INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Having regard to the Bill introduced by the Govern- ment, and referred a few days ago to the Standing Committee on Law by the House of Lords, I hope you will kindly find space in one of your valuable columns for a reply to the question you ask on p. 586; and for a yet deeper question,— namely: "The responsibility of parents, is it, or is it not, to be enforced?"
Industrial-school managers are required by statute to watch over and report upon the children during three years after they have left their school. These statistics appear in the Inspector's annual Blue-Book, and they show a per-centage of young men and young women "doing well" which would probably not be exceeded in any other class of society. When it is remembered that without this training most of these children would have swelled the numbers of the criminal class, it will be generally admitted that these schools are, as Mr. George Grosvenor has recently testified (in which he corroborates the Royal Commissioners), "valuable instru- ments in the decrease of crime." We hope and believe that the public money voted for these schools produces an excellent return ; we only wish the State turned to more account the hosts of respectable young men and maidens which it raises. But we are not surprised that additions to the grant are re- luctantly made, and I venture to doubt the necessity for any impetus being at the present time given, as you suggest, to the foundation of these schools. The question of the moment, and it is a vital question, is whether the prin- ciple upon which these schools were instituted is to be revived,—namely, "that the responsibility of parents to provide for the proper care of their children should be enforced." I enclose a copy of a petition on this subject, now in the hands of the Archbishop of York, who will present it on an early day to the House of Lords. It has been signed numerously by the Magistrates in England and Wales, and I have good reason to hope that its prayer will find favour with the Government ; but I fear that the necessary enactment of alternative powers for Magistrates will not be effected as part of the Industrial Schools Bill. In these circumstances, the importance of this question needs to be the more impressed upon the public mind. It is a question of principle at the foundation of society : on that principle our school in this city was in 1857, as one of the very first industrial schools, certified and founded ; to that principle, for more than fifteen years, I have been working to bring the system back ; and these are my apologies for asking so much at your hands.—I
P.S.—Since writing the above, I have been told that the Juvenile Offenders Bill contains the alternative powers prayed for.
Previous page
