Letter from Hon. THEODORE LYMAN.

No. 1. Construction of Buildings. The buildings should have iron or stone staircases, wide passageways, and easy and obvious means of escape in case of fire, especially from the sleeping rooms. And the rooms and the parts remote and little visited, so finished that they cannot be set fire to, as the incendiary propensity is very strong with some boys.

Means for warming and ventilating should be provided in the plans, so that the proper flues can be built into the walls. No art has improved so much the last ten years as that of ventilating. A work published in this country, by Dr. Wyman, and an English work by Walter Bernan, civil engineer, both recent and both on warming and ventilating, may be consulted to great advantage with respect to those subjects.

No. 2. Age of admission.If former character to be considered. Not over 14 years. Boys of that age are difficult to manage. If they have been for some time in a vicious course, they become, by 14 or 15, hardened, bad themselves, and very fit to make others bad. Not much attention to be paid to former character as to admissions; for the object of the school is a general one, namely, to employ, instruct and reform juvenile offend

ers.

The exceptions under this general rule, as to admissions, should be in cases of boys that have shown a very depraved disposition; for a few boys of that description in the school might much retard, if not prevent, the reform of others, and get no good themselves. Where the probability is very strong that a boy is not susceptible of reformation, he should not be admitted, because the probability is greater that he will do harm to others than that he will derive benefit himself.

No. 3. Sex.-For lads at first. If the institution proves successful, a building may afterwards be added for girls. Reference can be had to that object in selecting a situation for the buildings for the boys, the sexes being kept far separate.

No. 4. Offences. -No rule, except where the offence manifests great and especially deliberate depravity. As was said

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under No. 2, such boys are very difficult to manage, their example often does great harm to other boys, and, as the object of the institution is to reform, it is proper and necessary to take into account all the circumstances or considerations that may prevent, retard, or diminish the reform, or the improvement of the greatest number.

No. 5. Commitments. By courts alone. The institution should be considered a place of punishment as well as a place for reform, and as under the authority of the State. It will, otherwise, do little good. If thought to be a school and farm, where boys are only obliged to learn and to work, many boys will not be unwilling to go, and still more parents will not be unwilling that their boys should go. I should give no character of disgraceful punishment to the institution, but the character of a State school, with an established system of rules of government and discipline, where boys are received because they are not fit to be at large, and where they are kept and trained till they are considered fit to be restored to society.

No. 6. Number. - Provision first made for one hundred, with arrangements to extend, if required.

No. 7. Provision for discharge. It is desirable to obtain situations for the boys, with a certificate of good conduct and with suitable clothing. Whether a sum of money should be added, must depend on the circumstances of each case. But the time of the discharge of a boy is a critical moment for him, and it is just then that efforts should be made to furnish him with respectable occupation, and to keep him, and to enable him to keep himself, out of the way of former habits and associates. A few hours of neglect or inattention at this period, may undo months of care and good conduct.

No. 8. What shall entitle to a discharge. - This is again a question depending for its answer on the circumstances of each case. In other words, it is in each case a matter of discretion. The rule is that the boy shall serve out his time, and the exceptions to this rule should be extraordinary ones. No power should be used with more caution in public places of punishment than the power to pardon, for no power is more liable to abuse.

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As to the four last topics, viz., discipline, trades, employment and instruction, they are all, so to speak, practical topics, and, in regard to them, the opinions of practical men, such as the superintendents of houses for juvenile offenders, will be found to be most valuable, more especially as it respects the first topic, discipline. As to trades, it is desirable to avoid, to some degree, sedentary ones, such as shoemaking and tailoring, on account of the health of the boys.

The institution should have a carpenter's shop, and a forge, if for no other purpose, at least for that of mending the tools (and, perhaps, making them,) belonging to the establishment.

Amusements should be regularly provided for the boys. Games of ball, skating, coasting, &c. All the boys should be practised in singing; and such as have a voice and an ear, should be taught, at least, the rudiments of music. A piece of ground should be set apart for a garden, where the vegetables for the houses should be regularly and neatly cultivated; also, for a few common flowers and the common fruits cultivated in gardens; and the boys, or a portion of them, should be trained to the care of these gardens, and taught to feel an interest, not only in the pursuit itself, but in the gardens.

