improvement of the poor, and in defiance of the endeavours of our
magistracy and police establishment, crime should rather increase than
diminish. Many persons have been induced to conclude from this fact
that our Sunday, parochial, and national schools, as well as our Bible
Societies, and institutions of a similar nature, are of little or no
use. Absurd as the inference is, I have known more than one or two
persons draw it; not considering, that although these means may be
insufficient to counteract the cause of crime, or to prevent all
its evil effects, yet, nevertheless, they must certainly check
its progress;--that if there be many offenders, despite of these
institutions, there would, doubtless, be many more were they not in
existence; and hence to revile or neglect them is unworthy of good
sense or good feeling.

It is not my purpose in the present chapter to dwell on the commission
of crime generally, but on juvenile delinquency in particular; and
on this only so far as regards the case of young children. I will,
therefore, make public a collection of facts, some of which were
obtained at considerable personal hazard and inconvenience, which will
place it in a clear yet painful light.

It is said, that in the year 1819, the number of boys, in London
alone, who procured a considerable part of their subsistence by
pocket-picking and thieving in every possible form, was estimated at
from eleven to fifteen hundred. One man who lived in Wentworth-Street,
near Spitalfields, had forty boys in training to steal and pick
pockets, who were paid for their exertions with a part of the plunder;
fortunately, however, for the public, this notable tutor of thieves
was himself convicted of theft, and transported. This system of
tutorage is by no means uncommon, nor is it confined to the male sex.