The members composing this body, are divided into subscribers, patrons and donors; these are accepted without limit, in order to extend, as far as possible, their sphere of action. The subscribers are only called on for the sum they promised. The title of donor is acquired by giving 100 francs annually to the Society. The patrons have the most difficult task to perform, as their employment chiefly consists in procuring situations for the juvenile libérés.

The office of patron is held for three years. The Society have an asylum where all juvenile libérés are received, who, during this period, have either fallen ill or are unable to work. This asylum is placed under the immediate control of a general Agent, M. de Grellet-Wanning, a man of unalterable devotion, who resides in the Rue Mézières No. 9. He says mass every Sunday at an altar placed in the Assembly Hall.

The Society is under the immediate direction of a board, assisted by an Administrative Council, and aided by three committees, of material and funds, of management and inquiry.

The board is composed of a president, vice-president, of a secretary general or treasurer, in whom rests in fact the executive power of the Society.

The Administrative Council is composed of 12 members, deciding on all matters useful or advantageous to the Institution, which is submitted by them for approval to the board, or to one of the members of the Council. The duties of president and of vice-president, as well as those of secretary general or treasurer, have been carefully defined. The three Committees are each presided over by a vice-president, whose duty it is to see that the funds are well employed, taking care that the boys are provided for after their final liberation, and making inquiries in order to afford the Administrative an opportunity of placing a young provisional détenu at liberty, and entitling him to seek for reward. In fine, the General Assembly is convoked annually to render an account of the working of the Society, and every six months to hear the reports of the patrons on those confided to their care. In these re-unions, the Assembly nominate counselors to the vacant places. They introduce modifications in the laws whenever they find cause. Finally, they bestow rewards on the patrons who merit them.

A paid agent is employed-who accounts to the treasurer for the recovery of, and expenditure of monies received, takes charge of the minutes, keeps the register, prepares the questions, and makes inquiries relative to the management of the Superiors, and furnishes to the patrons every information necessary for the accomplishment of their mission. The general agent is also employed in procuring situations for the libérés, and trying to arrange with the head workmen the most suitable places, and also to supply for the time the absence of a patron who is ill or stays away. Finally, he is bound to prove monthly the presence of each boy in the place marked out for him by the patron.

The Society negotiates with different contractors, who supply them with every thing they require to clothe the libérés.

The patrons are admitted, after every possible precaution is taken, to guarantee their good conduct to the Society. Their duties are inscribed in a handbook, ad hoc, and they can not take charge of more than six libérés at a time. The president represents the entire Society, he corresponds with the established authorities, and it is to him that the demands made by the different public functionaries in the interest of the board is entrusted.

The strictest and most watchful surveillance is exercised over all the libérés, but particularly over those who are still under the restrictions of the clause 66 of the penal code, who have been entrusted to the board as provisional libérés. Those latter are never lost sight of by the patrons, and when they exhibit idleness or disobedience toward their masters, the patron, without waiting for a more serious fault, is bound to represent their misconduct to the president.

This man decides with the board whether the charge is of a sufficiently grave character to require immediate re-incarceration. But even in case the matter has been arranged, the patron is not released from his obligation toward his pupil, and is bound to reinstate him by virtue of a ministerial decision. All the acts of the Society are inserted with the greatest care in the register kept by the agent. The principal is kept in a large book, comprising at once the moral and financial account of each boy, where they have deposited as correctly as possible the history of his life, the information received relative to his family,

the progress he has made in advancement, and all the expenses he has occa sioned the society.

Then follows the general register of all the members who compose the body, under the title of patrons, donors or subscribers, pointing out the assessments of each, and comprising an annual account, mentioning the date of payments.

Another register comprises the names of all the patrons employed, and of the boys under their care. A third points out the changes, either by getting in or removing any of the furniture belonging to the board.

Those registers are the ground-work by which can be proved the receipt of subscriptions, the expenditure of the funds, and the supplying of all kinds of food. Putting money in the savings' bank in the children's name, and the place where the cash is kept, are entered in two different books.

Another very important book points out to you, three months beforehand, the young détenus who are about to leave the houses of correctional education in the neighborhood of Paris, and the names of the Commissioners who will be employed to institute an inquiry into the conduct of those boys; there is also an account given of the acceptance or refusal of patronage by the libérés.

The minutes of the sittings of the Council of Administration, of the committee appointed to procure situations, and of the six months' assemblies, are entered in another book separate.

A register in which is copied the correspondence with the administration, the bar, the prefect of police, and other functionaries; finally, there are several secondary registers which complete the vocabulary of the agent's book.

