THE DREAMERS OF DUNFERMLINE. BY FRANCES BROWN. MOST people are said to believe in waking dreams of some description, and an old faith it is, if philosophers can be trusted; but one almost as early was a belief in the dreams of night, as conveying warnings and intimations undiscoverable by the day-light wisdom of mortals. Every scholar knows how widely this belief has been diffused, and how many corroborative tales have floated down the current of history. It is still the most popular remnant of the old world's creed, especially among the class that, in military phrase, 'form the rear-guard' of the schoolmaster's march: the following instance of which is traditionally affirmed to have taken place about thirty years ago in the old burgh of Dunfermline. At that period a family of the order referred to, named M'Cribben, were the well-known, though by no means well-liked, inhabitants of the ground-flat of a house in the vicinity of the old abbey church, supposed to be scarce less antiquated than that venerable structure, and, like it, long since superseded by one of modern erection. The dwelling of the M'Cribbens was like the kingdom described by the prophet, partly strong and partly broken.' It had escaped the great fire of 1624; and, after the fashion of the houses then destroyed, consisted of one substantial stone storey below, and two of timber above. The latter were uninhabitable from the date of their occupation by a family of Highland tinkers, who, some years before, had left the top flat in considerable arrears of rent, after supplying themselves so long and liberally with fuel from the interior that the proprietor found the necessary repairs utterly beyond his finances, and resigned the timber part of the fabric at once to time and weather. There the rain pattered and the wind howled every succeeding winter, but he and his were tolerably sheltered by the first floor, yet comparatively sound; for the proprietor was none other than M'Cribben senior, who, with his wife, three sons, and a daughter-inlaw, occupied the lowest and safer division of the tenement. As regarded the internal order of things, there were nine cheerless-looking apartments of different sizes, diminishing to mere closets. The largest, in front, was the family workshop; every man in the household being a wheelwright. Behind it was a sort of general room, which served the M'Cribbens for parlour, kitchen, and all; the rest were devoted to other domestic purposes, but none of them half furnished, with the exception of three in the extreme rear, partitioned off to let as a separate habitation, when tenants could be found, and having an independent entrance from a now forgotten close. The M-Cribbens alone could tell how long that mansion had been in the possession of their ancestors. None of their neighbours would believe that one of them had built it the year after Bannockburn; but the town records testified that a magistrate of the name had marched out of it in his robes to welcome Mary of Lorraine, and another had fled from it in disguise immediately after the battle of Pitreavie. His descendants had returned, but the family tree was from that day a falling one-poorer and poorer every generation had grown. Their history was a continuation of getting down stairs in life, till the household of our story stood almost on the last steps of honest poverty. Honest the M'Cribbens undoubtedly were; sober, in the popular acceptation of the word, and laboriously industrious; their economy was proverbial, even among the prudent of their class in that old Scottish burgh; yet it was equally notorious that none of the family ever had a farthing. The charitable remarked on this subject that fortune went against them; others said they had not the way of getting on; and there was truth in both observations. The M-Cribbens belonged to that description of people who might scrape a small fortune together if life were one unvarying routine of work and wages, without change or casualty, but could never take the by-way of difficulties or calculate against mischances. The father was a large, spare, grave-looking man, on whom seventy quiet and temperate years had left no tokens but an extreme whiteness of the once black hair, and a slight stoop in the tall figure. These were the only points of difference between him and his sons, who were all nearly in the middle stage of life. His wife also strongly resembled him, but it was generally considered that the dame looked rather the sourest; and the character which the household received in their neighbourhood, besides that of penurious saving, was that the elder branches were habitually cross, and the younger perfect firebrands in temper. There was one exception to the first rule, though he came more completely under the second; Watty, the eldest son, was, like his parents, serious and surly; Willy, the youngest, was dull in everything but anger; but Adam, who occupied the central division, was at once the life and scapegrace of the family. Naturally of a social and ardent disposition, he had early found his home disagreeable. The publichouse was then the only resource for a mechanic's leisure hours: thither accordingly Adam went, and, as an inevitable consequence, contracted