The Sun.
London, England, 1818-08-24 00:00:00

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

•
Your Committee wish', on many other subjects
which have been brought under their considera-
tion, to refer generally to the evidence ; there will
be found notch that is most valuable to those who
seek' practically to better the condition of the so-
ciety in which they live: But while they cannot
avoid pointing the attention of the House to the
alarming augmentation of criminals, and to the in-
creasing multitude of all species of crime, they,
however, hope, that this lamentable proof of po-
verty and distress among the people is but tem-
porary. The evidence of persons well qualified
to speak on these topics, describe the character of
offences to be much more mild than heretofore,
and the general manners and morals of the peo-
ple to have been in the course of gradual improve-
ment. Your Committee trust, that the promo-
tion of educatioh, which is now advancing with
rapidity, and the means thereby afforded of fixing
the great truths of morals and religion on the
minds of the people, will bring them back to those
virtuous courses, which alone ensure, on a stable
security, the Etreatuess and happiness of the na-
tion.

Your Committee have received from several
of the Magistrates, whom they have examined,
various opinions upon the important subject
of the prevention of crimes, which is deemed
by them to be of primary importance. This is a
subject of !peat difficulty.- It is. no doubt true,
that to prevent crime is better than to punish it ;
but the difficulty is not in the end but the means ;
and though your Committee cOulitimagine a system

of Police that might arrive at the object sought
for, yet in a free country, or even in one
where any unrestrained intercourse otsociety is
admittett. such a* system would of necessity be
odious and repulsive, and one which no govern-
ment would be able to carry into execution. In
despotic countries it has never yet succeeded to
the extent aimed at by those theorists; and among
a flee people, the very proposal would be rejected
with abhorrence ; it would be a plan which would
make every servant of every house a spy on the
actions of his master, and all classes of society spies
on each other. Tie police of a free country is to
be found in rational and humane laws ; in an effective
amid enlightened magistracy—and in the judicious
and proper selection of those officers ofjustice, in
whose hands,as conservators of the peace,executive
duties are legally placed ; but, above all, on the
mot al habits and opinions of the people ; and in
proportion as these approximate towards a state
of per!ection, so that people my rest in security;
and though their property may occasionally he in-
vaded, or their lives endangered by the hands of
wicked and desperate individuals, yet the institu-
tions of tie country being sound, its laws well ad-
ministered, And justice executed against offenders,
no greater safeguard can be obtained, without
sacrificing all those rights, which society was in-
stituted to preserve.
Your Committee submit to the consideration of
the House the evidence which has been delivered
to them by the late Ordinary of Newgate, Dr.
Ford ; the present Ordinary, Mr. Cotton ; Mr.
Newman, the late keeper ; Mrs. Fry, and other
respectable and well-informed persons, touching
the effect of capital punishments, as well as that
of transportation to Botany Bay. They forbear
from•entering into details on these subjects they
are of the deepest importance, and spread over a
wide field : your Committee, therefore, leave
them for the present, under the hope that, at least
for die examination of the latter question, they
may be permitted to resume their labour next
Session.—June 5, 1818.