ing its vast and increasing resources, not only in the conveniences and embellishments of life, but in advancing the interests of humanity, and facilitating the means by which men may become wiser and better. Prisons and hospitals have felt and are feeling its benign influence. The diseases of the body and the maladies of the mind, have experienced its relieving hand,-and even the moral disorders of our corrupt nature, have fallen within the circumference of its beneficent energies. Abroad and at home, there is a spirit of more than ordinary benevolence, seeking for the means by which it may invade more effectually, the domains of prejudice and folly, and relieve the sufferings which they have entailed for ages upon their victims. In that quarter of the field which it has been our object to explore, much has been done in other places, and unless this city shall speedily renew its efforts, we shall soon be left greatly in the rear in this progress of humanity.

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That the views of your committee, in relation to a House of Refuge, are not unsupported by the opinion of many of their fellowcitizens, who have had the most extensive opportunities of forming a correct estimate of its importance, they can confidently affirm. The District Attorney, in reference to a House of Refuge, remarks, in his communication to the committee, "That many of each de"scription might be saved" by it, "from continued transgression, "no one can doubt who will examine the statement which I have "made from the records of the Police Office for 1822. This ab"stract contains the names of more than four hundred and fifty persons, male and female, none over the age of 25, many much younger, and some so young as to be presumed incapable of crime. Many others not mentioned have been discharged; from an un"willingness to imprison, in hope of reformation, or under peculiar "circumstances. Such facts," he adds, "must satisfy every one of "the necessity of a House of Refuge. It would be indeed difficult "to determine who would and who would not be influenced by such "an institution, to leave the paths of vice: unworthy objects might "be received,-imposition practiced; yet surely out of three or "four hundred miserable beings, some would be found worthy of "protection, and desirous of amendment.

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Legislative interference must be had to carry into full effect the "objects of your institution.

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"The law under which the Police Magistrates convict as vagrants, &c., ought to be amended to authorise them in proper cases, when the culprit consents, to deliver the party to the direc"tors of the House of Refuge. The court ought to be empowered, "when boys under fourteen shall have been acquitted of a theft, "on account of their tender years to dispose of them in like man"ner; always consulting the views of the persons who may have "charge of your proposed institution." Thus far the District At66 torney.

The keeper of the City Prison (Bridewell,) says in his letter; "The proposition of the society for erecting a House of Refuge, "meets my warmest approbation. Of the boys who are committed "here, I presume there might be, with care and attention, about "one-third received in a House of Refuge, with hopes of reforma"tion. The expense of supporting boys in a House of Refuge "would not materially vary from 15 to 20 cents per day.”

The Superintendent of the Bellevue establishment, thus replies to the queries of the committee in reference to this immediate object:

Ques. 11. What is your opinion of the expediency of establishing a House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents?

Ans. I believe it feasible and necessary; or we must continue to have our city thronged with young, idle vagrants. I think it charitable, humane, and economical.

Ques. 12. Of the boys who are in general committed to the Penitentiary, what proportion do you think might be received into a House of Refuge with a fair prospect of their reformation?

Ans. I think two-thirds may be made useful to themselves and the public.

Ques. 13. To what mechanical, or other employments could boys be put, in a House of Refuge, to the most advantage?

Ans. What mechanical employment will be the most advantageous, it is impossible for me to say. I should however suggest that they be put to different trades as application is offered for their labor.

Ques. 14. Would it be more economical to hire out their services by contract, to labor in the Establishment, or to procure raw materials, and work them on account of the House of Refuge?

Ans. I have no doubt that hiring them out by contract would be the most economical.

Ques. 15. What is the expense of supporting a boy per day in the Penitentiary?

Ans. About 9 cents per day.

Ques. 16. What do you think would be the expense of supporting them in a House of Refuge?

Ans. In a Temporary Refuge it will cost at least 12 cents per day, but in a Permanent, I should hope they would maintain themselves.

Ques. 17. Would it be necessary to deprive them of their liberty by restraints of walls or otherwise?

Ans. They must be kept secure until the keeper and committee are well acquainted with their wishes and character.

Ques. 18. What proportion of them do you think would consent to be bound by indentures to go to sea, or to the country.

