the institution, and the constant washing of its floors rendered unnecessary.

With regard to the dietary scale of the home, considerable latitude should be allowed the matron in arranging it; for we cannot but arrive at the conclusion that cutaneous eruptions would be rarer than they are among industrial school children, were they supplied with food in greater variety. When fresh vegetables are cheap, they should eat them freely; and when these begin to fail, white cabbages may be sliced and placed in vinegar for household consumption. The cabbage procured for a penny may save the spending of a pound in curing skin disease, and it has the advantage of being as ready for eating the day after pickling, as it is good for months to come. There is no necessity to give the children the vinegar. This may be utilised to pickle another cabbage after the first has been consumed. Rows of giant rhubarb should also be grown in the grounds of industrial schools fortunate enough to have gardens. The stalks of this useful vegetable may be pulled till late in the autumn, and, when stewed and eaten with rice by the children, are wholesome as palatable. And with rhubarb the first expense of planting it is the last, as once placed in a garden it will be found there ever afterwards. We are convinced that scalp humours, so common among school-children, frequently break out in consequence of an insufficient supply of green vegetables; therefore turnip-tops (when abundant), should be supplied them freely, and large Portugal onions (when cheap) might, chopped fine, usefully supplement the bread-and-cheese dinner.

Coarsely-ground Scotch oatmeal, prepared after Mrs. Buckton's receipt, we prefer to cocoa for the children's breakfasts. We are of opinion that it is not true economy, nor is it desirable, to apportion them bread by weight. Children's appetites vary as widely as their dispositions, and frequently one child may leave a part of his portion, while another of the same age arises from the meal still hungry.

In a school which seemed to be conducted on the laissez-faire principle-for each child appeared to a certain extent to do what was right in his own eyes-we observed tame rabbits in the playground, feeding in their hutches off piles of pieces of bread. These pieces, we ascertained, were the leavings of some of the children at meals. From another school we heard of boys stealing six quartern loaves at once from the larder to appease the pangs of hunger, one child averring that he was so famished as to feel compelled to 'stuff the sheet' in his mouth when he went to bed.

We were glad to meet with an industrial school in the North of England where the children at meals were wisely permitted to have as much as, and no more bread than they required.

The sleeping arrangements of the family in the home will be duly considered by the matron, and she will doubtless represent to the female Government inspector of industrial homes (should the State

wisely appoint one) or to her committee of lady-managers, the desirability of her own and assistants' dressing or sitting rooms opening into curtained spaces within the children's dormitories. There their beds should be placed, so that no sound should escape the ear. Much expense would be avoided if the Industrial Schools Act were so amended that probational sentences might be passed upon some juvenile offenders. Six or twelve months' detention in a home under wise womanly supervision might effectually accomplish the reclamation of many children of respectable parents. And here we would suggest that parents in good circumstances should always be required to pay so largely to the support of their offspring, that keeping them at home would prove a lighter burden.

In fixing amounts of contribution of parents to their children's maintenance, a distinction should be drawn between the vicious and the destitute. The former are frequently in a position to pay the full cost of their children's keep in industrial schools; and any measure enacted by the Government, to permit local authority to enforce such payment, will be hailed with universal satisfaction. With the destitute the case is altogether different; but should their circumstances improve, they ought not to remain exempt from contributing to the support of their children. The permanent removal of children from the influence of vicious parents is most desirable, and emigration opens a wide door of hope to these young unfortunates, after they have undergone a course of salutary training in industrial homes. Every effort should be used to induce depraved parents to consent to a separation so likely to be promotive of their offspring's welfare; or, failing these, the children should be placed in situations where they would be lodged and fed as far from their wretched homes as possible.

If situations are not to be found, or it be deemed expedient for the boys or girls to experience a longer course of training, they must pass from the home and sole female supervision into schools for 'young persons' under male and female superintendence. Probably some would find their way to industrial training ships, but only stout and healthy boys, with a strong bias for sailor-life, should be received in these. Weakly lads' constitutions soon succumb to the inevitable exposure to which such training subjects them, and the special and expensive preparation required for a seafaring life is often thrown away even upon the healthy. In 1879 there occurred on the 'Mars' industrial school ship (Dundee) no less than six deaths among the 355 lads, a very large mortality' as the inspector remarks. In the 'Akbar' reformatory ship (Liverpool) there were three deaths in the year 1879 among 174 lads, and seven boys discharged on account of disease. On the 'Clarence' (Birkenhead), 230 boys, there were four deaths in the same year, and three discharged from disease. On the industrial training ship' Cumberland' (Dumbarton), 377 boys, there were eight deaths in 1878, and in 1879 three children died, and