careless and intemperate habits, which rendered him nearly worthless, in spite of the fact that he was the best workman in the house, and a general favourite on account of his readiness to oblige. The man had not yet sunk to the lowest depths of dissipation; some remains of principle were still with him; and, besides, Adam was married. The second and by far inferior woman in that cheerful domicile, Lizzy Cameron, as Mrs M'Cribben was in the habit of calling her, by way of indicating the rock whence she was hewn, had been at good service in the town, and was the daughter of a small farmer in the vicinity. The girl had a stepmother at home, but what induced her to become Mrs M'Cribben was the subject of incessant wonder to her neighbours, and determined wrath to her relations. The latter unanimously agreed that as she brewed she must drink, and none of them ever exchanged words with poor Lizzy after. The M'Cribbens considered that Adam had degraded himself by the match, but they gave a sort of grumbling consent to her coming among them, especially as she brought a few pounds and clothes, and was known to be a most enduring and unselfish creature. The money and the clothes were long gone. By the way, her mother-in-law had enjoyed the largest share of the latter, but the tender or simple nature that made such a choice still remained with Lizzy. She told the neighbours that Adam had been always kind to her-and perhaps he was, if keeping her in constant penury were any proof of it-literally obeyed the commands of Mrs M'Cribben, senior, acted as maid of all work to the establishment, and sat up for his late return on Saturday night by the flickering embers, to which no additional coals were allowed under high penalties, saw him safe in bed, and repaired the week's wear while he slept, in hopes of coaxing him to attend the afternoon church on Sunday. Sometimes she succeeded in this attempt, for Adam was easy to be entreated, though he had grown selfish and hardened under the united operation of poverty and intemperance, and rather regardless of the careworn, childless woman, now that the times grew more trying. Their father had, with unwonted management, brought up all his sons to his own trade-the fabrication and repair of spinning-wheels. Those engines of domestic industry had been particularly active in and about Dunfermline since the manufacture of linen napery was established there, but the introduction of cotton and machinery had seriously affected their motion all over Britain, and of course diminished the profits of the wrights. This change was severely felt by the M'Cribbens, but they continued to toil away in the workshop, and generally in silence, from the earliest till the latest working hour, and it was surprising with how small an amount of labour they contrived to occupy the time; losses came upon them, profits decreased, but still the thirst of the M'Cribbens' days was the acquisition of money. Neither the parents nor their two unmarried sons ever spared to the necessity of others, or spent on their own amusement a single fraction; and when a small hoard had been thus collected, some heartless knave usually succeeded in borrowing it from them under the promise of most exorbitant interest, which would have made them lend to any character, when, as a matter of course, they never received either it or the principal. Adam, indeed, met with no such losses; he couldn't be persuaded to save trifles, and large sums did not come in his way; but his desire to get money was no less anxious than that of his brothers, and loudly was it expressed in the fits of repentance which occasionally visited him. and she produced with extraordinary celerity the instru ment mentioned, together with the primitive apparatus of tinder, flint, and steel. There she sat smoking till the family were all a tir, and there was sufficient light to examine that backward tenement. The old woman tottered from room to room, examining each with the most careful attention; but with the bedroom, though it was most out It was late on the evening of a Saturday, which happened of repair, she seemed best satisfied, and looked round upon to be the last in December. The household had retired to it as if entirely answering her expectations. Then came rest in bad spirits and worse temper, for an unlucky weaver half-an-hour's chaffering about the rent, which was at had that day decamped with thirty shillings of their col-length settled at threepence-halfpenny per week less than lective stock, borrowed as usual at the rate of fifty per cent. old M Cribben was in the habit of asking, and the new Lizzy sat alone, managing the waning fire to make it last, tenant adjourned to send home her things, after informing and keep warm the portion of porridge allowed for Adam's him that her name was Janet Robertson, that she lived supper. She heard the abbey-clock strike eleven, but still alone, and was a native of Inverkeithing. Her reasons her husband didn't come. Lizzy had been up early that for removing to Dunfermline were not precisely stated, morning, and never had she felt so weary. Opposite her nor were the M-Cribbens particular on that subject, being stood a long deal bench, worn smooth with years of usage, rather in