The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-07 00:00:00

ITALY.

The Pied montese Gazette announces that on the
31st Pit. M. Lucien Murat, Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Re-
public to the Court of Turin, presented his creden-
tials to the King of- Sardinia ; and that M. Bois-le-
Comte at the same time presented his letters of re•
call. Count Roedein, Minister Plenipotentiary of
Prussia, presented his credentials on the 231 ult.
A letter from Turin of the 2d announces a new
Ministerial trisis there—General Bava, Minister of
War; Chevalier Galvagno, Minister of the Interior;
and Baron Lamargherita, Minister of Grace and ,

Justice, having offered their resignation, which.
the King had not yet accepted. The correspondent
states that this crisis is owing to the plans of reform
which General Bava contemplated in the army, and
Which could not be effected without dismissing a
great number of officers. This has excited great
dissatisfaction against Bava, who has, moreover,
against hlm the Duke of Genoa, the Prince of Ca-
rignan, and Gen. Lamarmora.
The Statuto of Florence states from Rome, 27th
ult., that the blockade of the quarter of the Jews
ended at midnight, on the 26th. M. de Corcelles was
said to be upon good terms with the Cardinals. The
finances were still in a miserable condition, there be-
ing a monthly deficit of three millions of francs.
The Costituzionale of Florence, of the 30th ult.,
states that large Austrian forces are concentrating at
Ancona, and that fortifications are erecting on the
leading road to Rome. Letters from Bologna of the
29th announce the dismissal of Father Venturini
from his post of director of the Universitf of Bologna,
and that of Professor Carini from his chair.
The Tuscan Monitore, of the 30th ult., publishes
the new law on the police. We remark the follow-
ing sentence in the decree of promulgation, which
precedes the law :—" The present project will be
provisionally in iforce till the Legislative Chambers
shall have given it force of law."

