The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-12 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1859.

ber already indicated (312). There were 8,925
prison punishments, 147 by the scourge. The gross
total cost of the convict prisons in the year (all
charges included) was £284,168 ; the average gross
annual cost per convict was £33 7s. 6d.
The total official cost of the prisons is set down
at £262,473, by excluding gratuties to convicts on
liberation and other expenses. From the total

cost the Director-General of Convict Prisons is
pleased to deduct £7,762 as the value of convict
labour paid into the Treasury. " But," remarks
the Registrar—
" The Director-General appends to his return a calcula-
ion amounting to ..-(a15,673 4s. as the 'value of the labour
of convicts employed on Admiralty and Ordnance works at
Portland, Portsmouth, and Chatham ; in manufactures of
various kinds at Millbank, Pentonville, Brixton, Fulham,
Dartmoor, and Parkhurst, with work performed on the
farms at the two last mentioned places, and for prison pur-
poses generally, as distinguished from the amount paid in
respect of production labour into the Exchequer.' This
labour, when for public purposes, as at her Majesty's dock-
yards and the Portland breakwater, may be fairly valued in
diminution of the charge on the public, but any portion of
convict labour which is for prison purposes is, so far as it
has a value, directly in diminution of the prison expenses,
and it would, therefore, appear erroneous to make any esti-
mated reduction on such labour as a separate credit."

The net annual cost of the convicts per head in
each of the prisons is, on allowing the further value
of their labour, as calculated above, reduced to—
Pentonville, £27 7s. 3d. ; Millbank, £3O 7s. ' • Port-
land, £6 9s. 2d. ; Portsmouth, £5 2s. 6d.; Chatham,
£6 1 Is. 6d. ; Dartmoor, £2B 18s. ; Invalid Estab-
lishment, Lewes, £44 4s. Bd. ; Parkhurst, £27 19s.
6d. ; Brixton, £23 9s. 6d.; and Fulham Refuge,
£23 175.; total, £lB 13s. 4d. There were 700 males
and 149 females committed to 47 certified (reforma-
tory) schools, exhibiting a falling off, as compared
with 1857, of 270. These juvenile culprits had
previously been incarcerated for periods varying
from 14 days to four months and upwards ; 138
were ordered to be detained in the reformatories
two years, 212 for three, 177 for four, and 322
for five years. The commitments last year of
those who had been previously imprisoned for
offences were proportionately much fewer than
those in the previous year. 205 boys and 36 girls
were under 12 years of age when admitted; 359
could neither read nor write. These prisoners
are supported by an allowance of 7s. each per week
from the public purse. The charge in 1858 was
£31,961, of which £934 was recovered from the
parents under the Act of Parliament.
Criminal lunatics (so called) have increased by
11.0 per cent. 146 were committed in the year (103
males and 43 females) ; 33 died, one escaped, 25
were discharged as sane, and 16 were removed as
sane for trial or punishment. 686 remained under
the charge of " mad doctors" at the end of the year.
The 79$ criminal lunatics reported on as coming
within the category during the year included 130
murderers, 75 would-be murderers and maimers, 6
manslayers, 3 ravishers, 6 assaulters with intent to
ravish, 10 unnatural crimes, 2 treasonable and sedi-
tious offenders, 44 assailants, 5 indecent exposers
of person, 41 burglars, 191 petty thieves, 37 incen-
diaries, 5 forgers, 42 rioters, 46 vagrants, 2 "dan-
gerous persons at large," and seven deserters. The
cost of these lunatics was £22,122, of which part
was defrayed by local rates, £10,271 by the public
revenue, and £1,519 derived from the private funds
of the lunatics or their friends.
We cannot do better than conclude by extracting
the closing remarks of the Registrar on crime in
general :
" I would, in conclusion, if not irrelevant, refer to the
costs which crime and its attendant demoralisation entail
upon the community. Though the value of the property
stolen has been stated from actual returns by the police of
several largo districts, the information on this head was
deemed too imperfect to make it a subject of general in-
quiry. The Metropolitan Police state from year to year the
amount of the loss by depredation within their wealthy and
extensive district, and the yearly average is under £50,000.
In similar returns, by the police of the city of Manchester,
the loss from depredation is stated not to amount to £15,000
yearly. But these sums cannot represent the total loss.
They bear no just relation to the numbers in these districts
who are stated to be living by depredation, and contrast
strangely with estimates (however little reliance may be
placed upon them) which have been put forth by authority.
A writer* estimated in much detail the loss by depredation
in the metropolis, as it existed so far back as 1800, at
12,000,000 yearly, and the Watch Committee of Liverpool,
hi an elaborate report in 1836, stated the loss by depreda-
tion in their borough to be gOO,OOO yearly, declaring their
conviction that this large sum was not exaggerated, but,
on the contrary, was much understated. The charges
which are incurred in the prevention and punishment of
offences may, to some extent, be accurately stated. They
appear in these statistics for the past year.'
The gross total amount of these charges is
£2,381,054—viz., £1,447,019 for the police £95,890
for the cost of prosecutions (in 1857), and the rest
for prisons and reformatories. Of this sum
£1,590,850 is defrayed from local resources, and
£790,204 from the public purse. But there are
also many other expenses too numerous to be spe3i-
fied, and not easily defined or ascertained.
The numbers of the criminal classes at large have
been estimated to amount to 135,000, living by the
plunder and the vices of the community. Now, it
may be fairly assumed that each of these persons
must spend at least £25 a year, and that this black
mail, or " thieves' income-tax," is levied on the
public at a loss of even double that sum. This
would amount to £7,746,100, and, added to the
actual and positive charges (of police and prisons)
already enumerated, it would warrant the estimate
that the criminal classes entail upon the community
an annual expense of not less than ten million
pounds sterling, or more than one-third of the
interest of the National Debt !

