The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

MNimaii.... r 1 e JANUARY 14, 1854. CRIME —ITS CAUSES AND CURE. WHILE Sir JOHN PAXINOTON and Mr. ADDS LEY are maturing the measure which is to reform our criminal law, a glance at the objects of their special care may not be untimely. We propose a ccordingly in this article to consider first the condition, and secondly the more usual causes, of juvenile crime. The mass of evidence accumulated on these subjects is more than sufficient—it is immense, unwieldly, to most readers utterly repulsive. Yet it has one special value—it is neither discordant nor inconclusive. Only those who have pored over blue books and statistical works can know the hopeless perplexity with which such a task is sometimes carried on, when every re sult which one authority seems to evolve is to appearance overthrown by equally reliable and equally positive testimony. Not such is the case here. Observers and thinkers differ upon details ; but, both as regards the facts before us and their explanation, there is a very general agreement as regards all really important points. With regard, then, to the actual state of the criminal class, we begin by recalling attention to a statement recently extracted by us from Mr. VANDERKISTE'S work. Taking the entire popula tion, it will be found that the number of those whose ages are between fifteen and twenty does not much exceed one-tenth of the whole. But, taking the criminal population apart (that is, the convicted part of it), we find that of that population one-fourth falls within the above-given limits of time. In other words, the proportion of crime to innocence during those years is greater, in the ratio of five to two, than the same proportion estimated on the whole of a man's life. What becomes of the great mass of these youths we find it diffi cult even to conjecture. Many, no doubt, die early from the results of a hard, reckless, im provident, intemperate life; a few, it may be hoped, being helped to emigrate, reform, and thrive. The majority, probably, puss on from prison to prison, sometimes with only a few weeks' interval, until transportation or penal servitude disposes of them for a longer period. A life of crime once continued to mature age is not often subsequently abandoned. The statement already quoted proves as much. It follows inevitably that unless the offender can be checked in youth he is for practical pur poses to be reckoned incurable. Now, what has our present system done? It is always hard to judge of the real state of national morality, where no better test is possible than that of the criminal returns, for these, however accurately kept, deal only with the number of offences detected, not of those committed. Yet to these returns alone we can apply for inforination, and the result is not encouraging. Much has been said, and some thing done, about education, yet the proportion of juvenile crime has slightly, if at all, de creased. Great fault must be found in this respect with tho laws, which jumble together real and conventional offences to an extent surpassing belief. " I have cases tried before " me," said Sergeant ADAMs, "for stealing penny tarts, oranges, two or three apples, " and articles of that kind. In one case a " child nine years of age, totally unknown to " the police, was tried before me for taking a " little toy hammer, price Id., from a basket placed at a shop door." Now, here was a boy, guilty of a trivial childish offence, for which pu n i s h ment i n t h e nursery wou ld h ave been amply sufficient, publicly stigmatised at that early age as a criminal, and thereby possibly corrupted for life. Far better to declare such children irresponsible to the law for their acts than thus to exaggerate their faults, and chastise them vindictively. But, taking only real crime, that is, theft or fraud committed with deliberate intention, the amount is very considerable. Nor is this Wonderful. Take the working men of great towns : what parental care or supervision can they exercise over their offspring? The father is at his work all da y • perhaps the mother too: if at home she '' drudgery; is occupied in domestic u both are i gnorant, both equally unfitted and disinclined for the labour of THE PRESS. instruction. The child grows up, a lt erna t e l y beaten and indulged, according to the humour of its parents; totally untrained, and, except where a favourable natural organisation may interpose, incapable of self-control. Is it strange that many of these neglected infants, left to run about the streets, should fall into the hands of professional thieves, recruiting sergeants for their trade ? We have spoken here only of the ease of youths whose fathers, though untaught, are honest. To such must be added all the progeny of the criminal class, which of course grows up in the paternal habits, knowing no other. Nor arc these the solo influences at work. A numerous class, not professedly dishonest, nor under the watchful eye of the police, pass lives which render it physically and morally impossible for them, let them wish it as they may, to give their sons even a chance of growing up in respectability. The costernionger, whose history is told in MAYHEW'S "London Poor"— all of the labouring class whose occupations involve the necessity of moving frequently from place to place—are occasional inmates of the lowest and worst class of lodging houses, where the ordinary decencies of life cannot be preserved, where propriety and self respect are almost necessarily lost, and where immorality of the grossest character is publicly and notoriously practised. Here the lessons of vice are learnt, and here accordingly the regular thieves of our great towns are on the watch to pick up accomplices. Vagrancy—by which we mean habitual begging—is another cause of juvenile crime. Infants are brought up to it as to a regular calling ; and it is sel dom that the professional mendicant does not combine with his comparatively innocent em ployment that of thieving also. Again, many young persons in all classes are left orphans and unprotected. In the wealthier grades of society these are sure to be provided for well, indifferently, or ill, as the case may be, but still provided for, by relatives or neigh bours. It is not so—it cannot be so—with the poor; and from this source the ranks of crime are early and largely recruited. Once more, the precarious nature of those pursuits which are