We trust Lord Carnarvon will add an amendment to the
Penal Servitude Bill in the House of Lords, which will put the systematic surveillance of licence-holders, so reluctantly accepted as part of the Bill by Sir George Grey, on a better and more systematic foot. ing. At present the licence-holder is simply to report himself monthly to the head of the police of the district in which he resides, and the system is expected to work, as it were, automatically. What is wanted is some central authority who gives himself almost entirely to controlling the supervision, acquainted with the con- victs set free on licence, and dealing in detail with the case of each particular licence-holder. Such an officer would instruct either the police of each district,or any one of them whom he deemed most fitted for the purpose, what method to pursue with each licence-holder in his district, what were the particular dangers against which to guard, and how they might be best avoided. Without a well considered system, regulated by a competent authority who knows the details of each licence-holder, as Mr. Organ does in Dublin, the great principle of supervision will suffer by loose or incapable management.
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