' Colquhoun on " The Police of the Metropolis."

I? IILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN.

A special meeting, under the presidency of the
Marquis of Chandos, Svas held on Saturday morn-
ing at the Euston station, when the arrangements
entered into by the directors were confirmed, viz.,
to lease the Lancaster and Carlisle undertaking for
a period of 1,000 years. It is stipulated that the
oapital shall not exceed £1,600,000, including
£350,000 held by the North-Western, and the loan
capital not to exceed £430,000, making together
£2,030,000. Neither the share nor loan capital is
to be increased without the consent of the North-
Western, under their seal. The Lancaster' and
Carlisle Company are to receive the dividend and
interest as published for the half-year ending the
31st of July last. In no case is the Lancaster
and Carlisle to receive less than 8 per cent. per
annum (less income-tax), and to increase according
to the following scale :—viz., on the North-Western
paying a dividend of 41 per cent. per annum to
their ordinary shareholders, the Lancaster and Car-
lise are to receive a dividend et the rate of 81 per
cent. per annum ; on the North. Western paying a
dividend of 41 the Lancaster and Carlisle are to
receive a dividend of 9; on paying 4,1 the Lancas-
ter and Carlisle are to receive 9L; on paying 5 the
Lancaster and Carlisle are to receive 91 ; and on
the North-Western paying 6 the Lancaster and
Carlisle are to receive 101, and so on for any greater
or less fraction than 1 per cent. The Lancaster
and Preston and Kendal and Windermere Compa-
nies are to receive their due proportion of dividend
according to the a^t of 1849 and the proposed
agreement for amalgamation. The united capital
of the two companies when amalgamated will be
about £900,000. The London and North-Western
are to provide office accommodation and to pay the
expenses of direction, audit, secretary, and transfer
expenses, but they are not exceed in the whole
£1,525 per annum. The Lancaster and Carlisle,
including the Kendal and Windermere and Lan-
caster and Preston Companies, are to have the
right, subject to the sanction of Parliament, to
participate rateably in the allotment of any further
creation of North-Western stock.

IREL t ND.

DUBLIN, SATURDAY MORNING.
THE DERBY ESTATES IN TIPPERARY.

A statement from the Clonmel Chronicle, alleging
that Lord Derby had instructed his agent to clear
the Doon estate of the tenants, has given great
offence to the ultra-national journals. The 14)-
perar y Free Press trusts that its local contemporary
has been misinformed and has been mawillingly led
to do his lordship a grievous injustice :—" We can-
not bring ourselves to believe that his lordship,
who, for many years back, has been classed as one
of the best landlords in Tipperary, could perpetrate
an act so incompatible with equity and fair dealing
as to clear off all the tenantry at present on the
Doors estate, with one or two exceptions, because
they either cannot or will not inform on the perpe-
trato7s cf this murder (the murder of Crow).
Heaven knows we would not, for an instant, advo-
cate the entertainment of the least particle of syni.
pathy for a ruffian whose hands were red with the
blood of a fellow creature ; but to punish a commu-
nity fur the sins of one or two individuals seeris so
utterly repugnant to every feeling of justice that
we are forced to discredit the statement of our con-
temporary, and to pause ere we could imagine Lord
Derby would eveh countenance welch an act. e'
ty:litve there are few estates better managed than
those of the noble lord are by Mr. Grey, and for
many years back every statement we have heard
regarding them has been creditable both to owner
and occupiers, but if any sympathisers are suspected
on thelloon estate, and if good reason can be shown
for harbouring suspicion in their regard, let them
feel Lord Derby's just resentment, but that it should
gain expression after the wholesale fashion men-
tioned in the Chronicle would be so downright an
injustice that we must regard the story as increcli-
life in itself,' and unworthy of the noble lord with
whose name it is assoeiatvd,"

THE CASE OF DR. SZKETHURS7.

