The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-07-03 00:00:00

parliamentar apens.

WEAPONS or WAR.—The parliamentary papers issued
on Thursday, include "a return of the amount of public
money oil vanced since 1852 to private persons forth. pur-
pose of enabling them to make experiments" for the im-
provement of weapons of Mar. The total amount ad•
viureed for that purpose was £72,768 Its. 911. Among
the elieif items are the following :—L3,000 to Mr. J.
Nasnlytli, to test the applicablility of molleable iron to
large ordnance ; 1:10,0110 to Mr. W. C. Lancastar, for
oval-board rided cannon ; £7,219 Is. Id. to Sir W.
Armstrong, for the incomtion of r... 1 cannon ; £.1,406 to
klessrs. Bishop aiel Vaughan, for the large gun ; L 7,810
19s. 10.1. to Mr. W. Hale, for war rockets ; £1.760 to
Mr. Martin, for aliens of • particular description ;
£11,807 17s. t • Mr. Mallet, for tars of large construc-
tion ; 1:12,748 to Mr J. Whitworth, for machinery, for
riding, boring, and turning barrelo, erection of ride-shed
or ohooting gallery, and experiments with small arms,
fir the I.lsrpum: of ascertaining on what principles a
ride barrel ought to be constructed; and 1:3,247 to the
the same person, for similar experiments with ordnance.
WoLIEN AND CRIXF..—On cri aaa ill al charges more
women are acquitted then men. Of the nien who were
nruere.leal against sui 1111 l arily in the year ending at
Michaelmas, 18:iti, 68.7 per cent, were convicted by the
magistrates ; of the women only 59.3 per cent —a dd.
Ferman of tosarly IS per cent. Mr. Heil:rave states that
it is so throughout the criminal statistics, and thirefore
it must eittelel to the graver offences, but in compiling
the "Judicial Statistics," he has distinguished tussles
(non females in the commitsuents for indictable offences,
but na in the convictions. The VMS/3 be assign. for
this wool lurk of women is leniency towards their sex;
so that Justice is not so blind as she is painted.
Pouck. —The number of police in England and
Wales, a:cording to • return made up to Michaelmas
lest was 20,527, which would give one policeman for
every Sal parsons. But of course the tilllnbtr varies
greatly in dith.rent parts of the country. .1n Manches-
ter iii. one for 502 residents ; in Liverpool, one for
.8$; in the city of London, one for 210. In rand pomb
lotions it is much smaller; in Suffolk, only one in 1.602.
The cost of the force for the year we.. £1,485,029, of
which the Government contributed L 510,205.
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THE CRIMINAL CLAM,— An attempt has been made,
both in this year and the last, to give in the " Judicial
Statistics" some account of the criminal claw at large in
England and Wales. The results of the inquiries of the
police in 1803 are them:-39,538 known thieves, 5,928 of
them under 16 years of age ; 4,047 receivers of stolen
go.* 113 of them under 16; 30,780 prostitutes, 2.037
of them under 16; :17,688 suspected persons, 5,248 of
them under 16; vagrants and tramps, 5,4411 of
them under 16; making a total of 135,766, 18,772 of
them under 16. This statement is doubtless the truth,
but it can hardly he the whole truth. There is not one
prostitute under 16 in the returns for Oxford, Bristol,
(though there are 47 reported in Bath), Southampton,
Leech', Halifax, and Huddersfield. In Oxford the pro-
stitutes are stated to he only 14 in number; in Cain.
bridge, tW. Sheffield contains about three-fifths of the
number of people that Birmingham does, lint Sheffield
is represented as having only 172 known thieves, Bir-
mingham 1,739 ; Sheffield as having only 914 of this
whole criminal chola at large, Birmingham 5,799. The
returns fur different places must have been made up on
different principles. The police else supplied an account
of the number of bonsai of bad character in England
and Wales, and these are returned as being 26,276—viz.,
3,041 houses of receiver,' of stolen goods, ‘ ~9110 houses,
the resort of thieves and prostitutes (2,811 of them
publictiouses, 2,765 beershops, and 428 coffee-shows),
7,691 brothels, and 7,294 tramps' lodging boom.