, the second division have to go to school when they
have finished, till three o'clock, they only being allowed one hour for
recreation. The authorities are very anxious to make arrangements to
have a Government vessel stationed off the island, to be used as a
training-ship for the most adventurous spirits. If this design is
carried out it will be a very valuable adjunct to the working of the
institution, and will enable the Directors to take in many more boys,
without incurring the expense of extending the present buildings. The
girls are also employed in making hoopskirts, in making clothes for
themselves and the boys, in all sorts of repairing, in washing linen, and
in general housework. The girls are generally less tractable than the
boys; perhaps this is accounted for by their being older, some of them
being as much as five or six and twenty. The boys average about thirteen
or fourteen, the girls seventeen or eighteen years of age. Nearly
two-thirds of the boys have been bootblacks, the remainder mostly 'wharf
rats.'

"The Directors of the House of Refuge, while having a due regard for the
well-being of its inmates, very properly take care that they are not so
comfortable or so well-fed as to lead them to remain longer in the
reformatory than necessary. As soon as the boys appear to be really
reformed, they are indentured out to farmers and different trades. In
the year 1867, no less than 633 boys and 146 girls were started in life
in this way. Any person wishing to have a child indentured to him, has
to make a formal application to the Committee to that effect, at the same
time giving references as to character, etc. Inquiries are made, and if
satisfactorily answered, the child is handed over to his custody, the
applicant engaging to feed, clothe, and educate his young apprentice.
The boy's new master has to forward a written report to the officer, as
to his health and general behaviour from time to time. If the boy does
not do well, he is sent back to the Refuge, and remains there till he is
twenty-one years of age. Most of the children, however, get on, and many
of them have made for themselves respectable positions in society. The
annals of the Society in this respect are very gratifying and
interesting. Many young men never lose sight of a Refuge which rescued
them in time from a criminal life, and to which they owe almost their
very existence. Instead of alternating between the purlieus of Water