The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-18 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.

CRIMINAL COMMITMENTS AND CONVICTIONS.

REPORT.

Of the Select Committee' appointed to enquire into the
Cause of the Increase in the Number of Criminal Com-
mitments and Convictions in England and Wales ; and
who were empowered to report their Observations and
Opinion thereupon, together with the Minutes of Evi-
dence taken before them, to the House.
(00XCLVDED FROM 01111 PAPER o' YESTERDAY)
Sir James Graham, Baronet, has acted for the
last eight years as a Magistrate for the county of
Cumberland; until within the last eighteen months
he has not observed any increase of crime; but since
the commencement of distress among the hand-loom
weavers in Carlisle and its vicinity, crime had in-
creased in that particular district. In the county of
Cumberland it is universally the custom to refuse
any payment of wages out of the Poor Rates, the
consequence is, that the rate of wages is higher in
Cumberland than in almost any other agricultural
county ; a ploughman there receives at least 12s. a
week ; in many cases the cottagers have rooms rent
free, and iu no case does a field labourer receive less
than 18d. a day, if he be a good workman. Mr.
Sturges Bourne's Act has been carried almost uni-
versally into execution ; select vestries assemble re-
gularly according to the provisions of that, Act ; nei-
ther rent nor wages are paid out of the Poor Rates
except in special cases relief is refused; and the
Poor Rates, notwithstanding the increase of manu-
facturing poverty, have diminished even in the manu-
facturing districts since 1819. " In the parishes with
which I am more particularly connected, as being
the principal proprietor within them, upon the first
passing of Mr. Sturges Bourne's Act, I availed my -
self, with .the concurrence of the Vestry, of a provi-
sion contained in it for raising money for the pur-
pose of enlarging the poor-house. At that time the
parishes to which I allude, were in the habit of pay-
ing rents out of the poor-rate; they became con-
vinced that this was an unwise and prodigal expen-
diture, and though the outlay in enlarging the work-
house was considerable, amounting to somewhat more
than 4001., at least half of one year's rate, yet when
the work-house was finished, they were enabled at
once to refuse relief to all persons unwilling to go
there, and the number of applicants diminished so
much, that in the course of two years the parish
was reimbursed for the whole outlay, and at the
present moment, as I mentioned before, no rentrare
paid out of the poor-rates, and no persons are re-
lieved, except under very special circumstances, at
their own houses.

The habits of the agricultural labourers are moral,
industrious, and economical. There still exists a
great spirit of independence, and the utmost want
and distress are often endured with patience, in pre-
ference to an application to the Vestry. n Cum-
berland, however, both the farmers and agricultural
labourers are content with very mean and scanty
food ; the sustenance of the labourer consists almost
entirely of milk, potatoes, and oatmeal ; he very
rarely eats meat. The situation of the farmer is
very little better or more luxurious. Upon the
whole, neither the farmer nor the agricultural la-
bourer is in a worse condition than he was thirty
years ago. Sir James Graham is of opinion, " that
the power given by Mr. Sturges Bourne's Act of
enlarging workhouses, and of making them capable
of containing all persons to whom the parish is
bound to give relief, and a steady adherence to the
principle of never giving it'out of the workhouses,
coupled with such regulations of the workhouse it-
self, as are now consistent with the law of the land
(the utility of which is exemplified in the manage-
ment of the workhouse nt Liverpool), would
supply the means of checking the natural im-
providence of the labourer, and his disposition
to early marriage ; he would fear to make him-
self dependent on parish relief; he would look at
the workhouse with dread, not as at present, almost
with indifference; and by the increased exertions of
the labouring classes themselves, by greater prudence
on their' part, formed by a wiser administration of
the existing law,. I am disposed to think that the
Poor Rates might-be reduced throughout England;
at all events that their rapid inroads might be
arrested." The Select Vestries exercise the power
vested in them with sound discretion : character is
almost invariably an ingredient in their decisions.
The most fertile source of crime is the preservation
of game, the lower orders in common with the
highest have a natural love of the sport, even stimu-
lated, perhaps, by the risks attendant on its gratifi-
cation ; the tameness of the pheasants, which were
comedy almost unknown in this neighbourhood, and
which are now seen constantly in the fields close to
the road, is a great temptation to the lower orders
to take them. " Persons going armed at night on
a marauding excursion, seldom confide their depre-
dations to the taking of game, and many cases of
petty thefts, such as robbing of hen-roosts and out-
houses, have been brought before me, which I have
been able clearly to trace to persons going out at
night with the intention of poaching. On the whole,
I shouts think poaching the cause, rather than the
consequence of criminal habits." When an unem-
ployed labour:4r applies to the parish for relief, he is
usually sent to break- stones upon the turnpike-road,
which work is paid by the square yard of stone
broken ; he is fed and clothed at the expense of the
parish, his earnings are carried to the account of the
parish ; if he does not break the average quantity of
stones, the keeper of the workhouse brings the pauper
before a INtitgistrate, who has it in his power to send
)him to the House of Correction.,
In a Gaol and House of Correction at Carlisle,
the tread-mill has been at work about eighteen
mesesiii, Sir James Graham cannot perceive that
the work appears very irksome to the prisoners.
The severity Of the tread-mill at Carlisle is about
the average seventy; the severity of this punish-
anent very much depeo ds upon the height of the
steps and the frequency of a'e rotation of the wheel.
These vary in almost every gaol. " I have always
been ref opinion, that.by legislative interposition the
degree of labour ought to be regulated, and made the
same in every gaol and house of correction through-
out England ; because it does appear to me absurd,
that where the crime is the same, and the punish-
ment is intended also to be the same, from the acci-
dental circumstance of the hard labour in one gaol
being more severe than in another, the punishment
ordained as unitarm should vary to any degree."
Is the atlowanee increased for the prisoners who
are put upon the tread-mill?--The only difference
is that they are allowed beer, which is denied to
other prisoners; and as I have mentioned the dispa-
rity' of punishment arising from the circumstance
of the tread-mill in one gaol being more severe than
n another, I perhape may be allowed to express an
opinion, that a difference in the diet, which in one
gaol is inteelt more spare than in another, partakes
of the same inconvenience I have alluded to with
tespect to the diffeceace of hard labour, not contem-
plated by the law. •
generally
_on the
Have you made any observation
sfect of prison discipline in the gaol of Cachsle ?—I
have, and the result of that observation, coupled
with inquiries from persons who have had great ex-
perience, e telt as Mr. Orridge, the gaoler at Bury,
and his son, who is the gaoler at Carlisle, led me to
think that in very few cases is a gaol ever a place of
reform ; we have reason to know that the best Con-
ducted prisoners are those who are anxious to obtain
a mitigation of their sentence, by their good conduct
within the walls of the prison ; and in many cases a
portion of their sentence has been remitted m conse-
quence of such good conduct, and within a very short
period those very individuals have committed fresh
crimes of e deeper die.
So that you are of opinion that, generally speak-
tne good conduct of the prisoners is not to be
attributed to any
teal reformation in their character ?
—Most decidedly.
With respect to the reformation of offenders in
prison, yen stated that your views upon that sub-
et were much less sanguine than they had been;
do yon attribute their non-reformation to their early
character, or to their always associating in prison
with criminals ?—I must ascribe the cause
their not being refOtmed to the deep taint o