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•^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^——^^^^^^^^^ l ^^^ g ^^^^ ja ^ H ^^ BiHMBJ ^^ M ^^ " ^^""^^^^ " *™" small one ; next , that even here a cure may . sometimes be effected . " HisXordship then directed the attention of his auditory to the -stigma-which attaches to a person through life , if once he or she has been in prison , the result of which is often seen in the fact of a youth 'who has been imprisoned for some offence -which forms an exception to his generally- honest conduct being loBt to reformation by the stain on his character resulting from confinement in a gaol . He added : —
"Thave not come here with , a settled plan , but it seems to me that in case of very small offence 3 we might use lines as a punishment more than we do—they are felt as a very real punishment , though not a disgraceful one , in the same sense in which it is disgraceful to be sent to gaol . Care should be taken that a sufficient term were allowed fqr , the payment of the fine or for allowing it to be paid by degrees , so that it might not become imprisonment under another name . " Most especially is it necessary to prevent moral contamination : — " It is the'boy , not the man , who has moat influence on the younger boy . I heard of a single lad in a reformatory not far from here who , before being sent there , had trained eight expert thieves . Think what a few such youths at large may do , and the 5 s . a week of their keep looks very small in comparison . "
Some statistics of Mettray , Red-hill , and the Glasgow House of Refuge were then given : — "At Mettray , 85 percent , by one account , 89 per cent , by another , of the inmates sent out into the world are doing well . These percentages are taken from reports of last year ( 1855 ) , when 900 youths had passed through the institution . Of the 11 per cent , who had relapsed ( vagrancy being reckoned as a relapse , without proof of actual crime ) , one-fourth , or about 2 | per cent , had recovered their lost position . At Red-hill , where 720 boys have been discharged since the opening of the school in 1849—228 being inmates at the present time—Mr . Turner states that 70 per cent , have been reclaimed , adding that , of all who have left there , the emigrants have done best , and that the proportion of relapses among these is lower than among those who stay at home . In the Glasgow House of Refuge , out of 400 , 85 per cent . have-, been reclaimed . "
Care should be taken not to render the reformatories too attractive : — " Let your school , your farm , your whole institution , in all its branches , be so plain , so homely , so unattraetive in its outward aspect , that the poorest cottager may enter it , and say , ' My children are better off than these . ' And what I say of externals applies in some degree , though in a less degree , to the nature of the teaching given . You have no right to hold out as the reward of juvenile crime a superior training to any trade requiring skill , a higher degree of instruction , intellectual or mechanical , than that which the common working man receives . The object in view is not an intellectual objectit is a moral and industrial one . Cleanliness , temperance ,
honesty , hard work—these are -what you want your inmates to learn and to practise ; and , although no one who has the capacity to excel should be restrained from so doing , yet I will go so far as to affirm , that , viewed with reference to the general effect of these schools , it is not to bo desired—it is rather to be deprecated—that many of those who pass through them should rise above the level of the class from which they are taken Wo may bo told , no doubt , that by soliciting employment for these youths we are driving honest men ' s eons out of the labour market . But in the actual state of
the labour market I attach slight weight to that objection . There is ample employment and good pay for all who will and can work . Then , if work is not found for the roformod offender , what hope is there of his reformation lasting ? Ho must live ; the only question is whether he shall pay honestly for his living or not . And , if on no other ground , still on the ground of the greater difficulty which those who have broken the law experience in -finding- tho moans of livelihood , I think we may justify , both to ourselves and to society , a reasonable amount of interference such as wo propose . "
His Lordship exhorted all men of largo fortune to aid this movement with their purse , und all men of intellect to extend it by meana of their pens and their tongues . But , ho went on to say , there are men who have neither largo fortune nor large intellect who may yet bo of great scrvico to tho cause . " Tho reformation of men can never become- a mechanical process . Perhaps tho tendency of meetings , of speeches , of Government grants , is to render it too much so , or to treat it as if it were so . But , for tho
management of tho reformatory you must have personal zeal , enthusiasm , lovo of tho cause strong enough to produce oven a feeling of lovo for tho wretched objects of your aid ; without this tho work cannot be effectually done ; and to mo it seems that if any man wished to take up a work of pure patriotism and bonovolonco , with nothing to gratify tho taste , nothing to flatter tho intellect , nothing in it ploaaing oxcopt tho bum Honso of duty done and service rendered to mankind — this more than any other In lii . s natural sphoro of usefulness . JUut again , 1 am asked , arc all
persons qualified for such a task ? I don't say they are ; but this fact I would'dwell on— -that intellectual ability is not a primarj' , is scarcely even an important requisite . "What we want , in the fir 3 t instance , is a kind heart , a strong will , a healthy , not fastidious taste ^ and above all , singleness of purpose . . . . Employers of labour in almost any shape may assist us materially by taking charge of even one lad on the expiration of his term . Nay , even those , who are -not employers , Who are themselves in "the receipt of employment , -might help , by expressing their willingness to receive , and look after as fellow-labourers or subordinates , those Whom , without some such guarantee , the landlord , the farmer , or the tradesman might be unwilling to have anything to do with . "
The speaker concluded by drawing a parallel between the spread of physical corruption , owing to bad sanitary arrangements , which we have now discovered it is our interest to amend , and the diffusion of moral contamination , which it is quite as important we should endeavour to restrain . The parallel , he contended , holds strictly ; " and , if we suffer pollution to remain uncleansed in the hovel , it will take its revenge on the palace . " But " Nature , if you examine well her working , appears bent on making tis benevolent , even from a prudent regard for our own interests . " Lord Stanley , at the conclusion of his speech , was loudly cheered .
