A most interesting investigation which I have been lately carrying on as a Visiting Justice of the House of Correction at Cold Bath Fields, justifies me in predicting that when more is done to prevent crime than to punish it, our labours to diminish the burthens on the county purse will be crowned with far happier results than any we can now present to public view for the purpose of obtaining public support. From the Investigation before alluded to, it is evident that the want of proper parental care and the absence of domestic comforts are the two by far most fruitful and most manifest springs from which flows one vast tide of Juvenile Depravity and Crime, though let it not be supposed for a moment that these two springs cannot still further be traced to one deep seated source which might with God’s assistance be speedily dried up; but the public mind is not yet prepared for this discovery, and we must be content to deal with the two main springs of crime to which I have alluded, until the public mind is more enlightened on the subject. The recent Establishment of Baths and Wash-Houses for the Working Classes, and the efforts lately made to provide suitable and comfortable dwellings for the Poor, show that the current of public opinion is fast waking up to the paramount importance of domestic comforts to secure social happiness. Without them, HOME (that otherwise Magic word) can have no charms, for either the old or the young, and they are induced to seek pleasure abroad among the countless temptations of sin and depravity. Nothing can be more faithfully or more graphically depicted than the character and occupations of the young Thief of our great Towns, given by my excellent Friend and worthy colleague, Mr. Buchanan in his _Remarks on the causes and state of “Juvenile crime in the Metropolis,”_――but the remedy he proposes, falls far short I fear of what would be required to effect his purpose; and as I differ from him in some of the most prominent features of his plan, I am induced to follow his example and place my views before my brother Justices in a printed form for their consideration, in the hope that others will do the same, and that out of our various suggestions some practicable plan may be formed to meet the crying Evil which all admit, but for which so few seem prepared to suggest a remedy, and which has now become of such magnitude as to elicit universal and repeated complaints from Judges, and Juries, Justices, and Magistrates, and all concerned in the administration of our Criminal Laws.