for honest employment if it is closed against him, we prepare him for release, and by our Prisoners Aid Societies, now numbering thirty-six, we further his obtaining employment.

Reports were read to the Congress by Mr. Murray Browne, the Honorary Secretary to the Metropolitan Discharged Prisoners Relief Committee, and by Mr. Ranken, the Honorary Secretary of the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society at Charing Cross, which deals specially with those who have been in the convict establishments.

Nothing could be more satisfactory than the results shown by these gentlemen, and it may be stated that, in addition to the aids already mentioned, there are three female refuges in connection with the English convict establishments, which very materially assist in placing the deserving in employment, and Mrs. Meredith's Prisoners Aid Society.

The Act 25 and 26 Vic. c. 44 not only sanctions the giving aid to discharged prisoners, but renders the formation of societies for the purpose comparatively easy.

By the legislation of recent years we have at last realised the necessity of stamping out habitual crime as a pestilence, and so, under the Habitual Criminals Act of 1869, and the Prevention of Crime Act of 1871, the criminal now finds, on his liberation, that the facilities which formerly prevailed for the commission of crime no longer exist; he is now convinced that he cannot pursue crime with impunity, and that, if he still persists in following it, the vocation will be one of the utmost hazard. The State is thus following up its prison training by protecting the criminal against himself, and lessening his temptations by legislation so far as is practicable.

Registration of criminals, photography, and police supervision have conduced to this end; and those only can fully realise the advantages which have accrued therefrom who had opportunities of becoming acquainted with the immunity of the criminal classes which until lately existed.

The public are in very general accord that Mr. Bruce, the present Home Secretary, has given us good measures in the statutes which have been named, but not many are in a position to feel their full value, and know from how much we have been saved by such timely legislation.

Police supervision' has not been, as was anticipated by some persons a few years since, abused; it is used, and in the real interests of the criminal as well as of the public.

Concurrently with other information of great value given to the Congress by the eminent men who were present, we learnt with satisfaction that Germany had introduced a new Penal Code which had taken effect from January 1, 1872,' and in it we find that, analogous to the system of ticket-of-leave, the Penal Code admits of a provisional liberation of the convict on the presumption that he is a fit person to return to society-that prisoners sentenced to longer terms of imprisonment may be provisionally set at liberty, if they have conducted themselves well during threefourths of the term of imprisonment, not being less than one year. We also learn the pains taken by the Government to secure a careful and considerate supervision by the police, for the instructions declare the necessity which exists for a careful discrimination of the dif ferent classes of criminals, and mention that from misguided supervision reformation becomes frequently impossible.' The Minister exhorts the

6

It must be extremely gratifying to those who have long advocated a well-regulated police supervision,' to find Germany proceeding on the lines which, first laid down in Ireland, have since been followed with such advantage in Great Britain.

There was much interesting information on the Belgian system of prison discipline given to the Congress by M. Stevens, the Inspector of Prisons in Belgium, and there can be little doubt that, considered merely as a system of discipline within the prison, it has several recommendations.

Many experienced persons have seen these prisons, and most highly commend their appearance and order; but it will be observed, by what has been stated, that in our treatment of criminals we aim at a more comprehensive scheme than their mere prison discipline, and that in furtherance of this end we desire not only to give them corrective discipline, and to keep them orderly and cleanly, but, so far as may be possible, to make their treatment and tests of improvement of a natural description.

We endeavour to smooth their passage to an honest life by inducing persons to offer them employment, and we try to make them fit for it.

Artificial treatment would in this country entirely fail to attain this end; it is undeniable that under it prison offences might be diminished, and the responsibilities of manage ment would assuredly be lessened, but this is only one element in the consideration of a grave social question, which we have been called

upon to solve under very considerable difficulties.

There were many interesting and most instructive papers read to the Congress on the discipline and industries of prisons, and reformatory and industrial schools, which have just been published in the volume of Transactions.

