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There are more than 27,000 persons lying in those prisons constantly. If from arriving at a mistaken result one third or one half of these persons are kept in prisons in excess of what is necessary, the amount of the nation's happiness is lessened to an extent by no means trifling.

In administering the penalty of imprisonment, the economy of pain leads to a conclusion in favour of compressing the penal element into shorter periods of time under a rigorous separate discipline, instead of expanding it over longer periods of time in association.

The longer sentences tell upon the faculties of prisoners; the severe discipline does not.

The popular opinion that a separate discipline cannot be prolonged beyond twelve months is founded on error. The objection shows that the principle of the separate system is not correctly understood. The evidence is conclusive that a separate discipline may be enforced for long terms with perfect safety. Now and then injury to the mind may be produced, but the cases ought to be very rare. Injury both to mind and body will occasionally result from any form of severe punishment; even curative processes sometimes do great injury.

The use of chloroform is occasionally fatal; but this does not overthrow the use of it. If at any hospital the deaths from it were frequent, this would be evidence that it was not administered properly. It is the same with the separate system of prison discipline.

The economy of prison labour and financial economy are necessarily passed over. If the principles advocated in the former papers were acted upon, one third or one half of the cells in county and borough prisons would be left vacant.

If the principles advanced in this third paper were acted upon, those vacant cells would be filled with prisoners undergoing penal servitude, and the convict prisons would be nearly emptied.

Further investigation of these principles is invited. It is submitted that they are based upon laws of man's moral nature, which govern even governments, and which states cannot contravene with impunity.

On the present extent of Slavery and the Slave Trade, with a reference to the Progress of Abolition since the close of the American War. By the Rev. AARON BUSACCTT.

Slavery now prevailed in Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Tunis, Morocco, Madagascar, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Affghanistan, and in the dominions of the Seyyid of Zanzibar, and amongst the different tribes of East and Central Africa. Every continent shared in this great crime. In Turkey it was a vast national institution, degrading the dignity of labour, demoralizing domestic relations, and paralyzing the influences of modern civilization. Portugal had the will but not the power to abolish slavery throughout her territories. From 6000 to 10,000 slaves were annually conveyed from the Portuguese coasts of Mozambique to Madagascar. Spain stood alone among the nations of Europe in resolutely maintaining slavery in Cuba. At the lowest estimate it was computed that 70,000 Africans yearly crossed the sea into slavery; and, accepting Dr. Livingstone's estimate of the numbers massacred by slave-hunters and perishing on the route to the sea-coast, it was computed that not less than 500,000 were annually sacrificed. The author questioned the efficacy of having treaties for the suppression of slavery, when these were only meant to worry petty Arabs or African chiefs, or the Seyyid of Zanzibar, while other and stronger nations were left to do what they wished. He then pointed out that at the close of the American war 4,000,000 of slaves were set free, and he was glad to say that America at this moment was more severe against complicity in slavery than even English law. And now that America had lent her influence on the side of the slave, he thought there would be no difficulty in abolishing slavery. Portugal had desired that the slaves in some of her islands should be free, but it was questionable whether the decree was in any measure operative. The Queen of Madagascar in 1874 issued a proclamation granting freedom to all slaves imported since June 1865 (the date of the treaty with Great Britain, America, and France);

but there was no evidence that one slave had been freed through that proclamation. Even so late as last year Arab merchants openly exposed slaves for sale in the capital, and no attempt had yet been made to give freedom to the masses of slaves who were natives of Madagascar. After referring to the exertions made by Dr. Kirk, through whom the Sultan of Zanzibar had been brought to make the treaty with England, he said that, according to Lord Derby, the Foreign Office was in communication with the Turkish and Egyptian Governments with a view to the suppression of the slave trade. Thus far has the slave trade been abolished; but the progress of this movement depended entirely upon a strong public opinion. Circumstances were propitious, and an earnest effort might now realize all the sacred conditions of British freedom.

On some Special Evils of the Scottish Poor Law. By ALEX. M'NEEL CAIRD.