We see, by what has gone before, with what care the Society takes note of the working, and the means necessary to ensure success. The asylum in the Rue Mézières, which was founded in the year 1846, has been very useful to the juvenile libérés, particularly during this time of commercial and political panic which we have had to pass. But it has also made considerable sacrifices to the board for its appropriation, and the support of the boys contained there. These sacrifices have been exclusively beneficial to the juvenile libérés, and whilst their expenses were observed to increase, the salaries of the clerks* continued the same; the right assumed toward them by the asylum was to increase their work, and make them labor more diligently.

The resources of the Society are comprised in the collection of taxes, which the juries award for their advantage, of the subsidies granted by the Corporation and the prefect of the Seine, of the legacies bequeathed to them, and of the 70 centimes allowed daily by the minister of the interior, for the support of the provisional libérés.

They receive, besides, from the exchequer of this department a claim to any unusual taxes 51,450 francs.

In fine, the Government in order to acknowledge the services rendered by this Institution, has established it legally by a Royal Ordinance, dated June 9th, 1843.

Since the month of May, 1833, the period of its foundation, up to the 31st of December, 1853, the Society has protected 2,155 boys,† definitive or provisional libérés.

252 had renounced all patronage, 124 had been abandoned as incorrigibles; 112 are dead; 964 had ceased to be guardians at the end of three years; 144 provisional libérés had been reëntered into the house of correction; 506 had relapsed into crime, 88 of whom had belonged to the category of temporary libérés; 16 had been placed in hospital as lunatics, the remainder ran away.

During this period of 20 years, the Society received the sum of 457,265 francs, 55 cents; its expenses had been 381,824 francs, 89 cents. They had thus in their possession at the end of 1853, 75,440 francs, 66 cents; an important sum, which bore testimony to the good management of the board, and at the same time of the useful assistance it rendered not only to the Government, but also to private individuals. The receipts of the Society had been 25,947 francs, 33 cents; in 1854, the expenses had arisen to 25,342 francs, 10 cents, for 294 juvenile provisional or definitive libérés; every boy had therefore cost at an

These clerks are-a responsible agent at 1,400 francs; an agent for providing situations, 800 francs; a resister and schoolmaster, 900 francs; an inspector, 900 francs; a housekeeper at 300 francs, and the porter got 360 francs.

† These boys go as penitents to the monastery de la Roquette.

average about 89 francs. In this account had been entered all kinds of expenses, the salaries of the clerks of the asylum, and a sum of 3,371 francs, 10 cents, employed in the recent building, and repairing of the establishment in the Rue Mézières. Amongst the 294 boys patronized by the Society in 1854, 65 were very well conducted; 127 well conducted; 24 wished to leave; 13 were badly behaved; 1 ran away; 23 relinquished the patronage after being submissive for some time; 7 had been given up altogether as incorrigible; 10 had been re-imprisoned in the penitentiary of la Roquette; 20 had relapsed into crime; 4 were dead. Whilst subtracting from the total number 294, the 23 boys who had renounced the patronage, the 7 who were abandoned as incorrigible, and those who ran away, there remained 263 young persons of whom only 20 had relapsed into error, that is to say, 7-60 for 0-0; this proportion was 75 to 100 before the establishment of the Society.

During the same year, (1854,) the average number of patrons staying at the asylum were 14 daily, and those supported in the establishment were 17. The average number of boys who assisted at the re-unions every first Sunday of the month were 80. These numbers prove the utility of this Institution.

There is another Society in Paris deeply interesting, which is engaged in protecting young girls from the department of the Seine, détenus libérés and destitute-founded by Madame de Lamartine and Madame la Marquise de la Grange, who was born at Caumont-la-Force. This institution, from 1841 up to December 31st, 1853, extended its care over 178 Juvenile détenus; 102 had got situations through its influence; ten relapsed into error; and 66 had escaped from their surveillance. Annexed to this establishment is a quarter set apart for correctional education, in which Madame la Marquise de la Grange is endeavoring to introduce all the improvements calculated to elevate the mind.*

The Society for the patronage of the Juvenile libérés of the Rhone deserves especial notice, having tried to take under their guardianship subjects of a class unfortunately too numerous, young mendicants or vagrants, who though not condemned, are nevertheless a scourge to the country. The last accounts returned, published by the Society in 1847, showed that from 1840 to 1846, they had taken under their care 22 vicious boys who had not been sentenced or even tried; 16 whose moral state required the strictest surveillance; they had been confined at the asylum of d'Oullins; six others were placed as apprentices to trades-people; eight of these were well conducted, whilst the other eight gave frequent proofs of idleness and insubordination; three remained with the masters; one returned to his family. These twenty-two boys cost the Society 9,810 francs, 20 cents, or 445 francs, 91 cents each.

