INDIVIDUAL WORK FOR REFORM
In spite of Howard, no serious attempts were made even
in England to reform the monstrous system until well
into the nineteenth century. Thanks to the labours of
Elizabeth Fry and the Prison Discipline Society (yet
another example of the good work that Łan be done by
associations of devoted individuals), the English Parliament
was at last induced to pass two Acts in 1823 and 1824,
Acts which enunciated the principle of a new and better
system. It is unnecessary to describe the further course
of reform. Suffice it to say that in all democratic countries,
at least, the movement has been in the direction of greater
humaneness. There has been general agreement among
all those best qualified to speak that if criminals are to be
reformed or even prevented from becoming worse, organ-
ized violence must give place to organized and intelligent
non-violence. This humanitarian movement has always
been opposed by those who say that 'criminals should not
be pampered.' The motives of such opposition always
turn out upon investigation to be thoroughly discreditable.
People need scapegoats on whom to load their own offences
and in comparison to whom, they may seem to themselves
entirely virtuous; furthermore, they derive a certain pleasure
from the thought of the suffering of others. Still, in spite
of much concealed sadism and much openly displayed self-
righteousness, the humanitarian movement has gone steadily
forward. Only in the dictatorial countries has it received a
check. Here, the idea of reformation has been abandoned and
the old notion of retaliatory punishment has been revived.
This is a significant symptom of that regression from charity
which is characteristic of so much contemporary activity.
Like the alienist and the gaoler, die colonial ad-
ministrator and the anthropologist have discovered that
organized and intelligent non-violence is the best, the
most practical policy. For some time the Dutch and
the English, like the Romans before them, have known
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