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INTELLIGENCE.

COLONIE AGRICOLE DE METTRAY.

Deuxieme Compte Rendu Des Travaux de la Société Paternelle. Tours: 1841.

AMIDST the gloom which seems to hang over this country just now, we turn with perhaps more eagerness to any bright spots which present themselves elsewhere, especially if their happier aspects and influences appear capable of adaptation to the wants of the most suffering classes of our own community.

With this feeling we are tempted to lay before our readers some extracts from the Second Report of an Agricultural Colony in France, for the benefit of a class, who, before all others, ought to excite our sympathy, and our exertions; but for whom we have as yet done little,-we fear we might say almost nothing, -the helpless class of Juvenile Delinquents. They are indeed most helpless, for they have no moral strength, no moral knowledge, often no moral perceptions. They cannot help themselves, and we will not help them,-at least we do not. Yet they might be aided most effectually, other Nations have tried and succeeded in this highest work of Mercy, though we have not made the trial. In America there are Schools of Reformation for juvenile Criminals in most of their large towns, whose efficiency has been proved by the subsequent respectability of their inmates. The subject of the Report before us is an Institution at Mettray, in the Department of Indre a Loire. It owes its existence to private enterprize and philanthropy. The great public doubted and held back.

"But we did not doubt, because we knew the men who devoted themselves to this generous mission; we believed as they did; we were convinced that if the great experiment could succeed, it would be by their hands, by their intelligence, by their ardent faith; we adopted their views, and the 'Société Paternelle' gave them the first means of carrying them into execution."—p. 4.

This Society was formed June 1839; the first prisoners were received only in January 1840; the address from the President is dated May 1841; yet they could then say :

"Its success is no longer contested." "Government, which

ought to lend itself to no hazardous project, nor endanger existing order by Utopian schemes, but whose province it is to aid realized attempts, can no longer withhold from us its cooperation."

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Already this establishment is imitated in various parts of the kingdom by pious and charitable men; the reform extends, and must ere long become general, for a comparison of the fate of children enjoying such benefits, with those who are deprived of them, would be a contrast too odious to be suffered long to exist."—p. 5.

They received support and assistance from the Royal Family of France, the Ministers, many of the Provincial Governments, and numerous individuals; but the plans must have long remained very imperfect, had it not been for the munificence of one who seems to understand the real value of riches, M. le Comte d'Ourches, who gave them a sum of 140,000 f. (£5,600.) It is with much pleasure we observe among the "Founders " the names of two Englishwomen, already known in their own country by their exertions for the young, the destitute, and the prisoner;-but Christian Mercy is of no Country, and, in the spirit of the Saviour's prayer, desires for the Human Brotherhood" that they may be one."

The establishment is intended for three hundred children, and already contains one hundred and sixty. The first care is the health of the pupils:

"The physical state of these poor children is not the least of the subjects of our solicitude, and often of our embarrassment. Most of them have derived existence from such impure sources that their blood has been vitiated from their birth, and their regimen has but aggravated the fatal predisposition. Almost all we have yet received have been more or less decidedly scrofulous."-p. 9.

"The Physician of the establishment, of whose zeal we cannot speak too highly, has thought that successfully to combat these affections, it would be indispensable to give them more of an animal diet than they had received in the prisons." "In the year which has elapsed since the arrival of the first children, there has been a complete transformation in their health, if we except those who, being in an almost desperate state when they arrived, have not yet quitted the Infirmary."

p. 9.

"Our object is to return to society not only honest men, but robust men. It has been said that the experience which teaches a people to make themselves wise, will also teach them to make themselves healthy. It is certain that one of these

conditions has great influence upon the other. We do not then neglect any means which may contribute to strengthen the constitutions of our colonists."-p. 10.

"We find from the information we have procured, as well as from questioning the children themselves, that a great number of them have, from their earliest age, been in the habit of begging their bread; that they have been ill clothed, ill fed, and destitute of any kind of care from their parents, who made a speculation of the misery of these poor creatures, and often employed them as the instruments of their own thefts."- -p. 8.

"Sometimes, we must own, instances of a precocious depravity occur, which if not corrected in time would infallibly produce

monstrous criminals.

"Our first care on the arrival of the children is to study their character, in order to determine the suitable mode of treatment.

"If we would act efficaciously upon their mind, it is indispensable to convince them, that they are brought to the Colony, still more for their future interest than for their present advantage; and that the hard work to which they are subjected, differs from that in the Central Prisons, in having for its object the development of their physical strength, as well as of their moral regeneration. We must, in short, awaken in their hearts sentiments of justice and religion, without which no conversion is possible."-p. 8.

