Item 164 - Incomplete letter from Sydney Turner

ST encloses printed papers which he promised WW: 'They contain the Report of the Society's proceedings during the last 12 months - and a General Account of its origin and Constitution'. The greatest claim the Society has on the public is its preventative agency: 'It not only takes boys who have been convicted and punished - but in certain cases receives them before they are exposed to the infection and corrupt association of a Prison'. Conversely, the 'Government and the Public Agencies which it may set in motion may most properly interfere with the young criminal after he has come by the process of his trial and correction - into their hands - But it would be scarcely possible for them to interfere with the numbers of vicious and vagrant lads which every great town contains - in those earlier stages of their career when they come most open to Reform - and when Society has suffered the least from their depravity'. ST encloses a report he drew up in conjunction with Mr Paynter. However, he fears that any chance of turning the Philanthropic 'into an efficient Country Establishment on such a scale as could be called national' has been delayed by Sir G. Grey who has not yet given a decision. The Committee would like WW's 'Sermon to be printed and distributed among the friends of the Institution. We have found this a very valuable assistance to our work - as it connects it in the minds of our subscribers with those Religious views and motives - with which it is most properly associated in its principles and objects'.