want of a lodger; but Lizzy, who, though the and, stretching herself upon it, she fell fast asleep in a few gentlest, was by no means the dullest of the family, reminutes. marked that, on surveying the sleeping apartment, she muttered to herself, 'It's just the place, an' I'll hae it a' to mysel'!' About an hour after, there was a creaking of the door, and Adam shuffled in, looking considerably more downcast and less intoxicated than was his wont. He missed Lizzy from her place, but a look round the half-lighted apart ment showed him where she still slept soundly on the bare bench. Something like inward compunction seemed to rise as his eye wandered from her emaciated face to the woman's clean but miserably patched gown. He laid his hand on her shoulder, and said, in a kindly tone, ‘Lizzy, dear, why don't ye gang to bed?' 'Is't you, Adam?' said she, springing up half-frightened. "Deed is't,' responded Adam, making what he evidently knew to be a bootless search of his pockets. But, Lizzy, a' my siller's gane; some blackguard has ta'en it frae me in John Todd's bar-room. Hech, but it was fu' the night!' Lizzy was his comforter in all times of trouble, but a look of absolute desperation was her reply to that intelligence, as she thought how much dependence had been placed on that week's wages. Weel, Adam,' said she, it couldna hae happened at a waur time; but, oh, man! I had a dream on that form, that there was heaps o' siller hidden in this verra house, and I was gaun to get it just when you waukened me.' By inquiries at an Inverkeithing carrier of Adam's acquaintance, they also learned that old Janet was notable in her native town as an extremely fine spinner and a most inveterate miser-one of those solitary creatures in an humble station, who, from peculiar habits of gathering and parsimony throughout a long life, are supposed to be the owners of concealed and generally exaggerated wealth; besides, the carrier observed that her resolution regarding the change of residence appeared to have been taken suddenly on Sunday morning; that she had questioned him about M'Cribben's house, the situation and appearance of which she described accurately, though the name of the owner was then unknown to her, and appeared delighted when he mentioned that there were rooms in it to let. So were the M-Cribbens on hearing this tale, for it opened a distant prospect of money to their mental vision. The old woman had no acknowledged relations; death might find her in their mansion; and by that changeless law which says to every mortal, Thou shalt carry nothing hence, the savings of her years would remain within their grasp. They were believed to be deposited in an old but very strong chest, which, together with a spinning wheel, a reel, and some flax, comprehended the sum total of Janet's visible property, and was removed the same day, not, as was said, without a tough remonstrance on the part of her Inverkeithing landlady, who could not understand, to use her own words, why the auld body wad gang to dee amang the wrights and weavers o' Dunfermline.' Janet was not particularly satisfactory on the point, and they parted with sundry observations more true than flattering on both sides, to the complete satisfaction of the M'Cribbens, who were for once in their lives all as obliging as Adam in forwarding her settlement among them. Some of the dame's arrangements, however, surprised them; but the rich and childless of every class are allowed to have their peculiarities. The rooms which she occupied were all dingy enough, but the bedroom, owing to a small and very ill-situated window, was supplied with nothing but a sort What's that, Adam, dear?' cried Lizzy, starting up in of twilight. It had once been wainscoted, but, thanks to the daybreak of Monday, as a loud, continuous knocking a former proprietor's destructive taste-by the way, a sounded from the outer door They hae kept me from frequent accompaniment of falling families-the woodfindin' that siller again!' Adam bestowed a curse on the work was long ago removed, except from one corner beapplicant, but he thrust on some of his garments and pro-yond the bed, and quite darkened by a projecting fire ceeded to the door. Scarce was it opened when a little old place, yet in this recess Janet insisted on her chest being woman pushed in, almost bent over a staff, and wearing a placed. Probably she deemed it the safest for her treasure. thread-bare grey duffle or old-fashioned cloak, which There her farthing candle was seen to glimmer more than covered her from head to foot. half the night, and there were sounds as if the old woman had been at work with something hard and heavy. 'Whar was't, Lizzy?' cried Adam, loud enough to waken his mother in the next room, who forthwith issued orders for the pair to go to bed immediately; but no explanation could poor Lizzy give regarding the whereabouts of the siller,' except that it was in the house they occupied, and she was proceeding to find it when awoke by her husband. Adam wished for money, and Lizzy condoled with him on his mischance, till both fell asleep; but when the shrill call of her mother-in-law broke in upon her slumbers next morning, the luckless wife again murmured that she was wakened just on the nick of findin' the siller.' That day was more dreary than ordinary with the M-Cribbens; their mutual losses pressed heavily on their minds; the wants which they occasioned were borne and grumbled over as other wants had been; and the governing dame, determining on still more strict economy, sent them early to bed, by way of saving coals. Isn't there rooms to let here?' said she, in a thin, impatient voice. 