. The preamble states, "that the fearful extent of juvenile
depravity and crime, in the metropolitan districts, and in large and
populous towns, requires general and immediate interference on the part
of the legislature; that the great causes of juvenile crime and
depravity appear to be ignorance, destitution, and the absence of proper
parental or friendly care; and that all children above the age of seven
and under the age of fifteen years, suffering from these and similar
causes, require protection, to prevent their getting into bad company,
acquiring idle and dissolute habits, growing up in vice, and becoming an
expense and burden on the county as criminals, and that such protection
should be afforded by the county." There are fourteen clauses: the first
and fifth may be quoted--"1_st_, That an asylum for unprotected and
destitute children be founded in and for the county of Middlesex by
legislative enactment, and placed under the direction and management of
the justices of the peace for the county." "5_th_, That unprotected and
destitute children shall be deemed to include all children above seven,
and under fifteen years of age, under the following circumstances:
--Children driven from their homes by the bad conduct of their parents;
children neglected by their parents; children who are orphans, and
neglected by their friends; children who are bastards; and children who
are orphans, and have no one to protect them, or to provide for them, or
for whom no one does provide; children who, from their own misconduct,
have no protection or provision found them; children who are idle and
dissolute, and whose parents or friends cannot control their bad conduct;
children who are destitute of proper food, clothing, or education, owing
to the poverty of their parents or friends, but whose friends or parents
do not apply for, or receive parish relief; children who are destitute of
employment; and children of the class which become juvenile offenders
generally."

It is probable that a plan of this description might have a great and
beneficial effect in diminishing juvenile crime; and it is conceivable
that the clauses of the bill may be so framed as to develop all the
good, and avoid the evil. It is to be feared, however, that the bill is
founded on partial views. The children who agree with the descriptions
given in clause number five, are the offspring of those who reside in
poor neighbourhoods, where the inhabitants are alread