The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-22 00:00:00

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR CRIMINALS?

On Wednesday Mr. Thos. Hodgskin, of the lEsonemi.tt
newspaper, delivered a lecture in St. Martin's-hall on
the question; " What shall we do with our Criminals t"
Mr. Btiscoe, M.P., Mr. Ingram, M.P., and several other
persons who take an interest in this pressing question of
the day were present. Atter stating, and quoting in
support of his statement the admissions of Paley, Lord
Brougham, and others, that " all the punishments
hitherto invented have failed to reclaim prisoners or pre-
vent or even check crime," Mr. Hodgskin said that his
answer to the question, " What shall we do with our
criminals V' was "Don't create them," and that his ols-
jt ct was to show that our criminals were the inevitable
results of an erroneous system. The number of commit-
ments for trial in England and Wales. in 1859 WBB
29.359, an increase of 8 per cent. on the previous year.
This increase, it is some satisfaction (says the compile*
of the returns) to state, is confined to the least grave class
of offences, and offences of violence have, on the whole, de-
creased." The offences against property, without violence,
comprise about tour-fifths of the indictable crimes, and,
in this large class, the increase of 11 per cent, shows bow
largely the increase of commitments in the year is made
up of offences of the least grave character." This official
description of the eationel criminality in 1854 is appli-
cable, with one or two brief exceptions, to the whole
period between 1803, when our criminal records were
first kept with some but not sufficient care, and 1843.
The increase in coah.nitinents (-aid Mr. Porter, in
1342) is chiefly in offences committed against property
without violence." At that period these offenc, con-
stituted 79.31 hundredths of the abide; in 1854, they had
increased ts 31.12 hundredths, Thus, thegreat majority
of all the crimes puni-hed by the law after a solemn trial,
excluding all summary convictions—more than four fifths
of all the offences the increase of which so alarms the
community—are offence' asainst property committed
without violence. Toey are vulgar, low, mere) plunder.
Nationally speaking, we are conspicuous for pilfering,
not for assassination. The proportion of these offence,
against property is continually augmenting, while the
graver and more atrocious crimes are, on the whole, con-
tiuually diminishing. Most of these graver crimes, too,
originate in a desire for property, as burglaries, garrot-
tiugs, 801.100 poisonings, and other murders. " The pro-
gress mentioned," said Mr. Hodgskin, "I regard as
thoriughly established, and as lying at the basis of all
just reasoning on the effects of penal laws. This import.
ant fact may relieve timid doubters of all anxiety as to
the future of society. It limits my remarks to one class
of offences—to show how our system creates criminal 4,
how it induces theft." Mr. Hodgskin then proceeded to
show, by many and striking examples, how the poorer
classes have ever been influenced by the practice of the
higher—that against this no punishments were of any
avail; and that " the upper classes pay a much more
profound respect tLan at present to the property of the
multitude, they will continue to be tormented by frauds
and thefts. (Applause.) The criminals of the present
time were the offspring of past errors. Like railroads
and steam-boats, they were our necessities—the direct
consequences, probably, of penal laws, the national
debt, locked-up land, a fettered commerce, an extrava-
gant government, and an established ohursh. The rule,
therefore, " that at Rome you must do as they do at
Rome" held generally good, and the morality of the mul-
titude, like their dress, was derived by a species of con-
straint from others, who punished them for the peculiari-
ties they had at least been itistrumental in producing.
Having argued and shown that the upper classes, by
means of their unavoidable influence, created most of the
cruxes committed against property, Mr. Hodgskin did
justice to those classes by showing the happy effect of
their example in lessening crimes of violence, and in
spreading generally a milder tone throughout society. He
was happy to say, too, that they were becoming sensible
of their influence for good or for evil, and conscious of
their great responsibility, but he was there also to say that
they misunderstood the means by which alone they could
fulfil their duty. "Born"(said Mr. Hodgskin in conclusion)
" of our common mother, the earth—for man is emphati-
cally dust, and always mutually connected with her, she
bearing ns all, as it were, for ever in her spacious womb,
and always preserving us mentally united by the similar
knowledge and similar impressions she produces in all—
correcting, too, by invariable laws or by facts all our
vague dreams, inflated hopes, and boundless imagina-
tions, false only because she does not confirm them—
united all by and in her, the whole of mankind forms
mentally but one family. The knowledge gathered by
each is generally diffused, and as it is increased and
bears a large predominating proportion over individual
peculiarities, it constitutes one mind fur all, imparting a
great meaning to what you may perhaps have often re.
peated AS merely a beautiful and impressive couplet—
All are but parts of one stupendous whole
Whose body Nature is and God the soul.
This principle gives us the theoretical or abstract expla-
nation of the manner in which crimes—our present thefts
—and virtues—our patriotic energy--become and con-
tinue national. As individuals, as classes, as the incorpo-
rated state, we can indulge no desire, prosecute no actics,
practise no virtue nor crime, and enact no law which, in its
visible effects, is nut very influential, though very often
the reverse of what is intended, in moulding the charac-
ters and minds of all. We can only make fitting laws,
therefore, for great communities, which now constitute
not merely a few hundred or thousand persons, not
merely a few tribes, but many millions of men, of va-
rlets: lineage and various faiths, by ascertaining and fully
comprehending the mutual and reciprocal influence exer.
cised by the acts and the example of all the individuals
and classes who compose them. We can only compre-
hend, too, the great subject of crime, by discarding our
municipal limits and institutions, and even our national
prejudices, and by extending our views past alt human
legislation to the great laws which establish an eternal
distinction between right and wrong, and impose on
every human being his or her own peculiar duties, and
give him his own peculiar rights.
At the close of the lecture, Mr. Hodgskin was loudly
applauded.

MARKET NEWS.—.(This Day.)