RED HILL FA.RX SCHOOL.
7 Austin Friars London, 19th September 1850. Snt—Will you allow me to call your attention to a portion of your very just strictures of last Saturday upon Parkhurst Prison, in which you unin- tentionally do great injustice to our Philanthropic Farm School, by the re- mark that the late attempts to burn the prison justify the dread with which the neighbours of the Farm School at Red Hill viewed its establishment.
This would perhaps be the case were the Farm School like Parkhurst, or its inmates of the same description, or its discipline of the same kind. Hap- pily, however, for our neighbours our establishment is not a prison, but a school ; our system is one of self-diseipline, and real bodily labour, and not one of military drill and high mental cultivation ; and our lads are not taken in- discriminately from the convict class, but, with the exception of the younger part, are volunteers, sorry for their past misconduct and anxious to retrieve it. We have certainly had many difficulties and some disappointments to contend with ; but in the main we have had abundant cause to be thankful for the past and hopeful for the future. Our numbers have safely increased to upwards of a hundred. Twenty-three young emigrants have gone out from our protection with every prospectof doing well ; very few have deserted from the school ; and, which is perhaps the beat assurance that the neigh- bours have had no cause to complain of us, the industry and steady self-re- gulation of the majority of our boys have elicited a most encouraging ex- pression of good-will and approbation from the clergy and chief residents of our immediate vicinity. I copy of this, with the signatures, &c. attached, I enclose you for your satisfaction it will be sufficient, however, to trouble your readers with the following extract only—" We desire to state distinctly, that the school, so far from being a nuisance or source of annoyance, is a for- cible example of industry and moral training." I hope, Sir, that the disapproval and discountenance of your powerful paper will not be added to our other obstacles, at least not till we deserve it. I hope, too, that you will visit the establishment yourself and judge of it. The more it is examined and criticized the better; its promoters having but one object—the establishing a real effective system of reformatory training, and believing that such a system will be attained rather by means of "the Bible and the spade" than by those of the drill-sergeant and the whipping-post.
I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
WM. GLAnsrosai, Treasurer of the Philanthropic Society.
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