The next great object of my concern was to attend to the state of the junior convicts, who amounted to twenty-three, most of whom were mere boys, the whole of them being under twenty years of age, and some of them so young as thirteen. Whilst the elder convicts, to whom particularly the system applied, were receiving the benefit of religious instruction, it would appear cruel and highly censurable to withhold similar advantages from those unfortunate children. I therefore had them all mustered, and examined them individually, to ascertain if any of them could read: to my great surprise and disappointment, as has been already mentioned, not more than five out of the entire number were found possessed of that attainment, and but few of the others could distinguish the letters of the alphabet. This discovery, however, did not discourage my purpose; I immediately formed them into a school, under the care of a convict whose remarkable regard of good order at the time induced me to trust him, he accordingly superintended the school, and taught the boys regularly every day. To give as much vigour as possible to the work, I regularly attended, and taught lessons from 11 till 12 every day, encouraging them by all the means in my power to exert themselves, and vie with each other in application. The deplorable neglect shown to the early state of the minds of those boys forcibly excited compassion. They never had had the slightest attention paid to their education; if they had been instructed in aught, it was in those infamous arts which brought them into their present situation. The profligate wretches who were the means of giving existence to those children, had their pursuits most likely directed to gain possession of other persons’ property unjustly, and had neither leisure nor inclination to attend to the cultivation of their youthful minds; but rather shrunk from the contrast they must have observed, if they were capable of so judging, between their children and themselves. They must then be sensible of their own miserable degradation in character, from their vicious mode of living, and would tremble with horror at the superiority of their offspring above themselves, had they been blessed with a virtuous education. To avoid even this tacit condemnation of their conduct, their little ones are generally neglected by their brutal father, or flung into the vortex of their unhappy mother’s vices and gross indulgences. Little can the grief of those unnatural parents avail, or excite sympathy, when their children, in imitation, perhaps, of their parents’ pernicious example, or probably instigated by their bidding, have committed those acts which bring them rapidly into disgrace and punishment.