From 1836, the period of its foundation, to the 31st of December, 1853, the Society of Juvenile libérés of the Rhone, have protected 305 of these youths, 279 are in situations, and 26 not engaged.

These two classes have furnished 68 relapses, which establishes between the discharged and those who have fallen away, a proportion of about 22 to 100.

Administrative Patronage.

Let us see how this patronage is exercised, which has been instituted by a ministerial decision, February 17, 1847. From the time that the Juvenile libéré leaves the house of correction, the Director of the establishment furnishes a report to the Minister of the Interior, in which he points out the moral and religious character of the boy; the order of his intellect, the trade to which he has been brought up, the place where he desires to fix his residence. The Prefects are obliged to transmit a resume of these documents to the Mayors of the communes where the Juvenile libérés have fixed their abode, and these functionaries have in their turn to make known every six months to the heads of the government how these boys conduct themselves, their habits, and the way by which they gain their livelihood. The corporation, (or common council,) collect most carefully the information required from them. But a patronage whose only aim is to observe the acts of a young libéré without assisting him at the period of his liberation, is all but visionary.

On the other hand, as the Mayors communicate generally with the libérés Madame Lechevalier, Inspectress-General of Prisons, has taken a very active part in the working of this Society.

through the intervention of the police officer or the forest keeper, who do not give to their office all the circumspection requisite, the position of these boys is ere long understood, and their employers are anxious to get rid of them, thinking that having them in their service, places them under the surveillance of the authorities.

Orders have been given it is true to the prefects to endeavor to remedy these serious disadvantages, and more can not be done in the absence of a law to remedy this evil by enabling them to employ more efficacious means. Be it as it may, such are the results of administrative patronage during the year 1853. The Mayors had received information relative to 861 libérés, of whom 124 were young girls: 197 boys and 68 girls escaped the patronage by changing their names and concealing their residences. They retain the management of

They have had 38 enlistments in the Army and Navy. The relapses, (deducting those who ran away,) have been 9 to 100 boys, and 5 to 100 girls.

Establishments of Patronage.

When leaving the establishments of correctional education the young deté nues are supplied with suitable clothes and assistance for their journey. The directors of several of the colonies have found it necessary to watch over the lives of those boys, who being orphans, could not receive in the bosom of their families that protecting care and counsel, necessary to sustain them in a good course. Amongst the establishments inhabited by the greater number of their libérés, we will cite the colony of Mettray; the House of Correctional Education, Bordeaux, directed by M. l'Abbé Fissiaux; and that of Toulouse, the founder of which has organized in this city a Society of Patronage.

From 1841 to the 31st of December, 1853, the colony of Mettray has rendered assistance to 953 libérés, who had sprung from that source; 18 had removed themselves from under their kind control; 307 had obtained situations through the influence of the establishment; 157 entered the army; 6 were kept as servants in the establishment; 4 entered religious houses; 61 entered the navy; 66 were taken as military recruits; 231 returned to their relations; 103 relapsed. After deducting the 18 that ran away, we find the relapses have been 11 to 100.

The libérés who go to Paris from Mettray, receive the protection of the Chief Agent, M. Paul Verdier, who engages in this work of devotion with a zeal and self-abnegation beyond all eulogy.*

There are innumerable conventual establishments to which the State confides young female détenus, protecting in their asylums those who at the period of their liberation find themselves without homes or means of employment. The principal are the Solitude of Nazareth, near Montpelier; the Refuge du Dorat in la Haute Vienne; the convent of the Good Shepherd at Angers and the communities which belong to them.

A recent inquiry has been made relative to 12,464, the number of juvenile détenus, who from 1837 to 31st December, 1853, left the Institution of Correctional Education, either publicly or privately. Of this number we can not point out more than 528 relapses; but as it would be impossible to discover what had become of the greater number of those boys, who concealed their track by changing their names and residences, in order, either to commence a new mode of life, or to continue in their old habits, it is more than probable that the greater number of those boys have contributed to increase the popula tion of our penitentiaries. As for the young girls, their fate on leaving has been more dark and deplorable. Are not these facts sufficiently startling to prove the absolute necessity of an obligatory patronage, which is at once aiding and preventive, especially after pointing out the services rendered by this Institution, incomplete as it still is?

M. L. Alcan deserves equal notice; his position is that of obtaining situations for the libérés of Mettray.

See the notice we have given to The Solitude of Nazareth in the Annales of the 1st of November, 1853.