were in the way to destruction, while yet they had committed no offence cognisable by the laws. To such parents I would give the privilege of committing their children to the charge of this institution. But in cases of this kind, as well as in many others, I would save parents and friends from the painful necessity of a prosecution of children in the Police Court. Let it be that there are cases, in which a trial in open court is rightfully to be required and insisted upon. All I contend for is, that there are others, in which it is neither necessary nor expedient; and that it is expedient, and will save from much suffering and will conduce to no evil, if a more private trial may be had, with the decisions of which all the parties concerned may be entirely satisfied.

As the law now is, no one can be sent to the School of Reformation, but through the Police, or the Municipal Court. And if, indeed, they must pass through one of our existing courts, I have no objection to the law as it now stands. No one has a higher respect for the Judges of these courts, than I have. They are worthy of entire respect and confidence. But why may not the Legislature give to the Directors of this School a judicial power, for the specific purpose of sending or of committing children to the School; with the right reserved to parents, guardians and friends, of appeal to either of our higher courts? There would be here no more abridgment of personal liberty, than there is in the constitution of our Police Court. And why make it indispensable to arraign children before a court, where they are exposed to the gaze of a crowd, no eye of which should see them? Why oblige parents, and even mothers, to the distressing necessity of appearing,

as they now sometimes must, in this court, amidst the assemblage which is there gathered, as the accusers on oath of their children? I have, seldom witnessed a keener anguish of soul, than I have seen in a mother while laboring to bring herself to the resolution required for this duty; and even when she had brought herself to the energy demanded for the discharge of it. And not only will the feelings of parents and friends be respected and saved from the most painful laceration, by this change in the mode of committing children to the School; and not only, when this change shall be understood, will even parents be comparatively happy and grateful, that they may appear before one or more members of this Board to state their grievances respecting their obdurate and ungovernable children; but the children themselves will be made to feel, that, while they are sent to this School by a Board, which has all the authority which law can give to it, they are yet by the very manner of their commitment treated as offending children, and not as if they belonged to the class, and were sharers of the guilt, of veteran and confirmed transgressors.` It is worthy of consideration too, that by this provision the characters and moral necessities of the children received into the School will at once be known, as they now cannot be, to the Superintendent and Directors of it; a very important circumstance in view of the disposition to be made of them, in placing them out as apprentices. I earnestly ask for a serious consideration of this subject. It will, I think, at once approve itself to the minds of many. And I can hardly believe that any one, who may at first view it with some scepticism, will after a little sober thought respecting it withhold from it his hearty approbation.

were in the way to destruction, while yet they had committed no offence cognisable by the laws. To such parents I would give the privilege of committing their children to the charge of this institution. But in cases of this kind, as well as in many others, I would save parents and friends from the painful necessity of a prosecution of children in the Police Court. Let it be that there are cases, in which a trial in open court is rightfully to be required and insisted upon. All I contend for is, that there are others, in which it is neither necessary nor expedient; and that it is expedient, and will save from much suffering and will conduce to no evil, if a more private trial may be had, with the decisions of which all the parties concerned may be entirely satisfied.

As the law now is, no one can be sent to the School of Reformation, but through the Police, or the Municipal Court. And if, indeed, they must pass through one of our existing courts, I have no objection to the law < it now stands. No one has a higher respect for the Judges of these courts, than I have. They are worthy of entire respect and confidence. But why may not the Legislature give to the Directors of this School a judicial power, for the specific purpose of sending or of committing children to the School; with the right reserved to parents, guardians and friends, of appeal to either of our higher courts? There would be here no more abridgment of personal liberty, than there is in the constitution of our Police Court. And why make it indispensable to arraign children before a court, where they are exposed to the gaze of a crowd, no eye of which should see them? Why oblige parents, and even mothers, to the distressing necessity of appearing,

To conceive adequately and justly of the subject of which I have spoken, it must be understood, that, however various are the circumstances under which individuals are brought to pauperism and crime, and however numerous the examples which may be adduced of those, who under the best means of general education and the best religious and moral influences have sunk into want, debasement and wretchedness; it is still true, that all these are exceptions, which confirm rather than disprove the principle, that the great security of the well-being of each one, and of the virtue, order and happiness of society, is in the widest possible extension of an early culture of the intellectual and moral nature. It lies in provisions for that elementary education, which will qualify each one intelligently to discharge the duties of the station in which he is to be placed; and, in the maintenance of that early watchfulness, encouragement and discipline of the young, on the part both of parents and friends, by which an early regard to God and to Jesus Christ, and an early sense of truth and duty and accountableness, are to be awakened, and kept in exercise, in the soul. Let us then most sedulously watch over the interests of our common and our Sunday schools; and do what we may to maintain and to extend a wise, a kindly and a christian discipline in our own, and in the families of those to whom we may extend the offices of christian friendship.

No fair mind will dispute the principle, that, however knowledge may be perverted and religious and moral influences resisted and the privileges and opportunities of virtuous advancement abused, these are yet the only means on which we may rely for the stability of the institutions, on which rest public prosperity and all