Ans. They will all consent; that must be left to the judgment of the committee.

In answer to your general inquiry, I should suggest a Temporary and a Permanent Refuge: the Temporary to receive all Juvenile Offenders-to contain separate apartments for Classification; there to have them taught and employed at such trades as may be found convenient, and not burthensome, with proper rewards and punishments, and from these bind out all that after a proper acquaintance with their characters and wishes, give a reasonable hope of reformation, to merchants, farmers, or as seamen; with an assurance, if they should behave improperly again, they will have to go into the Permanent Refuge.

The Permanent Refuge should receive all those in whom there is no reasonable hope of reformation, and those that should return to bad practices, after being put out of the Temporary Refuge; these

should be taught such trades as will be found most useful and convenient, as applications may offer.

JULY 3, 1823.

Thus supported in their views of the importance of a House of Refuge, by a mass of interesting facts, and by men, whose opportunities of practical information and judgment entitle their opinions to much respect, the committee cannot but indulge the belief, that the proposition of the society will meet with the prompt and cordial support of their fellow-citizens, with the unhesitating patronage of the Corporation, and the approval of the Legislature. It remains for them to state more particularly their views of the plan of such an institution, and to enter into a few details, relative to its arrangement, and to advert to the success which has been obtained in some other countries, in the erection and progress of similar establishments.

The design of the proposed institution is, to furnish, in the first place, an asylum, in which boys under a certain age, who become subject to the notice of our Police, either as vagrants, or houseless, or charged with petty crimes, may be received, judiciously classed according to their degrees of depravity or innocence, put to work at such employments as will tend to encourage industry and ingenuity, taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and most carefully instructed in the nature of their moral and religious obligations, while at the same time, they are subjected to a course of treatment, that will afford a prompt and energetic corrective of their vicious propensities, and hold out every possible inducement to reformation and good conduct. It will undoubtedly happen, that among boys collected from such sources, there will be some, whose habits and propensities are of the most unpromising description. Such boys, when left to run at large in the city, become the pests of society, and spread corruption wherever they go. To expect the reformation of such, by the ordinary chances of Sunday schools, churches, or admonitions from Magistrates, would be vain and fruitless. There may be some, who, in the best regulated institution, would prove altogether incorrigible. But if placed in a situation in which their dress, their food, their labor, their privations, and enjoyments, are all made to depend on their conduct; and in which every important step in the progress of improvements, advances them into a better class, and greater comforts,-when they learn to know that a daily register is made of their conduct, that this register is inspected by the governors of the institution, and by respectable visiters, that the public eye is thus fixed upon them, and their future welfare has become the subject of public concern-is it not probable that in a majority of cases, the latent sparks of emulation may be elicited, and fanned into a goodly desire that they may yet live to honor their country, and to reward the assiduity which thus labors to save them? Such an institution would, in time, exhibit scarcely any other than the character of a decent school and manufactory. It need not be invested with the insignia of a prison. It should be surrounded only with a high fence, like many factories in the neighborhood of cities, and carefully closed in front. Second. In addition to the class of boys just mentioned, the committee have no doubt that were such an institution once well established, and put under good regulation, the Magistrates would very

often deem it expedient to place offenders in the hands of its Managers, rather than to sentence them to the City Penitentiary. The gradations of crime are almost infinite; and so minute are the shades of guilt, so remote, or so intimate the connexion between legal criminality, and previous character, it would often be judged reasonable to use all the discretion which the law would possibly admit, in deciding upon the offence and the destination of juvenile delinquents; and every principle of justice and mercy, would point, in numerous cases of conviction for crime to such a refuge and reformatory, rather than to the Bridewell or City Prison.

A third class which it might be very proper to transplant to such an establishment, and to distribute through its better divisons, are boys, (some of whom are of tender age,) whose parents, either from vice or indolence, are careless of their minds and morals, and leave them exposed in rags and filth, to miserable and scanty fare, destitute of education, and liable to become the prey of criminal associates. Many of such parents would probably be willing to indenture their children to the managers of a House of Refuge; and far better would it be for these juvenile sufferers, that they should be thus rescued from impending ruin. The laws of this state, do not, as in Massachusetts and some other places, authorize magistrates to use compulsory measures with parents who thus grossly abuse their charge, and, at the same time, absolutely refuse to resign their children to the hands of the guardians of the poor; but it is surely presumable, that were suitable provision made for the economical support and instruction of such children, a law for this purpose might readily be obtained.