twelve were discharged on account of disease. The inspector has good cause to remark, Greater care should be exercised in the reception of cases suitable for sea-service.' The London School Board training ship 'Shaftesbury' commenced receiving boys in August 1878, and at the end of 1879 had 350 on board; yet though the net cost of these children per head annually, including profit or loss on industrial departments, was 31. 168., we find that up to December 1880 out of forty-one discharged fourteen boys only had gone to sea. Thus an expensive education for nautical life is frequently thrown away upon children who are either physically unfit or unwilling to become sailors; and as parental consent is also necessary to the disposal of boys in sea-service, it would be well if industrial school committees obtained such consent previous to sending lads to training-ships. Ships, of all dwelling-houses, are the most costly; and as the substitution of steam for sailing vessels daily decreases the demand for sailor-lads, the State will probably wisely decline to certify any more training-ships than we have at present.

As we just now hinted, a competent lady-inspector appointed by Government would more efficiently supervise homes containing young children than any gentleman, however capable and well qualified for his work he may be. Women are usually better acquainted than most men with the causes and nature of childish ailments, and with simple remedies for their removal or alleviation; they have more 'nous' in dealing with the refractory and sullen, and more tact in devising and directing what means may be best employed for the varied treatment of children of varied constitutions and dispositions. Therefore, should the State see fit to make an appointment of the character indicated, we may reasonably augur that it will result in sensible advantage to our criminal children.

The home-mother will gladly avail herself of the counsel and sympathy of a well-selected body of lady-managers, whose duty it shall be to visit the institution and inspect its management at will. These ladies will report monthly to the inspector of the prosperity or otherwise of the home, every fresh admission being noted in their report, and the circumstances of the child's parents, together with the amount they believe them able to contribute towards his or her maintenance, being also recorded therein.

The managers should also have full liberty to impart religious instruction to the children on Sunday afternoons or evenings, and to invite a few persons of well-known Christian character to assist them in such useful labour. In homes such as we have described, how much happier would be the condition of mere infants of the tender age of seven, whom we so frequently compassionate when we note them among children of larger growth in industrial schools!

The sick among the little ones would also derive much benefit from feminine ministrations, and we should then be less likely to be

pained, as we were a short time since, by the sight of a child suffering from hip-disease, lying in a room whose walls were washed with melancholy blue, with no single coloured print to brighten them; nor had the poor fellow even a broken toy or picture-book to beguile his weary hours. We were not surprised at the remark of a friend who visited the school with us: Were I shut up long in this doleful place, I should certainly lose my reason.'

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And now that the Home Secretary is devoting his attention to the proper treatment of juvenile offenders, and collecting opinions on this important subject from magistrates all over the kingdom, we confidently anticipate the revision of the statute law with respect to industrial schools at no distant date. And when the whole question. shall come before Parliament, we devoutly trust that however the State may decide to deal with young persons' convicted of crime, it may wisely decree that criminal children shall be placed under feminine supervision.

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ELIZABETH SURR.

REFORM OF FEUDAL LAWS.

THE condition of our land laws in England presents to us a vast problem, one which in its whole bearings on the social welfare of the people is often little recognised; yet there is hardly a question of political interest to the country which is not more or less indirectly influenced by them; and there is no subject which, during the next few years, will form so important a controversial public question. The entire fabric of modern society, of which our aristocracy is the leading feature, is deeply interested in this great question, and the very permanence of the order is menaced in the changes that may take place. Nevertheless it will be the conviction of all thoughtful and serious persons that the sooner the whole subject is not only brought up for discussion but is satisfactorily dealt with by the Legislature, the sooner will certain grave dangers to the stability of our national institutions be removed.

It is marvellous to any observer who has had the advantages of foreign travel, and who has used his opportunities with intelligence, to notice the total and fundamental contrast which exists not only between the land systems prevailing abroad and in England, but also between the social and intellectual condition of the agricultural classes in England and on the Continent. The enormous wealth of the landed proprietors of England, their paramount social influence over the lower classes, their considerable political power, and the class feeling which binds them together, notwithstanding slight differences of party feeling, into one great freemasonry of common interest, stands in vivid contrast with the degraded condition of our agricultural labourers and working classes generally.

In order to analyse this problem we should note the consequences which have resulted in England from the long survival of our feudal land laws, not only in the upper classes of English society, but also on the general condition of the whole people, especially on those classes more or less engaged in the cultivation of the land; we should trace further the natural effect which must result if reform of these laws was to be long delayed; and lastly, taking note of the mode in which this problem has found its solution in other countries of the Continent, we may consider the merits and demerits which can be urged in