"The uniform they wear is extremely simple, and contrived so as to allow the greatest liberty of action. Without being singular, it is sufficiently marked to point out our Colonists in case of flight, for we must not forget that our children enjoy complete liberty; we have wished, by setting aside all the precautions which could recal the idea of a prison, to impress strongly the sentiment, that in the Colony they commenced a new life, in which moral Influence was to take the place of Force."-p. 10.

"In their sleeping arrangements we have sought to combine simplicity and economy, to occupy little space, yet render unsafe communication difficult. Hammocks such as we have used, appeared to offer all these advantages, and we have not found them attended with any inconveniences. We take care to place our children alternately with their head and feet to the wall, so as to render conversation impossible.

"To complete the work of regeneration we must inspire this neglected class with family habits and affections, so dear to man, -the strongest bond of society. This is accomplished by the division of the Colony into sections of twenty children, in each

of which, under the titles of Father of the family, Père de famille, and Eldest Brother, Frère ainé, are heads who exercise an authority of kindness and persuasion."*-p. 12.

"By placing these sections or families in a state to provide for all their wants, to construct, in fact, themselves their common dwelling, to cultivate the field and garden belonging to it, we give them the habit of, and wish for, property, a love for the domestic fireside, and render them familiar with the feelings and duties which flow therefrom. We could not discover any happier combination of circumstances to raise these poor children in the eyes of the world, and in their own, and to make them useful men and honest citizens."-p. 12.

"Our first duty being to render our Colonists honest and docile, before making them skilful workmen, the moral problem required solving before the financial one. Our plans of labour have not yet received their full development.

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"We must not forget that Mettray is not merely an Agricultural Colony, but a house of Education, where labour is used as a powerful means of moral reform. . We are obliged to regulate the nature of our labour by the strength of the young arms we have at our disposal; and for labour to exercise a happy influence upon our children, they must see prompt results. Long and fruitless labour will give rise only to doubt and discouragement."-p. 13.

"It was thought at first that the school-room might be used as a chapel, and that divine worship might be celebrated in the place which was at other times used for school exercises."— p. 16.

"We have consulted many whose opinions had great weight; many seminaries were quoted where such was the practice. But what may be suitable for young persons early impressed with religious feelings, does not apply to individuals who have been differently circumstanced. There is no more delicate and difficult task than that of bringing back to good, beings whose first education has been entirely neglected. In such cases everything, even to the minutest details, must concur to secure the end we wish to gain. The words of the Chaplain, the

*The Pères de famille are, we believe, selected from the under masters (contre maîtres) who teach the different trades. The Frères ainés are generally, though not without exception, chosen from among the best boys of the Free School, and the office is considered an honour and a reward. This union of a school of children who have received the advantage of early care and virtuous habits, with one for the reformation of offenders, is a new and very important feature in the Institution at Mettray, and we understand that the directors, from their experience of its effects, are led to believe, contrary to the common persuasion, that Virtue is as contagious as Vice, when known and felt in personal communication with those of similar age. VOL. IV. No. 16.-New Series.

associations of the place, the solemnity of the ceremonies, the harmony of the chant, act at once upon the hearts and senses of the children. The munificence of the Comte D'Ourches has put an end to our embarrassment, by enabling us to build both a class-room and a chapel.

"When we consider the places from which we have gathered our children, the condition in which they were, previous to and during their detention, and the short time we have had them with us, we congratulate ourselves on the moral results we have obtained."-p. 18.

"We have already destroyed, or at least greatly weakened, the evil spirit of combination our Colonists had contracted in the prisons. He who does wrong is blamed by his comrades and incurs their contempt. We may say that we are arrived at the point where the good act upon the bad, and that our children are the first to repress among themselves the evil actions which are committed amongst them.

"Lately they obliged one of their companions who had behaved ill, to return a book which he had received as a reward. They had previously requested the dismissal of another boy, saying that they did not like one who might disgrace them to remain among them. It will be, by preserving this good spirit, that we shall be able to increase our numbers without the moral action losing its power.

"At another time, one of our pupils had told us of a breach of rule which had taken place in the infirmary. They endeavoured in vain to find out who had informed us. A boy rose in the midst of a number of his companions, and said aloud,' It was I; I do not conceal it.'

"At the last election of Frères Ainés, they chose for the first time a Colonist, who, having vainly endeavoured to prevail on one of his comrades to confess a fault which he had committed, came openly and stated the fact. Sometimes the guilty themselves make confession,-but we must confess it is much more rare."-p. 19.

"Six months ago the worthy Abbé Fissiarix, who is now at the head of the Agricultural Colony at Marseilles, coming to visit us, asked our children to point out the three best boys amongst them. All the looks fell at once on three Colonists whose irreproachable conduct placed them beyond comparison.

"He made another much more delicate trial, of the issue of which we were ourselves doubtful; he asked which was the worst boy. We expected that he would be pointed out by his companions, for the choice was not doubtful. All remained motionless, when one of them advanced with a timid air, and

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