These opinions, formed from an intimate acquaintance with the practical working of the system, are entitled to weight. We do not adopt nor reject them. We do not say that any material modification of the present rules of admission, or of the form of discipline is practicable. But, if the views we have ever held respecting the design of a House of Refuge are just, viz., to rescue those whose childhood lies all _open to evil examples and influences, and to put them under treatment, which shall resemble, in its main features, that of a good home_, then are we clear, that a more rigid discrimination in the admission of inmates should be observed. The most hopeful subjects of such domestic discipline, are those who have not past into that stage of moral and intellectual stupor and impenetrability, on which ordinary sympathies fall as water-drops upon a marble slab. Notwithstanding the sad neglects and abuses they have suffered, there are still impulses in their young natures, which can be worked upon by kind words and approving smiles, and indeed, their present unhappy condition is owing, in no small measure, to the absence of such influences from the place which (for want of a better) they call their _home_. We have known cases, not a few, in which the manifestation of a real interest in the welfare of a child at a favorable moment, has been, in its effects, like the gushing forth of a living spring from the smitten rock. And it is in this view, that we most highly commend a recent measure in the institution, whose report is now under review, viz., the employment of an intelligent, judicious, capable female, to supervise with maternal care and tenderness the moral and physical condition of the boys. We all know with how many chords the human heart is strung, which vibrate only to the soft breath of sympathy. A gentle accent--a trifling act of kindness, or even a glance of pity, will awaken their harmonies, and fill the heart of the rudest child with what may well pass for rapture. There is a period, however, at which these better feelings become comparatively incapable of excitement. They have either lost their vitality by abuse or neglect, or they have been overborne and swallowed up by the ebbless tide of vicious associations and indulgencies. The voice of virtuous charmers is no longer heard, charm they never so wisely. But we cannot enlarge on this fruitful topic, suffice it to say that some of the defects of the present system are remediable, as we have already intimated, and others are inseparable from the very nature and design of the institution, and can only be set over against the greater good.