It is certain that we are now proceeding on principles which have satisfactorily stood the test of information collected in a manner not possible in any country which does not register and supervise its criminals, and place them under disabilities. It is obviously worse than useless to compare and draw conclusions from statistics collected from different data, for they would entirely mislead the public; and this point is especially worthy of the consideration of the International Statistical Committee appointed to meet in Brussels during next September.

Under the strongest and most reliable test which has yet been applied in any country in order to obtain information. obtain information of liberated criminals, we find that, notwithstanding the increase of our population, and the improved machinery for the detection of offenders, serious crime has very materially decreased; we shall be, therefore, wise in proceeding according to the principles which have been laid down by the Government, and have been approved by the highest and most experienced authorities upon this subject.

At the same time, in developing these principles, there will be from time to time many improvements to make, the value of which can only be shown by experience. Although approving the general plan of our procedure, it cannot by any means be asserted that our labour in prisons is not capable of improvement, or that our education in these

establishments is given in the best and most intelligible form.

Progressive

classification has still to be improved and extended, and must be made imperative upon all gaol authorities. Repeated re-convictions with short sentences must no longer be practicable. The children of habitual criminals must be systematically taken from their parents under cl. 14 of the Prevention of Crime Act, and placed in industrial schools. Public prosecutors must be appointed. When these and some other matters have been attended to, the framework of principles laid down by legislation and authority will have been to some extent satisfactorily filled up.

The resolutions adopted by the Congress were in brief these:

-

The establishment of a progressive classification of prisoners in all gaols; that hope should be constantly sustained in the minds of prisoners by a system of rewards for good conduct and industrywhether in the shape of a diminution of sentence, a participation in earnings, a gradual withdrawal of restraint, or an enlargement of privilege.

That all disciplinary punishments that inflict unnecessary pain or humiliation should be abolished; and the penalties should, so far as possible, be the diminution of ordinary comforts, the forfeiture of some privilege, or of a part of the progress made towards liberation. Moral forces and motives should, in fact, be relied on, so far as is consistent with the due maintenance of discipline, and physical force should be employed only in the last necessity. The true principle is to place the prisonerwho must be taught that he has sinned against society, and owes reparation-in a position of stern adversity, from which he must work his own way out by his own exer

tions. To impel a prisoner to this self-exertion should be the aim of a system of prison discipline which can never be truly reformatory unless it succeeds in gaining the will of the convict.

That if a sound system of prison discipline be desirable, it is no less expedient that the prisoner, on his discharge, should be systematically aided to obtain employment, and to return permanently to the ranks of honest and productive industry. For this purpose a more comprehensive system than has yet been brought to bear seems to be desirable.

Attention is also called in the Report to the importance of preventive agencies, such as industrial schools.

It has been the object of the writer of this paper to endeavour, so far as space would permit, to correct the misapprehension upon certain points which prevailed in the minds of many members of the International Prison Congress;3 and to show by extracts from the address of the President, and by other statements referring to the subject, that the prison system of this country, as approved by the State, is, so far as its legal authority at present extends, in accord with the resolutions of the Executive Committee of the International Prison Congress. But, at the same time, in consequence of the want of power of the central authority to direct uniformity of treatment in local gaols, the principles approved and acted on in the establishments under the control of the Government are in some of the county and borough gaols in different stages of development, whilst in others, unfavourably commented on by members of the Congress, their development has, unfortunately, not even yet been attempted.

THE

HE ancient and picturesque foundation of God's Gift in Dulwich is about to undergo one of those inevitable transformations, which, however well adapted to the changed requirements of our times, can scarcely be regarded without a faint regret. The publication of a new scheme by the Endowed Schools Commissioners for the reorganisation and future administration of this great charity seems to furnish a fitting occasion for recalling attention to Edward Alleyn's original designs, to the manner in which they have been practically realised, and to the nature of those larger and more ambitious objects to which it is now proposed to apply his benevolent gift.

