There was a poor widow, very near the school, who was frequently to be seen with her face dreadfully bruised by blows from her own son.

He had been taken before a magistrate, and imprisoned for three months, but it did him no good, for he afterwards beat his mother as much as ever, and the poor woman had it in contemplation to get the miscreant sent out of the country.

One Sunday, I remember to have seen a boy, under twelve years of age, take up a large stone to throw at his mother: he had done something wrong in the house, and the mother followed him into the street with a small cane, to correct him for it; but he told his mother, that if she dared to approach him, he would knock her down.

The mother retired, and the boy went where he pleased.

These and many similar scenes I have witnessed; and I am afraid that many such characters have been so completely formed as to be past reformation.