obvious that such a scheme--though it worked well in regard to convicts where the maximum gratuity might reach £6--is not applicable to Local Prisons where the maximum is fixed at ten shillings, and where few prisoners reach their maximum, or even a considerable portion of it, owing to the shortness of their sentences. However, the attempt was made, and a sum of £5,000 taken in the Estimates under the heading of "Gratuities"--an equivocal term, meaning both the earnings of prisoners under the Progressive Stage System and also the charitable donation, which was to benefit the prisoner on discharge. It soon became apparent that the effect of this policy would be to starve existing Aid Societies and to paralyze their powers of good. Strong representations were made to the then Secretary of State that it had become impossible to help short sentence cases--often the most deserving and including most of the first offenders--and in December, 1878, a Conference of Aid Societies was held to "protest against the failure of the Stage or Mark System for the purpose of aid on discharge," and a resolution was passed asking the Government to make a grant in addition to the gratuities under the Stage System at the rate of one shilling a head of total discharges. In consequence of this, the Home Office decided that the Stage System should be considered as a matter of discipline, but that assistance to Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies should be on a different footing: and that it was reasonable, and in accordance with public opinion, to make a grant either according to the number of cells or the number of discharges _provided a certain proportionate amount is voluntarily subscribed_. Here are contained two important assertions of principle on which has been based the action of the Government since this date. (1) that it is the duty of the Government to make a charitable donation in aid of discharged prisoners in addition to the gratuities under the Stage System, which are an affair of prison discipline. (2) that the sum should be regulated by the amount of private subscriptions, provided that a maximum calculated on the total number of discharges is not exceeded. In short, the State goes into partnership with bodies of charitable and benevolent persons, duly certified under the Act, in order to secure a double object (_a_) the State object, that steps shall be taken at least to lessen the chances of a man's relapse into crime (_b_) the private and charitable object of relieving misfortune and distress. After some correspondence, the Treasury agreed to the principle, and in addition to the money already taken for gratuities in Local Prisons (£5,000), an ultimate limit of £4,000 was sanctioned for this purpose, and its expenditure was regulated by the following conditions:-- (1) that there should be assigned to each prison the proportion of this sum which its average number of prisoners or of discharges bore to the total number of the same.