At this time the committee reported warmly in favor of an institution for their reception, but expressed doubts whether the Society had the needful means to establish it, or the legal powers that would be required for its management. It was resolved to call a meeting of citizens on the first day of February ensuing, before which the subject should be fully opened. An address was agreed upon to be submitted to the meeting, in which a brief history was given of the melioration of the penal laws and institutions of the State, and of the encouraging result, and a confidence was expressed in a still further improvement on the completion of the two Penitentiaries—the eastern and western. “But,” it was added, “as our true policy, as well as our manifest duty, consists not less in preventing crime, and checking the tendency to it, than in punishing and reclaiming the overt offender, the restraint and reformation of children and youth exposed to criminal habits, becomes an imperative obligation.” They, therefore, earnestly commended the new project to the meeting of citizens to be assembled under their call. These views were cordially responded to by the meeting, and action being promptly taken, resulted in the erection of a “House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents,” which was opened for inmates on the 1st of December, 1828, and the benefit the Institution has conferred on the community, and on the class for whose reception it was intended, are generally felt and acknowledged. And it is believed that many individuals, who are now reputable members of the community, would have been at this time deeply steeped in criminality, and degraded outcasts of society, if it had not been for the protecting care and moral training of such an institution, extended to them in their youthful days, when first tempted to turn aside from the paths of virtue and rectitude. _Proposed Improvements._—In July, 1827, in anticipation of the approaching completion of the Eastern Penitentiary, the Society appointed a committee to prepare a memorial to the Legislature, setting forth the importance of carrying into full effect the _principle of separation, &c._ And in July, 1829, another memorial was forwarded, embracing the two following suggestions:— 1. That criminal courts be so organized, as that the prisons may be speedily delivered of all persons held to answer for offences, &c. 2. That provision be made for the complete separation of all persons committed for trial, or as vagrants, as well as those under sentence.