FRENCH CRIMINAL STATISTICS.
The Moniteur publishes the following general ac-
count of the administration of criminal justice in
1847,1 addressed by M:Odilon Barrot, to the Presi-
dent of the Republic :-
" It is important to remark," says the Minister,
" before we enter on the examination of those re-
turns, that their general result exhibits rather
serious variation in the progress of crime. The
number of crimes and offences, as well as that of the
sccused, has undergone a considerable increase. That
augmentation, however, is easily explained. The year The
1847 was not a calm and prosperous period.
excessive dearth of provisions, occasioned by the
failure of the crops in 1846, was a cause agitation
and agitaton
and many disturbances. The population, unquiet,
and tormented by real sufferings, committed excesses.
On several points of the territory serious disorders
occurred. Those disorders almost everywhere had
for their object the plunder of corn ; and the of-
fences which misery always engenders, such as theft,
vagrancy, and mendicity, augmented. The same
symptoms had likewise manifested themselves, but in a
lesser proportion, in 1840. We should not accordingly
deduce from that transitory fact any general inference.
There is even every reason to suppose that the increase
has ceased with the causes which produced it, and
that the next returns will present more favourable
results. It will only have afforded an additional
proof that the ignorance - which still pervades the
country is a new motive for the Government to exert
itself to remove that general and permanent cause of
disturbances and crime. During the year 1847, the
86 courts of assize of Prance tried 5 857 criminal cases,
and 8,704 accused, being an increase of 800 in the
former (16 per cent), and of 1,900 in the latter
(or 28 per cent.), as compared with the two pre-
ceding years. Those 5,857 cases presented 1,622
crimes against persons, and 2,102 accused ; and
4,235 crimes against property, and 6,602 accused.
Muesli those accused of crimes against property,
fraudulent! bankrupts alone were less numerous than,
in 1846.. . The other crimes augmented in a more or
less considerable) proportion. , . Highway.. robbery, in-
creased.s2-per cent.:-; -other robberies, 31 per cent. i
incendiarism, 26 per cent. ; forgery, 22 per cent. ;
finally, 530 persons were tried in 1847 for plunder of
corn and flour, whilst the average number of those
accused did not exceed 20 annually from 1841 to
1846. The number of servants charged with
robbery and abuse of confideace remained
stationary in 1847. The number of females tried by
the courts of assize was extremely limited as com-
pared with that of the men, only comprising 1,427,
ore little less than one-sixth. Of the 8,704 accused,
1,163 were under 21 years of age, 1,330 were aged
from 21 to 25, 1,391 from 25 to 30, 2,147 from 30
to 40, 1,426 from 40 to 50, 641 from 50 to 60, 230
from 60 to 70, and 76 above 70. More than one-
half of the accused were unmarried, viz., 4,574 ;
3,744 were married, and 386 lived in widowhood.
86 of the latter and 684 of the married accused had
no children. The accused who possessed a domicile
resided, 41,335 (64 per cent.) in rural districts, and
3,028 (36 per cent.) in towns. The three-fifths of
the persons tried for crimes against property lived
in the country, and the two others in town. The
three-fourths of those against persons inhabited rural
districts, and the other fourth towns; 1,204 led au
idle life, although they had no means of existence se-
cured, and though most of them had learned a trade ;
the remaining 3,500 were in the habit of working,
2,294 on their own account, and 5,206 on that of
others. The proportion of illiterate accused in-
creased in 1847 to 55 per cent. of the whole number;
in‘ 1845 it was 51 per cent., and 52 per cent. in 1846.
The jury acquitted one third of the accused, or 2,862,
and condemned 65 to death, 228 to labour for life,
1,092 to hard labour for a limited period, 4,384
to imprisonment, and 06, being under 16 years of
age, were either restored to their families or con-
confined in penitentiary establishments. One only of
the 65 capitally convicted did not appeal to the
Court of Cessation ; 8 had their sentences reversed,
but were again condemned to death by the Second
Court of Assize. Forty-five were executed, two
committed suicide, another died previous to the exe-
cution of the sentence, and the others obtained a coin-
mutation of their sentence into hard labour for life.
The Courts of Assize likewise delivered judgment in
1847 against 462 contumacious accused, of whom
30 were sentenced to death, 46 to hard labour
for life, 234 to hard labour for a limited period,
148 to imprisonment, &c. Independently of
the above criminal accusations 99 persons were
tried by the courts of assize for political offences
and others committed by the press ; 69 were
acquitted, 6 sentenced to fine, and 24 to imprison-
ment. The correctional tribunals, which had only
judged, in 1846, 161.376 cases, and 207,476 accused,
tried in 1847 184,922 cases, and 239,291 accused,
being an increase of 23,546 cases, and 31,815 accused.
The number of men was 191,427, of women 47,864.
211,673 were found guilty. There were only 8,231
appeals against the 184,922 judgments pronounced in
1847 by the courts of first instance; 5,105 (62 per
cent.) were confirmed by the courts of appeal, and
3,126 reversed or modified. Of the 8,704 persons tried
by the courts of assize in 1847, 2,183, or 25 per cent.,
had been already condemned for previous offences or
crimes. Those of the same category tried by the courts
of correctional police amounted to 20,929. The
2,681 tribunals of police pronounced 236,607
judgments in 1847, or 352 more than in 1846. They
condemned 260,528 persons to fine, 14,815 to fine and
imprisonment, and acquitted 27,414. The appeals
against their decisions were only 363 in number, and
in one half of the cases those decisions were confirmed.
Proceedings against 104 functionaries, or agents of
the Government, for crimes or offences committed in
the discharge of their duties were demanded in 1847,
but only granted with regard to 54. Of these 26
were acqnitted, and 24 found guilty, and 4 remained
untried. The criminal section of the Court of Ces-
sation pronounced in 1847 on 1,411 appeals. The
number of suicides throughout France in 1847
amounted to 2,647-namely, 2,781 committed by men
and 866 by women. 27 were under 16 years of age,
160 from 16 to 21, 1,150 from 21 to 40, 747 from
40 to 50, 626 from 50 to 60, 495 from 60 to 70, 208
from 70 to 80, 57 upwards of 80; the age of 177
could not be ascertained. Only one department,
that of the Lozere, offered no case of suicide in 1847.
There were from four to ten cases in the de.
partments of the Upper Alps, Corsica, Aude,
Aveyron, Cantal, Ariege, Upper Saone, Creuse,
Eastern Pyrenees, and Tarn and Garonne.
In the department of the Seine, the number of
suicides amounted to 698, or the seventh of the
whole. The departments presenting the greatest pro.
portion, after that of the Seine, were-Lower Seine
135 ; Seine and Oise, 133 ; :North, 126 ; ,Aisne„
110, Oise and Pas de Calais, 100. Suicides were
most frequent in the months of May, June, and July;
the months of November, December, January, and
February produced the least, the returns of the latter
showing 200 less than those of the three first. The
King, on the occasion of the anniversary of his ac-
cession to to the throne, had pardoned 374 culprits,
and commuted the punishment of 326 others."