secured for a sum not exceeding that estimated by Mr. Connellan for a single Reformatory.

Possibly, if the system adopted at Hardwicke, by Mr. Baker, were tried as an experiment, the expense of maintenance might be reduced; and another admirable system may be learned from the Glasgow House of Refuge, an account of which we inserted at page fifteen of our Record in the December number of this REVIEW. But as the Hardwicke School, founded and supported by two Gloucestershire Magistrates, is not so well known, we shall here condense, from the various little publications of these gentlemen, an account of the institution; but we advise all who feel an interest in the Reformatory School question, to procure a paper "On Reformatory Schools, By T. Barwick Lloyd Baker, Esq., Read at the Meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, Sept. 26th 1854"; meanwhile, we beg attention to the following extracts from the pamphlets to which we have above referred :—

"In March, 1852, we commenced with three boys from a distant part of England. All had been frequently previously convicted; all were in weak health; none of them could handle a spade. From time to time we added another and another, as we found that we had gained some influence over those already in hand; but as we were uncertain what our increase would be, we could only for the first year undertake the cultivation of one acre, the produce of which of course assisted but little in the diminution of our expense. Last winter, however, though several of our boys were scarcely up to hard work, we ventured on six acres. Our land-an extremely stiff blue clay, which had never been even deeply ploughed was hard for small and light boys to dig, much harder, of course, than it is likely ever to be again; but our six acres were well worked, and our crops of this year bear good testimony to the effects of spade husbandry. We have now taken ten acres in hand, and probably should have done wisely had we taken more. Next year we hope to increase it considerably.

In the last spring, as our appeal to the county was liberally answered, we increased our buildings, which now consist of a cottage for the bailiff (not being fond of long names, we prefer the term bailiff-meaning him to whom something is given in charge-to that of superintendent) and his family. We have two rooms for the schoolmaster, and we have school room and bed room for twenty boys. We have a carpenter's shop, pigsties for at present sixteen pigs, stalls for three cows, and we are commencing some more pigsties and a barn. But, should any one come to visit us, they must not hope to see a range of buildings of a high class of architecture. The dwellings of the bailiff, the schoolmaster, and the boys, are of the plainest and cheapest style of labourers' cottages; the carpenter's shop, pigsties, and cowhouses, and the future barn, are built by the

bailiff and the boys of the refuse slabs of the saw-mills, patched to. gether as they can. They answer the required purpose as sheltering the cows, pigs, &c. and we wish not to have more. We feel most strongly that though it is of great importance that children who have erred should have an opportunity of recovering themselves, yet feel equally that it would be a fatal injustice that those children who have unhappily fallen into sin, should be placed into a position which those who have been honest cannot attain to, and we think ourselves fortunate in having found a bailiff who appears to agree with us that, converting unfortunate boys into good labourers is of more importance than the exciting the admiration of a casual visitor.

The whole of our buildings cost about £250, and they are of such a construction that should the school be given up, they would be at any time convertible into labourers' cottages, which would bring as good an interest as labourers' cottages usually command.

The other expenses, including furniture, masters' salaries, maintenance, clothing, and in fact, every cost for 18 months, amounts to about £400; but on going over the stock with a valuer, whose strict honesty I can depend upon, the 3 cows and 16 pigs were valued at selling price at £36. 18s.; the crops then on the ground, besides what had been consumed, at £77; and furniture and sundries, at £57. 3s. 6d. ; making a total stock in hand of £171. ls. 6d. ; and thereby reducing the cost to £230 for the 18 months, or a little more than £11 per head total expense for the 12 months. This, we allow, appears high at first sight, but when we consider that it includes the expenses of the inexperience and consequent alterations of our first start, and also that in our first year we cropped only one acre. and in our second year only six, and that some labour and time has been expended in building our sheds, deep digging (for the first time) our land, draining some part of it (all done by the bailiff and the boys), and in generally preparing our land and ourselves for future labour, we may hope for the future our expenses will be materially diminished.

Annexed is the balance-sheet for the two years; the managers making up any deficiency in the subscriptions-there is a very small balance left in hand.

DR.

Salary..........

£. s. d.

47 1 0

229 0 21

Food.........

Clothing..

59 11 71

£660 0 3

£660 0 31"

"The sleeping room for twenty boys allows only a space of about three feet by six, for each, leaving a narrow passage down the centre of the room-little more than just room for their hammocks, on each of which is a straw-stuffed bed, a pair of sheets, a blanket, and a counterpane.

The School and day room will only just accommodate the same number; and the only other buildings (except the wooden cattle sheds, &c. erected by the bailiff and boys) are a cottage for the bailiff and his family, two small rooms for the master, all communicating with the day room and dormitory of the boys, a small dairy, and the two cells alluded to before.

The dietary consists of skim-milk, bread, (about ten ounces at each meal, of which it forms the main part) vegetables, rice, cheese, soup, meat in small quantities three times a week (about four ounces, cooked, to each boy,) and occasionally about half-a-pint of common cider, and a little tea and butter on Sundays.

The School dress is a suit of cord, the jacket replaced on working days by a short smock of duck, worn over the sleeve waist

coat.