'A sort o' anes,' said Adam; but it's just ower early to see them, gudewife.' Weel, I'm in a hurry,' replied the determined tenant, who had now made her way into the kitchen and taken unasked possession of a seat; sae if ye're no up, I'll e'en wait an' light my pipe. Dinna pit yersels about for me;' Our readers will believe that Janet was a well watched woman, but her door was fast locked after nightfall, and observers could only conclude that her attention was occu pied by the chest. Lizzy had been appointed her attendant, and that patient soul remarked. that she made a gae deal o' dust aboot it.' On the following day, a neighbour, whose window looked into the close, expressed her sur prise at the quantity of rubbish she had accidentally seen Janet casting out with her own hands long after midnight. These small wonders were gradually forgotten as her quiet days crept on; they were mostly spent in solitary spinning, for Janet was silent, reserved, and very discouraging to visiters; but the M'Cribbens were aware how much of her nights was passed in that darkened corner. With them things went on rather worse than in the old fashion; the small addition which old Janet's rent made to their income was more than counterbalanced by the decline of work, and Adam, whose late loss had rendered him reckless, now drank later on Saturday nights, and could not be persuaded to go to church at all. Lizzy had much more drudgery to do; but she had risen somewhat in the estimation of the household, as her dream concerning the undiscovered siller' was by general consent interpreted to signify the coming of their tenant-a reading in which, strange to say, she was the only unbeliever, though her vision never recurred after that event. Thus the seasons wore on, and week after week, and month after month Janet remained with them, in spite of many great though ineffectual efforts made by other parties who had rooms to let, and could calculate on her decease. Mrs M Cribben, senior, and her family, survived the winter's expense for coals, the summer's dearness of meal, and the all but total cessation of spinning-wheels in the harvest; but another winter came to them with glorious promise, for Janet Robertson, the infirmities of whose age had lately increased in consequence of the damp and close ness of the apartments in which she chose to live, was at length taken ill, and seemed in the fair way of dying. It was wonderful how the old woman held out against the last enemy, and yet more so how she continued to resist the variety of recommendations and admonitions poured on her by all who had the slightest acquaintance, touching the matter of her will. I hae nae will tae mak',' she would half shriek, casting a frightened glance from the adviser to the dark recess; 'I'm poor-I'm poor! Wha said that I had siller?' To do them justice, the M Cribbens seemed least anxious about her testament, and, had their neighbours not guessed the motive, they must have been astonished at their assiduous attention to the invalid. But her illness outlasted the M-Cribbens' patience and policy, except whatever remains of both, or it might be something better, induced poor Lizzy to sit up with her when particularly sick and wakeful in long winter nights, and read the Bible to her on Sundays. It was after one of these long night's sittings, almost at the close of the year, when the close of Janet's days seemed also approaching, that Lizzy was reading to her, by a feeble rushlight, that portion of Scripture which affirms the love of money to be the root of all evil. It had been unconsciously selected, but an expression of strong and terrible conviction passed over the old woman's sharp withered face. With an appearance of sudden resolution she partly raised herself and said, Lizzy, what day o' the week's this?' It's Saturday morning,' said Lizzy, who had just counted the chimes of four. 'Weel,' continued Janet, this night twalmonth I dreamed "What?' said Lizzy, dropping the Bible, as a flash of memory crossed her mind; but something seemed to rush back on Janet like a returning wave. Was it the evil principle of her life taking great authority because its hour was short? 'Ah, naethin', naethin',' she groaned, sinking down in the bed. 