The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-28 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL, PLYMOUTH.

Mark Lemon's drama of " Sea and Land " has been
produced hero in past week witla signal success. The
scenery, painted by Mr. J. Roberts, displayed a highly-
creditable amount of artistic skill, and was exceedingly
admired. The piece was well put upon the stage, and
the parts efficiently filled. Wild Meg is undoubtedly
the best character in the piece, and in the care of Ma-
dame Leolercq it was most cleverly executed. The au-
thor has painted wild and uneducated nature in all its
simplicity beautifully, and the audience experienced the
pleasure of having it rendered in its true spirit by Ma-
dame Leulercq, who sustained this very difficult part
with consummate ability. Her acting throughout was
most exquisitely natural, and those who have no rale,-
iectiou or this accomplished lady but as a very graceful
and clever dancer, would be astonished, us well as
delighted, at witnessing her truly admirable persona-
tion of Wild Meg. Mr. Crouch was well played by
Mr. J. W. Ray, and Tom Potts by Mr. G. Smythson,
in his own peculiarly funny style, which drew down
repeated laughter. Ned Bradley was truthfully given
by Mr. Elsboe Shaw, and Mr. Mites found a good
use for his originality in rendering the character of the
eccentric Mr. Poppy. Throughout the week, " One
Thousand Young Milliners for the Gold Diggings " was
the concluding piece, and despite, or perhaps in conse-
quence of, its exaggerations, kept the house in continu-
ous roars of laughter.
The second Concert of the series to be given at this
Theatre during the forthcoming winter season,itook place
on Friday night, when the house was fully attended by
a highly respectable audience. The appearance or
Madame Weiss, Mr. H. Weiss, and Mr. Travers, from
the principal London Theatres, whose vocal abilities are
so well known as to need no encomiums was hailed with
evident satisfaction, and their charming and clever exe-
cution of the various selections in the programme, re-
ceived unbounded and well-merited approbation. Mrs.
Henry Reed presided at the piano-forte, and performed
Souvenir d'L Capuletti and Fantaise Don Pasquale with
great brilliancy, both of which difficult compositions were
rapturously applauded. The instrumental performers
did justice to the selections assigned to them, and much
credit is due to Mr. H. Reed (the conductor), for his
exertions in producing such good musical effect. The
elegant Music Hall was brilliantly lighted up and taste-
fully arranged, and its gay and refreshing appearance
conduced materially to the enjoyment of the entertain-
ment. We hope that Mr. Newcombe will find these
concerts realize his expectations, as we feel confident
that he spares no exertion in catering for the rational
amusement of the public.

THE EARLDOM OF WINTOUN.—On Wednesday last,
the Rev. 'William Seaton, minister in the Methodist New
Cinneetion, died at Rochdale, aged 56 years. He was
the last male descendant in a direct line from George
fifth Earl of Wintoun, whose titles, honours, and estates
were forfeited for his share i❑ the Scottish Rebellion, in
1715. The Earl was taken prisoner at Preston on No-
vember 14th, 1715, tried and sentenced to be executed,
but found means to escape from the Tower in London,
August 4th, 1716, and fled to Rome, where he died De-
cember 19th, 1749, aged upwards of 70 years.

CRIME IN FRANCE.

