The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-14 00:00:00

ANNUAL REPORT or TILE ORDINARY OF NEWGATR.

" GRAND JURIES.

" We have constantly to regret the rejection of bills
on account of suppressed evidence, which dishonest rer-
sons possessed of property are able to procure by
buying or tampering with witnesses. This is one of
the evils attendant 'on secret sittings. Were the de-
positions taken before the magistrates placed before
the grand jury, or were the public admitted to
hear the evidence given, better results might fol-
low. Two very serious evils attendant on the system
among us are very obvious. One is the constant es-
capes from justice of known and inveterate offenders by
the suppression of evidence; and the other is the com-
mittal to Newgate of respectable persons in consequence
of bills found against them for some alleged offence, of
which, in some instances, magistrates have refused to
take cognizance. These things I know are matters of
deep interest to the Court, and they doubtless are apply-
ing to them their grave consideration.
"Before leaving the subject of unconvicted prisoner?,
the numbers returned of those who have previously been
in Newgate in some degree throw light on the subject.
Out of 2,687 there had been previously in Newgate 343,
and in other prisons 385, or about two in seven. As in
lest year I observed seven out of eight are committed to
Newgate for the first time ; 345 out of 2,637 is nearly
the same proportion as 406 out of 3,133 in the preceding
year.
" This result must convince any impartial person that
a large proportion of offenders committed to Newgate
must reform and abandon their evil courses, and the ex-
perience of all persons who have to deal with the mass
of the criminal population confirms the supposition that
it is so. The gaol of Newgate beyond all doubt has
great defects compared with more modern erections, but
results from these more perfect prisons do not surpass
the metropolitan gaol in this respect, that seven out of
eight do not return to us again,
" INSANE PERSONS.

"I am happy to remark that under the head of insane
persons we have none of that class now in Nowgate.
Juries seem to have given over the habit of declaring per-
sons not guilty on the ground of insaaity, when they have
really been quite as free from lunacy as the jurors them-
sell es. Most deplorable instances of this infatuation, that
for a time took possession of some persons, are still to be
met with in the lunatic asylums of other places, where
criminal lunatics are confined. Such prisoners have for
many months pined away in Newgste, and are removed
only for others to witness those unwise convictions of
lunacy in the protracted, and in some instances per-
petual, imprisonment of such offenders. Who dare un-
dertake the responsibility of liberating murderers, or
attempted murderers, that have been wrongly declared
lunatics on some slender evidence. Nothing seems to
await such misplaced leniency but the needless seclusion
of some asylum or common gaol.
" CONVICTED PRISONERS.

" As regards convicted prisoners, we have had in those
sentencei to short periods many instances where
youth, temptation, debts,, love of finery, or the
influence of ' pleasure, have brought those offending
under the power of the law. The greatest pains and
care have been taken with all cases of a hopeful
character, t I prevent, if possible, a recurrence to crime.
The great efforts that must be made towards the rege-
neration of criminals must be made with those who are
not far gone in iniquity. With respect to habitual
thieves, the only question is, not how to reform them, but
how best to employ them. Very few of this har-
dened tribe think of reforming, except it be that by
reform they may further victimise their dupes. But
it is not so with many first offenders. Much
good may be done, and bat beeu done, among
them, and I could heartily wish that some p'ans
were adopted out of doors to prevent, it possible, their
committal or conviction. Efforts might be made by
domiciliary visits, and by giving additional powers
to the superior officers of the police, that might, I
think, have a very beneficial effect. Where persons
are living without any known' and visible means of sub-
sistence, a sufficient ground-work is laid to suspect that
the public are being injured to such extent as to call for
a defence from such parties. A continuance in these
habits after warning ought to be sufficient to class them
among rogues and vagabonds, if they did not or would
not satisfactorily explain themselves. The mere rout-
ing them out from their habitation, the influence of
their landlord, and the suspicion that such visits
would throw upon their character, might do much. But
the moral influence of the neighbourhood is required to►
sanction and give effect to those interventions. If
thieves were not encouraged by their associates and in-
structors they would soon cease to pursue a course
where shame and poverty only would attend them, and
where danger at every turn awaited them. I hope much
will yet be done by moral and energetic effects wisely
and kindly applied to the habitation of the thief. More
may be dune outside than in prison."

