“Alas for missionary efforts, so long as the grasping avarice of the countries, whence the missionaries go, sets at nought every Christian obligation before the very eyes of the people whom it is sought to convert!  Most devoutly do we long for the auspicious day, when the pure religion, that distilled from the heart, and was embodied in the life of Jesus, shall shed its sacred influence on every human being; but, in our inmost soul we believe it will not come, till the principles of religion shall take a firmer hold on the affections of those who profess to receive it, and rear a righteous embankment around their sordid and stormy passions.  When the missionary shall find an auxiliary in the stainless life of every compatriot who visits the scene of his labors, for purposes of pleasure or of gain,—­when he can point not only to the pure maxims and sublime doctrines proclaimed by the Founder of his faith, but to the clustering graces that adorn its professors,—­then indeed will the day dawn, and the day star of the millennium arise upon the world.”

During my short stay in Philadelphia on this occasion, I visited several of its prisons, philanthropic institutions, et cet.  These are pre-eminently the glory of this beautiful city; yet as they have been often described, I shall pass them by in silence, with the exception of two, the Refuge, and the Penitentiary; which I briefly notice because I may offer a few general remarks in another place, on the important subject of prison discipline.  The Refuge is an asylum for juvenile delinquents, founded on the just and benevolent principle that offences against society, committed by very young persons, should be disciplined by training and education, rather than by punishment.  In this establishment there are from eighty to ninety boys, and from forty to fifty girls, of ages varying from eight to twenty-one years.  The former are employed in various light handicraft trades, and the latter in domestic services, and both spend a portion of their time in school.  They remain from six months to four years.  From the statements of the superintendent and matron, it appeared that about three-fourths of the male, and four-fifths of the female inmates become respectable members of society, and the remainder are chiefly such as are fifteen or sixteen years of age when first admitted into the Refuge, an age at which character may be considered as in a great measure formed.  The labor of the children pays about one-fifth of the expense of the establishment, the rest being defrayed by the legislature.

The prejudice of color intrudes even here, no children of that class being admitted into the Refuge.  Colored delinquency is left to ripen into crime, with little interference from public or private philanthropy.  As might have been expected, colored are more numerous than white criminals, in proportion to relative population; and this is appealed to as a proof of their naturally vicious and inferior character; when in fact the government and society at large are chargeable with their degradation.