inquiry, if need be, by the officers of the Society, the course to be taken in each case is decided upon and carried out as soon as possible, either by the officers of the Society or through other agency.  In cases of emigration and other cases where it is advisable, the gratuities received from Government are supplemented by donations from the funds of the Society; and, if not already supplied by the prison authorities, a respectable suit of clothes of a character fitted for the work on which the recipient is to be employed is provided.

“The cases of men or women who elect to remain in or near the Metropolis are usually dealt with directly by members of the Committee and officers of the Society; others prefer to seek work for themselves; but, meanwhile, respectable lodgings are provided till work is obtained.  Others who prefer a sea life are sent to the care of agents until ships can be found for them—­a few selected cases are sent abroad.”  In the case of persons proceeding to seek work at a distance from London, the Royal Society communicates with Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Societies in the country, and these Societies take such cases in hand.

Another admirable Society for dealing with discharged convicts is the St Giles’ Mission, Brook St. Holborn.  This Society provides a home for the person whose sentence has expired; it is managed by a man (Mr. Wheatley) possessed of an unsurpassed knowledge of the work; and it is year by year rendering effective service to the convict population.  Some idea of the work accomplished by Societies such as those just mentioned may be gathered from the fact that about two thirds of the discharged convicts are annually passing through their hands; the other third declining or not requiring assistance by such methods.  What is wanted to perfect the working of the institutions we are now describing is increased public support; even now the Royal Society was able to state in one of its reports, “that no discharged convict, who is physically capable and willing to work, has any excuse for relapsing into crime.”

This brief sketch of the manner in which a sentence of penal servitude is carried into effect will afford some idea of the nature of this method of punishment.  We shall now proceed to describe another mode of dealing with offenders against the fundamental order of society.  In addition to convict establishments there exists throughout the United Kingdom a large number of places of confinement called Local Prisons.  In England and Wales there are about sixty Local Prisons; in Scotland there are about twenty; in Ireland there are about eighteen.  In Scotland and Ireland persons sentenced to a few days’ imprisonment are often confined in police cells, in England all convicted offenders serve their sentence, however short, in a regular Local Prison.