Mr . G . H . Hastings then read the report of the general committee . The committee recommend the reappointment of the present Vice-Presidents , with the addition of the Bishop of Bath and Wells , and Mr . Justice Coleridge ; and they state that , " in order to collect and diffuse information bearing on the reformation of youthful offenders , they have communicated with every certified reformatory in the kingdom , and have requested each to name a corresponding member . These corresponding members have been made ex officio members of the general committee , and are exempted from contribution to the Society ' s funds , in return for the
statistical and other information respecting their several schools which it is hoped they will forward to the union . Eighteen corresponding members have up to the present time been nominated by as many certified reformatories . With a view of obtaining information on the important subject of prison discipline , the chaplains of all gaols in the United Kingdom have been -made eligible as honorary members . Foreigners who may be interested in the reformatory movement , and such other persons as the general committee may from time to time recommend , are made , by the proposed rules , eligible to the same distinction . "
The report was adopted on the motion of Lord Robert Cecil , M . P ., and , after some further routine business , the meeting adjourned . On Thursday , the various sections met , when several papers , of great interest , relating to the reformatory question , were read ; but our space precludes our doing more than alluding to them . The details of Friday ' s proceedings have not yet reached us .
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THE ADULTERATION OP JFOOD , &c . The final report of the Committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the adulteration of food , drinks , and drugs , has been published . The Committee , after enumerating the witnesses whom they examined , observe that they cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that adulteration exists to a very grent extent . They then proceed : — " Not only is the public health thus exposed to
danger , and pecuniary fraud committed on the whole community , but tho public morality is tainted , and the high commercial character of this country seriously lowered , both at home and in the eyes of' foreign countries . Though , happily , very many refuse , under every temptation , to falsify the quality of their wares , there are , unfortunately , large numbers who , though reluctantly practising deception , yield to the pernicious contagion of example , or to tho hard pressure of competition forced upon them by their less scrupulous
neighbours . " Without entering into voluminous details of the evidence taken , 3-our committee would enumerate tho leading articles which have been proved to bo more or less commonly adulterated . These arc , arrowroot adulterated with potato and other starches ; broad with potatoes , plaster of Paris , alum , and sulphate of copper ; bottled fruits und vegetables with certain salts of copper ; codec with chicory , rousted wheat , beunH , and mangold wurzel ; chicory with roasted wheat , carrots , sawdust , and Venetian red ; cocoa with arrowroot , potnto-flour , sugar , chicory , and some ferruginous red earths ;
cayenne with ground rice , mustard husk , &c , coloured with red load , Venetian red , and turmeric ; gin with grains of paradise , sulphuric acid , and cnyonno ; lard with potato-flour , mutton miot , alum , carbonato of soda , and cauHtic lime ; mustard with wheat-flour and turmeric ; marmuhulo with apples or turnips ; porter and wtout ( though aont out in a pure state from tho brewers ) with water , sugar , troacle , Halt , alum , cocouIuh indicuH , grains of paradino , mix vomica , and sulphuric acid ; pickles and preserves with salts of coppor ; unuff with various chromutos , rod lead , limo , and powdered gla « n ; tobacco with water , sugar , rhubarb , and ticaclo ; vinegar with
iwater r isugar , : « nd- sttlphnnctacid ; jalap with 'powdered 'wood ; opium -with poppy' ~ capsules , " wheat ^ flotir , powdered wood , and sand ; scammonywith "wheat ^ flour , chalk , resin , and sand ; confectionary ^ with plaster oi Pans and other similar ingredients , coloured with various pigments of a highly poisonoa ^ natnre ; -and . acid'drops purporting to be compounded of Jargonelle-pear , Eib-Btone pippin , lemon / &c ., with essential 1 oils 'containing prussic acid or other dangerous ingredients . " The adulteratiomof drugs is extensively practised j and wlien if is -hotne in mind that the coreectness'MJf'a medical prescription rests on -an assumed standard bf strength and purity in the drugs or compounds employed , and how frequently life itself depends upon the efficacy of the medicines prescribed , it is difficult to-exaggerate the evils-arisingirom this prevalent'fraud .
