criminal classes, to obviate this result one much to be regretted, and which, we are compelled to admit, tends in a great measure to defeat the efforts made and the ends proposed by the present convict system.

It cannot be denied that difficulties may offer to the adoption of such addition to the system already pursued; at the same time the advantages, both in the diminution of crime and the saving of expense to the country ultimately, which would accrue therefrom, must be kept in view. That the reformed convict, if opportunities offer of his obtaining an honest livelihood, will not often again be found an inmate of a prison, is a fact now receiving daily demonstration at Mr. Nash's Reformatory Institution in Great Smith-street, Westminster, where, notwithstanding the severe system of probation enforced, persons desirous to escape from the criminal classes are found to present themselves for admission in much larger numbers than can be received.*

We think it deserving of serious consideration, whether means cannot be devised for providing the convict with labour on his discharge; several methods of accomplishing this end present themselves: it appears to us possible that they might be employed, in conjunction with free labourers, in the construction of harbours of refuge, and in the extension of public works generally. It might be stipulated in certain Government contracts, that a small portion of the workmen to be employed by the persons accepting such contract should, if required, be taken from among the class of released prisoners, to be employed on task work, thus protecting the contractor from any possible loss, and affording an opportunity of proving whether the individuals so employed are good and industrious workmen, and thus a road would by degrees be opened for their amalgamation with the community, which great difficulty appears to be the only remaining barrier to the complete success of the reformatory system at present pursued; or should it be found impossible to induce contractors to employ discharged convicts among other labourers, they could be employed on works connected with the undertakings in hand, such as quarrying and dressing stone, constructing and repairing machinery and implements; in fact, generally, as carpenters, blacksmiths, &c., &c., under the superintendence of an overseer appointed by the Government; the work so performed to be taken by the contractor at a valuation to be agreed upon. The number of discharged convicts to be employed at any particular locality would of course be regulated according to the nature, and proportioned to the extent of the works to be performed.

Many other methods by which the Goverment might complete what it has already so well commenced suggest themselves, but which it would exceed the ordinary limits of a report of this nature to detail. In conclusion, we state it as our conviction (proved to be justly founded by the success which has attended the labours of Mr. Nash, Mr. Wright, of Salford, and others) that a large proportion of the

For an account of this Institution, See IRISH Quarterly REVIEW, Vol. IV., No. 14., p. 377.—ED.

convicts, when thus tested, will prove themselves steady and industrious workmen, men of good and honest character, and respectable members of the community. We are satisfied it only requires their reformed condition to be generally known and understood to overcome the prejudice at present existing against employing them among other labourers, and thus enabling them honestly to earn their livelihood, and obtain a respectable social position.

More need not, we think, be advanced to show the necessity of ob-taining work for the reformed convict on his release, in order to perfect a system which, as far as it exists, has been attended with an amount of success sufficient to authorize the belief, that when com. pleted, it will fully accomplish this most serious and difficult problem, viz., the complete and permanent reformation of the criminal class. The day cannot be far distant when colonists will appreciate the labour and services of men, who after a long course of discipline, have been tested in reformatory principles equally, at all events, with the mass they now assist in emigrating.

We cannot wonder that colonists should have felt disinclined to receive the criminal classes after the experience they have had of men discharged amongst them, as was the case some years since, before prison discipline and reformatory treatment had exercised a wholesome influence on them; but these very different circumstances should be no guide by which to judge others who have been subjected to such treatment, whose offence has been expiated, and who evince by the voluntary act of emigration a desire to separate themselves from old associations and future temptations.

We believe this distinction will soon be made by the colonists generally; but at the same time it would be well that philanthropists and others should assist, both in this country and the colonies, in promoting so desirable a result."

In the first extract, given from this Report, the Commissioners refer to the proposed foundation of a Reformatory for Juvenile Convicts. We understand that this building is to be erected on the Commons of Lusk, and we anticipate from its establishment, if 100 acres of land be attached, the most satisfactory results. Every species of employment can be there taught, and being in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea, the exercises with masts and sails, as recommended by Mr. Recorder Hill for adoption in training those boys intended for a sailor's life, can be carried out on the proper element.*

The Directors write:

"The erection of a Juvenile Penal Reformatory Prison for convicts will, we trust, enable us, by a judicious use of the deterrent and reformatory agents we shall have at our disposal, to obtain results which will be satisfactory to the community at large. We are fully

