LAW AND JUSTICE 331 



upon being sentenced to penal servitude for a fresh offence, be further sentenced to pre- 

 ventive detention for a period not exceeding ten years, to take effect after the determina- 

 tion of the sentence of penal servitude. Convicts undergoing preventive detention are 

 confined in prisons set apart for the purpose, with some amelioration of the usual prison 

 treatment. In 1910 the latest year for which statistics are available 178 convicts 

 were dealt with under this preventive system. Similar provisions have been introduced 

 by amendment into the criminal code of Western Australia: and the Union of South 

 Africa has adopted a similar line of legislation. 



A treatment of criminals which has found much favour in the United States is that 

 of the " indeterminate sentence." This is strictly a misnomer there is no " indetermi- 

 nate sentence " in the sense of a sentence without a limit, a maximum or a minimum. 

 The " indeterminate sentence " is used as a catch-phrase to indicate opposition to the 

 " retributory " element in the punishment of crime. It is for making, not the guilt of 

 the criminal but his potentiality for reformation the test for the duration of his punish- 

 ment, in other words it stands for the individudisation of punishment, and it entrusts 

 the power of judging the potentiality of reformation not to the judiciary but to boards of 

 parole. But, as Sir Ruggles Brise has justly remarked, there is fixed in human nature a 

 moral indignation against the perpetrator of an anti-social act which demands punish- 

 ment when there is full responsibility for the deed, and it is a fallacy to call such a healthy 

 moral sentiment a desire for vengeance or confound it with the old idea of expiation. 



The Probation system is closely allied to that of the indeterminate sentence, but it is 

 differentiated in this respect that it dispenses with imprisonment altogether. The 

 system has spread with remarkable rapidity. Started in Massachusetts in 1875, it has 

 extended to about three-fourths of the States of the United States of America, to Great 

 Britain, Germany, Hungary, Canada, Austria and New Zealand. It saves the offender 

 from the stigma of imprisonment, his family from loss of wages, and the public from 

 the expense of his support, Japan has lately adopted the system and applies it freely 

 whenever there is a chance of bettering the offender without sending him to a state 

 penitentiary. Trinidad and Tobago have recognised its wisdom. 



An International Penitentiary Congress is to be held in London in 1915, and the 

 result of its discussions will be awaited with much interest. 



Every where there are complaints as to the increase of young criminals. In Italy, for 

 instance, in Naples, Rome, Genoa and Milan, the juvenile offenders are 32 per cent of 

 the total convicted. Between the ages of 18 and 21, offenders are nearly twice as nu- 

 merous as between 40 and 50. In this case want of education may be the cause half of 

 these juvenile criminals could neither read nor write: in other cases education itself, it 

 is toibe feared, may be the causeperverted to the purposes of roguery. In Egypt the 

 number of juvenile offenders has increased, but the greater vigilance of the authorities 

 may have something to do with the rise in the statistics. In England and Wales the 

 total number of juvenile offenders for the last year for which statistics are available was 

 34,087 nearly all, it may be remarked, boys or youths. The proportion of girls was 

 only 1899 some six per cent. Juvenile offences fall mainly under a few heads petty 

 thefts, acts of mischief, disorderly behaviour, begging and loitering. Of these 34,087 

 youthful offenders only 90, it is satisfactory to find, were sent to prison: 1143 were sent 

 to reformatories, 1562 were ordered whipping: but the large majority were fined, such 

 fine to be paid by the parent or guardian. This is;an excellent device, for it visits on 

 parents and guardians the just consequences of their neglect. 



The codification of the English criminal law is still afar off, but like the codification 

 of the English civil law it is proceeding piecemeal. The consolidation of the law of 

 perjury by an Act of 1911 was an excellent piece of work, and a bill has been introduced 

 to consolidate and simplify the perplexed law of forgery. The agitation against capital 

 punishment seems to have died out for the time, both in the United States and in the 

 British dominions and colonies. 



Licences. A very noticeable feature of recent years has been the growth of the licence 

 system. A great many states have adopted this method of securing control over the 