The author, after referring to the position of the poor people before the disruption, and the fact that in some measure it led to the passing of the Poor Law Act of 1845, said that in Scotland the parish minister and five of his elders were entitled to life-seats at the Parochial Board for managing the poor, while in fewer than one in seven of the whole parishes an equal number of members were permitted to be elected by the ratepayers. There were 326 parishes out of 811 in which the elected members were restricted by the Board of Supervision to a third of those entitled to seats by reason of ecclesiastical office. There were not a few parishes in which only one member was permitted to be elected. Thus a perilous system had grown up of men who contributed little, having the power of spending the money of ratepayers, who had no voice in their appointment and no power to remove them. The constant vigilance necessary to keep pauperism within bounds was not likely to find a place under such a system. Then the advance of expenditure for the poor in Scotland was found in 1847 to be £433,915, and in 1875 £794,916. In England, in 1847, the expenditure was £5,298,787, and in 1874, the latest report, it was £7,664,957; while in Ireland, in 1852 (the earliest report he could get), the sum expended was £884,260, while in 1875 it was only £771,553. In Ireland there had been a reduction instead of a growth in the total cost, even including able-bodied, where the population was only five and a half millions; whereas in Scotland the population was only three millions, and the able-bodied had no claim on the rates. That was explained by the known excess to which outdoor relief was carried on in Scotland under ecclesiastical managers. Of 176,787 receiving relief in 1874, only 7752 were in the poorhouse; while in England only one in five of the poor were put on indoor relief, and in Ireland forty-four were in the workhouse for every thirty who got outdoor relief. The independence which formerly characterized the Scottish peasantry had been undermined and destroyed through the facility with which outdoor relief had been given. An illustration of the lax management was to be found in the extent to which loose women of the parish-unmarried women with children-received stipends from the poor-rates, enabling them to live manifestly to their neighbours in greater ease than others of their rank. In the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright there were found on the rolls eightyseven dissolute women having 207 children, of whom only three women having eight children were sent to the poorhouse. One parish in that county stood among the highest in Europe for bastardy. In January 1875 there were in the southern district of Scotland alone 741 women with 1473 illegitimate children receiving parish relief; and in another district, in May 1875, there were on the outdoor roll 330 cases of single women with illegitimate children. Could it be wondered, therefore, that under such a system, patronized by the Church and its ministers-undesignedly no doubt, but very effectually-the growth of immorality in Scotland should have become so appalling. Did anybody believe that if the management were substantially in the hands of Christian men, elected by those who provided the funds, that such a system could live for three months? Another evil was the area for rating and settlement. That in Scotland was limited to parishes: in England there were only €47 of such areas, while in Scotland there were 804. In England the population to each area was 35,972, while in 1876,

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Scotland it was only 4280; and London, with a population equal to Scotland, had only thirty. Nearly one in three of these areas in Scotland had fewer than 1000 inhabitants, and every tenth parish fewer than 500. That caused a great inequality of rating between neighbouring parishes, and a multitude of petty administrations with limited views and increased expenses, and continual interparochial conflicts. As an instance of that, he mentioned that in the Barony parish of Glasgow alone there were commonly between 2000 and 3000 undetermined cases of settlement. Again, the law of settlement was adverse to freedom of liberty, and the effect of it was that a man whose settlement was in a small parish was practically limited to the inhabitants of that parish to find customers for his labour. It operated by creating a fictitious interest, in every land- or house-owner, farmer, and ratepayer feeling it their duty to prevent a man being in their parish long enough to obtain a settlement there. The field for a labouring man was therefore physically limited to narrow bounds round the place where he lived, and any arrangement which artificially increased his difficulty in obtaining a house in another district, where he could have steadier work and better wages, was a source of oppression to him. The law of settlement in narrow areas had led to the pulling down of houses and restriction of the accommodation of labourers in county parishes in Scotland, and one result of that was that nearly one third of the whole people of Scotland lived in houses of one room. That was a fact which required to be enforced on the Legislature, in order that wider bounds of settlement might be adopted, as had been done eleven years ago in England.

