefore, obliged to refer to it, without offering any extracts. From another quarter, I received no 2. That few convicts have ever learned a regular trade, and, if they were bound to any apprenticeship, they have abandoned it before the time had lawfully expired. 3. That school education is, with most convicts, very deficient, or entirely wanting. 4. That intemperance, very often the consequence of loose education, is a most appalling source of crime. 5. That by preventing intemperance, and by promoting education, we are authorized to believe that we shall prevent crime, in a considerable degree. The following documents would serve yet for a variety of important reflections, e. g. the paramount importance of instructing the convict in some trade, and either by the folly or great mistake of some who are desirous to oppose this most necessary part of all prison discipline;, and the interesting communication of the Rev. Mr. Smith, chaplain of Auburn State Prison, would furnish the material for some comparisons of a very instructive nature, with some statements in Mr. Guerry's Essai sur la Statistique Morale de la France; Paris, 1833-a work of great merit; but I must necessarily abstain from it, not to deviate from the nature of this letter. I shall add to Mr. Wiltse's letter, a statement, which he kindly communicated to me about a year ago, and which I append to my introduction to a Constitution and Plan of Education for Girard College for Orphans, as showing how many convicts have lost their parents in their early years. Before I conclude these remarks, I will only observe as an explanation of the following, that if it is stated of a convict, that he reads and writes, but has no common good school education, his acquirements often amount to little more than the knowledge of spelling, or the skill of making out the sound of the words, without the capability of finding out the sense of a phrase-and the skill to write his name. With regard to our inquiry, all below a common English school education, ought to be classed together. It would have been desirable to know what number of foreigners are among the various classes, enumerated in the following statements, but this information is not essential as to our inquiry, as convicts, who are natives of foreign countries, belong nearly without an exception, to the least educated of the whole number. From very interesting statements in the statistical appendix to the work of Messrs. Beaumont and Tocque. ville, the proportions of foreigners among convicts in Since the above was written, I have received the Ninth Report of the Boston Prison Society, but it contains little referring particularly to the matter before us. Report of the Committee appointed to Visit and Examine into the Affairs and Management of the House of Refuge-By MR. LAWRENCE. Read in the House of Representatives, March 24, 1835. The Committee appointed by a resolution of the House of Representatives, of the eighteenth December last, "to visit and examine into the affairs and manage. ment of the House of Refuge, situate in the county of Philadelphia, and to make report touching its usefulness and economy, and also report how far the present organization of the House of Refuge is conformable to the principles of its original establishment, and also how far the imprisonment of persons in that institution, without the verdict of a jury, is conformable to the letter and spirit of the constitution," Report, viz: That in obedience to said resolution, the committee met in the city of Philadelphia; and, having made visit, and having furnished them with a copy of the reknown to the Board of Managers the object of their solution under which they acted, every facility was promptly and cheerfully afforded by the board, to enable the committee to discharge the duties of their appointment. The committee proceeded, first, to examine the buildings of the institution, its inmates, the manner in which they are fed and clothed, the kind of labor in which they are employed, and the system of government and discipline adopted by the managers. The inquiry contained in the resolution, "How far the present organization of the House of Refuge is conformable to the principles of its original establishment," will be answered by a reference to the original design of the founders of this benevolent institution, the law by which it was incorporated, and the facts which will be hereafter detailed. The House of Refuge has been justly termed a place for the reformation of "juvenile delinquents." It origi nated in the best feelings of the heart. It is a work of charity. It was established at first by individual liberality and enterprise; and it is in a great measure conducted and sustained by the same liberal and philanthrolature, in 1826. An appropriation of ten thousand dol pic spirit. It was incorporated by an act of the Legis lars was granted by the State; and by the same act ten thousand dollars were directed to be paid by the commissioners of the county of Philadelphia, out of the county funds, for defraying the expenses of a site and building a "House of Refuge," and also five thousand dollars for repairs and incidental expenses. The buildings are substantial,and their arrangements judicious. The inmates present a healthy appearance; their clothing is comfortable, and their fare is abundant and wholesome. Their labour is suited to their age and capacity-regular, but not severe. Their government, so far as the nature of the case will allow, is parental.They have their regular hours of labour, and instruc tion: while every attention is paid to induce habits of industry, the greatest possible care is bad for their intellectual improvement. The ordinary branches of an English education are better acquired in the House of Refuge than in many of our country schools. These remarks will apply to both the male and fe male departments. The committee were pleased to witness the great attention paid by the managers in uffording the means of moral and religious instruction Stated periods are set apart for devotional exercise: the duty is performed with proper solemnity, and the most respectful attention is paid by all classes. Ministers of different denominations attend and preach alternately every Sabbath. The day is spent in giving and receiving instructions of the most useful kind; and these duties appear to be performed by all concerned with pleasure and profit. The number of inmates at present is, of males, one hundred and three, of females, fifty four. A very great proportion of the children in the House of Refuge are orphans. Of the females, there are nearly threefourths who have no parents; and such as have, in most instances, derive no advantages from