faces manage to make far better positions for
themselves than they could make in their own
country. Re-enlistment, then, has become
the exception rather than the rule. Besides
railway employés who have been dismissed for
drunkenness or other misconduct, and
miscellaneous people who have sunk from better
positions, or have never been able to get
positions to sink from, a large number of
ticket-of-leave men have of late years migrated
from Western Australia, and a great many other
undeniably queer characters have also swelled
the number of immigrants from the " fifth
quarter of the globe." Many of these come
in charge of consignments of horses, but many
on speculation, to make their fortunes from
the shakings of the pagoda tree. Most of both
classes are loafers ready made.

In every part of the country, European
vagrants have become a nuisance and a pest.
They corrupt our soldiers; they infuse falsehood
concerning us among the natives, especially
in native states, where the most intelligent
among them do their best towards
fomenting political intrigues; they lower our
national character everywhere; and they bring
lawlessness and violence upon our highways,
and to our very doors. But there is one
cause for congratulation in their development
of late years. An amiable French gentleman
said that he liked to hear a child cry, because
then he knew that it would be taken out of the
room. Upon the same principle I like to hear
of the loafer being dangerous in India, because
then I am sure that the government must take
steps for his repression.

This is just what the government is about to
do. The question has, for some time past,
occupied the attention of the authorities at
Calcutta, in consequence of representations made
from all parts of the country; and Mr. Maine,
the legal member of council, who has prepared
a bill dealing with the difficulty, has issued
a statement concerning that measure.

Two specific proposals for the repression of
vagrancy, have, it appears, been made by local
governments. The government of Bombay
has proposed that European vagrants should
be brought under a certain provision of the
penal code which permits the detention of
persons of suspicious character unable to find
security for their good conduct. But Mr. Maine
considers that this arrangement, though
applicable to native society, would be unjust
to the British loafer, who is remote from his
own country. The government of Madras, on
the other hand, is in favour of treating the
case specially; this is Mr. Maine's opinion also,
and he has availed himself of some of the
suggestions from Madras in the measure which he
has laid before the council. In this he follows,
to some extent, the analogies of the English
law of pauper removal. The first step which
it contemplates, is the establishment, by
government, of workhouses for Europeans: there
being no regular poor law in India. Inasmuch,
however, as several houses of industry
already exist, powers will be given to bring
the latter within the meaning of the act.
Having regard, too, to the probability that
many charitable persons will be willing to
cooperate in the reclamation of the vagrant, the
government is empowered to appoint a
committee of management, if it shall think fit, and
to place the governor of the workhouse under
the orders of the committee. The working of
the system will be in this wise: A police officer
finding a person of European extraction asking
for alms, or wandering about without
employment,may require him to proceed to the
nearest authority,who will institute an
investigation into his case, and if satisfied of his
vagrancy, will make a declaration to that
effect. If there be no prospect of procuring
employment for him, the person so declared
to be a vagrant will be at once forwarded to a
workhouse. If there be a prospect of his
obtaining employment at any particular place,
he will be forwarded to that place. When
he goes to the workhouse, every effort will be
made towards his reclamation from bad habits;
but he will be under rules of labour and
discipline, and he will be punished for breaking
them. Endeavours will also be made to find
employment outside the workhouse, for those
who are fit for such employment.

It is necessary, however, not only to meet
the evil, but to check it at its source. For
this purpose, Mr. Maine considers that
provision must be made for preventing the
landing in India of certain descriptions of persons.
Notwithstanding precedents, he is very
scrupulous in not proposing any too-general
enactment upon this head. He limits the
prohibition to well-defined classes. But, with a
view to keep out time-expired convicts and
ticket-of-leave men from Australia, he has
introduced a section into the bill providing for the
fine and imprisonment of a shipmaster knowingly
landing in India any person who, in any
English dependency, has at any time been
convicted of an offence which, if committed in
England, would amount to felony. And it is
further intended that the Indian government
shall address the governors of the Australian
colonies, requesting them to give all possible
publicity to the provision in question, and to
the fact that unskilled European labourers
of all classes have little or no prospect of
employment in India. Also to the fact that they
will be dealt with in the manner described.

The bill further confers on the government
an ultimate power of deporting the confirmed
loafer, who is, however, to be provided, when
he reaches his destination, with funds for a
month's subsistence. There can be no doubt
about the wisdom of the arrangement, for
nothing, as Mr. Maine observes, could be more
hopeless than the condition of a vagrant
remaining in an Indian workhouse, unreclaimed
or incapable of employment. But the
question has arisen whether the government,
or, in other words, the tax-paying community,
can fairly be charged with the passage and
subsistence money of the deported man, in cases
where he has been brought to India for the