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Special Report on the Philanthropic Society's Reformatory School at Redhill, by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, E. CARLETON TUFNELL, Esq.

MY LORD,

July 1853.

ACCORDING to your Lordship's directions, I have visited the Philanthropic Society's Reformatory School at Redhill, and now beg leave to present the following report.

The object of the Society in the foundation of this school was the reformation of criminal children, and children criminally disposed; and, as that is altogether different from the end aimed at in ordinary schools, the institution must be judged by principles mostly irrespective of those which form the criterion of excellence in other establishments. This circumstance makes the business of inspecting such a school somewhat difficult, as the usual literary tests utterly fail to afford a reliable estimate of the success of the Society's operations. Were I to give an opinion drawn from a vivâ Voce examination of the children, or from their answers to questions upon paper, as may be properly done with ordinary schools, I should produce a wholly worthless result, as many of the most ignorant children here are the most hopeful, while some of the cleverest and best instructed are the worst and most depraved of rascals.

The children that enter this establishment are generally about 14 years old; and, as they do not remain in it on an average more than 18 months, during which time they are chiefly employed at hard work, whatever literary knowledge they possess must mostly be the result of previous instruction, and can reflect no credit, or otherwise, on the teaching imparted here.

I make this preface in order to justify the course which I have thought it necessary to pursue in inspecting and reporting on this school. It would afford no useful information to your Lordship, were I to present to you Tables showing the extent of knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, geography, arithmetic, &c. possessed by the children; and I therefore propose to confine this report to a description of the objects of the Society, of the means taken to effect those objects, and of the extent to which the reformatory process has been successful.

The Philanthropic Society was formed in 1788 by some earnest and enlightened men, whose attention was directed to the increasing number of depraved and vagrant children

who infested the metropolis and its neighbouring districts, living and trained to live by begging and dishonesty. After some changes, the schools were established in St. George's Fields, nearly opposite Bethlehem Hospital, where a considerable plot of land was purchased, and a boarding-school with every necessary requisite was built. Here were also carried on, for the instruction of the boys, the trades of tailor, shoemaker, letter-press and copper-plate printer, bookbinder, and ropemaker; while, in the female school, the girls, besides the usual intellectual instruction, were taught needlework and prepared for general service. The system, in short, was very much the same as, under the Poor Law Board, is now generally established in Workhouse schools.

In 1806, the Society obtained from the Legislature an Act of Incorporation, sanctioning its objects, and vesting its management in the noblemen and gentlemen who should be elected by the subscribers to fill the offices of President, VicePresident, Treasurer, and Committee, giving proper power of revision and control to the general meetings of its members, and authorizing the opening of its chapel for public worship in aid of its resources.

On this footing the Society continued its operations till 1845, when it was resolved to discontinue the girls' school altogether, and to limit the agency of the charity as much as possible to the reformation of penitent and destitute offenders; and to retain these only so long as seemed really necessary for their improvement, apprenticing them out, or enabling them to emigrate after two or three years probation, instead of keeping them in the establishment (as had formerly been usual) till near the age of manhood.

In 1846, 1847, and 1848 the number of boys received into the asylum at St. George's Fields was 82, 109, and 111 respectively. But during these years the managers had been much impressed by the superior advantages of the system pursued at Mettray in France, and were thus led to contemplate the entire removal of their school from London. These views were realized in 1849, by taking a farm of 133 acres, at Redhill, near Reigate, on a lease for 150 years, with the option of buying it at a fixed price, within a certain period. Thither the school was removed on the 13th of April 1849, from which time all the manufacturing employments have been suppressed, and the children have been solely engaged in agricultural work, with the exception of the small quantity of tailoring, shoemaking, and kindred occupations required for the use of the establishment.

Two main objects were contemplated by the removal of the institution to the farm at Redhill. First, it was thought that

agricultural work afforded more likely means for the reformation of habits and for implanting an industrial character than manufacturing occupations, in which the children must necessarily be massed together in considerable numbers. Secondly, and this was by far the most important part of the scheme, it was intended, instead of keeping them in one large undivided establishment, to separate them into distinct families or households, each under one head, who should be responsible for all the members of the family. It was thought that more individual superintendence, and more kindly domestic influence, might thus be substituted for the ordinary mechanical and formal discipline, that necessarily prevails when arge numbers are congregated together.

The boys, who compose the school, 178 in number at the date of my visit, may be divided into three classes. First, there is the voluntary class, who come entirely of their own free will, consisting of youths tired of a life of vice and crime, and wishing to reform. Secondly, there is the compulsory class, being boys who have been sentenced to transportation, and have received a pardon conditional on their submitting to the regulations of this establishment. Thirdly, there is a class sent by their parents or immediate relatives for reformation, and who may be said to be compulsorily detained, so far as the parental control may be considered compulsory. For this latter class a payment, usually 58. per week, is asked; but in the case of poor parents much less is taken. Every youth received is criminal, and has been convicted, except a few received as children of convicted parents; and in two or three instances boys have been admitted simply to save them from the consequences of a course of criminality, to which they had become addicted.