The period of Edward Alleyn's life covers the golden age of our national drama. Born in 1566, his 60 years included much of the life of Spenser, Sidney, Dekker, Webster, and Massinger, and nearly the whole of that of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Bacon, and Jonson. Coveting no name in literature, he yet appears to have been on terms of honourable friendship with some of the greatest writers of his day, and to have done much to redeem the profession of a player from the traditional discredit which still clung to it, even though the performances of bear-wards, minstrels, and players of vain interludes were being fast historic drama, and by a noble literature. Except Shakespeare, Alleyn is the only contemporary actor who is known to have made a fortune by the theatre; and the rapidity with which he added field to field, and sought after new investments, is a striking proof of the favour with which the English public welcomed the development of their national drama, aud rewarded its professors. Besides setting up almshouses and minor

charities elsewhere, he contrived to a of purchase, at a cost of nearly 9,000l., the manor of Dulwich and adjacent properties, and on it to establish as his most enduring monument his College of God's Gift. He had been much impressed with a visit he paid to the foundation of Thomas Sutton at the Charter-house, and desired to emulate his deeds. With how much care and affection he set about this task, and framed the statutes for the future administration of the College; how thankfully he welcomed the Lord Chancellor Bacon, Mr. Inigo Jones, and many other notables to the religious services and banquet with which he distinguished the great day of his life, that of the opening of the new College in September 1619; how calmly he and his wife betook themselves for the remnant of their days to the shelter of the new home they had thus created for others; occasionally recreating themselves, in memory of old times, with the performance of a play by the boys of the school; how they subjected themselves to the same rules and lived the same life as the recipients of their bounty, may all be read in the curious narrative which the zeal of Mr. Collier and of the Shakespeare Society has pieced together from the fragmentary documents preserved at Dulwich. I like well,' said the Lord Keeper Verulam, 'that Allen playeth the last act of his life so well.'

Yetto Bacon's foresight and statesmanship the disposition of his property made by the player, did not seem to be entirely wise. It was natural that Alleyn in the evening of his days should picture to himself a retreat which should be a safe harbour from the cares of life, where, to the end of time, six poor men and six poor women, under the supervision of a master, warden, and four fellows, and with the help of a

skilful organist, should always worship God together, and

Husband out life's taper at the close,
And keep the flame from wasting by repose.

On this the eleemosynary part of his foundation, he evidently bestowed more thought than upon the provision for the education of twelve boys in good literature, whom, nevertheless, he desired to be added to the little community. To Bacon, who was officially cognisant of the proceedings for legalising the appropriation of the estate to this purpose, it seemed that it would be well to devote more to education and less to charity. There was, he said, great want of lectureships in Oxford and Cambridge, foundations of singular honour and usefulness, whereas hospitals abound, and beggars abound never a whit less.'

Bacon's efforts to procure a more favourable apportionment of the estate to educational objects were overruled, but have been abundantly justified by the subsequent history of the foundation. Experience has shown that a quasimonastic community of old people, separated from their own friends and relatives, bound, it is true, by no vows, but subjected to religious and other restraints which are alien to the habits of their life, is one of the least happy and restful of societies; and that the creation of artificial substitutes of this kind for true homes is one of the most wasteful and ineffective of all forms of benevolence. Moreover, as the legal estate was vested in the master, warden, and fellows, it has happened, as years went on and the property increased, that the full advantage of the increase has been shared by these functionaries, while the comforts of the almsmen were not augmented, and the twelve poor boys, in wretched isolation from all the influences by which the life of a good school is sustained, were for

many generations compelled to be content with a charity-school education of the most meagre quality.

That Alleyn's work was one of true and wise beneficence does not, however, appear at the time to have been doubted by anyone but Bacon. From grateful dramatists like Heywood, from noblemen like the Earl of Arundel, even from a clergyman like Stephen Gosson, whose Pleasant Invective against Players, Jesters, and such like Caterpillars of a Commonwealth, had been published shortly before, there came a cordial recognition of the player's goodness, or offers of aid and co-operation.

On the other hand, Alleyn, of course, could not escape calumny. There were those who described him as having been frightened by an apparition of the Devil, while playing Marlowe's Faustus, and so driven by remorse for his share in a demoralising pursuit into acts of restitution and atonement. Others, such as the anonymous author of the Return to Parnassus, ascribed his doings to vulgar ostentation—