'It was a' my ain;' and that was the last speech of Janet Robertson. She remained motionless and breathing heavily from that hour till daybreak, when Mrs M'Cribben made her appearance to request, with unwonted consideration, that Lizzy would resign to her the post of watcher for death, adding she was no jist sure that Janet was sae near the decin'.' In this latter remark the lady spoke wide of the truth, which happened to be that she believed the old woman's dissolution very near, and neither she nor the fa mily deemed Lizzy a proper sharer in the afterpiece they intended. To poor Lizzy the offer was as welcome as want of sleep could make it, and Janet with all her other cares were soon forgotten on the hard low pallet. Mrs M'Cribben took her place, but for some hours her prediction appeared to be verified. Janet continued to breathe hard and open her eyes at times. All the family had come in succession to inquire for her death, but at three in the afternoon they gave the matter up in despair; and the mother, unused to watch in a sick room, and heartily tired of the office, leaned her head on the table, and dropped into a dose. Night had fallen when the good woman woke. There was deep darkness in the chamber, and a silence which terrified her. She hurried out for a light. Lizzy still slept; the old man, too, had gone to rest; but her sons were yet in the workshop. A candle soon showed her that the wished-for opportunity had at last arrived-Janet's anxieties and savings were over, and the corpse had been long cold. Is she dead?' said the three sons, in a whisper, pressing in behind their mother, whose motions they had observed. 'Ay, Adam,' said Mrs M Cribben, addressing the most forward, I'll keep a' quiet; mind, she keepit the key under the pillow.' In wild fear and haste, the dame stepped out, closing the door noiselessly, and the men proceeded to work. Adam seized the key as he had been directed, Watty held the candle, and Willie was already bending over the chest. 'Move it, lads,' said Adam, as he turned the key, ‘an' let the lid fa' back.' 'It's gae licht,' said the brothers, gazing in, as Adam plunged his hands down through old clothes, bundles of yarn, and shreds of every description. He was standing next the bed, and had come in contact with something hard and cold, when a rustling sound in that direction made him turn involuntarily, and that act caused his brothers to look in the same direction. The next instant the lid fell with a bang, and the three men rushed from the room. An explanation never was discovered, but Adam declared he had seen the old woman sitting up in bed grinning horribly and shaking her skinny fist at them, while Watty and Willie affirmed they had seen her lie down again. It might have been that the imagination of the brothers had combined; but when their mother at length found courage to rouse Lizzy, and collect as many of the neighbours as could be induced to assist, her horror was if possible increased by finding the bedclothes partly flung off, and one of Janet's hands fast clenched. The strangest part of the tale was that the chest contained no money whatever; but near the bottom lay a chisel and hammer, which Adam said had deceived him. Janet Robertson was interred at the expense of the parish, and the day after, as nobody else cared to enter it, Lizzy was sent to clean out the apartment. In the course of her operations, seeing a quantity of dust behind the old chest, she drew it still farther from the wall and began to sweep vigorously, when accidentally striking the wainscot with her broom, one of the panels fell out, showing a square aperture, to which Lizzy lowered her light. It was a hole in the wall about two feet deep, and within one of the floor. At the farther end of it, stood a rusty iron box, closely fitted to the space. The lid had been lately forced, and when Lizzy, with no small difficulty drew it out, she found it entirely filled with gold and silver coin of nearly every size and value. The upper layer, of about an inch in depth, belonged to her own times, but all below to the reign of the first Charles. The supposition of the parish minister, to whom the whole story was imparted in the confidence of his sacred office, was, that the latter had been hidden there by some ancestor of the M Cribbens at the period of Cromwell's invasion, and the former was old Janet's private deposit, which she had laid up with the discovered hoard. What intelligence had pointed it out to her neither the divine nor the M'Cribbens could ever determine, but Lizzy affirmed that it must have been a dream similar to her own, so frequently interrupted. In right of finding, she retained the greater part JUVENILE DEPRAVITY. III.-ITS EXTENT. THAT juvenile depravity prevails at the present day to a fearful extent must be painfully apparent to every observant and reflective mind. It is not confined to any one locality, or to any one condition in life; but has overspread the whole face of society, covering it everywhere with the most frightful moral excrescences. It stalks abroad in all its hideous proportions, not merely under the thick cover of night, but even in the broad light of day, and before the eyes of all men. Who that is accustomed to visit our market-places and our marts of commerce; who that is acquainted with the harbours of our seaport towns, or the 'fairs' and 'trysts' of our rural districts; who that has watched with inquisitive eye our colliery, and mining, and factory population; who that has trod the highways and byways' of our large towns, or walked the streets of our cities when the light of the sun was withdrawn, and the devisers of mischief and the prowlers for prey were abroad; who that has done this and is acquainted with these things can need to be told that youthful vice and crime alarmingly abound, and