It would seem that the authorities at the Home
Office are in great difficulty as to the course that
should be taken with the prisoner, under the pecu-
liar circumstances of the case, and not the slightest
intimation has been given as to what is likely to
be his ultimate fate.

A good many persons appear to think that as the
fact of his being reprieved necessarily implies a
serious doubt of his guilt, the prisoner ought to
receive a free pardon, but there is no doubt that
such a result is quite out of the question, and it
is a very common practice in cases where there is
no doubt that the act was committed by the pri-
soner, fur the capital sentence to be commuted to
one of penal servitude or transportation for life; and
among many instances of this, there may be cited
the cases of Corrigan, for the murder of his wife in
the Minories ; Kirwan, for the murder of his wife
at Dublin by drown!ng ; and that of the woman
Rutter, who was convicted at the summer
assizes of the murder of her husband by cutting
his throat. In all these cases the punishment
of death was commuted to penal servitude for life,
and if a similar course were taken with regard to
Dr. Smethurst, it would be quite in accordance with
tjie precedent that has been established.
According to the gaol regulations, in the case of
every prisoner who is under sentence of death,
the governor of the prison is bound to have persons
in charge of the culprit night and day during the
interval before the execution. This was done with
Dr. Smethurst until the receipt of the reprieve •
but since then this surveillance has been taken off,
and the prisoner is treated as an ordinary convict.
He has no opportunity of associating with other
criminals, as Horsemonger-lane gaol, where he is
confined, has recently undergone extensive altera-
tions, in order to carry out the separate system of
confinement, and he is in all respects treated as an
ordinary criminal. Before he was reprieved, he
was visited by his brother, under a special order of
the magistrates, but he now sees him, as any other
prisoner would be visited, at the times fixed by the
visiting justices, and he is the only person who has
seen the prisoner since his conviction, except his
attorney, Mr. Humphrys, who, it appears, only saw
him upon one occosion.
The prisoner still continues to assert in the most

earnest manner his entire and absolute innocence of
all participation in causing the death of Miss
Bankes, and there appears very little doubt that he
is strongly impressed with the idea that he shall
receive a pardon.. He has addressed several letters
to the Home Secretary, and in one of these com-
munications it is said that he states that he cannot
prove his innocence unless he is set at liberty, and
declares that if he has this opportunity he will
prove conclusively that he is entirely innocent of
the crime of which he has been convicted.

TRUE VALUE OF THE SIGNS OF DISEASE
FOUND IN THE BODY OF _MISS BANRES.

The Medical Times publishes a letter from Dr.
Wilkes, one of the witnesses for the prosecution,
remarking that this letter supplies " a link want-
ing in the Medical history of the case as hitherto
reported. The morbid appearances observed in the
intestinal canal of Miss Bankes are there carefully
described, and their true import, as we think, ac-
curately defined."
Dr. Wilkes concludes his letter as follows :
" Looking once more upon the case under con-
sideration, although exhibiting a more acute in-
flammation of the intestine than I have ever seen
(except in one or two instances before mentioned),
I cannot say that it differs in character from such
examples of idiopathic disease as I have described ;
and, apart from, my own personal experience, I be-
lieve the condition which this intestine represents
to closely resemble the more acute forms of dysen-
tery occasionally observed, and therefore if I met
with such a condition accidentally (in making a
post-mortem examination), although I should insti-
tute the strictest inquiries as to the possibility of
any irritant having been taken during life-time, I
should be obliged, in the absence of all such evi-
dence, to call the case one of acute dysen-
tery. I should do so because I believe in the pos-
sibility of the disease occasionally, though very
rarely occurring, notwithstanding some very high
authorities dout the existence of the acute form
iu th's country. In the present instance, there-
fore, from an examination of the diseased part, I
could not say that it was not an example of acute
dysentery.

