hment from English
soil, but, unhappily for us, their tall branches hang over our wall and
their ripened fruit falls on our ground.

From the time a prisoner becomes accustomed to his surroundings until
the hour of his release the one thing ever uppermost in his thoughts,
the one distracting subject and cause of anxious solicitude, is the
question, "Which society shall I join?" It is a tolerably safe venture
to predict that he will "join" "The Royal Prisoners' Aid Society of
London," which society is happy in having Her Gracious Majesty and a
long list of illustrious lords and ladies for "governors." What that may
mean no one knows. Certainly no benefit from these people ever accrues
to the discharged prisoners, but who can describe the glory that falls
on the four or five reverend gentlemen, sons, nephews or brothers of
deans or bishops, high-salaried secretaries of this particular society,
who pose at the annual meeting in Exeter Hall, before a brilliant
audience, and after have the felicity of seeing their report in the
church and society journals and their names connected with such exalted
people.

The way the Government over there accomplishes its purpose of getting
rid of its criminal population at our expense and at the same time is
able to answer the charges of our Government with disavowal is this:

The Home Secretary alone possesses the pardoning power for the United
Kingdom, and directly controls every prison, his fiat being law in all
things to every official as well as to every inmate. He has officially
recognized and registered at the Home Office every prisoners' aid
society in England, Scotland and Wales, and in order to boom them he
gives to every discharged prisoner an extra gratuity of L3 provided he
"joins" a prisoners' aid society on his discharge, the result being that
all do so. England is a small and compact country, and the police have
practically one head, and that head is the Home Secretary. Under the
circumstances the system of police espionage is so perfect that whenever
a discharged prisoner is reconvicted for another crime he cannot escape
recognition, and in all such cases the Home Secretary notifies the
particular aid society who received the prisoner on his discharge of the
fact, very much to the vexation of the officials of the society, who are
all anxious for a good record in reforming men that come officially
under their auspices. They publish that all who are never reported as
rec