that yet other dear children, in our house, should learn to approach Him through His Son. Parents and friends of children in need of help and rescue, knocked at our door, till then scarcely opened but to inmates, and begged for the reception of the children whom they loved.

"What we even then would willingly have done, we could not; for we had no roof to shelter more than the first twelve. But lo! Love soon found the means; we need but believe in her, and she bestows herself with all her treasures. So the unexpected question could be but to the twelve, whether they would willingly help to build a new house for themselves, and would give up the old to new comrades, twelve boys. What could be more agreeable to the Rauhe Haus' boys than this? and all had taken up their tools for the new work, when, on the 24th of February of that year, the worthy master, Lange, made his appearance, with yard-measure, and square, to measure out the site of the future Swiss House.'

"He measured the ground according to its present measurement, namely. 48 feet by 24, to the west of the old Rauhe Haus; the front of the new building looking to the south.

With great energy, the ground was dug out by the twelve young laborers, before Thursday, the 11th of March; and on that day, at one o'clock, and praises and thanksgivings, prayers and supplications, the foundation-stone was laid, at the southwestern corner, by the treple hammer stroke of Mr. S. S.. of happy memory; whom may God bless for all his love to our house! Now with diligence and joy went on the building from below, under the hands of small and great; while from above, the true Architect in heaven built and blessed; nor were His praises wanting; from the summit of the building and scaffolding echoed far around the lovely songs of those who here saw from day to day a new hut for their own future dwelling arise beneath the labor of their own hands.

"It was on the 16th of April, 1834, that the carpenter resolved to erect the gable; the day passed in the severe labor; already the sun was sinking to night in the west, beyond Hamburgh, when the work was completed. In the Mother-house, we had already twined with ribbons the gay garlands of honor; with song and jubilee the band of builders conducted him to the scaffolding; and quickly he gained the giddy height, surrounded by worthy associates of the carpentring craft, after artisan fashion. Meanwhile, on the firm earth below, the household, and some friends of the neighborhood, had grouped themselves, looking up to the orator; who, unpracticed in oratory, unfortunately began at the end, what we wished to hear from the beginning. He was Sotschinger, the wood polisher. He uncovered his head, and delivered a poetic address; scanning at one view the beautiful distance of meadows and fields, houses and gardens, the Elbe and the Bill, Hamburgh's houses and towers.

"We thanked the carpenter for his address; for he had spoken truly; the Lord had already begun to carry out the blessing, and has more than once shown that He pronounced to this blessing a true amen.

"Without mischance or danger, the work now proceeded to its completion.

"Meanwhile we were seeking some friend of the Lord and of His children, who would be ready to gather round himself in the new Swiss House, the first family, emigrating for the old house,' like a swarm of bees. And before the completion of the building, a young man wandered hither to us from Switzerland, impelled by the love of the Lord; and on the 26th June, led by the Lord, he crossed our threshold for the first time. It was Joseph Baumgartner, whom few of our present inmates know personally, but whose remembrance we bless in love. On the 2nd July, Byckmeyer followed him. Both aided in giving the finishing stroke to the work of adorning and decking the house for the 30th July; because on that day we wished to consecrate to the Saviour this, the first of our children's houses, and to obtain his blessing on it. And the remembrance of that day we to-day especially renew.

"It was on a Sunday noon, on a summer's day, which the love of God had adorned with all the pomp and glory of His light. What we could, we also did, for our dear Swiss House. The upper story was furnished with twelve clean beds for the twelve future inmates. Within and without the new house was richly and ingeniously adorned with flowers and garlands. By about one o'clock, a large number of friends of our house had assembled; they were for the most part those whose love had helped us to build the house. For the first time sounded our organ, a former rich gift from a benefactor already named, and invited by its tones the voices of the assemblage. "A few words from the Father of the Family explained to the essembled friends the design of the festival; then I turned to you, or rather to the first twelve of our children, who were gathered around us. I still remember weil the words in which I then addressed you, from the greatest to the least, from David to Christian, and I think that you all will willingly recall with me a portion of what was then spoken. "That you may be helped-for this are you all assembled around us; and that you will let yourselves be helped, you have often promised me with your whole heart. See, now, what has come to pass, and think of these benefits from the Lord, that may become and remain truly His. Oh, that the Spirit of God might come over you, you would allow yourselves to be subdued by this love of God! How large a No. 8.-VOL. III, No. 1.]--2.

