entered them. A gentleman who visited Newgate informed me that he had
been very much surprised at finding so many children there; some of
whom were ironed; and on his inquiring the cause of such severity
towards children so young, he was told by one of the turnkeys, that
_he had snuck more trouble with them than he had with old offenders_.
This fact has been verified by the chief officers of the Wakefield
Model Prison,--the boys give most trouble. In the matter of treating
juveniles as delinquents, I am sure we are wrong. I have seen both the
magistrates and the judges insulted on the bench by juveniles brought
before them, and taunted with the following: "You can do no more, you
with the big wig! I wish you may sit there until I come out!" And in
the month of May, 1852, the magistrates of Wakefield were insulted by
a boy 15 years old, who had been taken up as an impostor, with his
arm doubled in a sling, and shamming to be deaf and dumb,--a healthy
strong youth, able and fit for work--and when asked why he did not
work, answered, because he could get more by his own method! Hear!
this ye indiscriminate alms-givers! And, further, when expostulated
with by the magistrates for the sin and wickedness of pretending to
be lame, &c., he laughed at them outright for being so silly as to
suppose that he should not _live well if he could?_ When told he
should be committed for three months, he had the impudence to tell the
court that he would do the same again, when he came out, clapped his
hat on in open defiance, and shouted, "That's all you can do!" The
chairman expressed sorrow that he could not order a whipping, but
the prisoner laughed at him, and said, "I am too old for that." Such
things were not known in my younger days. I am afraid we have erred
in this matter. A little wholesome correction did wonders. In such
matters, it, at least, made the parties civil, and, I think, deterred
from crime. I am fearful that in this age mankind aim in some things
to be more perfect than the Great Ruler of the Universe!