" The adulteration of drinks deserves - also special notice , 'because your committee cannot but conclude that the intoxication so deplorably prevalent is in many eases less due to the natural properties of the drinks themselves than to the admixture of narcotics or other noxious substances intended to supply the properties lost by dilution . " Though adulterations prevail more or less -in all districts , it may be assumed , as a rule , that the'poorer the district the greater is the amount of adulteration . 'Nor have the poor the same power to protect' themselveg against suGh frauds as their richer neighbours ; they are necessarily limited to such means of purchase as are afforded by the immediate locality in which they reside , and are , moreover , too often bound to one dealer by the facilities of credit which'he affords them . " After pointing out that some adulterations are hurtful and others not , the Committee Temark : —
"In dealing with these various adulterations , it is necessary to distinguish between the pecuniary-fraud practised on the public and the injury to public health . If , < as regards the adulteration of articles-with , substances of a cheaper and innocuous character , the public . derive the full benefit of this cheapness in a lower price , it would be difficult , if not unwise , for the Legislature to interfere , unless it could do so by requiring that every such article be sold as a mixture , as distinguished "from the article in its pure state . This the law already requires as to the article of coffee , and also as to the article of bread , which , unless made of wheat-flour alone , must be distinctly marked with the letter ' M . ' But , whenever an article is so adulterated as to involve pecuniary fraud or injury to health , it appears to your committee to be the duty of the Legislature to provide some efficient remedy .
" It has been objected that the best course will . be to leave the buyer to take care of himself . But there are many adulterations which it is impossible for the buyer to detect . Already the law takes note of frauds in weights and measures , of injuries likely to result to the public health from the sale of unwholesome animal food , and indeed of many adulterations , though in most cases only with a view to fiscal considerations , and not to those of a'moral or sanitary character . " It is said , too , that there are many frauds which legislation cannot reach or punish . Unt , on the other hand , it would be difficult to tell tho numberless frauds which legislation may prevent . " The great difficulty of legislating on this subject lies in putting an end to the liberty of fraud without affecting the freedom of commerce . "
The report then proceeds to indicate the state of the law with respect to adulteration in France , Belgium , Prussia , Hamburg , JLubeck , Holland , SpaiD , and the United States , where the . offence is . punished with more or less stringency . " In England , the law aflbrds redress" to consumers in cases of adulteration : —by action , if tho'injury be individual in its character ; by indictment , if the injury bo general ; bysuramnry charge bdfloroia magistrate ; -ion ! by proceedings instituted'by the ISxciae . . Tho process of action onincliotmont is at once too costly 1 and too cumbrous for 'general adoption . That by « umnaary charge
before a magistrate , aBwoll'na that originating with the Exctao , appliesoqly 4 o a ibw special artiblcs which n * 3 named in particular Jacts , or ^ which ate subject to tho supervision , for'fiscal'purposes , of tho Board of Inland Hovenuo ; but your committee are 'of 'op inion that it would bo most desirable that , ' in all cases of tho solo of an adulterated or fictitious article ,-a , cheap and easy remedy by summary charge before a imaglstrato should bo lUTordod to tho person upon whom tho fraud hud been practised , and they would strongly recommend tho propriety of such a change in tho present law on this
subject as would effect this object " It ia impossible to frame any ennctment on this subject which shall rely on strict definitions . 1 ho object of tho 'law is to strike at fraud , ^ and-whoroyera fraudulent intention can bo proved , thereto "inflict a penalty . "What constitutes fraud must bo left to the . interpretation of tho administrators of tho law . Ihus mixtures of an innocuous charaator , 'matte known by tUo seller , or used for tho preservation ,. of'tho < article , cannot bo forbidden without danger to tUo -neodful freedom ol commerce , and ought not'to bo interpreted as coming within tho provisions of a penal law . Nor should thoao
provisions apply wherever tho wller can afford satislactory proof tUut . ho Uua himself been 'decolvod , and w « b
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August 23 , 185 a ] THE LEADEB . -795
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1856, page 795, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2155/page/3/
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