Every great city contains a large floating population, whose indolence, prodigality, and intemperance are proverbial, culminating in great domestic and social evil. From these discordant circles spring an army of neglected or ill-trained children, devoted to vagrancy and crime, who early find their way into the almshouse or the prison, and continue a life-long burden upon the community. It becomes the duty of the guardians of the public weal to search out methods for the relief of society from these intolerable burdens, and the recovery of the wayward as far as possible. That a necessity existed for the establishment of this Institution, appears from the fact that two companies of distinguished philanthropists, in ignorance of each other, arose in the autumn of 1849, to inaugurate some movement for the suppression of juvenile crime. Each company applying to the Mayor, they were happily united, and after careful discussion, and repeated appeals to the Legislature, the New York Juvenile Asylum was incorporated June 30, 1851, with twenty-four managers, the Mayor, the Presidents of the Board of Aldermen and Assistants, and some other officials, being ex-officio members of its board. After the failure of their first application to the Legislature for a charter, in 1850, a number of Christian ladies formed an association, and opened an "Asylum for Friendless Boys," in a hired building, No. 109 Bank street. They entered this inviting field with considerable enthusiasm, and toiled with marked success until the chartering of the society, when they voluntarily transferred their charge, consisting of fifty-seven boys, to the managers of the new Institution. The charter made it obligatory upon the board that the sum of $50,000 should be obtained from voluntary subscriptions, before it should be entitled to ask from the city authorities for a similar sum, or to call upon them to support its pupils. The board was permanently organized November 14, 1851, and so vigorous were the exertions of its members, that, by the following October, the required $50,000 were pledged, and an appeal to the supervisors was responded to one month later with a similar sum, thus securing $100,000 for a permanent location and buildings. After taking possession of the building in Bank street, a House of Reception was, at the beginning of 1853, opened on the same premises, and soon after a building at the foot of Fifty-fifth street, East river, was leased, to be occupied temporarily as an Asylum. During the year 626 children were received, and during 1854 no less than 1,051 were admitted, making a permanent family of two hundred. The buildings being uncomfortably crowded and illy adjusted for such an enterprise, the Institution seriously suffered in all its branches. After much difficulty the board selected and purchased twenty-five acres of rocky land at One Hundred and Seventy-sixth street, near the High Bridge, where very commodious buildings were erected of stone quarried from the premises, and made ready for occupation in April, 1856, with accommodation for five hundred children. The buildings have been several times enlarged, and now consist of a central five-story, skirted by two vast wings of four stories each, supplemented with rear extensions, and appropriate outbuildings for shops, play, etc. A three-story brick, one hundred and eight by forty-two feet, has just been erected to supply some needed class-rooms, a better gymnasium; a swimming bath, and the appropriate industrial departments. The cost of these buildings has exceeded $140,000. They stand on a lofty eminence, two points only on the island being higher, surrounded with cultivated gardens, finely-arranged gravel walks and carriage-ways, and with play-grounds covered with asphaltum, and shaded with trees of rare growth. A large platform, with seats, has been erected on the central roof of the main Asylum, affording visitors an extended view of the enchanting scenery of Fort Washington and the High Bridge. The location in summer is one of the choicest in the world, though somewhat bleak in winter.