On the part in the Operation of Capital due to Fixed or Limited Amounts invested in Trade. By HYDE CLARKE, F.S.S.

The author stated that it was popularly considered that capital in its excess or in its deficiency was uniform in its influence in all branches of commerce; and he called attention to branches of trades wherein the amount of capital indicated could not practically be increased. A ready-money tradesman, as a baker, might be quoted as an example; and the total of such operations was large. In England, France, and Germany there were a number of persons engaged in such trades, the savings of which in times of prosperity went to form a fund for the larger operations of commerce, and the disturbance of which aggravated the severity of a period of pressure.

On recent attempts at Patent Legislation. By ST. JOHN V. DAY, C.E. &c.

The author holds that the Lord Chancellor's Bill of 1876 is entirely contrary to what is wanted for the maintenance of an efficient Patent Law; he points out the insufficiency of the numbers of examiners for which the Bill provides. Examination can be and ought to be effectually carried out.

The paper contains statistics for the requirements and practice advocated, shows on what grounds it is desirable to maintain the existing practice of granting provisional protection upon the filing of a provisional specification; the practice of preparing abridgements is unnecessary, and serves no practical end, as in all cases it is essential to refer to the complete specifications themselves.

The author also discusses the clause of the Bill dealing with what the examiners are to report upon, compulsory licenses, &c.

On the Importance of extending the British Gold Standard, with subordinate Silver Coins, to India as a remedy for the inconvenience in India of a rapid Depreciation of Silver. By W. NEILSON HANCOCK, LL.D.

It was obvious to those who had read the report of the Committee on the Depreciation of Silver that the British currency occupied an exceptionally satisfactory position for meeting the great fluctuation in value which silver was undergoing. In India, under the government of the East-India Company, the primitive arrange

ment of a silver standard was allowed to remain; and this unsatisfactory state of matters continued till 1837, when, although a new rupee was established, the use of silver as a standard was left unchanged. The result has been that the depreciation of silver has produced a most serious disturbance in the exchanges between this country and India, and has disturbed trade and monetary transactions in India generally. One of the causes of disturbance was the discovery of the fertile silvermines in California; and he regretted to say that there was no guarantee against a further and still more disturbing fall in the value of silver, like what took place in the sixteenth century after the discovery of the silver-mines of Potosi. Had the assimilation of the Indian and British currencies taken place in 1816 or 1833 no difficulty would have arisen any more than it had done in Canada or Australia. He did not think that the change of the standard from silver to gold would involve any change in the mode of keeping accounts in rupees. All that was required was to fix the proportion at which a sovereign would be a legal tender. As to the desirability of such a change he thought there could be no doubt; and had the change been made when the value of the rupee was two shillings it would have been easy, as a sovereign would then have been exactly ten rupees. To remedy the evil, the author concluded by expressing a desire that a reformation of the coinage and an assimilation of the currency between this country and India should take place during the reign of Her Majesty, as in that way the sovereignty of the Queen would, in the circulation of British rupees and British sovereigns, marked with their fixed proportion of rupees, be associated in the mind of every native of India with the lasting benefit conferred on himself and his country.

On Savings Banks as a State Function developed by Charity Organization. By W. NEILSON HANCOCK, LL.D.

The results submitted to the Section were:-That now the perfectly safe places for the savings of the poor are provided by the State in such numbers, and for such long hours, and under such convenient arrangements by the Post-Office Savings' Banks, the object for which charitable Savings' Banks were established has been fulfilled, and these institutions have become unnecessary and are a waste of charitable effect.

That the State should withdraw its connexion with them, as the State has only imperfect and divided control, as the limitation of liability of the charitable promoters makes the security imperfect, and as it is bad teaching for the poor to offer them a bounty at the public expense to invest their savings in less perfect security than the Post-Office Savings' Banks.

That the voluntary closing of charitable Savings' Banks is going on too slowly, owing to the too limited provision for the compensation of the paid officers.

