only to the chief civil and ecclesiastical authority; the internal administration rested with them.

I hope it will be remembered here, and in other parts of this essay, that I am not arguing for any particular system of administration, or discipline, or kind or degree of punishment; but merely for this principle, that whatever be the system selected as the best, it should be carried out by a due admixture of female influence and management combined with the man's government.*

REFORMATORY SCHOOLS.

IF what I have said of the salutary effects of female influence in prisons carry any weight, yet more does it apply to the employment of superior women in the Reformatory schools for young criminals. Profligate boys, accustomed to see only the most coarse and depraved women (their own female relatives are in general examples of the worst class), would be especially touched and tamed by the mere presence of a better order of women. I observe that in the last report of the school at Mettrai, mention is made of the nine Sisters of Charity who are employed to superintend the kitchen and infirmary; which last consists of a ward with about ten beds, and a corridor where the Sisters receive the out-patients; and to the constant watchfulness, medical skill, and gentle influence of these women much good is attributed.

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Mr. F. Hill, in his work on Crime, in speaking of the officials in the reformatory prisons for boys, says expressly that some of these officials ought to be women for the sake of female influence, and to call into action those family feelings, which Mr. Sidney Turner and Miss Carpenter think of such vital importance in the process of reformation." This is precisely the principle for which I am pleading, and in organising the new reformatory institutions it might be advantageously kept in view.

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"It should be remembered," adds Mr. Hill, that up to the time of his commitment, à criminal has often had

*Since this was written the prisons at Brixton and Fulham, mentioned in the introductory letter, have been organised under female management.

no one to give him counsel or sympathy, no virtuous parent or kind relative to feel for him or guide him aright, and that there is consequently in his case a void which is perhaps first filled up by a kind prison officer. This may account for the almost filial affection often shown, particularly by the younger prisoners, towards a good governor, chaplain, or matron." What we have now to do is to enlarge the application of this principle.

The extreme difficulty of finding masters at the best of all our reformatory schools, that at Redhill, was the subject discussed in a meeting of benevolent and intelligent men, interested in this institution. I happened to be present. I heard the qualifications for a master to be set over these unhappy little delinquents thus described: He must have great tenderness and kindness of heart, great power of calling forth and sympathising with the least manifestations of goodness or hopefulness; quick perception of character; great firmness, and judgment, and command of temper; skill in some handicraft, as carpentering and gardening; a dignified or at least attractive presence, and good manners, the personal qualities and appearance being found of consequence to impress the boys with respect. Now it is just possible that all these rare and admirable qualities, some of which God has given in a larger degree to the woman and others to the man, might be found conbined in one man; but such a man has not yet been met with, and many such would hardly be found for a stipend of 301. or 40l. a year. Then, in this dilemma, instead of insisting on a combination of the paternal and the maternal qualifications in one person, might it not be possible, by associating some well educated and well trained women in the administration of these schools, to produce the required influences the tenderness, the sympathy, the superior manners, and refined deportment on one hand, and the firmness and energy, the manly government, and skill in handicrafts and gardening, on the other? This solution was not proposed by any one of the gentlemen who spoke; it did not seem to occur to any one present; and yet is it not worth consideration? At all events I must express my conviction that, going on as they are now doing, without the combination of those influences which ought to represent in such a com

munity the maternal and sisterly, as well as the paternal and fraternal, relations of the home, their efforts will be in vain: their admirable institution will fall to pieces sooner or later, and people will attribute such a result to every possible cause except the real one.

PENITENTIARIES AND HOUSES OF REFUGE.

THE reformatory schools for perverted and criminal girls present many more difficulties than those for boys. I do not know how it is intended to meet these especial difficulties, nor what consideration has as yet been given to them, nor in whose hands the administration of these reformatory schools is to be placed; for all I have as yet heard upon the subject, and all the pamphlets and authorities I have been able to consult, have reference principally to the treatment of delinquent boys, and very little mention is made of the poor female children of the "perishing and dangerous class"-(perishing and dangerous in every sense of these words they too surely are!) One thing is most certain, that in their case the supervision of pureminded, humane, intelligent, and experienced men will be as necessary as the feminine element in the reformatory schools for boys; and for similar reasons, medical knowledge will be required in addition to the moral and religious influences. This has, I think, obtained too little consideration, and it is one of great importance.

