The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-17 00:00:00

CRIMINAL STATISTICS

There is deep matter for legislative reflection and
inquiry in a Blue Book just issued from the Vote- i
office, entitled Tables showing the number of
Criminal Offenders (England and Wales) in the year
1843." These tables, which exhibit the numbers
" committed for trial or bailed for appearance at the
Assizes and Sessions in each county"—also the result
of the proceedings, are followed by a most valuable
paper or digest, prefaced by this announcement :
" The following explanations, and calculations
with reference to the Accompanying tables, have
been made by Mr. REDGRAVE of the Home-office,
who compiled and prepared the tables." This docu-
ment is ,highly honourable, no doubt, to that gentle-
man's powers of analysis and arrangement, but it
develops a picture of the present aggregate of criminal
offenders, and the ratio of its increase, which is the
most discouraging that could be submitted to the
- British public. The contents of the Tabular Returns
will be found, if not to falsify, yet by no means to
confirm, the anticipations of those who augured, from
the extensive repeal of capital punishment, first, a
largely increased proportion ofconvictions to the number
of commitments ; secondly a largely decreased amount
of those crimes from which the capital penalty has
been thus withdrawn. The release of jurors &gm the
temptation to falsify their oaths, by verdicts founded,
—not on their impressions of the evidence before
them, but—on their reluctance to be accessory to the
execution of their fellow-creatures ; and the as-
sumed readiness with which they would (it was
thought) convict, where warranted by evidence, in
such cases—appear to have had little sensible effect in
repressing this class of offences. In spite of Mr
RosaucK's eulogy, the other night, of factory labour
as the most appropriate and salutary employment
fur women, these tables supply statistics from which
Mr. REDGRAVE eliminates the conclusion that " the
variations on the centessimal proportion of the males to
the females have not exceeded 2 per cent. in the last
seven years ; that the proportion of females was
greatest in 1840, decreasing
,slightly in the two fol-
lowing years, being last year 22.02 per cent., being a
slight increase on the previous year ; and that in the
ten most manufacturing counties, the proportion of
females was 25.4 per cent. ; in the ten most agricultural
counties, 15.4. per cent. only."—(P. 10.) To the
same ',earned authority, who found matter for thank-
fulness and congratulation in the devotion of children
and young persons to the same species of occupation,
we commend this significant passage :—" The com-
parative ages in the ten most agricultural, and the
ten most manufacturing and mixed counties,
afford similar results; namely, the earlier coin.
mencement of crime in the manufacturing than in
the agricultural counties."—(P. 9.) But Mr.
GRAVE shows, especially by reference to the percentage
of offences committed between twenty and twenty-
five years, that the career of crime is shorter
in the manufacturing than in the agricultural
districts. The returns, however, are full of ano-
malies well calculated to refute the confidence
of less practical men in either House of Par-
liament, and in either of the two great parties which
occupy them, in the dangerous delusions involved in
some of their most favourite notions. His Grace
the Duke of BUCKINGHAM may be surprised,
to learn such news as this of his " model county,
namely—" In the Midland (agricultural) Counties
NOrthaMpton, Oxford, and Berkshire, a decrease of
crime—Bucks an increase." Mr. BANTERS, who ran a
memorable tilt, some time since, in honour of the
abundant wages and excellent character of the whole
Dorsetshire tenantry, must bear to be told that " if
the Western counties, Wilts and Somersetshire, show
a decrease, Dorsetshire shows an increase of crime.
But the general results are too deplorable to be
used, merely to point a passing reflection for the di-
gestion of political Contemporaries. "In the last
year" (1843) writes Mr. REDGRAVE, "there was an
increase (of commitments) of 14.1 per cent. on
the whole class—every one of the most atro-
cious qffences showing a considerable increase.
In the " //fences against property committed with
violence," there was a large increase, extend-
ing to nearly every offence. In 1842, the in-
crease in this class amounted to 16.6 per cent.; and
the past year has added 13.9 per cent. to the former
great increase. " Offences against property, com-
mitted without violence," have decreased during the
last year. " Malicious offences against property"
show a considerable increase, although they had been
already more than doubled in the year 1842. "For-
geries and offences against the currency," which had
likewise greatly multiplied in 1842, show in 1843 a
further increase of 5 per cent. _ _

Here follows a painful confirmation of the views
which these details are calculated to supply—
It has been already shown that the decrease in the past
year has fallen chiefly on the minor offences, and that there
was an increase in the graver classes of crime. This, with the
number of sentences passed gt the winter assize, will account
for the increase„ in the face of a general decrease, of the most
severe secondary punishments, and of the numbers sentenced to
death, which latter exceed those in any year since the exten-
sive abolition of capital punishments by the Acts of 1 Vic-
toria. The sentences in each of the three last years are
given :

Death r