[Samuel Warren, Victorian novelist and barrister.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Samuel Warren') to the editor of the Courant newspaper, regarding his 'charge' to the grand jury at Hull, and a planned '“Reformatory School” for juvenile criminals' there.

Author: 
Samuel Warren (1807-1877), novelist, barrister and Member of Parliament, Recorder of Hull [nineteenth-century reformatory schools; juvenile criminals in Victorian England]
Publication details: 
Vittoria Hotel, Hull. 29 October 1854.
£120.00
SKU: 22110

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased. Folded twice. Addressed 'To the Editor of the Courant'. Having been made Recorder of Hull in 1852, Warren begins his letter from that place: 'Sir, | Some friend has sent to me your paper of Thursday, last, containing a very kindly notice on my late Charge to the Grand Jury here. - I beg to thank you for that kindness, and also to express my concurrence in your observation on the important legal & Social topics to which that Charge referred.' He is sending, 'as an Evidence of the Salutary effect which that “Charge” produced, a copy of the “Presentment” as we call it, of the Grand Jury, to me, in open Court – read by the Foreman.' With the chief magistrate sitting beside him, Warren answered the foreman by stating that after his charge 'the Magistrates had met, & had resolved forthwith to establish a “Reformatory School” for juvenile criminals.' He concludes by stating that he concurs ('ex mio corde') 'in every word of the last section of the article to which I have referred'. In a postscript he states that when he answered the foreman with the news about the reformatory school, 'there began a demonstration of applause in the criminal court which I found it difficult to suppress'.