The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-07 00:00:00

JUDICIAL STATISTICS.

One of the light blue-books, so distinguished from
the ordinary issues by its colour as well as by its
square form, contains the official report on Judicial
Statistics for the year 1858, in two parts.
Part I. refers to "Police," "Criminal Proceed-
ings," and " Prisons ;" Part 11., to " Common Law,"
" Equity," and " Civil and Canon Law." These
are presented to both Houses of Parliament by
command of her _Majesty; and the returns relating
to police pursuant to the Act 19 and 20 Victoria,
cap. 69.
It must be understood that the reports refer ex-
clusively to England and Wales, and to the year
1858. We naturally commence, as the report does,
with the branch of " Police." The total number
(or, as the report says, "amount") of the police
and constabulary was, last Michaelmas-day, 20,256,
thus constituting, as it were, a little army in
blue uniforms. 55 of these were chief constables
of counties, 102 head constables of boroughs, 500
superintendents, 657 inspectors, 1,933 sergeants,
16,576 common constables, 291 special (additional)
constables, and 138 detective officers—specimens of
whose peculiar skill and almost miraculous powers
of discernment are given by Mr. Dickens in his
novel of " Bleak House." There are 5,804 borough
and 7,549 county constables, 6,225 metropolitan
police-constables, and 608 City of London constables,
appointed under the local Act of 1839. There is
an increase of 1,069 men, or 5.6 per cent., as com-
pared with 1857. The total cost of the police last
year amounted to £1,447,019, of which £1,081,747
went for salaries and pay, £106,097 for clothing
and accoutrements, and £108,896 for station-house
charges, &c. The expenses of the police are chiefly
defrayed from local funds, but a portion is contri-
buted (L 288,639) by her Majesty's Treasury.
The census of 1851 showed that there were 125,470
males and 178,639 females of no regular vocation—
vagabonds, in fact—including paupers, prisoners,
vagrants, and persons " of no stated occupations
and conditions." It must not be inferred that these
314,109 persons live by crime ; but they are un-
doubtedly not, as a class, a fountain of goodness.
• The careful and continuous observations of the
police, however, show that in September last the
"criminal class," properly so called (taking in the
prison population), included 160,346 persons—viz.,
101,656 males and 58,689 females, of whom 134,922
(81,669 men and 53,253 women) were at large, the
rest being within the walls of prisons and reforma-
tories. Thus only 1-sth part of the criminal class is
incarcerated, from which it is inferred that offenders
pass that proportion of their time in gaol—" a re-
sult which would prove great impunity in crime and
a lengthened career." But there is little doubt that
a constant change in this class is going on, that
many are reformed, and that" fresh-blood" recruits
the void thus opened in the ranks of the rogues.
The youth of a large portion of the criminal class
is one proof of its constant recruitment. The police
returns of the classes under 16 years of age are
12,069 males (14.7 per cent.), and 6,738 females
(13.6 per cent.) making a total of 18,107 of both
sexes, or 13.9 per cent. On the other hand, it is
fair to assume that a large number of liberated
convicts are absorbed in honest employments, and
that the prevention of crime is making satisfactory
progress.
Another class of facts is interasting. It appears
that there are 25,120 "bad" houses, 3,122 of which
are tenanted by " receivers," 7,096 are "cribs," or
houses the resort of thieves and prostitutes (public-
houses, beer, and coffee-shops), 7,915 brothels and
" houses of ill-fame," and 6,937 those common
" tramps' lodging-houses" which the Registrar-
General and the officers of health are daily denounc-
ing as hotbeds of typhus fever and other virulent
contagious diseases.

57,868 crimes (properly so called) were committed
in the year ended the 29th of September, 1858—the
maximum in the quarter from October to December,
and the minimum in that from July to September.
For these crimes as many as 30,458 persons were
apprehended, or politely told by the police that
they " were wanted." A large amount of petty
depredations, however, is not represented in the
returns, and it is to be feared that these are never
detected.