that

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portion has been bestowed on you, your hearts declare; that you felt it, your tears bear witness; but how often you forgot it, how often you look backwards, instead of forward to the goal toward which we strive. My dear, beloved children, does your past way of life in this place bear witness of this or not? However that may be-a new house, a new heart! New benefits, new thanks! New love from God, new giving up of the heart to Him who gives us all! Shall not this be our vow to-day? Dear children, you vow it to-day before the eyes of many witnesses of those who have helped us to build the house-from whom you imploringly hope that they will continue to be mindful of our poverty, and will freely show compassion, that you may want for nothing. You know not how to thank men, but I hope-the Lord, who provides for you such benefits from Christian hands-Him you can thank! What better way to do so, than to consecrate yourselves, albeit in great weakness, to your Lord and Saviour, to serve Him in Godly fear and filial love all your life long? Begin this to-day afresh; and then we and our friends here present, your benefactors, will devote to God the Swiss House, as we name it; committing it in His name to all the protection and guardianship of His paternal love,' &c., &c.

"In heartfelt love, and with uncovered heads, the members of the household now extended to each other the hand of brotherhood, and consecrated themselves, with the new house, to the good Shepherd as his abiding inheritance. We then besought Him to deign to enter the hut, as guardian and defence; to dwell therein as the lord and owner; to supply us therein perpetually with bodily and spiritual bread to awaken therein the longing for that far better and eternal abode of peace, which He in yonder fatherland prepares for each one who loves His appearing and patiently expects His salvation.

"The spirit of true joy and religious confidence filled all who were there assembled; in the name of all, the beloved pastor of the parish spoke, to direct us once more to Him, who, as the once crucified, now glorified Saviour, had prepared us for this festival. The old became young with the children, the children grave with the old; and all wandered yet again through the beautiful light rooms, in which nothing but simplicity and sufficiency was to be seen, which make rich that poverty which has found its wealth in Christ.

"Among those present was an old lady of 80, a widow, an Anna, who, before this, had often entered with benedictions the circle of our children; a handmaid of the Lord, and who loved me also till her end, with a mother's love. Her heart was actually broken for joy; overcome by the witnessed fulfillment of her blessing, she was compelled, without seeing more, to hasten home in her carriage. Exhausted, she sought repose, sought it four weeks; then found it in the bosom of the God whom she had served, rather silently than loudly; in the home of peace, of which the consecrated Swiss House had been to us an image. Her memory still remains to us in the benediction, her likeness you see to-day in our house with your own eyes.

"The twelve above mentioned who, on the 21st July, took the Swiss House for their abode, and slept there for the first time, on the 22d of July vacated the old house, and so it became possible to assemble the second family. These boys were received from the 31st July to the 15th October, 1834.

"The sweetest, richest experience of God's grace were our portion; and we experienced, for instance, on the first Sunday, that the Lord had remained in the house in blessing. All minds opened to His Spirit and His love, and perhaps in those very days He sowed a seed which-God grant it!-will bring forth abiding fruit to everlasting life. But seldom are such days of perceptible blessing vouchsafed to us. Pray ye of the Swiss House: seek, knock, that you may again find, and hold fast, love and life.

"To-day, on the anniversary of the Swiss House Dedication, all those of the first family of the Swiss House, who then solemnized it with us, have already returned to common life, and are earning their bread as carpenters, tailors, husbandmen, artizans, smiths, sailors, shoemakers, sailmakers, gardeners, &c. Our dear friend, Johann Baumgartner, who assembled here the first boy family, has already removed to a distance; there afar off, by his own hearth, to provide for other children, home and sal

vation.

