The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-27 00:00:00

REFORMATORY SECTION.

This section sat under the presidency of Sir WALTZ*
Cmurroti. . .

Mr. Marshall teed • paper on "Discharged Prisoners,"
and dwelt on the forlorn condition of criminals when released
from prison, and urged that all that could be done was to
endeavour to remove obstacles in the way of their obtaining
employment. One means of accomplishing this object
would be to establish au institution for the reception of
discharged prisoners who were willing to subject themselves
to a short discipline, and then to procure them work. He
described the operation of the Middlesex Society set up for
this object The whole number of discharged prisoners
during the last six mouths was 3,700, while those whom
it had been thought proper to assist numbered only 160.
Of discharged prisoners it was estimated that only 70 per
cent. wen again heard of, and of that number only about
30 per cent. returned to crime.
A paper by Mr. J. P. Organ, "On convicts without
prison," stated that the reformation of crimicals was
• work of the utmost difficulty, but one which ought never
to he despaired of. Couvicta were • suspicious end suspec-
ted class, and it was most important that people should be
disabused of their suspicions. He had ever found that the
greatest obstacles in the way of reformation were intempe-
rance, immorality, and arersion to labour. Emigration, he
thought, was the most efficacious means of disposing of the
better class of dischareed prisoners.
Is the course of a discussion which ensued,
Sir Waltou Crofton observed that there appeared to be
but one opinion that the sentences paused on prisoners, and
the mode in which they were carried out.were not sufficieetly
severe, but at the same time it seemed to be felt that the
door of amendment should be thrown more widely open.
He could point to hundreds of men who had been convicts
who had been punning • career of honest labour for seven
or eight years. Every facility should be given to discharged
prisoners
for obtaining employment, but employers should
made acquainted with their previous history.
Mr. Murray Brown gave an amount of the operations of
the Middlesex Discharged Prisoners Society, which, al-
though it had been in existence only • few months, had
been most successful, for since its institution it had
been obliged to turn away • man for whom they could not
god employment ; and only three of those persons they bad
aided returned to crime. . . .

The discussion wu coatusued until the close col the day's
proosatiogs.

THIRD DEPARTMENT.-HEALTH.

Sir C. B AsTme.s, chairmen.
The question discussed in this section waa the muses,
and what are the 'mans for the prevention, of excessive
Went mortality, ma which several papers ►ere reed.

AGRICULTURAL SECTION.
The agricultural section of this department met for the
first time to-day, Mr. EDWARD HOLLAND. M.P., in the
chair, who read a isaper on the social effects of steam
machinery as apphed to agriculture, and elated that
his own experience taught him that steam ploughmen and
those connected with steam machinery were those who de-
manded and obtained good cottages, and one of the most
powerful influences in elevating the character of working
men consisted in providing them with superior habitations,
sod also by promoting respectability in dress. He pointed
out that considerable improvement badtaken place in the cha-
racter and conduct of agricultural labourers ; and much of
this was to be attributed to the improved methods of culti-
vation, which tended to evolve their facultie■ and created a
better class of men. He had not found it necessary to
employ a single engineer to superintend the working
of his steam agricultural machinery, it having all peen
managed by farm labourers. The agricultural pool:-
lation had decreased in the last twenty years
2:10,000, and therefore the adoption of steam machi
was well timed, as it formed a substitute for the deficie
of manual labour which must have ensued.
• Papers were read on "agricultural co-opestion" be
Gordon, "on the obtaining of good places flr agricultural
and the political mad metal M He sub-
rit,lT Mr. C. W. Strickland." and by the P.ev. Mr. Moe-
ris on "Cottage Investments," and a discussion took place
until the hour of adjournment arrived.