tion of common rights, we may acquiesce in the excited words of Mr. W. L. Garrison, that "no lapse of time can convert a wrong into a right," and that, if compensation is to be made, we should "render it to the sufferers whose opportunities are curtailed by land monopoly, and not to the speculators who profit at their expense." But before delivering ourselves up to the heated rhetoric of ill-balanced minds, it would be well to remember that Mr. Mill is ranged on the opposite side, and to ponder on Professor Seligman's parallel, that, as, when the State singles out a particular plot and takes it for the public, it compensates the owner because the burden falls exclusively on him, "so, if the State singles out a particular class, and takes away only their property, and not that of others in an equally good position, the claim for compensation cannot be brushed aside" by representing such confiscation merely

as a tax.

Indeed, to my mind, the worst feature in the proposal of Mr. George and his friends is the specious bribe which they offer for the public support. They point out that the increase in the value of land has been so great that, if it were laid hold of by the State, any other taxation, whether for imperial or local purposes, would become unnecessary. But, fortunately, great causes are not won by making it worth people's while, in the vulgar sense, to support them; or rather, people capable of being so won are not the mainstay of great causes. If the appeal is to equity and natural rights, as Professor Seligman points out, the Socialists are more logical than Henry George. They at least understand, and demand in the interests of abstract justice, that no one section of society and no one form of property shall suffer rather than another.

But many pages might be spent in merely enumerating the deeply interesting questions which were incidentally dealt with in the course of the Saratoga debate. Such open controversies are always instructive provided that both sides keep their tempers. This seems to have been the case at Saratoga, excepting only Mr. George's impassioned indictment of political economists, whom, in nearly every case, he finds ranged among his opponents. But a reader of the debate will hold that even this is amply justified by the dignified and crushing reply which it draws from Professor Seligman. On the whole, the American representation of all sides may be preferred to the ex parte statement of the English Socialist. Each is interesting in its turn, but it is more desirable to have all the evidence brought forward. And when it is given in so compendious a form as in the American pamphlet, it may be read with an enjoyment unmarred by the suspicion which lurks through Mr. Dawson's book, that he has wilfully shut his eyes to one half of the

truth, and would induce a similar mental blindness in his readers if they would permit him.

D. J. MEDLEY.

THE ELMIRA

REFORMATORY. By ALEXANDER WINTER, F.S.S. [viii.-172 pp. 2s. 6d. Sonnenschein. London, 1891.] Differences of national character are far-reaching in their effects. It would be difficult to imagine a more complete contrast than is presented by the account which Mr. Winter gives us of the Elmira Reformatory on the one hand, and the report of our own Prison Commissioners on the other. It is enough to say of this last that it embodies all the best points of an English Blue Book. There are tables showing the number of prisoners, the average length of sentence, the health and ages of those committed. The suicides are all tabulated, the cases of insanity enumerated, the expenses and alterations are all set forth at length. It is, perhaps, no reproach to such a work that it gives us little or no hint of what may be termed moral progress. From cover to cover there is almost nothing to lead us to a conclusion as to the effect of prison life on those who are condemned to it. The education of prisoners is dismissed in a few lines, and these deal mainly with the degree of education enjoyed by them when they are committed. It is hardly, perhaps, to be expected that an official production should be a scientific or a moral treatise, but the absence of any notice of the effect of prison life, its educational value, its success or failure, is an evidence of the small place which this branch of the subject occupies in the minds of our administrators. Like all boards, the Prison Commissioners have taken a somewhat low ideal, and are striving, not unsuccessfully, to live up to it. Drainage, diet, work, lighting, accommodation-all these are points within their ken, under all these heads they are ready to reconstruct, reform, adapt; but when shortcomings of this kind have been remedied, they rest content.

We seem to breathe an altogether different atmosphere at Elmira. The progressive, restless love of experiment, which is a note of the American character, has penetrated within the prison walls, and there is surely need for it. For a great growth in crime has been going on in the United States, as is shown by these tables

In face of this enormous increase of convictions it was clearly the duty of the various State governments to leave no stone unturned to

discover a remedy. Of the various experiments made, that of Elmira is perhaps the most worthy of study.

To

The Elmira institution dates from 1876, and owes its existence and development to the energy of its founder, Mr. Brockway, who persuaded the Legislative Body of the State of New York to adopt his scheme in a practical form; and so great has been their confidence, that up to the end of 1889 no less than 1,885,565 dollars have been spent upon it. Any court of justice in the State can send prisoners to it, between the ages of sixteen and sixty, who have not been previously convicted. Prisoners are not committed for any definite time. The length of their sojourn is determined by the manager of the Reformatory, provided that they are not detained for a longer period than the law lays down as the longest punishment for their offence. Even this limit there is a growing desire to remove, as the knowledge that his release at a given date is certain to lead a prisoner to relax his efforts to obtain his release. And to this last object, viz. his release, his whole endeavours are directed from the moment he enters. earn, to merit, to qualify for discharge is the object held up before him, and the wish to secure it is the motive power on which the whole establishment depends. "The regaining of his freedom is a prisoner's only aim and aspiration; it is constantly before his eyes, and is a miraculous force which never ceases to impel him, and it is able to arouse the most insusceptible and dormant character." But let us first describe the surroundings and circumstances of life at Elmira, calling attention here to the hereditary statistics which are set forth. Of those admitted, 13.7 per cent. have among their ancestors insanity or epilepsy; drunkenness is clearly traced in the ancestors of 38.7 per cent., doubtfully in 11.1 per cent.; 13.6 per cent. were wholly uneducated; 38.1 per cent. could read and write; 43.8 per cent. had an ordinary common school education; and 4.5 per cent. something beyond this. (It is much to be regretted that no information on these heads is given in our prison reports.)

