The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-01 00:00:00

INCREASE OF CRIME.

(From the John Bull.)
We have elsewhere, and before to-day, expressed
ourselves unequivocally as to the New Police Act,
as it works. We will now imagine the effects pro-
duced upon the lower classes by its continued active
administration, and imagine some modern Howard
visiting, with the most benevolent views, and the most
purely philanthropic motives, one of the prisons crowded
with criminals consigned to its walls and wheels by its
provisions and enactments. Here will he see the strong-
est possible evidence of an increase—not of crime—but
of crimes proluced by the mutation of character given
by law to what were formerly no crimes at all.
True, the New Police Act furnishes offences, but it
imagines them first. It was enviously said of Tom
'rhumb—

" He made the giants first, and then he killed them."
The Tom Thumbs of modern legislation have made the
crimes, and then denounced them.

However, by dint of fining, tread-milling, gagging
(under the silent system), and every other fanciful Whig
device for torturing the poor, we may fairly suppose
that in the space of twelve months the people will have
become duly sensible of the enormity of the villanies
which come within the scope and range of the Act, and
that, huddled in corners, ashamed to show their faces
or raise their heads under the weight of crime by which
they are overburdened, they will shrink from the kind
inquiries of their humane visitors.

Permitted by the gaoler to investigate their several
cases, the modern Howard, and the gentle Fry, began
their research.

" Wretched creature," says Howard, to a man coiled
up, his head resting upon his hands, through the half-
opened fingers of which the huge heavy tears were
oosing, " what crime has brought you to this ?"
" Sir," replies the suffering martyr, " do not inquire—
I have not power to explain—l know my fault—l am
satisfied of the justice of my sentence, and prepared to
bear it : leave me, Sir, to repentance."
" But the crime," continued Howard.

"If I must confess," sobs the culprit, lam here,
sentenced to the mill for having—oh ! if I had previously
thought what I was about to do—for having stuck two
large posting-bills upon some boards in St. Martin's-
lane."

" And what was your trade," asks Howard.
" I had been," sobs the culprit, " for 32 years, man
and boy, a billsticker—what, Sir, is known in the best
society as an external paper-hanger.' I have in my
time, before my eyes were opened to the vice, stuck
hundreds and thousand of bills, Sir ; but it is past, and
I am paying the just penalty of my crime."
" And you," continued Howard, speaking to a little
boy whose eyes were red with weeping, " what have
you done to deserve this infliction ?"
" Please, Sir," said the miscreant—and one so young,
too—" I was a having what, before the good laws
passed, we used to call a lark, with my cousin Jim
Gibbons, which is a biggerer boy than me, and he, Sir,
I beg your pardon, Sir—and he, Sir—called me a
spooney, whereupon, Sir—it was in the street, Sir—l
ups with a stone—nearly as big agin as a marvel, and
I shies it right at him, Sir, by which reason, Sir, as I
have confessed to the clergy which comes to visit us by
order of the Magistrates, I did mean to hit him—l
never shall be able to look up agin, Sir—it's that, Sir,
for which I am worked on the mill every day, Sir."
" Indeed," said Howard ; " and you, Sirrah, what is
your crime ?"

" All inadwertence," said a a huge unshaven man—
his manly chest heaving with agitation—" my poor wife
and seven babbles are all starving, Sir, through me."
" What caused your separation," said Howard,
greatly affected.

" Inadwertence, as I have just observed," said the
captive. " I was in other days a dustman—first man
under the contractor himself, sir ; but, driven like by
my anxiety, Sir, that was all, to git what ashes and
cinders I could for the consarn, which I thought was
my duty, I committed, Sir, the fault, the crime,"—and
here he struck his bosom passionately—" of ringing my
bell through the streets."
" Horrible," said Howard, " your bell !"
That is not all," said the suffering penitent, " the
Worshipful Bench confisticated the bell, and warned
me ; my bell was sold t 3 pay part of my fine, and so it
might have passed off ; but, instigated by some worserer
genus, I went the next day and cried Dust, hoh !' all
down Hamming's-row ; what led me to such a act
who can say ? I was heard in the street—l was heard
in the court—and here I am, Sir, a working on a %heel,
and, as I said before, Mrs. G. and the seven babbles
a-starving."
" The crime was serious," said Howard. " And
you," addressing himself to a tall well-looking lad, wear-
ing a glazed hat with a low crown and a broad brim,
" have you been ringing a bell ?"