296 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



by all means short of cruelty. In the next place, 

 the institution of prolonged asylum seclusion, in place 

 of repeated short imprisonments, must have an imme- 

 diate and marked effect upon " the number of crimes 

 committed in a year." And finally, the continued 

 seclusion of the instinctive criminal would very 

 materially limit the propagation of a most undesir- 

 able class. 



Moreover, it would be much more economical to 

 relegate the instinctive criminal, upon whom incar- 

 ceration in prison cannot be expected to have either 

 deterrent or curative effect, to the seclusion of some 

 asylum or industrial penitentiary for good, than to 

 be at the expense of repeated arrests, trials, convey- 

 ance to and from prisons, &c. Take the following 

 typical cases, which I clip from the current news- 

 papers, and let any one say whether it would not 

 have been better in the end, both for the ratepayer 

 and for the criminal, that on the second appearance 

 of the criminal he had been sentenced " to be 

 detained during Her Majesty's pleasure" in some 

 industrial asylum. 



"County of London Sessions, March 10, 1891. 

 H. P., aged forty-four, was indicted before Sir Peter 

 Edlin, Q.C., for breaking and entering a dwelling- 

 house in Kensington, and stealing therefrom two 

 watches, &c. The jury found the prisoner guilty. A 

 very bad character was given to him, two previous 

 sentences of ten years, as well as minor penalties, 

 being proved against him. The learned chairman 



