254 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

chief reason why so few criminals in Britain use or even xarry
firearms. Its opponents answer that this conclusion is not borne
out by the experience of other countries which have abolished
the death penalty, and emphasise the repulsion which prison
officials feel to an execution. It is probable that flogging which is
sometimes ordered in addition to imprisonment, for crimes of
violence, must be regarded in the same light; the fear of it may
deter potential criminals, but it can hardly have anything but a
brutalising effect on the recipient. The Cadogan Committee
which reported in 1938, recommended its abolition except for a
few offences committed by people already in prison.

Imprisonment is the outstanding feature of the British penal
system. An ordinary sentence such as is imposed for lesser
offences, is served in the Second or Third division. First division
imprisonment, which was intended for political offenders, allows
the prisoner much freedom in regard to meals, access to books,
and use of time; nowadays, however, it is hardly ever imposed.
Prisoners in the Second and Third divisions are classified by the
prison authorities according to their age and previous character.
Most of the work done in prison is of little use, and it is usually
performed by obsolete methods; it is not likely to preserve a
man's fitness for work, or help him to regain employment when
he is free. The prisoner is urged along the path to virtue by the
dread of penalties—solitary confinement and low diet—and the
hope of privileges and of a remission of part of liis sentence. The
present Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, who is related to
the famous i8th century prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, has
outlined a policy of allowing mggiinum privileges at the start,
and of adopting measures calculated to appeal to self respect
rather than fear.

Grave offences are punished by penal servitude for not less
than three years. Here work is more laborious, conditions harder,
and discipline more rigid. The word "servitude" is significant;
the convict is in effect a person without rights, whose condition
of life depends on the prison Governor. The convict who behaves