HOUSE OF REFUGE.

This reformatory institution was visited and thoroughly
examined by your committee, who were gratified to witness
the good management and active industry shown upon all
sides, and of which yon will find a fair and truthful exhibit
in the Sixteenth Annual Report of its Managers, which has
been placed before you. The Refuge is kept in a state of
cleanliness and good condition, thus placing before its juve-
nile inmates an example which will be apt to influence them
through life in the management of their own affairs, they
forming like habits from which they will not be apt to depart.
The managers of the Refuge are much in need of more build-
ing accomomdations in which to work the 350 boys and 30
girls under their charge; and to enable them to do this ask, in
addition to the regular appropriation made them annually by
the General Assembly, a special appropriation of $15,000,
with which to build an additional wing, and your committee
feel justified in recommending the necessary legislation to
secure the same. Of the mental improvement of the nume-
rous children in the Refuge, your committee had ample evi-
dance, and were greatly gratified by an exhibition of the same
by some of them. In reading, elocution, music, &c., there
are indications of future distinction, if proper care continues as
it now is, to be manifested and bestowed upon these unfortu-
nate children by the competent superintendent, his assistants
and the generous-hearted citizens who so liberally contribute
of their time and substance for the improvement of the con-
dition of those committed to their charge.

Reformatory institutions for children who, from immoral
association and lack of proper instruction are betrayed into
crime, are of modern birth, conceived and operated by Chris-
tian effort for the melioration of social evils and the suppres-
sion of petty crime. A shelter is provided for the juvenile of-
fenders against the majesty of the laws of God and man—to
be thrown into jails or State prisons for petty offences and
compelled to associate and mingle with offenders grey in
crime, would give precocious development to the latent evil of
the heart, and aggravate rather than cure the evil.

The provision made by the House of refuge system,
while it by no means lessens to the mind the gravity and