Probation of first offenders. Return of the number of cases within the Metropolitan Police district, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Durham, in which persons convicted of first offences have, by reason of their youth or the trivial nature of the offence, been released under recognizances on probation of good conduct in the years 1897, 1898, and 1899, under "the Probation of First Offenders Act, 1887":--and, of the number of cases in which such persons have been called upon to appear to receive judgment, or are known to have been subsequently convicted of a fresh offence (in continuation of Parliamentary Paper, no. 277, of session 1897) [electronic resource].