as a convict witness said (Q. 6,342) are only waiting to get off to the guard room. Might not the superintendent of work see that the warders should have or should acquire sufficient knowledge to supervise work, and result fees might be allowed for successful trade instruction.
4. Formation of moveable prisons for the undertaking of public and reclamation works through the country.
5. In Lusk or elsewhere, selected for agricultural labour, the term should be not as now six or seven months, but a minimum of twelve, which seems essential for due instruction in farm work.
6. All prisoners sentenced for one year or upwards should be liable to the strict labour discipline, and be transferable to convict working parties as convenience might direct.
I can scarcely touch to-night upon my second essential—the removal from the country of habitual criminals on discharge; without this no labour system, however perfect, can suffice; of the men discharged from Lusk some two-thirds emigrate, and of these 80 per cent, reform; of those who return to the city 80 per cent, relapse, sinking with the gravitation of dregs.
To urge return to transportation in face of our vast existing convict systems, would be visionary here; yet I never forget, that though transportation is disused as a practice, and formally abolished by the Act of 1857 (20 & 21 Vic. c. 3), which is the charter of penal servitude, yet the statute itself provides that convicts may be detained in any place in Her Majesty's dominions, and the Lords and Commons' Committes, 1856-57, preceding that statute, unanimously reported for the retention of transportation on overwhelming evidence of its superiority both to deter and to reform, and for its ultimate results to the empire at home and abroad. The disregard of the safeguards devised to meet colonial jealousies led, as I before observed, to its abolition. It would still, however, be possible to frame a scheme of government deportation, in concert with the colonial authorities, by which duly trained convicts might be transferred for assigned labour, public and private, in our possessions; but I presume no government will entertain such a project, at least until state assisted emigration of prisoners has been more fully tried.
Our machinery for this is much in arrear of England. Irish male convicts may purchase emigration tickets with their gratuities; but they are then landed penniless and friendless, and in danger of sinking in the transatlantic cities. We have no Irish society for aid of male prisoners on discharge.
In London the Royal Society for the Assistance of Discharged Prisoners began in 1857, and up to 1881 had dealt with 12,538 male and female ticket-of-leave convicts. The Queen is patron, the Duke of Westminster, president, and the vice-presidents and committee, comprising members of both Houses, and some cabinet ministers, include many of the chief prison authorities, and their subscription-revenue is about £1,000 a year. The convicts' gratuities are paid to this Society and by them laid out for their benefit. Mr. Ranken, who from its birth has acted as hon. secretary, told the Commissioners (Q. 13,374) that up to 1879 they had emigrated 2,000 convicts, and
