The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-11 00:00:00

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TitIRD FDITION.

SUN OFFICE, 6 O'CLOCK.

NATIOEAL REFORM UNION.

Mr. BRIGHT, in obedience to loud calls, addressed
a few observations to the deputation. He said he
thought it yet pos.ible if meetings were to be held
all over the country, and the house inundated with
petitions, it was not yet too late to make the bill a
great and good measure.

The deputation said they would adopt the sugges-
tion of Mr. Bright, and then withdrew, raising loud
and hearty cheering for Mr. Gladstone as he
quitted the room.

Female Crime in Edinburgh.

(From the Scotsman.)

Edinburgh, the eye of Scotland, and queen of
northern cities, has had her lustre sadly dimmed
and her crown tarnished in many way of late. And
our humiliation is not yet complete ; a fresh cup of
bitterness is held to our lips in the Twenty-eighth
Report on Prisons in Scotland just presented to
Parliament. The appalling fact there placed on
record is that female depravity is, out of all
proportion, more prevalent and obdurate in Edin-
burgh than in Glasgow, or any other town or dis-
rict in Scotland.
The figures are simple. For the year ending
June 30, 1866, the total committals of prisoners
throughout Scotland were—males, 15,G13; and
females, 10,392. Of those Edinburgh supplied
2,450 males, and 2,983 females; or in the proportion
of one-sixth of the men, and between a third and a
fourth of the women. But Glasgow, of course,
makes up a large proportion of the total when Edin-
burgh is taken out, her numbers being 3,798 males
and 2,990 females. It is worthy of note, in passing,
that, while the male committals in Glasgow exceed
those of Edinburgh in the proportion of about three
to two, the female committals are within a mere
fraction of being equal in both cities, though Glas-
gow has double our population. And, comparing
Edinburgh with all the rest of Scotland, excepting
Glasgow, we find that, while she supplies rather
over a fourth of all the male committals, she gives
about two-thirds of all the females :—Males for
all Scotland 9,365, against 2,450 for Edinburgh ;
females for all Scotland 4,419, against 2,983 for
Edinburgh.
So much for the prevalence of female crime in
Edinburgh; now for its obduracy, which is tested,
of course, by the number of recommittals. The
contrast in this respect between our city and the
rest of Scotland is even more startling and myste-
rious. It appears that for the year in question the
total recommitals of females to the prison of Edin-
burgh were 2,309, of which number 432 had been in
prison twenty times or more short of fifty times,
t For
Glasgow 229 had been fifty times and upwards
figures
Glasgow for the same year the corresponding pi a
es
are :—Total female recommittals, 1,954, or about
sixth less than Edinburgh ; while the recommittals
for 20 times and under 50 times were only
against 432 in Edinburgh, with not a single recom-
mittal
over 50 times. For the whole of Scotland
.s e
than one-third,
namely, 2,309 ; while of the femalemor i
recommittals
the total recommittals of females were 6,713, of
which Edinburgh furnished
20 times and under 50
she supplied more than a
half, namely, 432 out of 739, and nearly two-thirds
of those recommitted 50 times, namely, 289 out of
all the rest of Scot-
-349 ; or 229 against 120 for

land.
"Edinburgh," says the report, " has ever been
peculiar is the statistics of prisons by the number
on the female side exceeding that (NI the male." But
its peculiarity has, it appears, developed iu au alarm-

iug degreeethe last 20 years, especially in the
matter of recommittals ; for while in the year 1850,
of m
committed to the prison of Edinburgh
there had been committed 20 times before and un-
der 50, 149 ; and 50 times and upwards, 3 ; in 1855
won within
the corresponding numbers were 107 and 25 ; and
in 1850 they were 351 and 53 ; and in 1895, 395
and 172 ; and, as already noted, in 1866, they had
risen respectively to 432 and 229. Of correspond-
ing male recommittals, the number for 1866 were
41 and 7—or 10 women for one man iu the one
class, and 33 women to one man in the other.
Are the women of Edinburgh sinners above all
women that dwell in Scotland, as these statistics
would seem to suggest? If, not, where else is to
be found the solution of the mysteriousdispropor-
tion of their offences to that of the sisterhood in
other places? How are those figures to be ex-
plained away ? It is clear that the attention of
our magisterial authorities must be at once turned
to the black blot on the reputation of our city, thus
emphatically pointed out by the exact finger of sta-
tistical authority to, Parliament lind to wni.l(l_

DEPUTATION TO Ml. GLADSTONE—THIS DAY
A deputation, numbering. about 200 persons,
waited upon Mr. Gladstone, at his. residence,
Catiton-house-'errace, this afternoon, for the pur-
pose of laying bifore the tight hen. gentleman the
views of the Union at the present moment, and
also for the presentation of a large number of ad-
dresses from the various branches of the Union in
the North of England.
Amongst the members of Parliament accompany-
ing the deputation were Mr. Bright, Mr. Hadfield,
Mr. Ayrton, Mr. Fawcett, Mr. Gilpin, Mr. Foster,
Er. Potter, Mr. Bazley, Mr. Stansfield, and Sir J.
Gray.
Mr. VirmsoN, of Manchester, president of the
Reform Union, introduced the deputation, which
he said represented 300 branches of that associa-
tion,.the objects of which were to obtain a mea-
sure founded on household suffrage, a lodger
franchise, a redistribution of seats, with
a due consideration for population and pro-
perty, the ballot, and the shortening the
duration of Parliament. The deputation wished to
convey to the right hon. gentleman their gre a
satisfaction at the noble stand he had made in their
behalf, and their earnest wish that he would still
continue to urge their cause, and that in
any steps that he might take for the future to
assure him that he would receive the support of the
great majority of the people of. the United Kingdom.
The addresses from LeedA; Preston, Rochdale,
Blackburn, Stockport? Longton, and a number of
other places, having been presented,
Mr. GLADSTONE Said the great disappointment
that he felt at what had happened in the House of
Commons was more than amply compensated by the
addresses and assurances of support that every
post brought from all parts of the country. The
Government had succeeded in carrying-the material
portions of the Reform Bill, although he had at
one time thought it impossible for the house to
have rejected the amendment of Mr. Hibbert. He
could assure the deputation that he still was deter-
minedly averse to the principle of personal rating,
and that, on that ground alone, he for one refused
and rejected the bill, and he hoped the country .
would use every constitutional measure to get rid of
it. He was sure the bill could not be for a moment
be looked upon as a settlement of the question, and
that instead of resting from their labours they
were only entering into a new struggle, and that they
would not rest satisfied until they obtained a popular
measure of Reform,founded on solid principles. What
he advised was that every effort should be used to
strike at the odious principle of the measure. He
was sure it would altogether fail as a bill, and
he' for one, refused to acknowledge it as
one. The measure was founded .on a delusive
foundation, It might as well enact that men with
one leg only should have a vote, as to provide that
every working man should only be admitted to the
franchise who should consent to alter the tenure
upon which he held his house. It was
a pretended enfranchisement and nothing more.
He had attempted to propose a £5 line, but
that had gone, and could not be revived. In deal-
ing with the question for the future he reserved to
himself perfect liberty, taking the best advice he
could before he committed himself to anything. lie
should still continue his efforts to secure for those
whom they represented their undoubted right, and
he doubted not that everything perfect and com-
plete triumph would crown their efforts. •