ge soon realised that however easy it is to
exercise a beneficial influence on one or two boys by adopting gentle
methods, it is extremely difficult to manage hundreds in this way. He
had, however, observed how fair and rigidly honest boys generally are in
their games and how ready they are to condemn any meanness, and he
conceived the idea of making his charges look after each other. Thus
each one would feel himself a responsible judge of his companions'
actions.

At the end of the summer holidays in 1895, when the time came for the
boys to return home, five remained behind at Freeville in a cottage
standing on three acres of land; the next year the number of lads
remaining was doubled or trebled. A miniature Republic was founded, of
which the lads were the citizens, and in this capacity, were obliged to
make laws and to insist on their being respected. The Republic proved to
be a great success, the temporary colony became a permanent one capable
of reforming wild, unruly boys, who if allowed to wander about in the
streets and to mix with older and more vicious lads, would possibly have
been ruined. A recent census of the Republic showed that it possessed
150 citizens, 82 boys and 68 girls, three hundred acres of land,
twenty-four buildings, a chapel, prison, school, and court of justice.

=FIG. 20
Brigand Gasparone=

In order that the colonists should not completely lose touch with the
outside world, but should in some measure be prepared for the social
exigencies of their future lives, the colony is organised like a
miniature town. The children, boys and girls, are divided into so many
families, each consisting of ten or twelve members presided over by two
adults, who take the place of parents and look after the household. The
greater part of the population is engaged in agriculture, in cultivating
the land belonging to the Republic, but a certain proportion adopt the
arts and crafts necessary to every community: joinery, book-binding,
printing, shoemaking, or shop-keeping. The colony coins its own money
and possesses a bank run by the boys themselves, where the colonists can
deposit their savings. All labour and produce are paid for separately.
The colony has its own laws sanctioned by its Parliament, its Tribunal,
the members of which, chosen from amongst the citizens, are charged with
enforcing the laws. The Parliament, composed without distinction of sex,
of boys and girls, decrees the holidays, organi