" My conclusions, then, are, that although this
acute inflammation might be set up by an irritant
poison, yet that as a primary form of disease does
occasionally, though rarely, produce a similar effect,
I am unable to determine which was the cause in
operation in the present instance.
‘, You, sir, and your readers, will be able to see
from this report, made several weeks ago, that the
post-mortem appearances gave no unequivocal indi-
cation of the effect of poisoning, although the oppo-
site has been stated by some of the public journals.
My own opinion is, that in all probability an irri-
tant substance caused the ulceration, but that
the latter was not distinguishable from the
dysenteric form, and consequently the pri-
soner should have had the benefit of the
doubt on this point as on all others. One theory
of the case is that a vegetable irritant might hive
been given to cause abortion, but that death unin-
tentionally resulted; and I think this is very likely
to be the case, for the supposition of arsenic (if it
had been on the indictment) was entirely upset by
the defence. There can be no doubt that the end
of the ileum and large intestine are the parts of the
alimentary canal most liable to be affected from
various causes, for in them irritant substances lodge,
and from being furnished with excreting glands it
may be their function to get rid of noxious sub.
stances from the system ; and in this manner it is
thought by some that a poisonous miasma produces
dysentery. From whatever cause, however, the
proneness of this part of the intestine to be affected
by disease or poisons is remarkable ; thus, within
a short time, I have seen a case where a quantity
of dilute sulphuric acid was taken, and where
(the stomach of course was affected) the small in-
testine was entirely unaffected, but the large in-
testine was inflamed in the way in which Dr. Thu-
dichum called "diphtheritic." In another case where
owing to a strangulated hernia, a woman had
swallowed a quantity of most violent purgatives,
the stomach and small intestines showed no indi-
cation of an irritant having been taken, and yet
the colon was acutely inflamed. Bichloride of
mercury is well known to produce this effect,
and, as before said, the only cases of poisoning
which I have seen, in which the intestine re-
sembled that of Miss Bankes, were those by this
substance. I may add, that I think those gentlemen
will spoke of dysentery being a common affection,
could hardly be aware of the fearful amount of de-
struction which existed in this case ; as seen by the
almott detached mucous membrane from the me-
cum, the effusion of blood, and the peritonitis. I
may remind your readers that although our public
and professional press is taken up with controver-
sies on the medical evidence, instigated principally
by the Times, which stated Smethurst's case to be
purely a medical one, yet that the Lord Chief
Baron distinctly told the jury that the medieal
evidence was unimportant, compared with the cir-
cumstantial ; and it is upon this, chiefly, thht the
judge dwelt, and upon which he charged them to
form an opinion. It is probably for this reason
that the discussion still going on was thought to
hi.ve little weight in deciding, the ultimate fate o f
the prisoner."

A STORY OF THE, LATE LORD CHAN-
CELL OR THESIGER. _

" What, little Thesiger Lord Chancellor !" said
the other, springing to his feet, with great anima-
tion. " You don't say so P Climbing aloft came
easy to him, it seems; and so now he is on the
trucklehead, and got a Chancellor's wig on, eh ?
Well, lam right glad to hear it. Dear me," he
continued, resuming his seat, "it seems to me only
the other day he was skylarking in the cock-pit,
and up to all sorts of pranks and devilry. I recol-
lect we once took a Spanish prize, loaded with
cigars, snuff, and all sorts of raw and manufactured
tobacco. Of course, we youngsters helped ourselves
most liberally. The snuff was in bladders of the
size of foot•balls ; but as none of us used that, we
amused ourselves by shying it about at each
other. The captain's 'clerk, who messed with us,
was a sneaking sort of fellow, and used to carry
favour with him, by-reporting what was going on
in the cock-pit. So, in order to puniih him, one
night Thesiger and I took one of these bladders,
cut it open, and spread its contents gently all over
his hammock. When he came below, and turned in,
as usual, with a spring (for he was as active as a cat),
he sent up a cloud of snuff that set him coughing,
crying, sneezing, and swearing like mad ; but the
wont of it was, it nearly choked the whole of us,
middies, upon whom it had the same Effect; and
when the officer cline below, to inquire into the
eau-e of the row, he tchee-hee'd and tchee-hee'd as
bad as any of us; and as soon as he opened his
mouth to speak, down went the snuff into his
throat, and nearly suffocated him with coughing.
He could do nothing but swear, stamp his feet, and
s lake h 4 fist at us. There was a precious row, as you
ropy suppose ; but the best fun of all was to see the
younc, sucking lawyer, threatening to report the
clerk for trying to stifle us all like rats, by attempt-
ing to conceal the snuffin his hammock. Dear me,
how I should like to see him again. Oh, Colonel,
those were happy days we passed afloat. I always
regret having left the navy.----Season Ticket, 221
-Dublin University Magazine,