3 The day's work, except during the darkest months of winter, when it is rather shorter, begins at half-past six, half an hour being allowed for rising, making beds, &c., and ends at five, two hours and a quarter being deducted for meals and morning prayers. The main employment is digging (for which the spade is found generally, though not so easy as the fork, the most thoroughly efficient implement), and other ordinary agricultural labour. Some of the boys are employed in feeding, &c., the three cows and the pigs, or in work about the house, assisting in the cooking or other ways. One who knew a little of that trade before he came, is occasionally employed as a tailor; and all are taught, as far as may be, the making of common rough baskets, and knitting common worsted stockings.

To encourage those who are inclined to work well, and to secure general good conduct, a scale of rewards has been adopted (on the plan pursued at the Philanthropic Society's Farm School, at Red Hill, not exceeding, in the highest instance, sixpence a week, and subject to deductions for infraction of any of the School rules: the amount so earned being put to the boys'credit, or paid in goods, or additional luxuries at meals. The degree of their diligence is measured by the bailiff, as it has been found difficult, as yet, to organize an efficient system of piece-working, owing partly to the ignorance in using their tools shown when they first come.

To show the amount of work which they are capable of performing, annexed is a return of lands cropped in the last two years, from Michaelmas, 1852. It should be first remarked that, at that period, less than one acre of the whole quantity had ever been dug at all; the rest, a stiff blue clay, had never been even deeply ploughed, and was very foul; and that autumn, from its excessive wetness, was exceedingly unfavourable for working any land at all. In that first season, the number of boys in the School varied from nine to twelve; with their help the bailiff put in and harvested the following crops :

In the present season, since Michaelmas, 1853, the efficient number has been about fifteen; with their help he has or will be able to crop with

4 This system of training fits the boys, as it is intended to do, for useful labourers on a farm. This is what the managers now hope to make of them, their design being to bind them to careful farmers for a term of years, receiving them back into the School if they do not give satisfaction upon trial. They are generally fit to go out, if present experience can be relied on, at the end of eighteen months or two years. In a few instances at that time, or perhaps earlier, they might be safely allowed to return to their friends, who, though they had abandoned them before, are sometimes willing and ready to receive and provide for them, when they see the change which a residence in the School has worked upon them. But in general this seems unadvisable; and the power which the managers insist upon having of disposing entirely of the boys, even to the point of sending them if necessary to the Colonies (as they at first contemplated, before labour became so valuable as it is now) operates, even if not carried into effect, as a very salutary check on the desire both of parents and children for admission into the School."

"The quantity of land required we find to be about half an acre (of stiff clay) to a boy, but after it has been well dug for some years it will become lighter, and they can do more.

Our staff consists of Mr. Bengough and myself as managers. He lives 12 miles from the school; I about one. He comes and spends a few days with me now and then (alas! very rarely). I, when I

have an hour or two to spare (very rarely also), go over and look at the boys working, and have a chat with one or another. I should think that I devote on an average four hours a week to looking on and chatting. Such are our arduous labours.

The bailiff is a farmer used to superintending workpeople, who does not treat the boys as a warder would do, according to strict rule, for any deviation from which he is liable to be complained of to the Visiting Magistrates, exacting a certain amount of work, and weighing out a certain amount of food; but he treats them exactly as experience has taught him to treat his own workpeople, or his own children, exacting what labour he sees that each can do, and giving to each what food he finds to be necessary to keep him in hard-working condition. We certainly are fortunate in our bailiff. He has a mild gentle manner, with undeniable firmness. He will readily give us his opinion, which is usually worth having; but he will strictly obey our orders; and, above all, his heart is in it. A great part of the ease of our success is perhaps to be attributed to our finding so good a bailiff. But in these days, when farming cannot be carried on without a large capital, there is many a man to be found with good plain education, good practical knowledge, and good feeling, but with too small a capital to farm.

The next person is the schoolmaster, and this I confess is a difficult office to fill. We can find many schoolmasters who will take the entire command of a school, and will cram their pupils, so as to gain the approbation of the most fastidious examiner. But to find a man who will teach for two hours and a half per day-so short a time that he will never be able to make them great scholars, fit to make a show of; who can in fact believe and feel that the converting the pests of society into good Christians is as useful and as honourable an occupation as that of giving ploughboys a correct knowledge of the position of the antarctic circle; who has in fact not merely a clever head but a good heart, and that heart in this work, is as yet a difficult person to find. Still I believe that ere long the demand will create a supply. Many a lad in our training schools is unable to pass the high examination required, and not obtaining a certificate of sufficient learning, is disqualified for taking charge of a national school. Yet many of these may have courage, coolness, discipline, and a heart in the right place, and though they have failed in their first intention, yet, in such a line as ours, they may possibly make not less useful, not less honoured men than others who have taken a first-class certificate. In addition to the bailiff and schoolmaster we have also lately taken a labourer at Is. per week above labourer's wages, to work and superintend one of the gangs. He in all probability will in fact cost us nothing, as he will earn his wages on the land, and with 36 boys with no fence round them two superintendants are scarcely enough."

These extracts are most useful, as they show what the cost can really be made, and the concluding observations, referring to the School-master, are of the very chiefest importance,