that their wretched victims may be counted by thousands and tens of thousands in every corner of the land? The newspapers of the day, our criminal courts, our jails, our numerous reformatory institutions, all bear testimony to the same melancholy fact. of the money, recent occurrences having made the family From the report of a public meeting held in Dundee in unusually manageable by the gently prudent daughter-in- October 1846, for the purpose of establishing juvenile law. Beyond the clergyman and some confidential neigh-schools of industry, it appears that the commitments to the bours, the tale was never allowed to be known till its jail of Dundee, from July 1845 to July 1846, amounted to circle was gradually widened in process of time, as the no fewer than 1408, and that of this number 653 were feM Cribbens became prosperous and even rich; but its males, and 202 of both sexes under the age of seventeen different effects on the various members of the household years. By the jail return for the West Riding of the county were subjects of surprise and remark long after to the more of York, in reference to a reformatory and educational estaserious part of the community. While Adam became at once blishment for juvenile offenders, it appears that, since the sober, thoughtful, and strictly pious in his conduct, Watty school began in February 1844, upwards of 300 boys have and Willie grew irregular and something of the spend- been entered in the school-books; of these, many have been thrift. They emigrated to North America, as it was be- twice committed for short periods, and some of them three lieved, when their share of the spoil had been nearly ex- times, during that period. In the return for the city of hausted, leaving the old pair to reside with Adam and Bristol it is stated, that of eleven males sentenced to Lizzy, who was now a woman of much consideration, for transportation at the Easter quarter sessions, seven were Mrs M'Cribben could never forget that she had fand the youths under twenty, and that out of five males at the Midsiller.' summer sessions three were very young.' In the report of the Poor-law Commissioners for 1838, on the state of Leeds, it is remarked, that children of seven, eight, and nine years of age, are not unfrequently brought before magistrates, a very large proportion under fourteen years of age. Mr Richard Hodgson, a missionary in London, states, in some statistical accounts which he has furnished, that in one large metropolitan parish, out of nearly 3000 chil dren of a suitable age for instruction, only 513 were attending Sabbath schools, and the most of these neglected children are thrown unprotected upon the streets, and are speedily educated in vice and crime. In 1845 the metropolitan police took into custody no fewer than 14,887 persons under twenty years of age. Of these there were summarily disposed of by the magistrates 38 males and 15 females under thirteen years; 1187 males and 123 females at thirteen, and under fifteen; and 3519 males and 1191 females at fifteen and under twenty. There were committed for trial 12 males and 6 females under ten years of age, and 370 males and 44 females above ten and under fifteen; while the numbers committed st fifteen and under twenty were 1139 males and 257 fe males. The statistics of fifteen of the ragged schools show that there were attending the schools 2345 children. The average attendance was 1600. Of these 1600, 162 had confessed that they had been several times in prison, 11 had deserted their homes, 170 slept in lodging-houses of the lowest description, 253 lived by begging, 216 had neither shoes nor stockings, 280 had no head-coverings, 21 had never slept in a bed, 68 were the children of conIt may be difficult, perhaps impossible, to ascertain pre-victs, and 306 had lost either one or both of their parents. cisely to what extent juvenile depravity exists in our What can be expected of such children, if abandoned of the country, and yet at the same time we may be able to pre- wise and the good, but that they make crime at once their sent facts and figures, which will enable us to give some- business and recreation, and draw their subsistence from thing like a rough guess' at the real extent of the evil, the wages of iniquity? In London alone there are 80,000 foand which at least will most abundantly prove that it does male profligates, by far the greater portion of whom are unmost fearfully and widely prevail. der twenty years of age. Many of these are under ten years First, we shall state a few general facts upon the sub- of age. Out of 1000 admitted into an asylum in Edin ject; and secondly, make a few calculations in regard to it. burgh, 662 were unde. twenty years; but of 8322 adFirst, then, we are to deal with general statistics. Dr mitted into a similar institution in Glasgow, between the Harris, in his Christian Citizen,' says, that in the metro- years 1816 and 1832, 3748 were under twenty years. A polis of our nation there are 12,000 children training in similar institution in Westmoreland has admitted 2172 crime.' Lord Ashley stated in the House of Commons that der twenty years of age. Out of 92 cases in another este 1500 children are every year added to 'les classes dan-blishment