now the society has £9000 in the funds, an income of
£1000 a-year, and a balance at the bank of £866. Fifteen
children have participated, in the benefits ot the
institution; and as ground for a building has been taken on
a long lease, the society is established on a permanent
basis. The subscriptions of the evening amounted to
£1700.

The first of the winter course of lectures to the
Young Men's Christian Association was delivered at
Exeter Hall on the evening of the 14th instant, by
Lord John Russell. The Hall was crowded. The Earl
of Shaftesbury presided; Lord Panmure, Lord
Wodehouse, Lord de Mauley, Mr. Vernon Smith, and many
eminent clergymen and laymen were among the
audience. The subject of the lecture was "The Obstacles
which have retarded Moral and Political Progress."
Lord John Russell was enthusiastically cheered on his
entrance, and during the lecture; and at its close a vote
of thanks to him was carried by acclamation.

A large public meeting was held at Bristol on the
15th inst,, for the purpose of taking into consideration
the carrying on and extension of the Kingswood
Reformatory School in the neighbourhood of that city. Mr.
W. Miles, M.P., presided, and there were present many
of the most distinguished gentry and clergy of Somersetshire,
and the neighbouring counties. In the course of
the proceedings, which were very interesting, the chairman
gave an account of the state of juvenile crime in
this country, and the existing legislation applicable to
it. He did not think, he said, that it was generally
known what an immense number of children came
before the criminal tribunals annually, nor the very large
proportion of recommitments, and, up to the present
period, the little that had been done towards their
reformation. After committal, it was hopeless to think of
any good being effected, for he was sorry to say, from an
experience of twenty-one years, during which he had
filled the chair at the Somerset Quarter Sessions, that a
child generally came out worse than it went into prison.
He found, from the official returns, taking the years
1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, and 1851, that, under the
age of 12, 1,023 males and 166 females were tried at
assizes and sessions; between 12 and under 14, 2,444
males, and 437 females were tried at assizes and sessions;
and between 14 and under 17, 11,294 males and 2,258
females were tried at assizes and sessions; making a
grand total of 17,622. During the same period there
were summarily convicted 7,633 under 12; 12,828
between 12 and under 14; and 35,091 between 14 and
17; making a grand total of those convicted, tried at
sessions and assizes and by summary jurisdiction, of
73,174 children between the ages of 12 and 17, who had
passed through our gaols and houses of correction during
the time specified, giving an annual average of 12,190.
It was only last session that he had moved for a return
showing the number of reformatory schools at present
in existence throughout England, and the number of
scholars they were capable of maintaining. The only
school that was not included in that Return was that of
Redhill, and he was sorry to say that the whole number
of certified schools was only capable of maintaining
420 children. Two laws had recently been passed upon
the subject of reformatory schools, and now, not only
were judges of assizes and chairmen of quarter sessions
enabled, when the prisoner was under 16 years of age,
upon his conviction, to sentence him to a short period of
imprisonment, but they could, if they pleased, after
that, sentence him to a detention at a reformatory
school; and so much had the legislature thought it
necessary that this detention should bo of some duration
that the lowest term for which a child could be
sentenced was a couple of years. Here, then, with this
extraordinary number of convicts (and there was no
reason to suppose that it was at all decreasing), with
convictions amounting to upwards of 12,000 per annum,
and taking Redhill to be capable of holding 200, they
now had only room for 620 children in these reformatory
establishments. Now let them look at the number of
recommittals of these children which took place. He
found the total number of recommittals in 1849 to be—
once, males, 1,866; females, 259—total 2,125. Twice—
males, 821; females, 123—total, 944. Thrice—males,
423; females 61—total, 4S4. Four or more times—
males, 670; females, 91—total, 761. Here, then, was a
grand total of males and females recommitted, some
once, some twice, some thrice, and some four or even
more times, of 4,314. He had thus given a sketch of
the state of juvenile crime in this country, and he was
sorry to add that the government had not carried out
the views of their committee upon this subject. The
committee recommended the adoption of three classes
of schools—namely, one a highly penal school, which we
had already at Parkhurst, and which, in his opinion, if
there were plenty of others, would be quite sufficient in
the first class. In addition, they recommended a second
class of schools, which should take all those children
tried at assize and sessions, and which should be
supported partly by government and partly by rates—thus
going upon the principle that where the crime was
committed there the county should pay for the commission
of that crime. He now came to the third class of
schools, and thither the committee wished that the very
young, who had committed perhaps venial offences,
should be sent; and that these schools should be left to
private individuals, with some slight assistance from
government. The meeting would, therefore, see that
the recommendations of the committee had not been
carried out. They certainly had Parkhurst, and a few
schools of the third class, hut they were utterly deficient
as to the second. He did hope and trust that government
might yet be induced to take the matter up,
and that hereafter they would be able to unite as
counties, and to have proper reformatory schools
under good masters and proper superintendence.
From a report read to the meeting, it appeared that
the Kingswood Reformatory School was founded by
Miss Carpenter and Mr. Russell Scott, in 1852, as an
asylum for young persons who either had become
amenable to the law, or were evidently about to fall
into crime. During the first sixteen months there were
received twenty-seven boys and thirteen girls. Four of
the girls being sent by the Secretary of State under
conditional pardon, but beyond those there was, till the
middle of 1854, no power of detention. As it was
deemed undesirable to have boys and girls in the same
school, the girls, in November, 1854, were removed to a
school opened by Miss Carpenter, at the Red Lodge, and in
which there were now twenty-two girls; the Kingswood
school being increased to its present number, forty boys
(the most that the present staff and funds will admit
of.) Almost all the boys had been arraigned at the
criminal bar. The premises consisted of a building in a
healthy locality, capable of lodging 120 or more boys,
with large play-ground, and ten or eleven acres of land;
forty boys were engaged in field labour and gardening
under a gardener, and at shoemaking and tailoring, and
they were instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic,
and scriptural knowledge. The annual expense of forty
boys was not less than about £950. The income was, from
the government, £575; from annual subscriptions, about
£200; and leaving a deficiency of about £200. Many
donations, &c, were derived from persons at a distance,
and the opening of schools in other districts would
probably diminish the amount. The object of the present
appeal was not to set up a school, for it existed; not to
pay off a deficiency, for it had been supplied by Mr.
Scott; it was with a view to future good. A most
important want had been most unexpectedly and generously
supplied by Mr. G. W. Bengough, widely known as
coadjutor with Mr. Baker in the Reformatory Institution
at Hardwicke Court, who had volunteered to reside
near Kingswood, and superintend the school. Resolutions
in favour of the extension of the Kingswood
School were unanimously passed, and a committee was
appointed. Donations to a considerable amount were
received before the meeting broke up.

A meeting of the magistracy, gentry, and clergy of
Suffolk, was held on the 19th inst. at Stowmarket, with
a view to the establishment of an Institution for the
Reformation of Juvenile Offenders in the county of
Suffolk. Among those present were Lord Henniker,
Sir W. Middleton, Sir E. Kerrison, M.P.; Sir F. Kelly,
M. P.; Mr. J. C. Cobbold, M.P.; Mr. H. J. P. Oakes,
M.P., &c. Sir W. Middleton presided. Resolutions
were passed in accordance with the object of the meeting,
and a committee was appointed to superintend the