The Borstal experiment--Provisions for the "reformation of young offenders"--Is any diminution in the numbers of police expected?-- Preventive detention--The implied confession that penal servitude does not reform, and the insistence on it as a preliminary to reform--The prisoner detained at the discretion of the prison officials--The powers of the Secretary of State--The change under the statute--The necessary ignorance of the Secretary of State by reason of his other duties--The "committees"--The habits to be taught--The teaching of trades--The ignorance of trades on the part of those who design to teach them--The difficulty of teaching professions in institutions less than that of teaching trades--The vice of obedience taught--Intelligent co-operation and senseless subordination--The military man in the industrial community. Some few years ago the English Prison Commissioners began a modified system of treating certain offenders. Borstal Prison was set apart for the purpose, a staff was specially chosen, and young offenders were selected for experiment. It was a notable departure, and the authorities seem to have been satisfied with the results. Either they had power to undertake the experiment or they had not. In the former case there was no need for an Act of Parliament to give authority; in the latter case they must have been breaking the law. If they were within their powers there was nothing to hinder them from extending their beneficent work. That work would necessarily depend for its success on the experience and special ability of those who performed it. If the men in office in other prisons do not possess similar qualifications for the work no statute will confer them; but it may cause them to have duties placed upon them which they are not fitted to discharge. So long as the treatment had to be justified by its results, it would be fairly safe to assume that only those who could prove their fitness would direct it; now it needs as little of such justification for its continuance as do the Inebriate Homes.