The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

the.whole continuance of the strike. In referring to other '
periods of pressure, the earlint notice of the connection be-
tween distress and crime which we find in Mt. Clay's re,
port is during the intervals between July, 1824, and July,
1820, and between July, 1825, and July, 1826. The first
was a period of general prosperity and comfort amongst
the labouring classes. The second was one of perhaps un-
precedented distress. Yet in the latter period the felony
list presented no augmentation ; and though 40,009 or
50,09 of the p3or were existing upon charitable contribu-
tions, the few who pleaded distress as an excuse for crime
were, in every case, old offenders. In four ordinary years,
ending with Juno, 1824, the average of committals to the
sessions annually was 119. The prosperous year of 1825
produced 177 committals ; the following year of distress,
172 ; and, in the year of reviving prosperity, ending July
1827, the number increased to no less than 269. " This
lamentable anomaly," Mr. Clay observes, " in the moral
character of the working classes, can only arise from the
fact, that high wages to the ignorant and uneducated
poor bring with them the means of gratifying the propen-
sity to intoxication, which is so fatal to their comfort and
character," and which is the ascertained cause of the greater
portion of their crimes. The opinion then expressed
has been confirmed by the experience of later years
If we take 10 years, ending with 1841, we find that, in
1836-7, a strike at Preston threw nearly 9,000 hands out of
employ for about four months. Of these nearly two-fifths
were under 19 years of age, and there was a consequent
increase in the number of young offenders ; but it war
found that idleness, and not want, had been the immedi-
ate cause of crime in almost every case connected with the
strike. Even in this year of distress the committals to the
sessions were less by 59 than those of a corresponding pe-
riod 10 years before, when the poor were pretty well em-
ployed. Mr. Clay gives a tabular statement of the whole
of these 10 years. I cannot adopt them, however, as very
strongly supporting the opinions which I have advanced.
We there see an increase of committals simultaneous with
a period of great and prolonged suffering ; but there were
other causes than either poverty or intemperance which
predisposed to crime. In the words of my authority, " a
spirit of sedition and riot had loosened the restraints which
the masses in North Lancashire are usually willing to ac-
knowledge ; and the autumn of 184'2 was marked by an
amount of agitation and violence which betokened no
slight danger to the permanent welfare of the manufac
turing distlicts." The county police force, which had been
organised two years previous, was found capable of arrest-
ing the dangerous spirit that had been excited into action,
and a considerable increase in the committals was a natu-
ral consequence. " The zeal and activity of the new con.
stabulary added to the number of apprehensions, though
there might be no corresponding increase of actual crime ;
and political disaffection encouraged dishonesty and vio-
lence to an extent which poverty alone would not have
provoked." I therefore lay aside the 10 years ending with
1844 as an abnormal period, and I take the 10 years from
1,815 to 1854 inclusive, as throwing a fairer light upon the
question with which T commenced. Of these Mr. Clay
gives the following table :

.2 0

Year.