The inmates are divided into four separate households, which are in a great measure kept distinct, each under a superintendent, responsible only to the resident chaplain, who is supreme director of the institution, subject of course to the Committee, who meet every fortnight. Two of these households consist of 50 each; one embraces 60 of the older lads, and the fourth contains 20 lads employed in the stable, cowhouse, and farm-yard, who are changed for others at the beginning of each month. The class of 60 is considered too large, and it is intended to diminish it and to add to the farmyard class of 20.

I have given in the Appendix several Tables prepared at my request by the Resident Director, which give a clear detail of the working of the institution; but it may be expedient that I should give here a recapitulation of the results and of what I observed in the course of my inspection.

As it is considered that the chief cause of the past offences and immoralities of the inmates is the want of steady habits of industry, by far the greater portion of their time is devoted to hard work, in which they are generally engaged from 9 to 10 hours daily. Each lad receives for his labour a payment varying from 1d. to 3d. per week, according as his work is well or ill performed; but wherever it is possible, he works by task. This latter mode appears by far the best for implanting industrious habits, and I can bear testimony to the energy and good will with which the labour appears to be performed. Many of them during my visit to the school were engaged in brickmaking, which is one of the most laborious occupations to which a labourer can be put, and I never witnessed a heartier exhibition of unremitting industry. While at work, they are scattered over the premises in small parties under industrial superintendents, it being deemed an important object to prevent the congregating in large numbers, which, with this class, often leads to immoral conversation. Every boy attends school for three hours on five mornings in each fortnight, in addition to the evening reading, and to the extra schooling on very wet days, when the usual employments on the farm are interrupted.

The punishments consist of confinement in light cells, and in flogging, which last, however, is very rarely inflicted, not oftener hitherto than once in five or six months, and only for disgraceful offences.

I attended the schools during the hours of instruction which is imparted directly by the masters, with no aid from monitors or pupil-teachers, which are inapplicable to schools of this description. The masters appear competent to their work, but, owing to the neglected state in which most of the lads enter the institution, the standard of acquirement is very low. Of 150, who were admitted last year, 50 could neither read nor write, 70 could read and write a little, and only 30 could read and write well. There are a few youths of superior education; but these are by no means the best conducted; and all the teachers concurred in opinion that those whose intellectual capacity was the highest were not those who gave least trouble, or were most trustworthy, but rather the contrary. On this subject, the Chaplain writes:

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Judging from the boys received into the Philanthropic, their criminality does not arise from the want of school instruction. I have had as many good scholars as bad ones, and most of those unable to read and write have been at school, or rather have been sent to school, and put in the ordinary paths of what it has been the fashion to call education. But there has been no restraining or impelling force even to keep the boy to school, far less to regulate his habits and associations during the hours when the school is not opened to him, and when his parents are mostly employed and absent from home.”

On these grounds it is obvious that little or nothing is to be learnt from an ordinary school-examination of the youths in this institution. The school-teachers are all industrial and moral rather than intellectual superintendents; and their time is chiefly engaged not in giving literary information but in managing the tempers, reforming the habits, and generally regulating the dispositions and behaviour of those who are placed under them; in other words, their duty is to impart education in its highest sense; and on this, dependence is, as it appears to me, very properly placed for attaining the object of the Society-the reformation of juvenile offenders.

In the Appendix to this Report will be found an abstract of the receipts and expenditure of the Society for the year ended 31st December 1852. It appears that the number of boys maintained on the average throughout the year was 117; and the net charges of maintenance and management amounted to 3,1917. 198. 6d. Hence the cost per head for 1852 was 271. 4s. 7d. In the previous year 1851 when 93 boys on the average were maintained, the cost per head was 321. 28. 8d. This shows that, by increasing the number of boys, the cost has been reduced nearly 51. per head; and it is the opinion of the Society that if the number of lads were increased to 300 or 400, the cost per head per annum for each boy might be diminished to 201. or 211.

The balance sheet in the Appendix clearly shows the resources of the Society; but there is one heading in the receipts which requires some elucidation. It appears that the Society received from Government and public associations in the year 1852 the sum of 1,803l. 6s. 4d. The public associations, however, which are in Cheshire, Norfolk, and Surrey, sent only 14 boys during the year, and paid for them at the rate of 167. per head. The Government had made an arrangement with the Society that the boys which should be sent to the institution should be those who had been sentenced to transportation or to imprisonment, and who were to receive pardons conditional on their remaining in the school till they emigrated, or were otherwise disposed of, and that a payment of 187. per annum should be made for each boy. This sum of 181. was calculated on the understanding that it would pay solely for maintenance, tools, and clothing, and that the Society would find lodging, instruction, and superintendence. Under this agreement 102 boys were admitted last year. cost of maintenance, tools, and clothing has been found to be 187. 108.; and, as I have shown above, the whole cost of each boy to the Society was 271. 4s. 7d. last year; and thus the Government has been keeping boys at this benevolent institution for 91. 48. 7d. per annum less than their actual cost! In

The actual