_Testing Reform._--How can the improvement we hope to effect in the reformatory best be tested, and how can we best prepare for the transition into a free life? In view of the fact that these problems have been most completely solved in the United States of America, it will suffice here to describe the systems in vogue in that country. The indispensable preliminary to a successful reformatory education is the indeterminate sentence. The child will not leave the reformatory (presuming that the stipulated maximum term has not been attained) to assume the full responsibilities of freedom, until it has satisfactorily responded to the test of a probationary freedom. When it first enters the reformatory the child is apathetic. But before long it becomes aware of the significance of the indeterminate sentence; it perceives that it will not obtain its discharge until it has improved; and this induces a condition of nervous, yet salutary, tension and disquiet. The indeterminate sentence thus exercises upon the child a powerful influence, laying its fate to some extent in its own hands, making hope in place of fear the most effective element of its thought, and awakening the desire to effect improvement by means of its own efforts. We must not overlook the possibility that those who may secure their discharge before they have served the maximum term of their sentence may not necessarily be those who have truly and completely reformed, but those who possess the greatest power of adaptation to the conditions necessary to secure their release. A system which in various forms constitutes an almost universal feature in the conduct of American reformatories is known as the “mark system,” or “merit system.” The nature of this system is that every inmate is able, by earning a certain number of good marks, allotted on account of general good behaviour, and of progress in the school and the workshop respectively, to earn his release upon probation. The numerical formalism of this system is counteracted by an individual consideration and treatment of the pupils.