"

Upon all these members of the household has God's grace been variously mani fested in the Swiss House. May the gracious God still remain with them! And with them may He bless anew the house, which we to-day adorn to do Him honor; which to-day we consecrate anew to Him, that in and with it we may remain confided to His mercy and grace."

PARKHURST PRISON IN ENGLAND.

In contrast with a home and industrial school, into which the organization of the colony at Mettray, and the Rauhen Haus of Hamburgh, may be resolved, we present an account of the Parkhurst Prison, established by the English Government in the Isle of Wight, in 1837, for junenile offenders. We propose to examine the principles,

PARKHURST PRISON FOR JUVENILE CRIMINALS, ENGLAND.

THE following account of Parkhurst Prison, is derived from the evidence of Captain Hall, the Governor, before the Committee of the House of Lords in 1847, and of Lieutenant-Colonel Jebb, the Visitor:

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"This is a penal establishment for boys who have been sentenced to transportation, usually between the ages of 10 and 18, but even at 8 or 9 many have been thus sentenced, with a view of getting them here, and not long ago there were as many as 60 or 70 at this tender age. On the boy's first arrival at the prison he is placed in a probationary ward, where he is kept in separate confinement for 4 months or more. ring this time he is not allowed to hold any intercourse with the other boys, but for at least five hours he is at different times in the presence of others, either for exercise, instruction, or religious service, and during the time he is in his cell, he is supplied with occupation and books, and is visited by the officers of the establishment. This is not, therefore, a stringent separate system. The boys appear in good spirits, cheerful and happy, nor does their health in any way suffer; indeed, boys have frequently asked to go back to the probationary ward after having left it, from feeling there a degree of security from temptation to commit prison offences, and consequently to incur punishment. After this the boys are placed together where they learn trades, and converse or play with each other, under the eye of warders-the meals being taken together, 360 in a large hall. The boys remain at Parkhurst from 2 to 3 years, sometimes longer, during this time a highly favorable change is generally perceptible in the whole disposition of the boy; there is a great difference between the first and second year, and a still greater difference between the third and the former year. The state of health has been remarkably good, only fourteen deaths having occurred during 8 years, among nearly 1.200 boys. On leaving Parkhurst they are generally sent to the colonies, and much depends on the circumstances in which they are there placed. In Western Australia, there is an officer of the government, styled the Guardian of Juvenile Einigrants, who is appointed to apprentice the boys and to see that the conditions of the indentures are fulfilled, visiting them once in six months. It is feared that in other colonies such provision has not yet been made, and that the boys are consequently exposed, on arriving, to much danger of falling back into dishonest means of gaining a livelihood. Excellent reports have been received recently of the conduct of boys sent out to Western Australia;-of 62 boys, 50 were first-rate lads, but 12, about 1-5th, were very troublesome, and great difficulty was felt in disposing of them. This has also been experienced in making satisfactory arrangements for those sent very young to Parkhurst, who after passing through the appointed time, and having received the requisite instruction, were not old enough to be sent abroad, and having a prison brand affixed to them, could not be otherwise placed out. For such cases, Col. Jebb feels it would be most desirable to provide District Penal Schools similar to Parkhurst, where they could be properly arranged for, leaving only the boys above the age of 15 to come into the hands of government for transportation."

Thus far the establishment would seem a good one, were it restricted to such boys of 15 or 16 and upwards, as have so thoroughly resisted every attempt to reform them, that their absolute removal from society is the only safeguard from their evil influence on it. But what is to become of the young boys,-of the female convicts altogether? These have been quite uncared for in the provision made for the older boys.

