The Express.
London, England, 1857-05-21 00:00:00

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR CRIMINALS

Yesterday Mr. Thomas Hodgakin, of the.Ecoao-
islet nempaper, delivered • lecture in Bt. Martine-lull on
the qualm " What shall we do with our Criminals?"
Mr. prime, M.P., Mr. Ingram,
q M.P., and wail other
=
who take en inteteettating in th,is pressiniLlruestion of the
ore After s and uo in support
elailewastprevent. the admissions of Paley, Lard rougham, aof
toed
▪ Oat "all the punishments hitherto invented have
• realedm criminals or prevent or even check crime,"
Mr. BrAgada said that his answer to the question, " What
sun we do with our criminals?" wee, "Don't create th‘m,"
and that his object was to show that our criminals were the
Inevitable roadie of en erroneous system. The number of
Commitments for trial in England and Wales in 1864 was
49,369, an incratthof 8 per cent. on the previous year. "This
Increase, it I. some estisfaction 'save the compiler of the
returns) to be able to state, is confiner to thejeaat grime class
of of fectoes, and offences of violence haw, on the whole, de-
creased." , The offences against property, without violence,
tompriee about four-tiftbe of the indictable crimes, and, in
this large class, the increase of 11 per cent. shows how
largely the increase of commitments in the year i• made up
of offences of the least grave character?' This old.) du-
neription of the national criminality 1n1264 is applicaba, with
one or two brief exceptions, to the whole period bet..
1806, when our criminal records were that kept with sot..
lot not sufficient sere, and 1843. " The increase in commit-
ments (said Mr. Porter, in 1842) is chiefly in offence' com-
mitted against property without violence.' At that period
time offences constituted 79.31 bundrethe of the whole; in
1864, they bad increased to 81.12 hundirths. Thus, the
great majority of all the crimes punished by the law atter •
solemn trial, secluding all summary conviction—more than
leer-Itlths of all the offences the increase of which so alarms
the community—ere offences against property committed
without violence. They are vulgar, low- ulna, n plunder.
itationally '-•• we are conspicuous for pilferinccit
Ike --

GeT;g;ic,
!...un!!,g

boot, the
injuring it
ppeu
howe
he
it
herd
n the Phcrn g
there)
n
themu
that
the
t
,fen
wee
t: ito:
l
tog
letablialtu
at his rot
time the c
againstbl
jigged Itio
Hia Wu
the deka(
dent, an tl
of thngint
but the w
to her face
and tepee
conaequei
officer of
ries, and
favourebl
munkate

--"Y °Peaking,
easaserination. The proportion of these
sgainat property Is continually augmenting, while the
graver and more atrocious crimes are, on the whole,
continually diminishing. Most of these graver crimes,
too, originate in a desire for property, 61 bur-
-111:1'
, garottings, some poiseninp, and other murders.
progress mentioned," said Mr. Hodgokin, '`l regard
ea thoroughly established, end as lying at the basis of all
lost reasoning on the effects of penal laws. This important
Ike may relieve timid doubters of all anxiety as to the future
Cl society. It limits my remarks to one elms of offinnom to
gum bow our eysteui treats criminals, how it induces
theft." Mr. Hodgskin then proceeded to show, by many and
*tracing examples, bow the poorer classes have ever been in-
inenced by the practice of the higher—that against this no
punishments were of any avail ; and that " till the upper
Classes pay a much wore profound respect than at present
to the poverty of the multitude, they will continue to be
tormented- -by frauds and thefts." (Applause.) The criminals
of the time were the offspring of past errors. Like
and steamboats, they were our neceosities—the
direct =sequences, probably, of penal lain, the national
debt, locked-up land, a fettered commerce, an extravagant
government, and an established church. The rule, there-
fore, "that at Rome you must do as they do at Remo"
held generally good, and the morality of the multitude,
like their dress, was derived by a specie, of constraint from
Others, who punished them for the peculiarities they had at
least been instrumental in producing. Having argued and
shown that the upper chaser., by means of their unavoidable
Influence, created most of the crimes committed against pro-
Lirtple. Hodgekin did justice to those chasm by showing
y effect of their example in lessening crimes of vio-
lence, and in spreading generally a milder tone throughout
society. He was happy to say, too, that they were becoming
sensible of their influence for good or for evil, and conscious
cif their great responsibility, but he was there she to say that
yet misunderstood the means by which alone they could
fulfil their duty. 't Born" (said Mr. liodgskin in conclu-
sion) "of our common mother, the earth—for man is em-
phatically dust, and always mutually connected with her,
she besnng us all, as it were, for ever in her spacious womb,
and always preserving us mentally united by the similar
knowledge and similar impressions she produces in all—cor-
rectieg, too, by invariable laws or by facts all our vague
dreams, our iodated hopes, and our boundless imaginations,
false only because she does not confirm them—united all by
and in her, the whole of mankind forms mentally bat one
family. no knowledge gathered by each is generally dif-
fused, and so it is inercaned and comes to bean a larger pre •
dominating proportion over individual peculiarities, it con-
stitutes one mind for all, imparting a great meaning to
what you may perbepe have often repeated as merely a beau-
tiful and impressive couplet—
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is and Ood the soul.
This principle gives us the theoretical or abstract explana-
tion of the manner in which crimes—our present thefts—end
virtues—our patriotic energy—become and continue national.
Aka individuals, as dawn, and as the incorporated Mate, we
can bidolge no denim, prosecute no action, practise no virtue
aor crime and enact nu law which, in its visible effects, is
not very influential, though very often the reverse of what
Is intended, in moulding the characters and minds of all. Wo
out only make fining lawn, therefore, for greet communities,
which now constitute not merely a few hundred or thousand
Isatcar, not merely a few tribes, but many millions of men,
of various lineage and venous faiths, by ascertaining and
fully comprehending the mutual and reciprocal influence
araroised by the acts and the example of all the individuals
sad claws who compose them. We can only comprehend,
boo, the great subject of crime, by diecarding our municipal
Haute and institutions, and even our aational pniedices, and
by extending our views put all human legislation to the
great law. which eidablish an eternal distinction between
tight and wrong, and impose cm every human being his or
Its own peculiar dutice, and give him his own peculiar
rights."
At the close of the lecture Mr. licidgskin was loudly ap-
Waded.

TSB 4

Yeah
Bacon w
the (shall
Prefesen
petted.
On tho
examine
nod of f

A Ma
11°`'°

des 4(
dol.„

.?;c1

f h
emir,
over

HOLY THORSDAY.—This festival, according to
anaasi custom, was observed this day by the rector or vicar
sad clergy, accompanied by the chtuchwardem, over-
awe, and other parochial officers, and the chanty
sad juvenile children of the variotui parishes, through
Oat the metropolis, perambulating and marking the
bounds of their respective perishes, by striking the bounds-
lies with wends. It is needless to my that the p ecbial
officers enjoy themselves, and never forget the chit who
are regaled with bone, cakes, and ale, and, in some perishes,
with • good dinner.
The Directors of the London and North Western
Railway have presented the Rev. Ferdinand G. C. Spitler,
11. A., curate of Aston Flamvillea, Leicaoterehire, to the in-
awanbeway el Crewe, Cheshire.