The Aloniteur publishes a report on the adminis-
tration of criminal justice in France, addressed to the
Prince President by the Minister of Justice, together
with a mass of criminal statistics. But instead of
being confined as heretofore to a recapitulation of the
crimes and offences committed in a particular year,
these documents are so drawn up as to represent the
results of an entire quarter of a century. The follow-
ing are the most striking features of this publication :
—The number of proces verbaux, and complaints of
ad kinds, addressed to the prosecutors, averaged
141,181 annually in the period from 1826 to 1830 ;
bat it increased to 225,982 a year in the period from
1846 to 1850; and in these totals offences against the
forest, customs, and excise laws, and those of whet are
called the simple police, are not included. It is, how-
ever, to be remarked that no prosecutions took place
co one-half at least of the clmpluini-s made to the
public prosecutors; a great portion of them being un-
founded, or the authors of them being unknown.
The number of crimes against the person has in-
creased—from 1826 to 1830, the Courts of Assizes
were called on to try annually 1,354 such cases ;
whereas from 1846 to 1850 they had to try 1,778.
Oa the other hand, the crimes against property bad
declined—from 1826 to 1830, they averaged 4,022
a year, whereas from 1843 to 1850 they only averaged
3,381 a year. Amongst the crimes against persons,
those which present the most striking increase are
criminal assaults on female adults and children, espe-
cially on the latter. Thus, for example, such crimes
an children were only 136 annually from 1826 to
1830; whereas they rose to 420 from 1846 to 1850.
[he diminution in the crimes against property is
not, it appears, owing to any improvement in mo-
rality, but to the fact that they are accompanied with
less violence and more cunning than formerly, which
causes them to b 3 treated us " offences " instead of
" crimes ;" and also to the fact that of late years the
examining magistrates have made a rule of not ad-
mitting aggravating circumstances so readily as they
used to do. Whilst then the " crimes " of robbery
tried by the Courts of Assizes have fallen from 3,456
annually from 1826 to 1830, to 2,463 from 1846 to
1850, the " offences " of robbery submitted to the
Correctional Tribunals have risen from 9,871 in 1826,
to 24,332 in 1850. In other descriptions of crime
there has been an increase instead of a diminution ;
this is especially the case in forgery, coining, fraudu-
lent bankruptcy, arson, and extortion of signatures.
In addition to the increase of the cases of robberies
submitted to the Correctional Tribunals, there has
been an increase in the offences of embezzlement,
windling, and others. As regards mendicity, the
annual number of such offences was 752 from 1826 to
1830, whereas it rose to 6,963 from 1846 to 1850.
The number of offences of vagabondage has risen in
the same periods from 2,544 to 6,089; of rebellion,
outrages, &c., against public functionaries from 3,344
to 8,655 ; of sundry offences against morality from
497 to 1,267 ; and in all other sorts of offences there
is also an increase. The following facts also appear
from the returns:—Of the number of accused tried
for crime by the Courts of Assize only one-sixth are
females ; for offences tried by the Tribunals one-fifth.
Criminals aged less than 21, generally attack pro-
perty ; aged more than 21, and especially aged more
than 50, they attack the person ; the proportion of
unmarried men guilty of crimes against property is 58
in 100; in crimes against the person they form only 52
in 100; and of robberies taken separately 64 in 100. It
further appears that the inhabitants of the country
districts form about three-fifths of the total number
of accused, and the inhabitants of towns two-fifths.
But in crimes against the person, the country people
form seven-tenths of such totals, whereas in crimes
against property they only count for six-tenths. As
to the degree of instruction of the accused, it appears
that the number of accused completely unlettered has
declined 10 per cent. ; and that in crimes against the
person they figure in the proportion of 555 in the
1,000, and in crimes against property, 562 in the
1,000. From 1826 to 1830, out of 100 accused there
were on the average 39 acquitted, and of the 61
convicted, 37 were condemned to what are called
" peines afilictives et infawantes," and 24 to correc-
tional penalties ; from 1841 to 1845 the average
number of acquittals was 34 per hundred, and of the
66 convicted 27 were sentenced to " peines afflictives
et infamentes," and 39 to correctional penalties ; from
1846 to 1850, out of 100 accused 37 were acquitted,
and of the 63 convicted, 26 were condemned to the
former, 37 to the latter penalties. The decline in the
latter period is owing to decrees in the provisional
government having changed the majority of the jury
required to pronounce a conviction. Taking the
whole 25 years together, the proportion per 100 is 37
acquitted, 28 condemned to " peines afflictives et
infamantes," and 35 to correctional penalties. Before
the correctional tribunals the number of acquittals
on prosecutions instituted by the public prosecutors
has declined from 271 per 1,000, from 1826 to 1830,
to 146 per 1,000, from 1846 to 1850. But, on the
other hand, punishments have been made less severe
by the frequent admission of extenuating circum-
stances, and imprisonment in many cases has been re-
placed by fine. It appears, finally, from the returns
and the report, that persons accused of crimes against
cproperty
carri em
eps uni s
against
e d no
the
ir eseverely p
ers o
n;th
at ht a
mn
otrhoseie s n d
uc-
h.
gence is shown to women than to men, and to old
men than to men in the prime of life ; whilst crimi-
nals possessed of some education are treated more
severely than those without any.