YOUTHFUL DELINQUENTS.
After stating that the number of boys under instruc-
tion in Newgats in the last year was by 73 less than in
the year preceding, when there were 284, the report
proceeds:—
" With this considerable decrease in the number of
boys committed, a great change has taken place in the
character of those committed. First offenders, unless
charged with a very serious offence, are seldom now
f•iund in the gaol of Newgate. Boys of respect-
able connexions, from drapers' shops, pawnbrokers,

„;rocers, bakers, and others, aie much more
rarely found among, the committals since the happy
alteration of the law in giving summary power to magi-
strates to adjudicate in such cases. lam reporting, my
Lord and gentlemen, on the state of Newgate—not on
the state of crime in the metropolis or in the City, as a
learned gentleman misunderstood me last year, and I
feel very thankful that the decrease among boys conti-
nues to the present time in this gaol.
” It will be found, in dealing with boys who have ad-
dictcd themselves to habits of dishonesty, that great
carelessness has been exhibited in their training by their
parents, or sad misfortune, in the loss of one or both
of them, has happened to these children. Inveterate
propensities to dishonesty in persons so young that
the pressure of debts or the impulses of impurity
can have had no share in destroying their reputation,
must be traced in them to inherent depravity or to
evil examples in their domestic circle. Measures should
be taken, therefore, rather to provide a remedy for the
cause than for the crime itself. All that the necessity of
the came admits is limited to good industrial occupation,
the influence of proper example and sound religious in-
struction. Beyond the appliance of these corrections,
the case must be left to a higher power—man's further
efforts are futile and visionary.

" HABITUAL CRIMINALS.
" Among the prisoners sentenced to periods of three
months and upwards, but under twelve months, will be
found many addicted to crime as a habit, and uneer its
permanent influence ; bet the large majority of these
will not again be found in the annals of Newgate.
" Between prisoners sentenced to twelve months and
upwards and transports a very slender partition divides.
The difference in the sentence declares only that
less has been proved against them. The altera-
tion in the law, rendering , unlawful to transport
in cases of simple larceny, has (mused some very great
of to escape this punishment. Stealing from
carts, carriages, and waggons n the streets—a very
serious offence in the metropolis, and formerly punished
almost invariably with transportation, as well as stealing
parcels from railway stations, is now an offence sub-
jected to imprisonment only. This has increased our
number sentenced to twelve months and upwards, and
has decreased to the same extent our transports. We
had 465 transported in 1849, but in 1848 they amounted
to 591; so that during the last year no less than 126 of
the general decrease Nis under this head.
"We have had a considerable number of these
unhappy men confined for several months in Newgato;
and it is becoming a serious matter to contem-
plate the mischief and corruption that take place
among these men, confined as they aro with us.
The aggregate proportion is not lessened, but increased,
if you consider the 12 months prisoners and trans-
ports in one class-938 in 2,637 is a larger proportion
than 1,070 in 3,156. The mode of imprisonment in
exercise with respect to those prisoners now so gene-
rally confined in England becomes really a matter
of rational importance. It is greatly to bo desired
that no sentences—except for very short periods—
should take place in Newgate. The perpetual
excitement, the ever fluctuating character of the in-
mates, the assemblage of crimals cf the most fl,grant
nature, the constant recurrence of the sessions, make
Newgate a very unde,irable prison for purposes of
lengthened confinement. We have two men charged
amsead(elhatorthseyto
nape
ee
received , foraa notcollectors ll of property paying over the
tax, who are much more fit to be detained
in custody in Whitecross-street Prison, than in the
common criminal gaol for the county of Middlesex.
Occasionally men for conspiracies, or for political of-
fence,-, must of ,necessity, as the law now is, he impri-
soned in Newgate. Fur such persons we want bitter
places than we have to meet the case fairly, and to make
the sentence or detention such as it should be. The
prison, in three respect*, should either he altered to
meet these cases, or means bo taken that such sentences
should be elsewhere carried into a !rect.

" TUE TRANSPORT WARDS.
" With regard to transports the state is much worse.
The condition dame men, confined for Mclial in per%

Alderman CIIALLIS presented the annual report of
the ordinary of Newgate upon the condition of the
prison, and said that it was his intention to submit a
motion to the Court upon the very important matters
contained in it at the next meeting.—(Hear, hear.)
The following are the most prominent features of
the document :