_The Defects of our Present Penal Methods._--The punishments imposed by our present penal system are quite unmeaning. Not only do they exercise no educative influence, but they even hinder education. In the case of children they are not deterrent, first, because children act on impulse, and, secondly, because they have no accurate conception of the nature of these punishments. To many children imprisonment seems the same sort of thing as being “kept in” at school, and they quite fail to recognise its seriousness. Punishment by fine is supposed to make the offender suffer in proportion to the suffering he has inflicted by his offence. But how can the judge or magistrate, above all where children are concerned, accurately estimate the fine necessary to achieve this result? The difficulties of rightly apportioning the punishment are equally formidable in the matter of imprisonment as in the matter of fine. (_a_) In the punishment of juvenile offenders, in modern times, the fine is really altogether inapplicable. Ninety per cent. of juvenile offenders are altogether without means. What does a fine matter to one for whom it is paid by another? Young people, as a rule, do not yet understand the value of money. If the offender is a person of property, then he has no occasion to dread a fine; or even if the fine were proportionate to his means, the juvenile offender would not understand its significance until after he had attained his majority. But we cannot depend upon the efficacy of a punishment which does not become effective as punishment until after the lapse of years. If the juvenile offender has to pay the fine out of his wages, he loses all desire for work. The majority of youthful offenders belong to the poorer classes, and are not in a position to pay the fine themselves. The parents will give their child a lecture if they have to pay the fine, but this will by no means attain the object of the punishment. Moreover, if the relatives pay the fine, they are unjustly punished, and may revenge themselves on the child.