That the State would save £140,000 a year immediately, and as the paid officers died or retired would save £280,000 if the system of official audit in Ireland were extended to England and Scotland, and all the Trustee Banks and officers, as soon as the audit was completed, were taken over by the State.

That the services of the charitable promoters and honorary officers in instituting the general system of Savings' Banks for the poor, which the State has been so long connected with, and the great profit to the State of immediate and complete conversion of charitable Savings' Banks into Post-Office Savings' Banks, makes it a case where complete security of service or compensation to the officers would not only be morally just, but economically advantageous to the State.

On the Memorial of Eminent Scientific Gentlemen in Favour of a Permanent Scientific Museum. By J. HEYWOOD, F.R.S.

The Results of Five Years of Compulsory Education.
By WILLIAM JACK, LL.D.

In this paper the author did not propose to discuss the question whether the quality of elementary education in this country has improved or deteriorated in consequence of the introduction of compulsion. Few inquiries would be more difficult. There is no absolute standard of quality. He used the word results for two things which can be measured in figures:

(1) The change in the number of children attending efficient elementary schools. (2) The change, if any, in the regularity of attendance at school.

In the English Education Act of 1870 the Government, for the first time, sanctioned the principle that wherever the school board of a locality believes that children ought to be compelled to attend school, parents may be compelled to send them under penalty of fine or imprisonment, subject to such bye-laws as the school board may enact.

Since that time school boards representing a population of nearly 12 millions of people in England and Wales have passed and worked compulsory bye-laws. Compulsion is now adopted by forty-six per cent. of the whole population of England and Wales, and by eighty-two per cent. of the borough population.

In the new Education Act of 1876 England has adopted the principle of universal compulsion, creating a school attendance committee where there is no school board, and enjoining that committee or the school board of the locality to make and enforce bye-laws and otherwise carry out the provisions of the Act.

They are briefly these:

1st. It is declared to be the duty of every parent to see to the elementary education of his child above five and below fourteen.

2nd. No employer is permitted to employ

(a) any child under ten years of age, with certain (no doubt considerable) permitted exceptions; or

(b) any child over ten and up to fourteen

without a certificate either of education or of previous attendance of a due amount. These provisions will come into force fully in 1881.

After giving the general results for the three countries the writer proposed to look somewhat more in detail to the results of the application of compulsion in the large cities, which are types of 82 per cent. of the borough population of England. The Act of 1870 decreed a school board for London. The first step which the board took was to discover the actual school supply in the metropolis, and to make a reasonable estimate of what was wanted. The Government theory was, that accomodation ought to be provided for one in six of the population. After making allowances for the middle and upper classes, and for the necessary absences, the School Board of London decided that a supply for one in eight of the population was enough to provide for elementary schooling in its district. Accordingly it was necessary to have accommodation for 420,000 children, the population in 1871 being approximately 3,356,000. The Board found schools existing in 1870, or erected or projected between that and 1873, for 308,000, so that their first duty was to build for 112,000 more children. Many of the existing schools were inefficient; they had to work gradually towards the remodelling or uprooting of these inefficient schools; they had to alter the habit of irregular attendance. Between the spring of 1871 and the Michaelmas of 1873, two and a half years, they had increased the average attendance by 60,000. At midsummer, 1876, the average attendance had risen to 305,749, an increase of 131,448 over the spring of 1871, when it was 174,301. Thus in five years the average attendance on efficient schools has risen by seventy-five per cent. in the metropolis, against the Irish eight per cent. in five years. Besides this there were 42,000 in non-efficient schools, which is 12,000 fewer than in the previous year. There were 87,000 who ought to have been at school, but who were absent from various causes at Midsummer 1876. This official estimate of deficiency is founded on the thecry that 575,000 children between three and thirteen require elementary teaching-say one in six of the population. But the School Board of London do not think it necessary to provide school accommodation for more than 440,000 -say one in eight; and in fact they have provided, up to the end of 1876, for

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