The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-10 00:00:00

Joviwzmi

TbehilinefiNdee ebermins the VIII that, at
flu MOO stelllNtsimelea lest year he • Amp to
the greed jog WI that men, ebb ily. subject of
jeirenile Mile Is the Metropolitan .- thse of the
chief objects he bad in view Is se deb* wet to all psihe
attention M t n melte of the sweßades ett e testate
knows as tbe Lemony gala was MOW in 1.8141.13
laden gene Ole megistreta JINN of es=inriedellha
emir elf ammo§ Imoodes committed by net mile&
kortcen leen of age. It bad bees ma still wee Sit
to diger in intake with tho bosevelmt poo-
sebum of that statute ea to Ite Wel results. 111
1 was Omaha by the legislature the withdrawal
of children frees the public routs, sad dm sobethetles of a
gra tribute' and an individual jolgoost fee trial by •
would have a beneficial operatics upon the youthful
population of the country, and tend not only to diminish the
seeitaber of minimal. bat the menet of mime ; but en expe-
llee's of Pert y years In the general administration of jostler,
MA as nominee of twelve years in that court (Is which
letter period he had tried 18,000 pitmen, and had carefully
watched the caner of men, hundreds), left in his mind a
dee mend seasiettea that the consequences of this summary
juriedkflen would be just the reveres el the molts antici-
pated by the framers of the set of parliament, by which that
mammy jariediction wall established. The statute had bad
the trial of an additional twelvemo.th sines that charge wee
delivered, end the repot lance of that twelvemonth had made
no attends* In his opinion, although in that period there
had been • numerical decrease in the number of children row
milted in the metropolitan districts, which, unexplained,
might lead to the conclusion that the act was now operating
benefiebdly, mad the fact used as an argument for the exten-
sion of the powers of the act. It was not his intention to
toter at all into the general question as to the cams of
Juvenile delinquency, nor to offer any suggestion for the
amendment of the criminal law in relation thereto. More
able, active, and vigorous minds were diligently labouring in
the great work of rescuicg the succeeding generation from
the evils of the existing code, and they would, by Ood's
blessing, he hoped, be suceessful. All he should do, at least
upon that occasion, would be to lay before the grand jery,
and thereby before the public, a statistical detail of the com-
mittals under this act. There had Wily been a decrease in
the committals of juvenile thieves ; there had also, in the
same time, been a decrease in the committals of adult mien
Niels ; eked the qa mien therefore was (tsr the causes which
produced the ebb and flow of crime operated e Beall upon de.
linquents of all seesgmierally), had the decrease of juveniles
bees proportionate to the committals of adults, or whether the
decrease as regarded children had been greater or less than
the decrease in committal, generally. In considering this,
it should be recollected that fur several years before the
passing of the act, there had been a numerial decrease in the
committals of children, and a numerical increase in the com-
mittals of adult.. From the lot of August, 1846, to the 31st
of July, 1847, the year before the passing of the act, the
committal, of adults were:4,36l ; children, 1,056; the pro-
: portion being 4 13th. to 1. In the year following the pun-
iest of the act, the &duke were 4,190; children, 1,350 ; the
proportion being 3.llths to 1 ; in the following year, i. e.,
18489. the adults were 3,559: children, 1 275 ; the proper
ties being 2-77th. to 1 ; and from August 1, 1849, to Jan.
31, 1850, the adults were 1,517 ; chi:dren, .571 ; the propon
fign being 2.71 to 1. Theo. were the committals in both
London and Middlesex, and the conclusion was inevitable
that whatever might be the state of crime in the
metropolis, or the number of offences actual's
committed within the district, the committals of children
air es the passing of the Larceny Act, had greatly increased,
as regards the committal of adults. Summary convictions
had always been highly esteemed in the City of London, and
for several years the City maestrates had rarely sent • boy
for trial, if they had the power to dispose of him summarily,
and although the cerporetion of London had been more than
once congratulated upon the decrease of the committals of
child/in to Newest', as • e minim nee of the introduction
of mammary jurisdiction, he had returns which showed that
the general committals of children within the jurisdiction of
the City, had increased since the passing of the act, in
respect to the committals of adults, ill a gr. stir pro:Tonkin
than in Middlesex. If prisons were the Sting seminaries
fee the moral and religious training of children, and prime
discipline a fitting system of treatment to entourage hides-
trio., habits in the idle child, and to call forth the natural
feelings in • neglected one, and if it were advant•geous to
state to familiarire its population in theirearly days with the
interior of felon gaol*, and the halite, customs, and disposi-
tions of their inmates, then mammary jurisdiction was se
doubt au undeniable boon, and deserved the encouragement
of the statesman and the philanthropist. For hiv self, how.
over, he mast still he permitted to doubt whether there was
net something radically unsound in a system under which
It appeared that the committals of children within the
metropolitan: districts generally, and within the City of
Lind n particularly, bore such a fearful proportion to the
committals of adults. Ills principal reason for addre ming
the grand jury ill on this subject then was that a bill wee at
the present tin • before parliament to extend, notwith-
standing there Indieoutable results, the pow. r of summary
jurisdiction bout children of 14 to those of 16 years of age.
The grand jury then retirsJ.
The details of
,the eases tried during the day were of no
general interest.