in Liverpool, 62 were under twenty years, and gereuses,' in the town of Manchester alone. The watch several of them were of very tender years. committee of the borough of Liverpool, in giving certain statistics regarding the number and character of the public-houses and saloons of infamous resort in their district, state, that in these places were estimated about 1200 thieves under fifteen years of age.' In the report furnished by the Sunderland Abstinence Society to the World's Temperance Convention' of 1846, there occurs the following statement :- Sixty public-houses in the borough were visited by a deputation, in nine of which were found 450 individuals, chiefly young persons, both male and female, from fifteen to twenty years of age, exhibiting the most disgusting immorality and debauchery.' In tables furnished by Mr Smith, governor of the Edinburgh jail, and given in the police reports, it is shown that 5484 young persons under twenty years of age, and 245 under ten years, were imprisoned during the three years ending 1844. It were an easy matter to multiply statistical facts like these. Referring as they do to London, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Dundee, and Sunderland, they may be taken as specimens of the extent to which the evil prevails in the more populous districts of the country. It is but too probable that they may constitute a true key to the state of morality among the juvenile population gene rally throughout our land. The statistics of the colliery and mining, and even of many of the rural districts, tell an equally appalling tale. Let these facts be deeply pondered. They contain volumes of gloomy meaning. They unveil to us spots like the very blackness of darkness in the midst of abounding light; dreary moral deserts in the very centre of our religious Edens; rottenness and corrup tion rankling and festering at the very core of society, and silently but surely undermining its foundations; and they cast a dark shadow across the future prospects of our beloved nation. What proportion does juvenile criminality bear to the criminality of the nation? This is an important inquiry. That proportion is not uniform all over the country. It varies considerably in different localities. Let us take a few specimens. In Edinburgh jail the number of commitments in 1846 were 3357; of these 659 were under twenty-one years of age, i.e., about one-fifth of the whole. The total number of commitments to Perth county prison were 610; of these 138 were under twenty years of age, i.e., nearly one-fourth of the whole. The total number of commitments to Aberdeen prison were 421; of these 189 were under twenty-one years of age, i.c., somewhat less than one-half of the whole. The total number of commitments to Glasgow prison were 2333; of these 450 were juveniles under seventeen years of age, being somewhat less than one-fifth of the whole. The total commitments in Scotland were 19,000; of these 6000 were under twentyone years of age, being nearly one-third of the whole. These may be taken as not unfair specimens of the state of the country generally. Our estimate, we think, may be regarded as a truthful one, when we say that the average proportion of juvenile criminality to the criminality of the nation is as one to three. This conclusion is the result of our inquiries so far as we have been enabled to prosecute them. It is a melancholy conclusion, and ought surely to arouse the earnest attention of Christian philanthropists to the subject. What proportion does juvenile criminality bear to the general population of the country? This, too, is an important inquiry. Mr Neison's tables supply our answer. The following is the ratio which he gives at the ages specified: Under fifteen years, .494 per cent.; from fifteen to twenty years, .6840 per cent. These statistics refer to England and Wales, but they may be regarded as not inapplicable to the state of matters in Scotland also. An analysis of the criminal returns shows that some districts of country and some branches of trade are more prolific of juvenile crime than others; but the above may be regarded as the average proportion to the population of the country at large. The question, Is juvenile criminality on the increase or decrease? is also one of great importance. The assertion is very frequently made that juvenile crime is rapidly augmenting. We hear it stated in public meetings, and we see it in the pages of numerous periodicals, that a larger number of boys and girls are annually taken to our policeoffices and confined in our jails than formerly. Public opinion seems to support this assertion. Men of high authority have not hesitated to speak of such increase in firm and confident language. H. Miller, Esq., governor of the Glasgow prison, writes thus in 1846: The increase of juvenile delinquency has at length become so marked as to deserve the most grave consideration, and to cause most serious alarm. The centesimal proportion exhibits the startling fact that December and January last produced in the male department alone an increase of 7 per cent. and 12 per cent. respectively, as compared with the corresponding months of previous period, viz., December 1845 and January 1846. A much more