The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-13 00:00:00

CI?IMINALS.

Mr. Fenwick, the chief constable of Chester, has made
some statements on the sul jcct of crime and criminals.
The profession of crime is systematically divided into
various branches, and the several classes do not associate
together. Thieves are not always driven to crime for
want of work, as many of them have a trade at their
fingers' ends. It is serious to learn that there are at large
in England and Wales more than twenty-two thousand
"known thieves," and these, with the receivers of stolen
goods and "suspected persons," make a total of
1,121,406 persons of criminal tendencies. A very
small percentage of these abandon their evil
habits and associates. Every policeman throughout
England and Wales knows about five persons of criminal
tendencies, and the question is, if this army cannot be
cured, is it to be endured. Mr. Fenwick declares that
",Fagin" still exists, and is sometimes found in the parents
of the juvenile delinquents. Crime is not likely to be pre-
vented or reduced to a minimum while the present system
of dealing with confirmed thieves exists. The number of
criminals has increased so much that they outnumber the
police in the proportion of five to one. Mr. Fenwick
advocates the system of scale-punishments and super-
vision after the expiration of the sentence of imprison-
ment. The present state of things has existed long
enough, and the robbers possess chances wlarh must be
taken away.

CRUEL Hoax.—For some days the relatives of
friends who have sailed in passenger ships from England
have been thrown into the most distressing anxiety in
consequence of a notice which has app( a•ed in the public
press "that some dreadful shipwreck had occurred in the
Bay of Biscay, some fifty bodies having been washed
ashore along the coast of Corunna." A telegram sent to
the underwriters by Lloyd's agent at Corunna, states
" that there is no truth in the report, and that the whole
affair is suspected to be a hoax, no bodies having been
seen."

A SON ATTEMPTING TO POISON A FAMILY AT
►SnEFFIELD.--On Sunday a young man, named Edmund
Barker, 2.5 years of age, file-cutter, attempted to poison
his father, mother, brother, and two sisters by putting
the contents of a threepenny packet of Battle's vermin
destroyer into a saucepan containing broth for dinner. It
was found out by the in' ense bitterness of the broth, with
no worse consequence than that one of the daughters was
sick; and when he was charged with it he laughed.
He had often ill used all the members of the family
except his father, and threatened to murder them.
He continued living at home till Monday evening,
when he again threatened to murder them, and to do it
effectually this time, and his father then turned him out
of the house. He wandered about for some hours, and
early on Tuesday morning gave himself up to the police,
and confessed his attempt to poison the family. The
reason of his doing so was that he was idle, and that his
father wanted him to work. He is very intelligent in con.
versation, and addicted to the reading of books on history
and parliamentary debates. His general conduct at
home would lead to the belief that he is not right in his