INSTITUTION FOR RECLAIMING VICIOUS CHILDREN. 291

of tlie flock into one’s bosom, and to make the orphans, theoutcast, the houseless,, your own children, and give them inthe midst of poverty a useful education, and to qualify themfor the business of life, to be useful and respectable, is anenterprise of the noblest character, conferring immortalhonour on him who undertakes it.

XXXVIII INSTITUTION FOR RECLAIMINGVICIOUS CHILDREN.

In the neighbourhood of Berne, likewise, I visited anotherphilanthropic institution, in which I was much interested.A few persons had contributed the means of purchasing avaluable and suitable estate for the purpose of establishingan agricultural school for vagabond boys, or those who havebeen convicted at the courts of law ; and who, after sufferingthe legal penalties of their crimes, and being released fromprison without character, without friends, without a home, orthe means of procuring an honest living, seem to have noalternative other than that of returning to their formercourse of idleness, beggary, and crime. This undertaking isthus far eminently successful; they having found an in-dividual of high intellectual and moral attainments, and ofindomitable resolution and great disinterestedness, whodevotes himself to the reclamation and education of thesepoor and wretched children. About sixty individuals arenow under his care. The farm is well cultivated, and chieflyby hand and spade labour. The most remarkable featuresabout the establishment are the absence of all peculiar dressor external badges by which the boys should be distinguished;and of all fences or bars by which the escape of the boysmight be prevented. The boys are divided into parties often or twelve, who work together under the direction of aforeman. The whole discipline of the institution is moral ;

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