startling contrast might be made by selecting some former period when the number of juvenile committals was considerably less; but for the purpose of furnishing correct data, corresponding and recent periods have been preferred. That 38 per cent. of the entire number of males committed during one short month should have been all boys seventeen years of age and under is sufficient to rouse the most lethargic to inquiry.' This is truly a melancholy statement, and not a few similar ones might be quoted from equally high and credible authorities. Yet at the same time we would entertain the hope that the increase may only be in certain localities, and not general throughout the country. Some valuable facts on this head may be collected from the statistical tables of crime in England and Wales, recently published by F. G. P. Neison, Esq., F.L.S., Actuary to the Medical, Invalid, and General Life Assurance Society. The criminal returns on which these tables have been constructed refer to two periods. The first period embraces the years 1834-9; the second embraces the years 1842-4. By a comparison of these returns, it appears that there has been a great increase of crime between these periods, amounting to about 19 per cent. ; that this increase has been principally confined to criminals above twenty years of age, and, what is very remarkable, has been greatest amongst those farthest advanced in life; and that while there has been this increase amongst criminals above twenty years of age, there has been a considerable decrease, amounting to fully 14 per cent., amongst those whose ages ranged from fifteen to twenty years. The ratio of the increase or decrease of crime at given ages varies in different localities. In the mining districts of Cumberland, Northumberland, and Durham, there is less crime committed than the general average of the country by 52 per cent., while between the years of fifteen and twenty the diminution is by 57 per cent., and under fifteen years by 29 per cent. In the extensive and densely. populated manufacturing districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, where immense numbers of young people are engaged at the mills, there is less than the general average by 7 per cent., while under twenty years the diminution is nearly 11 per cent. In the manufacturing districts of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, and Chester, where the young are employed at very tender ages on the lace and other manufactures, there is more committed than the general average by 8 per cent., while, under fifteen years, the increase is nearly 10 per cent. In the districts of Worcester, Warwick, and Staffordshire, where hardware, pottery, and glass manufactures abound, there is a still greater excess of juvenile crime. Taking the agricultural distric's and blending them together, we find that there is a diminution of crime among the juvenile population as compared with the average of the country. Having mentioned these facts, then, it appears that during the periods of time to which they refer there was a diminution in the average of juvenile crime. But that there may have been an increase since these periods we are not prepared to deny. Indeed, the probability is strong that there has. There has been a large increase of those influences which tend to create and extend delinquency amongst the young. Low theatres, dancing and drinking saloons, and publications of a degrading and immoral tendency, have been fearfully multiplied of late years, and these must have produced baneful effects upon multitudes of the young. Yet at the same time it is not to be forgot, that influences of a preventive and counteractive kind have also been brought more extensively into operation of late years. An increased amount of attention has been paid to the moral condition of the rising generation. There was a time, and that not of very ancient date, when the young generally were much neglected. They were allowed to grow up in ignorance and vice, and to rush forward recklessly from one stage of depravity into another, until crime became the only object of their pursuit, at once their business and their pastime. No man cared for their souls.' They were vicious and depraved, and that was enough; the world looked on them as utter outcasts, and even good men deemed them incorrigible. They were left to drink their full of the cup of crime, and then pay for so doing by forfeiting their lives upon the scaffold, or dragging out a weary wretched existence-a living death in some penal colony in a far-off clime. The mistake was a pitiable and humiliating one, and, alas! it was fatal to the highest wellbeing of thousands. But happily the times are changed, and with them the opinions of men in this as well as in other matters. Philanthropists have had their attention directed to the state and prospects of the juvenile outcasts of society. The belief has taken possession of the minds This part of the subject was fully discussed in previous numbers of many, that the feelings of humanity are not entirely ex of the INSTRUCTOR (Vol. vi., Nos. 138 and 140), and what follows on this point is a brief analysis of the statistics there given. tinguished even in the bosoms of the most depraved that |