It is worth noticing that a proposal, made during this session of parliament*, to aid the female penitentiaries by a grant of public money, however small, and thus obtain from the government the mere recognition of the existence of such institutions and their necessity, fell to the ground; even the usual deprecatory intimation that it would be "considered and brought forward next session," the common device by which troublesome propositions are stifled or shuffled off, - was not here vouchsafed: the motion was received with absolute silence, and set aside by a few words from the speaker.

I can conceive that there might be many reasons for this

* July 15, 1856.

reluctance to discuss such themes officially. It might not only offend the nice decorum of our House of Commons; it might perhaps awaken in some generous and conscientious mind, a keener touch of retrospective pity, a more acute and self-reproachful pain. Let us, therefore, set the past aside; let us accept the excuse that a far lower standard of feeling and opinion existed on this miserable subject some years ago; and let us think with gratitude of the more hopeful present, of the wiser and better future which we may anticipate both for men and women.

And since these female reformatories must eventually find their place among the public exigencies to be considered, one may ask, what makes the case of poor, depraved, delinquent girls far worse in itself, far more difficult to deal with, far more hopeless altogether, than that of depraved delinquent boys? How is it that, below the lowest class of men, there is a lower class of women, abased by the total loss of self-respect, and perverse from a sense of perpetual wrong? It is so, we are told; but why is it so? Does it arise from the greater delicacy of the organisation-from the perpetual outrage to the nature of the creature thus sacrificed? I cannot go into these questions at present. I must leave them to be considered and settled by such of our medical men and our clergy who may be—what all of them ought to bewhat our Saviour was on earth-moralists and philosophers; for these questions are of the deepest import, and must be settled sooner or later. Meantime it is allowed that the female reformatories now existing are utterly insignificent and inadequate in comparison to the existing amount of evil and misery; it is allowed that they present peculiar and unmanageable difficulties, that they are not successful, even the best of them. You hear it said that a hundredfold of the money, the labour, expended on them ought not to be regarded as thrown away, if but one soul out of twenty were redeemed from perdition. All very proper and very pious. But how is it that in this case nineteen souls out of the twenty are supposed to be consigned to a perdition past cure, past hope, past help? The truth is, that it is not merely the peculiar difficulties, nor the horror of corrupting influences, which interpose to prevent success: it is the incredible

rashness and almost incredible mistakes of those who ignorantly, but in perfect good faith and self-complacency, undertake a task which requires all the aid of long training, experience, and knowledge, combined with the impulses of benevolence, the support of religious faith,— and, I will add, a genuine vocation such as I have seen in some characters.

When I was at Turin, I visited an institution for the redemption of "unfortunate girls" (as they call themselves*, poor creatures!), which appeared to me peculiarly successful. I did not consider it perfect, nor could all its details be imitated here. Yet some of the natural principles, recognised and carried out, appeared to me most important. It seemed to have achieved for female victims and delinquents what Mettrai has done for those of the other sex.

This institution (called at Turin il Refugio, the Refuge) was founded nearly thirty years ago by a "good Christian," whose name was not given to me, but who still lives, a very old man. When his means were exhausted he had recourse to the Marquise de Barol, who has from that time devoted her life, and the greater part of her possessions, to the objects of this institution.

In the Memoirs of Mrs. Fry† there may be found a letter which Madame de Barol addressed to her on the subject of this institution and its objects, when it had existed for three or four years only. The letter is dated 1829, and is very interesting. Madame de Barol told me candidly, in 1855, that in the commencement she had made mistakes: she had been too severe. It had required twenty years of reflection, experience, and the most able assistance, to work out her purposes.

The institution began on a small scale with few inmates: it now covers a large space of ground, and several ranges of buildings for various departments, all connected, and yet most carefully separated. There are several distinct gardens

"If

* If you ask a good-looking girl in an hospital, or the infirmary of a workhouse, what is her condition of life, she will perhaps answer, you please, ma'am, I'm an unfortunate girl," in a tone of languid indifference, as if it were a profession like any other. If she were to answer, "If you please, ma'am, I'm a social evil," it would mean the same thing, and the one denomination would be as true as the other.

† Vol. ii. p. 39.