Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-05-12
No. 33.....VoL. VIII---May l2 1900
CRIME AND LEGISLATION IN GREAT
BRITAIN.


According to Report of a Committee
ofthe House of Commons, there were con-
fined in prisons and bridewells, during
seven years, ending in 1881, $4,000 per-
sons accused of crimes, or at the rate of
l7,428 per annum. Ofthese, 5,OOOwere
comracted ofthe crimes laid to their charge,
so that IL, l42 was the average amount of
the yearly convictions, 1t has been esti-
mated, in regard to juvenile delinquency,
that more than 1900 boys, in London
alone, are employed in thieving, picking
pockets, and committing all kinds Of pet
ty depredations. 1t is also found, that
crimes, so far from diminishing, are, in
this country, regularly increasing. From
the Report of late Committee of Paria-
ment, it appears, that, during the last IA
years they have increased in the proper
ton of tcenty-fowr to ten, that is, they
have been far more than doubled in the
course of that short period.
These statements exhibit frightlul
view of the extent and the progress of
crimes Nor is it to be wondered at, when
we consider the present state of education,
and the manner in which it is conducted
the principles on which our penal code
has been constructed, and the manner in
which our criminal laws are executed
Our penal code, throughout all its de-
partments, is deeply imbued with the spir-
it of rerenge. To produce pain and dis
grace to the criminal appears TO be It's
principal object; and, in the great major
ity ofinstances, it has the effect of harden
ing and rendering more desperate the per-
sons whom it ought to have sofened and
reformed. To reform the criminal, to
cure him Of the moral disease which led
him into crime, to impart appropriate III
struction to his mind, and to prepare the
way for his restoration to society as rem
ovated character, are circumstances which
seem to have been entirely overlooked in
the arrangements connected with our Grim
inal legislation. In this respect dread
full infatuation seems to have seized upon
our legislators, implying a deficiency
ncvolcncc. When certain species of
crime are on the increase, laws still more
severe are enacted, and put in execution
with all the pomp and rigor of authority
and revenge Ifwhipping and imprison-
ment, toiing at the tread-whcel, laboring
in the hulks, and transportation beyond
seas, are Insufficient to arrest the progress
of CRIME. then executi0aS without number
are resorted to, in order to sweep the cul-
prits at once from the face of the carth-
| One enactment after another issues from
the source of power; one law cOmpara-
| lively mild is cancelled, and another more
severe substituted in its place severe
! punishment is sometimes modified and
| rendered less severe the sentence of death
is commuted into transportation for life,
and a years labor at the tread-mIll for
seven years transportation. Every year
new enactments, laws, and regulations,
er laws, issue from the legislative depart
ment of government; but all is fno avail
to stop the progress CT immortality and
crime. Nor need we wonder at such a
result; it is precisely such as we ought to
expect from such a mode of Legislation as
now exists. Our state physicians act
nearly in the same manner as the quack
who, instead of striking at the root of a
sore which is undermine the constitution,
covers it over with a slender skin, and
leaves the internal riruSto gather strength
till it break out in incurabIe ulcers, thro'-
out every part Of the system. They at
tempt to Iop off the twigs and branches
from the tree OF crime, while they leave
the root and the trunk to break forth atresh
in still greater luxuriance. No efficient
prercHiire system has as yet been arrang-
ed to strike at the root Of crime, to pre-
vent its growth, and to make the mac chime
ry OF society move onward with smooth
ness and harmony. And, 50 long as pre-
ventlve measures are overlooked, and
moral training neglected, the scvercst laws
that can be framed will be altogether inct-
tlclent to counteract the criminal propen-
sites Of the human heart. IIomu< Dick.
L. L. d.