the commencement, in 1856, when boys were first received, sixty-nine have been discharged: of these thirty-one are favourably reported; six are fairly reported: badly reported—relapsed into crime, one: left their ships without cause, seven; but it is stated that five were well and highly spoken of, and have gone to sea in other vessels; a desertion by no means in excess of those of apprentices in the merchant service: nineteen are not yet reported of. This is a fair and, no doubt, a true account, which is much more than can be said of some of the obviously inflated accounts put forth by some other reformatories. Nothing is more difficult than to test the reality of reclamation; but if a lad is fairly launched in life, and goes on steadily for a time, that is a great achievement. If he relapses afterwards, he does so just as any other human being may: and if one half, or even thirty per cent, of the lads benevolently aided, thus far repay the efforts of their benefactors, reformatories are among the most effectual of our public philanthropies.
I observed some aristocratic names among the inmates, such as Stanley, Cavendish, Ratclyffe, &c., and the countenances of many bespoke more than a dash of gentle blood.
The instruction is plain, and suitable to the future wants of the lads, and quite free from the excrescences which often grow on our National Schools.
A great part of the success of the system results from the admirable manner in which the lads are watched at night. Where this is not done, and where they are herded, bedded close to each other in dark rooms, without perfect surveillance, I believe that infinitely more corruption takes place at night than the whole day’s discipline can counteract. The boys in the Akbar are formed into divisions—port and starboard watches—each of these again, is divided into sub-divisions; each of these has a first and second captain over it, selected from the leading names on the tablet of trustworthy boys; and these, together with the assistant purser’s stewards, and the cook’s mate, all are made to rank as petty officers.
These sub-divisions sleep as well as mess together, and form separate little companies, of whom the captain is the head; and he is responsible, to a certain extent, for the conduct of the boys under his charge. They all sleep together in their hammocks, in the cock-pit, which is well-lighted at night: and all night long, not only is there an officer always in command of the watch, but one of the boys parades up and down on each side of the long row of hammocks, having one hour watches, the whole night through. All talking is forbidden, and, what is more, effectually prevented.
The expenses of the establishment are now more than defrayed by the grant of seven shillings per week from the Home Office, per head; the subscriptions and the produce of the boys’ labour, leaving for last year a surplus of about 300l.
On leaving the ship, we were pulled to the Packet Station at Rock Ferry in gallant style by the boys in a handsome four-oared gig. If there was a land reformatory for spade husbandry in the neighbourhood of such reformatories as the Akbar, it would effectually meet the need of all classes of criminal youths, and by thus cutting off the supply of crime in the bud, the good done would be incalculable. It is scarcely possible to overrate the importance of selecting a man of high moral tone, combining pluck and kindness of disposition for the work. Everything depends on the superintendent, for the tone of his personal influence, is everywhere felt throughout the community. No ephemeral amateur zeal, or mere paid service, can effect reformation. I had almost forgotten to say, that the diet must be good. I know cases where it is almost prison fare. On board the Akbar, they give four ounces of meat daily, one pint of soup, with plenty of biscuit, rice, or potatoes. I have small faith in economical philanthropies: the bodily labour required gives appetite, and not to supply it is to generate a low, physical condition, the sure forerunner of moral decline. We must look forward for reimbursement. The prevention of crime is worth a high price: it will be no permanent expense.
A PHASE OF THE ARCTIC MYSTERY.
The details of the expedition sent out by Lady Franklin in the steam yacht Fox, shortly will be, if they are not already, before the public.
Sir John Franklin, as we learn, died as early as June 11th, 1847. His ships the Erebus and Terror were beset on September 12th, 1846, in lat. 70° 05′ N., and long. 88° 23′ W. On 22nd April, 1848, the ships were abandoned five leagues N.N.W. of Point Victory, King William’s Island, where 105 survivors under Captain Crozier landed, and on April 25th deposited in a cairn the records brought home by Captain McClintock.
That gallant officer, with Lieutenant Hobson, made a minute search of the whole coast of King William’s Island, and on its south shore found death-traces of members of the expedition, at a point exactly opposite that portion of the main land of North America, whence the relics sent home in 1854, and now in Greenwich Hospital, had been procured, viz., Point Ogle, a cape at the mouth of the Great Fish River, and Montreal Island in its estuary.
It is impossible to rise from the perusal of Captain McClintock’s journal, without the absolute conviction that the late Sir John Franklin’s companions died the victims, less of those perils of their profession which they were naturally prepared to encounter, than of official apathy, or at least of mistaken judgment.
The following facts, arranged in order of date, are relied on to prove that this representation is correct.
It is to be borne in mind, that King William’s Island lies off the west land of North Somerset, and that the silent but terribly convincing testimony of the bleached skeletons on the way, proves that from the moment of landing on Point Victory, the survivors were struggling in a death-flight for the Great Fish River.
12th Dec., 1844. “My Lords” Commissioners