the police of the starting-place, which would protect him against apprehension, and which might also guarantee certain relief at appointed places along his route.” CHAPTER XIII. THE WORK OF PUNISHMENT AND RECLAMATION. _The Effect of_ “_The Society for the Suppression of Mendicity_”—_State Business carried out by Individual Enterprise_—“_The Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society_”—_The quiet Work of these Societies_—_Their Mode of Work_—_Curious Statistics_—_Singular Oscillations_—_Diabolical Swindling_. THE Society for the Suppression of Mendicity has done more towards checking imposture, and bringing evildoers to punishment, than the Government itself, notwithstanding all the elaborate and expensive machinery at its command. Nor, by the way, is this a solitary instance of business peculiarly its own being shirked by the State, and handed over to be dealt with by the skill, energy, and perseverance of a few private individuals. A kindred association to that, the province of which is the better government of the beggars of London, is that which devotes its energies to the reclamation of returned convicts. Anyone at all acquainted with the matter is aware of the immense amount of lasting and substantial good that the “Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society” has accomplished. That the individuals chiefly concerned—the returned convicts themselves—fully appreciate the advantages held out by the said Society is sufficiently proved by the fact, that out of 368 licence-holders discharged into the metropolis, 290 placed themselves in its hands. No doubt such arrangements do prove as convenient as economical as regards the Government; but whether it is just to inflict a responsibility of such magnitude on private individuals is another question; or whether the easement it confers is cheaply purchased by our rulers at the cost of so unmistakable a confession of their incapacity.