itinerancy, that of machine-bred labour, yet it has not been found necessary to enlarge the Labour House, whose capacity is to-day as adequate to the demands made upon it as it was ninety years ago. Not only so, but (disregarding the abnormal numbers of the last two years) the number of offenders of the kind for whom the institution exists is actually decreasing proportionately to population. The following were the commitments to Benninghausen during the twenty years 1890 to 1909:-- -----+------+--------+-------- | Men. | Women. | Total. -----+------+--------+-------- 1890 | 329 | 71 | 400 1891 | 398 | 64 | 462 1892 | 325 | 44 | 369 1893 | 361 | 51 | 412 1894 | 378 | 41 | 419 1895 | 330 | 45 | 375 1896 | 287 | 51 | 338 1897 | 272 | 64 | 336 1898 | 258 | 49 | 307 1899 | 273 | 53 | 326 1900 | 239 | 65 | 304 1901 | 312 | 46 | 358 1902 | 336 | 42 | 378 1903 | 321 | 57 | 378 1904 | 355 | 39 | 394 1905 | 360 | 45 | 405 1906 | 305 | 35 | 340 1907 | 343 | 24 | 367 1908 | 442 | 40 | 482 1909 | 445 | 48 | 493 -----+------+--------+-------- Other causes have, no doubt, helped to bring about this relative diminution in the number of commitments--amongst them the development of the Voluntary Labour Colonies with their ever-open doors--but at Benninghausen it is believed that the operation of the anti-vagrancy law takes the first place.