Above 2000 of the annual fresh supply of male juvenile delinquents are under the age for Parkhurst. Mr. Neison's statistic tables show that, during the 9 years for which the tables are drawn, females constituted one-fifth of the total tried at assizes; about one-fourth of the summarily convicted, and of the whole number re-committed, one-third were females. But of those 14 years of age and under, only between oneseventh and one-eighth were girls. A yet more striking fact is derivable from a paper delivered into the Lords' Committee in 1847, by Mr. Chalmers, Governor of Aberdeen Prison. The percentage of female prisoners in all the prisons of Scotland, is nearly one half; of juvenile female prisoners under 17, between one-fifth and one-sixth? but the per centage of re-committants of juvenile female prisoners is greater by one-half than that of males. This statistic fact would indicate that young girls are generally much less prone to crime than boys of the same age, but that their tendency to it rapidly increases with their age, and that when they have once embarked in a criminal career, they become more thoroughly hardened than the other sex. The correctness of these painful results is proved by the testimony of the Bishop of Tasmania before the Lords.

After speaking of the fearful condition of the female convicts in the colonies, which surpasses in degradation and vice even that of the men he adds :

Female felons are so bad, because, before a woman can become a felon at all, she must have fallen much lower, have unlearnt much more, have become much more lost and depraved than a man. Her difficulty of regaining her self-respect is proportionally greater. There is nothing to fall back upon-no one to look to. I believe that the experience of almost every parish priest in England would lead him to the conclusion that there are many cases in which in our village girls are kept straight, not so much by their own good principle, as by the check imposed upon them through the dread of shame, the fear of fathers, mothers, friends and relations. Let that check be once removed, and their future progress is rapidly downward. When they go out as convicts every thing is gone, every restraint is removed, they can fall no lower."

An experienced temperance advocate has stated that, while the cases of drunken men who have become reformed and steady teetotalers have come very frequently before him, he has never known an instance of a woman, given to intoxication, being really converted; this will probably be common experience. The records of the teacher's journal are quite in accordance with these painful facts.

One little girl only, at all connected with our school, has been taken before the magistrates, while such occurrences among the boys are frequent. We have not, then, in the school, the criminal class of girls, and only in a few cases the sisters of the boys who have been convicted of theft; that many girls who are already known thieves, exist in Bristol, the weekly police reports sufficiently show; but these will not come to school. Nor will the low and degraded girls that infest the neighborhood; in the early period of the school several of these caine for a time, but have since discontinued. The girls who attend are rather the very poor and low, than the vicious. Their general appearance usually strikes strangers as superior to what would be expected in such a school; this arises from the circumstance that giris are more easily able to improve their dress by their industral habits, and also that girls are more quickly susceptible of improvement than boys. Any effort, therefore, soon tells on them; but this very flexibility of nature, renders them more liable to fall when under bad influence. On the other hand it is far more difficult to call out their intellectual powers than those of the boys, and thus to interest them in their lessons; this arises not only from the difference in their natures, but from the circumstance that while the boys have been sharpening their powers by roving the streets, the girls have been confined to their wretched home. The dullness and stupidity they manifest, united with great vulgarity, is a serious hindrance to their improvement, but persevering efforts has done much for them."

When we reflect that the early moulding of the young child's mind depends almost entirely on the mother, and that these neglected children, who are in great danger of joining the criminal class, if they have not done so, are to become the parents of the next generation, surely express provision should be made for their training and reformation. As yet they have been unprovided for by the government, and Parkhurst only exists for the boys.

Let us now endeavor to ascertain from public documents how far the juvenile prison at Parkhurst is fulfilling its mission. As confinement here is the only authorized mode of disposing of young transports, rather than subjecting them to the system adopted for adults, Sergeant Adams frequently sent juvenile offenders to it, before the rules of admission were defined, yet this is the opinion he expressed of the Institution before the Lords in 1847:

"I was about three weeks ago at Parkhurst, in the Isle of Wight. They there act upon the principle of cooping up, and it seems to me a mistaken one. They have 40 solitary cells, and every child who is sent to Parkhurst is locked up in one of those cells for four months after he goes. I call it solitary; perhaps the word 'separate' is the term used, but it is solitary in this respect, that he is there for the whole twentyfour hours, with the exception of when he is in chapel, and two hours when he is at school, where he is in such a pen that he can see nobody but the minister. His sole employment is knitting, and reading good books. No good conduct can make him there less than four months, and if his conduct is not good, he is there until his conduct is good. At this time there are several boys who have been in those cells from six to twelve months. It seems to me that it can only make them sullen. * * When the prison was first established, the boys were allowed occasionally a game of play; that was entirely put an end to. Within the last three months they have been allowed occasionally to play at leap-frog, but no other game. Of course, if boys are allowed to