them. To this unfortunate class, the advantages of this in stitution are peculiarly adapted. Here their vicious tempers and habits are restrained-their minds improved-principles of virtue inculcated; and not a few, who were in the broad road to ruin, have been rescued from destruction and prepared for usefulness, and are now filling respectable places in society. Some of these instances have come under the special notice of your committee, and are referred to as an evidence to show that the benevolent designs of the founders of this institution have been realized, in reclaiming youthful offenders from the disgrace and ruin consequent on a confinement in a jail or penitentiary, to which their vicious practices would unavoidably have brought them. some large bequests have been given which are unavailable at present, but which will in a short time add much to its means. It will be recollected that the benefits of the institution are not confined to the city and county of Philadelphia-its doors are thrown open to the unfortunate objects of the institution from every county in the State, many of which have availed themselves of its advantages: for this reason and others, the Commonwealth has contributed to its support on former occa. sions, and in the opinion of your committee, should still bear a proportion of the expense of sustaining it until its own means are sufficient. The annual reports of the managers render it unnecessary for your committee to go into much detail; but it is due to the managers to say that every thing in their power has been done to render the institution useful, and to carry into successful effect the objects of its benevolent founders and proprietors. Much time and labour is spent in the management of its affairs; all of which is gratuitously bestowed: the same remark will apply to the elergymen who officiate in the institution, as well as the medical gentlemen who are constantly in attendance, on all occasions when their ser vices are required. The committee have seen and conversed with several Persons who spent several years in the House of Refuge, who uniformly bear testimony to its usefulness, the ability with which it conducted, the wholesomeindebted to that institution for the respectable station ness of its discipline, and who acknowledge themselves they now hold in society. With a view to remove all objections which may exThe committee will now refer to that part of the resolution which requires them to report "How far theist on the question of committal without trial by jury, imprisonment of persons in the House of Refuge, with the committee report a bill, which they trust will meet out the verdict of a jury, is conformable to the letter the views of the Legislature, and avoid the odium of a. conviction in a criminal court, the effects of which and spirit of the constitution." are so sensibly felt by the youthful mind, and instead of producing reformation, generally tends to harden and confirm their vicious habits. The committee do not think it necessary at this time to go into a full examination of this important and diffi cult question. The institution has been under the manThe committee cannot dismiss the subject without a agement and direction of some of the ablest jurists of the State: and they do not believe that any act would be passing notice of the qualifications of Mr. Edwin Young, superintendent, and Mrs. Catharine Shirlock, matron, done or encouraged by them which would be in viola- for the stations by them respectively occupied; opportion of the constitution. However, it is highly proba- tunity was not of course afforded to become so intimate ble that, in their laudable zeal to promote and effect ly acquainted with those individuals as would enable us the philanthropic end of the institution, some acts may to do full justice to them from personal intercourse, but have been done, either in the committal of inmates, or we must say, that intelligence, benevolence, and a in the duration and cause of their confinement, inconsis proper union of firmness and benignity, mark the whole tent "with the letter and spirit of the constitution.". deportment of each, and from information entitled to It is, however, the unanimous opinion of the committee, all credit, the committee believe their situations could that, if such errors have been committed, they were of the head and not of the heart; because they believe not be better filled. To their parental care must greatthe managers were actuated by no other than the mostly be attributed the extraordinary good order and de corum which pervades the institution; the salutary ef laudable motives-a zeal, an ardent and patriotic zeal, fects of virtuous female example and influence on erring to rescue youthful delinquents from a course of con- individuals of that sex, is most happily illustrated in duct which would, if unrestrained, lead them to inevit- the family under the matron of that institution-there able misery, degradation and ruin. reigns throughout, all the propriety and harmony of a virtuous family, and many of the hapless inmates realize for the first time the pleasures of virtue, and are led by the force of moral influence, to loath the scenes of vice and misery with which they have been familar from infancy. The committee is aware that there are conflicting opinions on this subject; but they believe that any argument of theirs would be unnecessary and superflous, as the whole question has been ably stated and examined in the opinion delivered by Judge King, in the case of Commonwealth ex relatione Joseph against M'Keagy, superintendent, in the first volume of Ashmead's Reports; and by a paper signed by Messrs. Joseph R. Ingersoll and John Sergeant, and laid on the desks of members. The committee have prepared a bill, accompanying this report, which they believe will restrain the institution within the "spirit of the constitution" and laws, and will at the same time throw no obstacle in the accomplishment of this laudable end. To enable the managers of the institution to carry their designs into effect, and continue to society the benefits of the House of Refuge, heavy expenses have been incurred which must be provided for. Individual contributions have been very liberal, and are still so; VOL. XV. 28 The committee will add, that from a careful exami nation of the books kept by the superintendent and managers, as well as every thing connected with their respective duties, their efforts have been directed, and they have succeeded in making the institution what it purports to be, a House of Refuge. Arrived on the Schuylkill, to Neligh, Bull, & Co., two boats load of Coal-being the first brought from the mines this season. U. S. Gazette. |