18,396 persons (60.4 per cent.) of those appre-
hended were proceeded against after arrest, by
being sent for trial on commitment or bail. The
further proceedings against them are recorded under
the next head of " Criminal Proceedings."
Besides the persons arrested for more serious
offences, 404,034 were prosecuted summarily, and
of these 260,290 were convicted and punished by
justices of the peace, 143,744 having been liberated.
Of the 260,290 convicted 65,263 were committed to
gaol, 160,636 were fined, 50 were whipped, 10,360
held to bail, 3,781 "delivered over to army or navy,
and 19,750 otherwise punished. The leniency of
the great bulk of these punishments will show the
light character of the offences generally, but several
large classes of offences, far from venial, are in-
eluded, as for instance, stealing, and attempts to
steal and commit felony, aggravated assaults, and.
the possession of stolen goods. 51,861 persons
(8,971 women) were convicted of drunkenness, the
assaults following, as a natural consequence, in a.
pretty direct ratio; 21,698 (out of 40,224 charged)
were convicted of thefts, stealing, and attempts to
steal, under the Acts of 1847 and 1855, and 18,630
under the Vagrant Act. There were 23,561 offences
against the Police Acts, 16,709 cases of malicious
damages, 13,087 against the Licensed Victuallers
Acts, and 8,929 against the Game Acts. Of those
charged with indictable offences, who form the most
criminal class, 21.5 per cent. were known thieves
23.4 suspects (to use the French word), and 17.7
per cent. persons of previous good character. Pro-
ceedings were taken, by indictment and summarily,
against 24,587 known thieves (40,032 returned " at
large"), 24,636 prostitutes (28,760 at large), 54,149
suspects, and 21,473 vagrants.
Against the large number of 260,200 summary
convictions in 1858, only 60 appeals were lodged at
the quarter sessions, 30 of which were quailed,
and 68 in the superior courts.
19,846 inquests were held by coroners in 1858-
13,597 on males and 4,249 on females. These cases
included 183 of niirder, 197 of manslaughter,
4 of_ justifiable homicide, 1,275 of suicide (always
over 1,000 a year), 8,947 of accidental death,
2,611 " found dead," 227 of drunkenness, 188
of disease and neglect, 158 of want, cold, exposure,
&c., and 5,792 deaths from causes not specified.
The coroner complain that the police do not give
due information of deaths. The murders and.
suicides exhibit a pretty " constant quantity ;" the
average of suicides in the last three years was about
1,300. The ages of the persons prove that 44.5 per
cent. (or nearly one-half) were from infancy or se-
nilitT- least able to protect their lives. The 11.-
_

- - Pe-
tentage was—infants, 27.8 per cent. ; children
between 7 and 16 years, 8.4; adults, between I 6 and
60, 47.1 • and old and infirm persons, 16.7 per cent.
The total cost of these inquests was £58,973, or an.
average of nearly £3 for each inquest.
Under the head of " Criminal Proceedings " (a,
necessarily supplementary chapter to the foregoing
one of "Police ) we find that 17,855 commitments
were brought within the jurisdiction of criminal
courts in 1858 ; the commitments have greatly
fallen off of late years, but this is mainly owing to
the altered forms of procedure under the Criminal
Justice Act. The decrease of commitments is marked
in Midllesex, Surrey, and Kent, and elsewhere.
Lancashire is a remarkable exception to the rule,
the commitments in that county not having dimi-
nished since the new jurisdiction conferred
violent
yoltehnet
Act of 1855.
The statistics of 1853 exhibit generally a decrease
of the gravest crimes, both in offences against
person, and, in a very marked degree,
in
in
in
especiallyoffences against
ineen d a property.
rism
are
rapidly
declining.
el the
g
Offences of a political character are at present un•
known to the criminal calendar, and may they long
15
cases of commitment for trial, 7,456
continue
o f
17,5805
were tried by county courts of quarter sessions,
1,347 by the Middlesex sessions of the peace,
4,323 by the borough quarter sessions courts, 3,462
by circuit C
aossuirz,t. 4
assize c i
33
detained as insane, and
courts,
persons were acquitted
rt.s, and 1,267 by the Central
itt
Criminal
and d ischargeo,
1 _
3,246
were convicted. Of these
senl,aitsud
last 53
10,834 to were sentenced
to death, 2,130 to penal
incar-
ceration, and 229 to be fined, whipped, &c.
Of the 53 capital sentences 16 only were for
murder, and 8 for attempts to murder, 14 for un-
natural crimes, 13 for burglary with violence, and
2 for robbery, with wounds. Only 11 par-
sons out of the 53 sentenced to the scaffold
were executed, all for murder. All were mal.es,
and four of them foreigners, making in
the last three years 8 foreigners out of 41 per sons
The
foreigners executed,
nr winndi tehdG
iao v farnanc i na
noi
C.
sin a t
tsi
, and
two Greek sailors. The abolition of transportation
did not add, last year, to the numbers senter teed to
the substituted punishment of " penal sere itude ;"
on the contrary, these sentences decrease
:d. The
cost of the prosecutions cannot for las t
year be
ascertained. The total cost of Governm .nt (crimi-
nal) prosecutions, in cases of public it rest, was
£10,089, and the cost of 558 for zoining was
£7,729.

, -
KEW GARDENS.—The Royal ra
,lacy Pleasure
Gardens and new Arboretum will close fo•
: the veawon on or
about the 30th inst. The Victoria Regi
,a thre Lotus, and
an American Aloe, are now in &vilar in the )30taitical
Gardens.