play at leap-frog and no other game, leap-frog will be the only game at which they will not care to play. I asked what were the rewards held out for good conduct, and they told me the only rewards were permission to attend the evening school, and the privi lege of going to the governor to get information of their friends. Why, one half of them have no friends to ask after, and as to the other half, the less they know of them the better. The privilege also of attending evening school, though a great and proper one, might be rendered more valuable if accompanied by the privilege of half a holiday, and a game of cricket. That they can behave ill in their solitary cell is quite clear, because otherwise a boy could not be there for twelve months; but what that ill behavior is, or what the good behavior is, I did not ask, for I thought I ought not to pry into those questions."

Such is the opinion of the prison expressed by a benevolent and experienced man. Let us turn for further particulars to the printed reports presented to both Houses of Parliament.

"The number of prisoners, 79, sent back to Milbank for transportation in 1846, was, from peculiar circumstances, unusually great. A number of ill-disposed and discontented boys having been discovered, who manifested no desire to avail themselves of the course of instruction and training pursued at Parkhurst, but mischievously employed themselves in unsettling and perverting others, it was deemed expedient to remove the greater portion of them in the month of April, and the salutary effect of that step has been very apparent since that time in the improved conduct of the remaining prisoners. The other individuals returned for transportation were boys, who having repeatedly incurred minor punishments for misconduct, had been placed in the penal class, and while there, did not evince any real desire to amend."

It seems, then, that after some years of experience, sufficient moral power was not obtained to control as many as 79, who were therefore sent back to people another country. At Mettrai, the number of morally incurable was, even from the earliest times, only occasionally one or two. We see also that even this strict penal discipline cannot preserve the less vicious from moral contamination, from "ill-disposed and discontented boys." The last report will show whether any great progress in moral influence has been made in five years. The Governor reports :

"The number of attempts to escape has been very large this last year, (1849,) 34 prisoners in all have run away, 30 of these while out at farm labor. All of them, however, were speedily re-captured. None of the boys who made these attempts had so far as I can ascertain, any hope or expectation that they would really be able to secure their liberty; but having found that two boys who had run from the land, and had committed a robbery previous to their re-capture, were removed to Winchester Gaol, they determined to try to get relief by such a course of proceeding, from the restraint and discipline of Parkhurst, which they found to be intolerably irksome. Having no power of forethought or rational consideration, they yielded to the impulse of an unfounded notion, that any change from Parkhurst would be for the better."

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When a youth who had twice attempted to escape from his former confinement, was asked why he did not make a similar effort at Mettrai, he replied, "because there are no walls;" from that penal asylum there have been for many years no escapes; here there are "enclosures long believed to be impassable," sentinels with loaded guns, and certainty that there is no possible escape from the island? yet the inhabitants of the surrounding district are in constant fear of finding runaways in their houses, nor is the apprehension diminished by the fact of two conflagrations having been kindled by the prisoners during the last year. Why does this state of feeling exist at Parkhurst? The Visitors give in their report a sufficient clue to it.

"Among youths such as are confined at Parkhurst, who are precocious without experience, very restless and adventurous without being guided by reason, very excitable, credulous when one of themselves asserts a fact, or advances a proposal, yet suspicious of all that may be stated or urged by their officers, even to an extent that could hardly be believed by those who did not continually watch the workings of their minds, it is most difficult to make them understand what is for their immediate, as well as their prospective benefit."

What wonder is it, that with such a state of feeling, with nothing to exercise and give free vent to their "restless and adventurous" spirit, with no "direct and sufficiently powerful stimulus in the way of remuneration for work efficiently done," their pent up energies should break out into frequent acts of disrespect to the officers, violence, wanton damage of property, and even theft, as well as disorder and prohibited