We desire to plead the cause of the voiceless multitude who occupy our Indian Jails. The fact that they are voiceless,--that they have no means of voicing their claims, their wrongs and their rights (for they, too, _have_ rights), only adds to their danger. How can a criminal hope for redress? What chance has he of being heard? Who will listen? What advocate will plead his cause? Ah, if he happen to be rich, it is true, he will have many friends! But as a rule the criminal is poor. Often he has to choose between crime and starvation. For himself he might prefer to starve, but the sight of his emaciated wife and aged parents,--with whom, criminal though he be, he is as a rule ready to share his last crust,--the clamour of his hungry children, all this drives him to desperation and to a life of crime. He can only give voice to his sorrows and his needs by some fresh act of lawlessness. Hence the occasional outbursts of mutiny, and the murders of jail warders, which from time to time reach the newspapers and shock the public ear. And here I would desire to call attention to the fact that though crime must be vigorously dealt with and punished, at the same time the tendency of punishment is not to _reform_, but to _harden._ Who does not know that the _worst criminals_ are those who have been _longest in Jail_? Instead of _getting better_ they _grow daily worse_,--more adept in committing crime and eluding detection,--more careless as to its consequences. Equally futile would be the offer of a wholesale pardon. A singular illustration of this occurred in 1887, when in honour of Her Majesty's Jubilee in the Bombay Presidency alone, no less than 2,465 prisoners were released out of a total of 6,087. Yet the Government report goes on to show that within a few months of their release the Jails were fuller than ever! What, then, is to be done? Punishment hardens the criminal, pardon encourages crime, while the hearts of the offenders remain the same! Here steps in the Salvation Army. Its methods and meetings, however distasteful to the educated and refined, have a special attraction for these dangerous classes. Its Officers are accustomed to handle them with superhuman love and patience, as well as with a tact and adroitness such as has often elicited the admiration and praise of those who have no sympathy with our creed or ways of work.