of the community, which the existence of a lawless and 

 criminal class imposes. I have called your attention to it, 

 not for the purpose of criticising the expenditures, which 

 I believe are carefully made and rigidly scrutinized by the 

 public servants, but only that you might see the impor- 

 tance of the subject to all, and the necessity that exists 

 for intelligent and right-thinking men to give their best 

 thought to those questions of reform in our methods of 

 dealing with criminals, which are brought every year to the 

 legislature for its consideration. 



Moreover, it is idle to complain of public expenditures 

 in' the gross, we must attack them in detail. To change 

 a hoiiiely expression we must save at the spigot as well as 

 at the bung hole. We must cut off useless and expensive 

 formalities and delays, abolish bad methods, and improve 

 good ones. This demands criticism. Intelligent criticism 

 [and any other is worse than useless] requires knowledge, 

 attention and thought. 



A statute passed last winter will illustrate my meaning 

 and show the necessity of attention to questions relating to 

 the treatmentof criminals, by people who will consider the 

 subject with some reference to the question of public ex- 

 pense. Chapter 356 of the Acts of 1891 provides for the 

 appointment for each of our police and district courts of a 

 probation officer, whose duty it is to" investigate into the 

 nature of every criminal case brought before the lower 

 courts, and in proper cases, to recommend to the Justice of 

 the court that the offender be placed on probation during 

 his good behavior. The salary of this ofBcer is paid from 

 the county treasury and he is forbidden to do other police 

 work. 



In the County of Essex, this law compelled the appoint- 



