“As to the children, we shall understand the imminence of the danger when we realize that in the short space of three years, from 1845 to 1847, 26,247 children and young persons of both sexes under 18, were incarcerated in prison or were inmates of workhouses. Most of these children belonged to the two provinces of Flanders, and a great number were arrested outside the limits of their province. Here is the increase in the number of those received into the prisons of Ghent and Bruges, and the jails of Audenarde, Termonde, Courtrai, Ypres, and Furnes: ==========+==========================+========================= |Young Prisoners (under 18)| | Received in | Total during the 3 Yrs. Cities. +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------- | 1845. | 1846. | 1847. | Boys. | Girls. |General | | | | | | Total. ----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------- | Prisons of E. Flanders. +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------- Ghent | 350 | 1,345 | 1,898 | 2,671 | 922 | 3,593 Audenarde | 207 | 315 | 674 | 929 | 267 | 1,196 Termonde | 123 | 235 | 406 | 616 | 148 | 764 +--------+--------+--------+ -------+--------+------- | Prisons of W. Flanders. +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------- Bruges | 459 | 299 | 550 | 1,110 | 198 | 1,308 Courtrai | 116 | 170 | 331 | 560 | 57 | 617 Ypres | 70 | 184 | 250 | 414 | 90 | 504 Furnes | 43 | 139 | 57 | 151 | 88 | 239 +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------- Totals | 1,368 | 2,687 | 4,166 | 6,451 | 1,770 | 8,221 ==========+========+========+========+========+========+======= “This deplorable fact of the increase of criminality among the young is explained by the statistics of indigence. We see in fact that, among the indigent persons aided in East Flanders, in 1847, there were: ==============================+===========+===========+======== | In the | In the | | Cities. | Country. | Total. ------------------------------+-----------+-----------+-------- Indigent persons under 6 yrs. | 6,693 | 34,637 | 41,530 ,, ,, ,, 12 ,, | 8,327 | 37,437 | 45,764 ,, ,, ,, 18 ,, | 5,597 | 20,060 | 25,653 | | +-------- General total | 112,947 ======================================================+========