the latter have, at present, under their
care, above
4000 children, who receive a gratuitous education
at
the schools under their charge ; yet, notwithstanding
their
care and diligence in endeavouring to prevail
on parents to send
their children to school, it is be-
lieved that there are 8000
children in the city, who
are brought up without the advantage of
school
learning. An inspector might be appointed, in the
manner other officers of the state are appointed, who
should be of
a respectable character and talents, and
be allowed a good salary;
his duty should be to visit,
once in each year, every common school
throughout
the state, and inquire into the condition of each
school,
the number of scholars; whether the laws of the state
are duly complied with; the salary, name, general
character, and
qualifications of the teachers, and an
account of all the receipts
and expenditures; he should
make his report annually, to the
superintendent of
common schools, who should be directed to
present
the same to the legislature.
Next to providing for the moral and religious edu-
cation of
children, by means of common schools
throughout the state, it would
be productive of in-
calculable advantage, to erect a suitable
prison, solely
for the confinement of boys under sixteen years
of
age, considered as vagrants, or guilty of petty thefts,
or
other minor offences: it is believed that there are
but few amongst
the most guilty of this description
of juvenile delinquents, who
may not, by proper dis-
cipline, be subdued and reclaimed, by the
establish-
ment of a well-regulated prison for criminal youth.
In Massachusetts, there is a prison for young convicts
in each
county. A number of the citizens of New-
York
rived, by erecting a suitable building for the reception
of such objects as has been described, have associated
for the purpose, and have been incorporated by the
name of The Society for the Reformation of Juvenile
Offenders in the city of New-York