On his admission to Elmira a prisoner is forthwith subjected to a searching examination vivâ voce. The superintendent questions and cross-questions, wins his confidence if possible; but in any case takes what we may call a mental photograph of the man's actual state, his antecedents, and, so far as he can, the connection between the two. Thereafter he is entered in one of the three grades into which the prisoners are divided, generally in the second of the three, so that he may show of what stuff he is made by rising or falling. The length of his sojourn in the first or upper grade may be said to determine the date at which he is let out on parole-conditionally, that is, on his word

of honour, for a six months' probation, before he is finally discharged. During his stay in Elmira an immense number of influences are brought to bear on him. Like the modern public school-boy, he is occupied from morning till night, the object being (in both cases) "to direct the mind instead of leaving it to itself; forming thus perforce, if need be, improved mental habits." The day is spent partly in industrial, partly in intellectual work. The former calls for no particular notice, save only that it is of a rational and educative kind, as far removed as possible from the senseless tread-wheel and crank which still disgrace English prisons. But the education given, the intellectual work, is a great feature. Originally seven classes were formed, the subjects being (1) the Three Rs, (2) Physics, (3) Political Economy, (4) Civil Government, (5) Algebra, (6) English Literature, (7) Practical Ethics; but the growth in the numbers has led to a greater subdivision. The practical side of this system is graphically set forth by Mr. Winter. The Oxford lecturer who grumbles at his class and finds it but little stimulating, should read the difficulties and encouragements which may be encountered in lecturing on Practical Ethics to a room full of burglars of all ages! The relation of property to morality, the right and wrong of revenge, and even such deeper questions as the existence of the soul, are treated with a running fire of question and answer between professor and pupils. Furthermore, great interest is excited. A weekly newspaper is published in the gaol in which discussions are continued, and new interests developed. Lastly, we may notice that the diet is extremely good, and is held to be a necessary part of the system.

But the reader will be asking, What are the results of all this bouleversement of the ordinary notions of prison life? The figures are too numerous to give in full, but an idea may be gained from the following. Of those released in 1880, it was reckoned, after careful and thorough inquiry, that 81 per cent. were doing well; in 1881, 91 per cent.; and the average for the years 1880-87 was 78.5 per cent. It would be interesting to know how our English system compares for results, but we look in vain in the Commissioners' Report for anything that could help us to a conclusion. The nearest approximation is the table of re-committals, which are nearly 50 per cent. of the whole.

Lastly, a word or two of criticism. The three points on which the superintendent insists are Work, Conduct, Education. These are the motto, so to say, of the institution. It is difficult to avoid feeling that the success of the Elmira experiment turns almost altogether on the individuals who work it. Precisely the same system, grades, rules, subjects, in the hands of other adminstrators and teachers might produce

no result at all. When a man of Mr. Brockway's ability and self-sacrifice is forthcoming, much will be done under any system. And yet a study of the system itself is far from being wholly valueless. It may teach us in England to remember that, after all, the prisoner has many points in common with the free man, is open to many of the same influences, and is capable of much the same development. It may teach us, again, that the educational staff, religious and lay, of our prisons, is far too small for any effective purpose. The work, e.g., of a prison chaplain is admittedly of the most difficult kind. The time during which a man is under his care is short, the leeway to be made up is generally great, and yet his "parishioners " are sometimes numbered by hundreds : at Strangeways, e.g., the daily average exceeds a thousand. The number of lay instructors is, at least, as small proportionately, and the instruction given is of an elementary type. Lastly, although the difficulties in practice are very great, it must be allowed that the reform of female prisoners is dependent on the extent to which female influences are brought to bear upon them, and yet the number of ladies who are permitted to visit prisons is so small, that the experiment can hardly be said to be tried. It may teach us, also, that very exceptional qualities are needed in the head of a prison. Now, as a rule, these officers are in England selected from among retired officers. Such men are admirable in all that pertains to discipline, but it is no reflection upon the service from which they are drawn to say that it does not often produce men of the type of Mr. Brockway.

A deeper question lies behind. What are the motives to which appeal can be successfully made in the case of a criminal? The answer must vary in individual cases, and the importance attached at Elmira to the desire for liberty is just. But the course of treatment adopted there seems to ignore the difficulty of rousing what is often a brutalized nature. Just as in cases of neglected disease the strongest medicines must be employed, so it often is with moral ailments. It may be doubted how far refined ethical arguments are in place here. The intellectual position that wrong-doing does not answer, is probably familiar to all the cleverer among the inmates of a gaol, and an appeal to their reason is not likely to attain its object. A discussion of the best substitute for it would go beyond the scope of a review.

In conclusion, it may be asked whether the repressive side of punishment is not under-rated at Elmira, and whether there is not a risk of imprisonment losing half its terrors to a large section of the population. This question can only be answered by experience.

L. R. PHELPS.