followed in the metropolis, and generally in crowded communities, deserves to be noted. Mr. MAYHEW states that " three " wet days will bring the greater part of 30,000 " people to the brink of starvation "—from the necessary interruption of their usual avo cations. It is not as in a small rural district, where the demand for labour is as regular and constant as the supply is limited. The evil may be inevitable, but it is not the less real. We have thus touched—it was impossible to dwell—on the chief causes of what we may designate as involuntary juvenile delinquency. We purposely exclude from consideration those causes with which the will and free choice of the delinquent have anything to do — such as drink, gambling, betting-houses, penny theatres, anti the like. Enough if in this article we have demonstrated, not merely the actual existence of a large criminal population composed of children or youths scarcely past childhood—that is patent to all eyes—but the existence of permanent causes creating, or tending to create, such a class, and which render its total disappearance from society something more than improbable. ROMANISM IN ENGLAND. THAT portion of the general census which relates to the various religious bodies in England and Wales has just been published by the authority of the Re gistrar-General. From this deeply-interesting docu ment we learn that the Roman Catholic population of this portion of the United Kingdom is, as nearly as can be estimated, about 200,000. From the insignificance of this number some of our contemporaries argue that the body cannot be dangerous to the State. Our own inference is exactly the reverse. We leave Ireland out of the question, for there Roman Catho licism has, chiefly from the acts of its reverend pro fessors, fallen into such disrepute that it has for the last few years been steadily retrograding. But when we rectal what has happened, and, looking around, see what is occurring, we cannot admit that the aggressive power of Romanism is to be measured by the number of its members. Wherever we turn it meets the eye. Our courts of law are alternately occu- - 0 7 pied in rescuing fYout its limp that property which it has wrung from the terrors of the dying, or in vainly attempting to free the living from its conven tual prisons. What drew from the first Minister of England a memorable letter addressed virtually to the nation ? What absorbed the attention of the Senate during the greater portion of a session? What brought to the foot of the throne addresses from every county and every city in Great Britain, and convulsed the nation from its extremities to its heart? To all these questions the answer can be given in one word—Rome. Whether displayed humbly in the indefatigable daily and hourly minis• trations of the parish priest, or secretly in the whisper and stealthy step of the wily Jesuit, or arrogantly in the bold tread and blustering tones of the lordly Cardinal, the discipline and the organisa tion of Rome must be singularly efficient to produce effects like these. Again we say the number of its members gives no measure of the force the Church of Rome can exert when nterests are bahu►ced and parties neutralised in the scales of Coalition. 1111.E.tD RIOTS. Ar Exeter and in several towns and villages in ita vicinity riots consequent on the high price of pro visions occurred at the close of last and the commence- meat of this week. There was nothing to distin. guish them from ordinary riots of a similar nature. Windows were broken; bakers' shops to some extent pillaged ; the police were inadequate to the 'miler gency ; the military were called upon to aid the civil power ; the mob was dispersed, some prisoners were captured, no life was lost, and " order reigns at " Exeter." It is not long since some of our con temporaries were singing triumphal chants on the universal tranquillity that prevailed, notwithstanding the extensive strikes and the enormous price of food. They could find but one cause for this calm. True it was that bread was dearer than ever it had been under Protection; but then, now "it was no " longer leavened by a sense of injustice, therefore " the people were tranquil." We are sorry that these riots have come to dispel the theory of our con temporaries, not that we suspect for a moment they will admit that they were mistaken, for if, like the French philosopher, they are told that facts are against them, with him they will doubtless reply, " Then so much the worse forthe facts." The truth is, the people under Protection, as also under Free Trade, act in these sudden outbreaks (ruin mere passion, not from reason—from that strong im pulse which originated the homely proverb that " hunger will break through stone walls." EAST GLOUCESTERSHIRE ELECTION. THIS election terminated on Thursday in the triumph. ant return of Sir M. H. Beach, the Conservative candidate. At the close of the poll the numbers were :—For Sir M. H. Beach, :1,364 ; for Mr. Holland, 2,34:1 : majority, 1,021. The votes were distributed among thirteen polling districts, as follows : District. Beach. Holland. Avening 228 .. 75 Maley 126 .. 181) Campden 234 .. 71 Cheltenham .. 405 498 Cirencester .. 392 .. s 170 Gloucester .. 672 .. 47$ Minchinhasuplon.. $ll .. 58 Northleach 3011 .. 60 Stonehouse .. 113 .. 134 Stow on•Wolil .. 269 .. 52 Stroud .. 113 .. 269 Tcwkesbury 255 100 Winclicomb .. 120 160 3,841 2,1148 This is the first occasion on which the new act, limiting the poll in county elections to a single day, had come into practical operation. Not the slightest difficulty is said to have occurred in taking the votes of the electorate during the limited time thus pre scribed at the thirteen polling stations scattered throughout the eastern division of Gloucestershire. THE BADEN DIET was opened on Thursday. In alluding to the conflict now existing between the State and the Church, the Regent said that he deeply regretted the disturbances caused by the step taken by the Archbishop of Freiburg, as well as the misapprehensions which prevailed in some foreign States on the subject. Under such circum stances it was satisfactory and reassuring to find that the greater part of his people took a more cor rect view of the course pursued by the Government. No effort would be spared, while asserting the rights of the Crown, to bring about an amicable adjust ment of the misunderstanding, and to secure to the Church a safe and dignified position. -.-~--