The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-06 00:00:00

age.
3. Whil,

-ersal I

Ae it is unir y admitted that poverty and
ignorance have a natural tendency to augment the
growth of crime, it must also be admitted tt.ortLe stated
increase cannot be attributed to these causes alone ; for
we find that the average of commitments in each quin-
quennial period shows an augmentation of the preceding
'average, irrespective of the fluctuations which during
those periods have taken place in the national prosperity,
and in an inverse direction to the accumulation of na-
tional wealth, which during the whole time has been un-
doubtedly taking place. That this increase of crime
cannot be attributed to the absence of education, is like-
wise equally apparent ; for during the whole of the in-
tervening period most strenuous exertions have been
made to afford to the masses of the people increased
education, intellectual, moral, and religious, and to sup-
ply them with the means of satisfying the appetite for
knowledge, which elementary instruction was calculated
to inspire.
4. If the force of mere education could counteract
the causes which are at work in promoting the increase
of crime, the annual increase of education would be
found to tell with greater effect upon the younger classes
of the population, who are most within the range of its
influence. We however find that in spite of the diffu-
sion of education the number of juvenile criminals in-
creases in a larger proportion than the number of cri-
minal adults.

5. As to the effect of prosperity or adversity upon the
growth of crime it is likewise worthy of remark, that,
although the last three years sho w a decrease i: the
number of commitments and convictions in respect of the
whole population of England and Wales (which the
Premier and the Secretary of State have in Parliament
truly ascribed to the increased prosperity and industrial
occupation of the masses of the people), yet the stand
decrease during those years is in respect of the adult
population only ; as upon comparison of the two periods
the number of commitments and convictions of juvenile
offenders has increased in the three latter years upwards
of seven per cent.
6. From the foregoing facts it is quite manifest that
we must seek for the causes of crime's increase in some
other circumstances than the mere ignorance and po-
verty of the masses of the people.
7. In considering this subject it is gratifying to re-
mark, that, although crimes have increased in number,
they have been of a less aggravated character and de-
gree. It is also to be observed, that the number of com-
mitments, or even the number of convictions, at the two
periods taken for the purpose of comparison, do not
furnish a true index of the actual increase of crime in
the kingdom during the intervening years. Various
circumstances have interposed-to disturb this compari-
son—the transition from war to peace threw upon the
country a portion of ' loose population, from which
it had been relieved in time of war—the substitution of
the new police, and the rival constabulary for the Dog-
berries of ancient times, has doubtless caused the detec-
tion and apprehension of many criminals who would
otherwise have escaped. The payment of prosecutors'
expenses out of the county rates stimulates prosecutions
that might not have been instituted. The almost total
abolition of the punishment of death, the diminution of
transportations, and the substitution of shorter terms of
imprisonment, have all of them had some effect in aug-
menting the number of commitments and convictions
beyond the actual increase of crime ; but a close exami-
nation of the numbers in the years when these altera-
tions took place, and their comparison with preceding
and succeeding years, will prove that the influence of
these causes (except the return of peace) is much less
than might have been imagined ; so much so that the
quinquennial averages during the whole forty years show
a graduated increase ; it should likewise be noted, that
the effect of these changes upon the returns of the num-
ber of commitments has been much qualified by the
modern system of legislation, which so frequent substi-
tutes summary convictions for trial by jury, and has
transferred to the jurisdiction of the magistrates, many
cases that- would otherwise have appeared as commit-
ments and convictions in the later criminal returns. In
point of fact it is believed that the number of summary
convictions for petty offences in England and Wales,
which do not find a place in the returns of commitments
and convictions from which the foregoing calculations
have been made, amount to more than three times the
number of convictions at the assizes and sessions, which
form the basis of these returns.
8. Coeval with this extraordinary increase of commit-
ments and eon-victions for crime, has been the multipli-
cation of petty offences, punishable by fine, and (failing
its payment) by short imprisonment in gaol.* All
these offences (many of them mere mala prohibita) it is
within the range of mischievous youth to commit, and
having no money for the penalty, they of course pay in
person. as they cannot pay in purse.
9. Upon summary convictions, short imprisonments
are awarded for the smallest offence, and it is no un-
common thing to read in the newspapers of young
urchins found, in a state of destitution, or in the com-
mission of some petty delinquency, commisserated by
the magistrate, who expresses his pity for their un-
fortunate condition, and laments that he has no other
place than a criminal's gaol, to which he may consign
them.

10. The mind of the child thus becomes familiarised
with a gaol—a prison is at once disarmed of its terrors
and its shame. In a gaol the novice in crime gets ac•
quainted with the hardened in guilt • he finds himself
the object of commiseration ; he finds that he is better
clothed, hater fed, better housed and better cared for,
within its walls than in the habitation of his parents or
the workhouse of his parish; hence petty delinquencies
become the prelude to the gravest crimes, and the child
acclimated to the atmosphere of a gaol grows up to
manhood, disabled from gaining an honest living, by
having had the brand of crime stamped upon his fore-
head, and he so remains, perhaps for years, a continual
burden to the State, until his education is finished in
the Model Prison, at an expense of some thirty or forty
pounds, preparatory to his transportation from his native
land at a further cost of the like sum.

11. If, when this child was first charged with vio-
lating the law, or was first found in destitution on the
threshold of crime, it had been placed in a reformatory
establishment, surrounded with means and appliances
for mental, moral, religious, and industrial training,—
instead of costing his country, in loss by plunder and in
expenses of prosecutions, imprisonments, and trans-
portation, from 1001. to 1501.—he would, for one third
of that price, have been rendered a useful and valuable
member of society, either at home or in any one of our
Colonies—to which, as a free emigrant, after proper
training, he might be willing to be transferred.
12. To carry out this object in a cheap and efficient
!iccording to their sex,
manner, it should not be undertaken. by a mere union of
parishes, or even of counties ; it.mmayus.tb.
eberbecyeithveede:taanba-
lishment of National Asylums, in which all objects, of
strength, as well as their past. pursuits and asso-
ciations wherel
and
tedbx
ee
ys ,
mayhowever
b e
classifiednumerous,
; and where they may,. from time to time, be
re-arranged according
.to their conduct, character, and
attainments, and according to their intended vocation in
after life.
13. These establishments should be conducted by
government officers, under the supervision of Inspectors
and Boards of Magistrates ; they should be placed on
the line of the great trunk railroads, by which children
could be transmitted safely, cheaply, and expeditiously
to "and from different parts of the kingdom, and by
which the produce of their labour, such as market-
garden stuff, and ether productions of the soil, might be
easily forwarded to the metropolis or other large towns,
where a ready consumptimn would be found.t Out door
labour should be united
v‘ith mental and religious edu-
cation, and with instructio9. in
mechanical employment :
employment in the open air invigorates the frame, pre--
motes motes their growth, and is a good. preparation for any
situation that youth may be destined here after to fill.
The length of their continuance in the Asylum should