See Mr. Recorder Hall's observations on this exercise of the mast, post, Appendix to the Record.

alive to the laudable interest taken at the présent time respecting the treatment of juveniles, as well as to the great efforts made by philanthropic individuals and societies both in England and on the Continent, to establish such a system of training as will conduce to the reformation of the criminal. We highly appreciate such efforts, which in so many instances have been productive of the most favourable results; we observe that the secret, if we may so term it, of these successes has been through individualizing cases, and by the employment of earnest, zealous persons, who will alone carry out the reformatory system in its integrity, of which we maintain the basis to be individualization. We feel no doubt whatever as to the favourable results of such treatment if pursued more in the Government Prisons than has ever yet been the case. When we consider that we have several boys at the tender ages of twelve and thirteen years sentenced to four years penal servitude for stealing potatoes, &c., whose cases we have endeavoured to sift, the majority of whom have no parents, no home, excepting the low lodging houses, whose owners have sent these children forth to commit the crimes for which they are now suffering, we feel that this same reformatory treatment carried out as described with the best results by different institutions, must exercise a large and important influence on any system adopted in the new Penal Reformatory Prison for juvenile convicts.

To carry this out, however, will involve the procuring individuals with special qualifications for the office of superintending the young, and as far as possible to place them in the establishment. It is true that there will be a difficulty in obtaining such persons, but it is not an insuperable one; we shall be enabled to select some, and we have the means of training others whose characters and dispositions may induce us to consider such a course advisable. The schoolmasters recently appointed to Mountjoy and Philipstown will be of great assistance to us in promoting this. As, however, from the varieties of characters confined in a large convict depot, a more penal treatment may be necessary for many, the construction of the building will be of a nature to assist the objects we have in view. Employment on the land and at trades, on the prosecution of which we are inclined to place even a greater value in this country than in England, will afford constant occupation, and inculcate those habits of industry which will materially aid the cause of reformation."

This last extract is, in our mind, conclusive in support of our arguments in advocating a Reformatory School Bill for Ireland. If the Legislature erects a Reformatory for the reception of the young convict, because it is desirable that he should be subjected to peculiar training, apart from the adult convict, surely the same principle applies to the young offender who has not yet sunk so low in guilt as to require that a sentence of penal labor, or transportation, be recorded against him. If

See Ante, p. 431, for the account of the Hardwicke Farm School.

this inference be not supported by all the authorities on the question, then the whole philosophy of the subject resolves itself into this absurdity-Reformatory training is necessary for every criminal, but it shall only be extended to him when he shall have been, at the cost of the community, committed and recommitted so often to the common gaol, that he shall be, by wearied Justice, at length degraded to the convict gang.

We regret that, owing to the lateness of the period in the quarter at which we received this excellent Report, we have been unable to write of many important matters contained in it. However, its chief topics are now before the reader, but if the question of prison discipline, in all its various phases, interest him, he will read the Report itself with instruction and advantage.

THE

IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No. XIX.-SEPTEMBER, 1855.

ART. I. TENNYSON AND HIS "MAUD." Maud, and Other Poems. By Alfred Tennyson, D.C.L., Poet Laureate. London: Moxon. 1855.

Five-and-twenty years ago Effingham Wilson published a volume of poems for a young man then in College: he was only known as the son of a clergyman down in the country; and he bore the name of Alfred Tennyson. It was an odd book, full of genius, thought, new coined words, and those mental gymnastics known as esthetic ideas. With great, and grave follies it combined the deepest and truest spirit of Poetry. Critics praised and abused; lectured and suggested; in one page "flooring" the poet, in the next "backing him up" well to the public; but in all phases of criticism admitting his genius, even whilst regretting his wayward fancies.

A second volume appeared in the year 1832, and this was marked by many of the characteristics of the earlier publication; but the working of a mind, striving to achieve a perfect poem was evident; and again the critics blamed, and praised, and petted, and all but spoiled the poet.

Ten years passed on, and the mind of the young student grew with these years, in force and strength. All these years

he lived for poesy, and in studying the fair proportions of his idol he learned to know how stilted, how cold, how artificial were the offerings with which, in his early days of poetic adoration, he had decked her shrine.

Ten years of thought; of study; of whole-heart devotion to any pursuit must produce results marked and patent, even where men are less gifted than Alfred Tennyson; and when,

VOL. V.-NO. XIX.

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