The " Penal Servitude Acts Commissioners" have made a very
moderate and very sensible series of recommendations. The recommendation which appears, the first in import- :anoe, is that " arrangements should be made for the inde- pendent inspection of convict prisoners, by persons ap- pointed by the Government, but unconnected with the Convict Prison Department, and unpaid." That means that a sort of Royal Commission for inspecting convict prisons from a non-official point of view, should be appointed year by year. We believe that to be a very wise and useful recom- mendation. Some of the best work done in England is unpaid work, done by independent men for the mere satisfaction of doing it ; and no check on official routine is really more wholesome than the check exerted by sensible and distinguished men,—whom the Government can always find,— of this order. Nothing would more increase the confidence of the public in the management of our convict prisons than such a check as this. Dr. Guy's objections to this recommendation appear to us weak, if not even of a nature to strengthen the case in its favour.
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