Owing to differences in the law and of procedure, it is difficult, if not impossible, to make comparison between England and Foreign Countries as to the extent to which Probation in the former, and "_sursis_" in the latter is being used as an alternative to imprisonment. So far as my researches have enabled me to go, I would venture the opinion that "_sursis_" is being used to a considerably larger extent in France, Belgium, and Italy than Probation is being used in England. There are, moreover, I believe, no statistics for comparing the results of the two systems. We know that in England the percentage of revocations is not more than about 6, the actual numbers having been as follows for the five years ended 1913:-- ------------------------+------------------------ Probation | Number who appeared Orders made. | for sentence. ------------------------+------------------------ 1909 8,962 624 1910 10,217 584 1911 9,516 593 1912 11,192 655 1913 11,057 603 ------------------------------------------------- The effect of suspended sentence ("_sursis_"), without probationary oversight, was declared at the Washington Congress to be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain, and the Congress went further in resolving that it was desirable for each State or County to provide a Central Authority to appoint some agency to exercise general supervision over Probation work. This is now the case in the State of New York, where a State Probation Commission has been appointed, and where, since 1910, as the consequence of good organization, there has been a great extension of the operation of the system. My own opinion is that Probation, carefully organized, _i.e._, with a staff of carefully selected Probation Officers, both Male and Female, is, as I have already stated, an indispensable part of the machinery of criminal justice, and, as such, ought to be under the direct control and supervision of the State, not with the idea of hindering or impeding voluntary effort by official interference, but by securing that each Court shall have its proper equipment for this purpose, and that, in every case where there is a transgression of the conditions of Probation, there shall be, without fail, an immediate report to the Court entailing an effective punishment of the offender who has refused to profit by the clemency extended to him under the Probation Act. I do not think, so long as the institution of this valuable machinery is permissive and left to the discretion of the Court, that a full effect will ever be given to the admirable principles of the Probation System, as a handmaid of justice, or that there will be a sufficient guarantee, that where a Court has used its powers in this respect, there shall be a prompt and effective vindication of the law in the event of any breach of conditions.