The general business of the school will be agriculture; but in the winter months, more time will be given to the instruction of the boys, not only in the common branches of education, but it may be, also, in some mechanical trades.

Letter from FRANCIS GEORGE SHAW, Esq.

WEST ROXBURY, Oct. 10, 1846.

SAMUEL H. WALLEY, Jr., Esq., Commissioner, &c.

MY DEAR SIR, - I received with much pleasure the circular respecting the proposed State Manual Labor School, and trust that the course pursued by the Commissioners will have elicited much valuable information.

I subjoin such suggestions as have presented themselves to my mind on reading the questions contained in the circular.

1. As to the plan of construction. The only suggestion I feel competent to make is, that each inmate have a separate sleeping-room, -so constructed as to be secure and capable of being fastened on the outside, not of the character of a cell, yet strong, and simple in its arrangements. The public rooms to be in a main building, capable of enlargement when required, and the kitchen, store-room, &c., to be in the basement of the wing first built; the upper floors of which are to contain the sleeping-rooms. The workshops to be in a range behind the dwelling, and accessible by a covered way; the buildings relating to the farm to be still farther off, and approached in the

same manner.

2. The object of the institution being to save those sent to it from further contamination, and so to prevent their becoming a charge upon the State as criminals, I should consider the age of twelve as a suitable limit beyond which admission should not be allowed, except in cases where offences have been committed solely from the pressure of want, and former character should be considered by the managers in all subjects above that age. I would say, that all children under twelve, convicted of offences against the laws, should be received without question, but that the managers should have a veto when, in their opinion, the admission of any one over that age would be a positive injury to the institution. The age of twelve seems to me old enough for children brought up in Boston and vicinity, but it might be extended to fourteen for those from the rural districts of the State. I should consider it desirable, moreover, that all youths sent to the school should be required to pass a month's probation before being admitted to its full advantages; after which, the managers can determine if they shall be so admitted.

3. Girls should also be received at the school, but should be under entirely separate care, and have no communication with the boys, except at meals and public meetings.

4. No special rule can, in my opinion, be laid down with regard to the nature of offences, but in no case should those who are idiotic or decidedly wanting in intellect, be admitted; and the discovery of any such case should be a sufficient reason for immediately transferring the subject to the almshouse of the

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city or town in which his or her legal residence may be, or to the State Lunatic Hospital.

5. Commitments should be made by the courts and by the legal authorities of any city or town, also by justices of the peace in places where there is no police court, but in the latter case with the concurrence of the authorities: and no justice should be allowed to send a child to a house of correction without such concurrence. Destitute children should be sent to the school, even if they commit no offence against the laws; indeed, in my opinion, they should have a right to go there.

6. The wing first built should contain accommodations for one hundred inmates, and the plan of the building should be such that it can be increased so as to accommodate four hundred, which number should not be exceeded.

7. The proper provision for such youth as shall be discharged would, in my opinion, be State manufactories, in which the various trades taught at the school shall be carried on; such manufactories should be erected by the State, be provided with the best machinery, and placed under the charge of skilful and experienced superintendents. The necessary raw material should be purchased, the laborers boarded and clothed by capi tal provided by the State, and the products disposed of by competent persons. At stated periods, the accounts of each manufactory should be made up, the cost of materials and other expenses credited to the State, with interest on the fixed capital, and a proper allowance for wear and tear, and the balance should be divided among the laborers in a ratio determined by themselves, but subject to correction by trustees appointed for the purposes of general supervision.

I am aware that it will appear an immense undertaking to carry this plan into operation, but I can at present conceive of no other manner in which the question under consideration can be satisfactorily answered.

8. The completion of the term for which an individual shall have been committed, (which should never be less than one year, and the minimum of which, in my opinion, had better be three years than one,) should entitle him or her to a discharge, when served with uniform good conduct; but the man