E.—ll.

influence of his promiscuous liberality in clothes and maintenance they were developing the pauper characteristic* of dependence and expectancy, and at the same time beooming a nuisance by trespass and depredations. Two thoughts Hashed into the mind of the embarrassed philanthropist: the first was 'nothing without labour'; the second, 'trial by jury, ami police service furnished l>v the boys themselves.' The improvement realised in the summer of 1895 was so marked thai the plan was made permanent, and the manifest importance of continuity decided Mr. George two years later to discontinue the holiday work in favour of a permanent institution embodying the ideas of a Junior Republic "The property in question consists of •'!."><) acres of land and a village of some twenty-live buildings, of which ten are the cottage homes of the young citizens. There is a body of trustees. the members of which are found in New York, Boston, and other cities, and, by a peculiarity not obviously desirable, the list is completely changed every year. The government on tlie spot is at -erious business, practical education, and varied entertainment. " The slum boys of New York ohanged promptly into the citizens of Freeville, and each one shouldered the burden of office to which the votes of his fellow-citizens called him. The boy judge searching for precedents or authorities in the library, in view of a serious case, and the little jailer keeping guard ever a oouple of hulking offenders, either of whom could have made short work with him in the Bowery of New York, strikingly illustrate the new order, though in COD nection with the failure which more or less attaches to all things human; while the risk of hasty Legislation is impressively taught by the experience of the Republic when it passed a law in favour of an eight-hours day. ami then, finding that the girls had in consequence prepared no supper, promptly rescinded the unworkable ordinance. '"The president and three members of his cabinet are elected annually by the citizens, and the president then appoints the girl judge, the boy judge, the girl district attorney, the box district attorney, police offioers, ami prison warders. A meeting for legislation by the citizens is held each month, the local ordinances, such as the prohibition of smoking, l>oin<; added to the laws of the Stale of \eu York. A session of court is held every Tuesday, when all offences of the previous week are tried before the judge and a jury (usually of four). The convicted offender must serve a term in jail, working for the Government instead of himself, ami getting nothing but prison fare. The free citizen is paid for all lie does in cheques on the ' Citizens' National Bank,' and pays for all he gets in the same currency. ' Nothing without labour ' was the formative idea of the ltepublic, as it has ever since been its motto, outt ing at the root evil of laziness and fostering independence and efficiency. " The home-life is secured by grouping ten or twelve boys or girls in a cottage, under a bouse father and mother, or the latter only ; yet the accommodation is graded according to the value of work, and each young citizen makes his own arrangement, according to his ability, with the nagers of cottage, store, or farm, and becomes responsible for t lie payment of board and lodging, clothes, laundry, poll-tax, and other expenses. The average wage is in cents an hour, but half of the ten WOrking-hours of the day are spent by most, in school, and for these, of course, there is no payment. There is a corps of seven teachers, ami the curriculum includes a college preparatory course. It is claimed that nearly all the children of the little Republic have turned out will, a few of them being now in the learned professions, but the bulk in respectable trades. The Cele brated Judge Lindsey, of the Denver Juvenile Court, after two visits to Freeville, has written this year, ' 1 simply cannot say too much for the plan. I do wish some Carnegie or Rockefeller would endow a wink like that of Mr. George's. My dream and hope is to see such a republic established in connection with eveiy large citj .' "The State of Maryland supports a similar work near Baltimore, under the ambitious designation of 'The American Junior Republic' This is still iii its infancy. It has most of the Features of the G.J.H., with, perhaps, a little more of the reformatory element and government dictation. " "But by far the most important of these juvenile communities is the School City, which was founded by Mr. Wilson (lill in 1897, and of which the prospective sphere is as wide as the system of national education. Mr. 4- i 11 had himself learned much in the school of Pestalozzi and Froebel, as a pupil of the earliest kindergarten in America. After extensive study in social and political economy, and .some wars of successful business, he conceived the idea of teaching children the ethics of citizenship through the experience of responsibility. His first experiment was daring and decisive. He took in hand a school of 1,000 children in one of the lowest parts of New York, in which an accomplished disciplinarian was in despair, and policemen were in constant charge of playgrounds. A chartei of self-government was given to the uncontrollable, the duties of office were explained, an election of representatives was held under expert guidance, and then a miniature municipality was started. Within a week the school was a model of order, the whole of the discipline being maintained by the children themselves; by-laws were passed and observed, ami occasional transgressions were reasonably punished. "The plan is adapted to schools of every kind above those for infants, and is susceptible of much variation, being sometimes established in a single room of a school, as, by Mr. Gill himself, in South Boston, and at others, as in Lowell (Mass.). gathering many primary schools around a large grammar school; a city government being established in each of the former, while the latter oentralises a state government for the whole district. President Roosevelt, and President Eliot of Harvard University, were among Mr. Gill's early converts. " The word ' republic ' will present a difficulty to some English minds. There is no need to adopt it. : the Junior City 'or ' the School City ' suggesting all that is needed. It is interesting to note that Mr. George, while speaking of ' the govei nmeiit. ' as ' that phase of the senior republic which commands the greatest attention,' observes that 'the plan is similar in many respects to

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