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but are the crimes which they commit, and for which society, without compunction, inflicts certain pains and penalties, not as directly to be traced to the unsanitary mental influences to which they have been involuntarily subjected?

"It would be a work of supererogation on my part to indicate to you the starved and miserable state of the body, and the mental chaos in which the candidates for the training ship are, and yet these physically are the better class of waifs, for they must pass a medical examination previous to their admission.

"Their lean trunks, pinched faces, stunted growth, scarred bodies, infested and bitten by parasites, tell the bitter experience of their young lives, while their mental state is much that of "Jo," the crossing sweeper, in "Bleak House," and may be summed up by the description which he gives of himself, "He don't know nothink." The improvement, mentally and physically, which they rapidly undergo when put under anything like fair conditions of living, must be gratifying to all connected with the institution, and is a good reason for your anxiety to have these and kindred training schools extended and multiplied.'

"The governor of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne prisons (Mr. Thos. Robins) says, in an able paper read by him at a meeting of the British Association :—

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Society must remember that if it does not provide for destitute and orphan children, and if it fails to enforce the duty of lodging them in proper asylums-where they shall be taught the necessary duties of life, and educated for some useful purpose—it must pay the penalty by maintaining them as criminals.'

"In a recent letter to The Times, a member of the London School Board remarked :—

"That since the Education Act was passed, seven years ago, we have paid for pauperism £100,000,000 and for crime £40,000,000, while the annual grants to our elementary schools have only been £10,200,000, The money spent on the

two former is not only sunk, but lost, gone for ever-no return.'

"A correspondent in the same journal, a few weeks ago, points to the fact that there is a large number of men who habitually live by begging rather than work.`‘He that teacheth not his son a trade doeth the same as if he taught him to be a thief,' are the words of a Jewish writer, and are as applicable now as when they were written one thousand nine hundred years ago. True it is in all ages that

"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.'

"If it were possible to put a money value upon the lost labour of the habitually idle and criminal--large as the sum is we pay for pauperism and crime-it would reach a figure which would wake up the energy of the nation to put forth every effort to eradicate the evil; to strike at the root; to overcome all scruples. It is a waste of time on the part of Parliament to make the most beneficent law if it has to remain a dead letter. The more complete and general application of the Industrial Schools' Act would go far to lessen the evil. Poor we shall always have, but in the language of an ex-Under Secretary of State, Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen :—

"If a child's parents are habitually drunkards, or of known vicious or criminal character, or tramps, or if they continually ill-use or neglect their child, and are thus the cause of its wandering and destitution, and are learning it to grow up in the habits of vice and beggary, they cannot be said to be proper guardians of it; and it would be in full accordance with the intention and object of the Act and for the advantage of the public that a child should be withdrawn from their control and place it under the corrective training of an industrial school, the parents being ordered to contribute in proportion to their means towards the expense of its maintenance.'

Advantage to the public, who can gainsay it?

"We are considered to be a shrewd, practical people, and yet

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we allow a mine of wealth to lie undeveloped, nay, rather, to be a burden and disgrace to us. We, as a nation, are rich in this world's goods and of faith in the next, and yet, as an old and frequent traveller to the Continent, I say it with shame, there are more poor children allowed to grow up on our streets in the habits of 'vice and beggary' than are to be seen in any Continental town. If we cannot remove the evil we can at least lessen it.

,

"A little fire is quickly trodden out,

Which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench.'

"It requires no new Act of Parliament-the Industrial Schools' Act, 1866, covers the entire ground. Willing hands and willing hearts are alone necessary to undertake the task, "JAMES HALL,

"NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, March, 1878."

Every one but the magistrates appeared anxious to see such schools established. At one of the Quarter Sessions memorials were read from the School Board of Tynemouth and Cowpen, the Rothbury and Tynemouth Unions, and at another Seghill, Morpeth, and Hexham, sent a like memorial; and Mr. Hall attended one of the meetings of the magistrates to answer any question. Correspondence favourable to the proposal appeared in the newspapers, but as one of the journals remarked, "the magistrates, however the clerical portion especially

-did not endorse Mr. Hall's views. In fact, they went so far as to doubt that the needs for industrial schools existed, and the subject so far as they were concerned, dropped." The Northern Weekly Express, commenting on the action of the magistrates said, "Who is the man to make the Cain-like reply, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Let the objectors to the payment of a few pence or shillings per annum towards an institution to

redeem these poor creatures from impending destruction think for a moment how they would like to live such a life and have nothing before them but the fate of the poor drunkard's child? Our streets are thronged at night with poor creatures, many of whom have been reared in vice. What a life for any woman to live! And yet they are oftener more to be pitied than blamed."

CHAPTER II.

THE NORTHUMBERLAND VILLAGE HOMES.

"But the young, young children, O my brother,
Do you ask them why they stand

Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers
In our happy Fatherland?

They look up with their pale and sunken faces,
And their looks are sad to see.

Go out, children, from the noise and from the city-
Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do-
Pluck you handfuls of the meadow cowslips pretty,

Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through,
Ay! be silent! Let them hear each other breathing
For a moment, mouth to mouth-

Let them touch each other's hand, in a fresh wreathing
Of their tender human youth!

Now tell the poor young children, O my brother,
To look up to Him and pray—

So the Blessed One, who blesseth all the others,
Will bless them another day."

E. B. BROWNING.

W

HILE the justices who had the power but not the will to act, were hesitating and considering satisfied with the very little that was being done in that direction, although admitting that the need for a girls' school was pressingMr. Hall was not idle. He supplied the justices with facts and figures-the law and their power on the subjects and gave telling reasons and arguments for moving; but when the magistrates failed to adopt his

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