The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-10-26 00:00:00

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Thu I'M ell AMMAN, 111 his °harp to the
Jury, eungratnlated them twit the womity generally
upon the 81111k11110114 of the ealentlar thou before time,
and upon the marked diminution of aline, 114 4111W11
iii the records of the gaol, whieh had token (ilium in
Dureetshire There were but neventeen prinonere
for trial, and only twelve hail been tried fur famine
under the Summary Justice Act, while he could
,recollect when more than lifty prieonere stood for
erica at the Michaelmas Holmium. With regard to
tie gradual decrease of crime In this county, the
Chairman sail—We flnil that in 1856 there were
711 persons committed to the gaol and house of our.
rettion, charged with felonies and misdemeanours,
113 were summarily tried and convicted, 434 ants.
denbanants and felons, and 175 committed for trial,
making a total of 721. If we come to the next year
(15571, instead of the antecedent number of 721,
there were 676. If we come to 1858, the cuticula.
tions Wog made from Michaelmas to Michaelmas,
and therefore bringing the calculation down to the
11th of )ctober instant, we find that instead of the
721 of 1h56, and the 676 of 157, there were in the
last twelie months only 566, the total diminution
being 155, or 214 per cent. That lithe very gratify-
ing statenant which I have the honour to make on
the part of the county of Dorset. And 1 do think
there is another circumstance that deserves to be
noticed, and which is trout another point of view in
so far as the public purse is ooncerned, whether
levied upon the ratepayers of the county, or paid out
of the Consolidated Fund. We find that this dimi.
nution of 155 prisoners, taking the average cost of
the maintenance of prisoners at £23 and a fraction
(4) per head, there would be a saving from this
diminution amounting to £3,600 per annum for
maintenance alone. But it is remarkable that
although in the county of Dorset we have the good
fortune to perceive a great diminution of crime, it is
not so, and has not been so, as far as the United
Kingdom is concerned—that is, England and Wales.
In thirty-two manufacturing counties distress and
physical want had encouraged crime and driven
individuals to commit offences. In proof of this the
Chairman referred to the Poor Law returns. In
January, 1857, there were 881,864 paupers receiving
relief, and in the commencement of that year great
monetary distress arose in the connery. Towards
the end of that year, ooming to the last day of

December, 1657, instead of 881,8114, there were
363,218 being an increase of 54,354 receiving relict
—a calculation showing that the proportion was
1 pauper to every 17 self-supporting persons, at the
great cost of upwards of six millions per annum.
The Chairimus passed on to account for the inure
favourable position of Dorset, in respect of crime, as
compared with England and Wales, on the ground
of an enlarged demand for labour, the rise of wages,
the improvement in the condition of the working
classes resulting from the greater care and attention
bestowed upon them, from the spread of education,
out the iwtablishment of the county police, which last
had operated as a preventive of crime. The Chairman
hoped that this felicitous result would long continue,
una concluded by snaking a few observations on the
legal hearings of one or two of the eases in the Wen.