There is still a fourth description of youthful delinquents for whom the contemplated establishment would afford a most seasonable and essential refuge from almost inevitable suffering and deterioration: that is those youthful convicts, who, on their discharge from prison, at the expiration of their sentence, finding themselves without character, without subsistence, and ignorant of the means by which it is to be sought, have no alternative but to beg or steal. They may, perhaps, be provided for at the Alms-House during a few days, or they may receive the admonitions and advice of the superintendents how to conduct themselves, but this can avail them but little, and with their previous habits unaltered, and their vicious propensities aggravated by corrupt intercourse, they again become depredators, and are again consigned to the same, or to some other prison, and most probably under a different name. Your committee, cannot but consider a House of Refuge for such outcasts from society as a desideratum called for by every principle of humanity and christian benevolence. Here they will be put to work, and treated acoording to their dispositions and behavior; their capacities for useful service will become known; habits of industry will be acquired; moral precepts will be implanted; and suitable places will be eventually obtained for them, in which they may have every opportunity of becoming honest and useful members of the community.

There remains to be noticed but one more class, for whom a House of Industry and Correction, under the management we contemplate, would be an appropriate place for reformation and improvement. We allude to that class of delinquent females, who

are either too young to have acquired habits of fixed depravity, or those whose lives have in general been virtuous, but who, having yielded to the seductive influence of corrupt associates, have suddenly to endure the bitterness of lost reputation, and are cast for- lorn and destitute upon a cold and unfeeling public, full of compunction for their errors, and anxious to be restored to the paths of innocence and usefulness. That there are many females of tender age just in those predicaments in this city, none can doubt who surveys the list of last year's culprits, furnished by the District Attorney. In this list, are the names of thirteen females, of 14 years of age, fourteen others of 15 and 16, and about forty of 17 and 18. The ages of a considerable number in this appalling catalogue have not been inserted, and it is by no means to be supposed that even a majority of those unhappy females who are in the predicament we have alluded to, have become the subjects of police investigation.

It is very far from the intention of the Committee, to propose, that the contemplated Refuge should become the receptacle of females whose ages and habitudes in the paths of guilt, render their restoration to society a question of dubious result. However desirable it may be, that an institution should be formed for the special purpose of affording the means of reformation, to those who are sincerely desirous to abandon a life of such debasement and wretchedness, we have no hesitation in expressing the belief, that it ought to be altogether detached from every other concern, and conducted by a separate association, and with the most prudent attention to delicacy and retirement. But within the ages and under the circumstances we have alluded to, it is our decided opinion,— an opinion founded not only upon the reasonableness of the proposition, but upon the result of similar institutions in Europe, that destitute females might form one department of the establishment, with the greatest benefit to themselves, and with advantage to the institution. Occupying apartments entirely distinct from those of the other sex, and separated from them by impassable barriers, the females might contribute, by their labor, to promote the interests of the establishment, and at the same time, derive from it their full and appropriate share of benefit. On this point, however, the Committee only mean to express their opinion, without urging it as an indispensable part of the concern.

The idea suggested by the Superintendent of the Alms-House of two distinct institutions, a Permanent and a Temporary Refuge, seems naturally to have sprung from the consideration of a distinction which will doubtless be found to prevail among the inmates of such a Penitentiary, viz.-a separation of those who are obviously susceptible of reformation, from those whose vicious propensities appear to be incorrigible. But we do not conceive it necessary to carry this principle to the length of having two distinct erections; nor is it apprehended that two classes will by any means be sufficient. Even if there should be no more than forty or fifty inmates of the House of Refuge, we believe that there ought to be at least six classes, in order to form such a separation of character, and establish such a gradation of treatment, as to afford a perpetual and powerful stimulus to improvement and reformation. We would make a distinction in each of these classes in their dress, diet, lodg