Another phase of relief to discharged prisoners took the form of an "Industrial Home" at Wakefield, founded in 1856, under the auspices of the Governor of the House of Correction for the West Riding. It was said to be self-supporting, manufactures being carried on. Lodgings were found for inmates outside the Home. These three experiments are said to have compared favourably as regards expenditure with those having the same object in view, which had been established in London, and known as the London Reformatory, the Preventive and Reformatory Institution, and the Metropolitan Industrial Reformatory at Brixton. About this time, Societies for aiding ordinary prisoners on discharge were formed at many of the larger Prisons, _e.g._, the Hull, East Riding, and North Lincolnshire; Glamorganshire; North and South Stafford; Leeds; West Kent; Manchester; Liverpool; and the Metropolitan Aid Societies, all of which are in existence at the present time. The success of the Birmingham experiment is said to have led to the passing of the Act of 1862, which recited that Aid Societies had been established by voluntary effort, and gave power to Justices to pay a sum not exceeding £2 to such Societies, to be expended on behalf of the discharged prisoner. Another Act was passed in 1865 which re-enacted a similar provision to that contained in the Act of 1862, the expense to be borne by the local rates. Under the Prison Act of 1877, it was laid down that "where any prisoner is discharged from prison, the Prison Commissioners may, on the recommendation of the Visiting Committee or otherwise, order a sum of money not exceeding £2 to be paid by the Gaoler to the prisoner himself, or to the Treasurer of a Certified Prisoners' Aid Society or Refuge, on the Gaoler receiving from such Society an undertaking to apply the same for the benefit of the prisoner." This being the law, two general observations may, I think, be made with regard to it (1) that the duty of aiding prisoners on discharge has been recognized from the beginning of the century as a public duty to be borne by public funds, the Voluntary Aid Society being ancillary for this purpose, _i.e._, to assist in the disbursement of public money, and _incidentally_, at least, in the first instance, to increase it by private benefaction (2) that in its origin this grant was a charitable gift, irrespective of the prison history and conduct of a prisoner, and the total sum expended might assume large proportions, the maximum of £2 being permissible for _any_ prisoner.