Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-06-13
CRIME IN CITIES.
From the New York Post


The report of the Metropolitan Police
District of London for the year 1866 has
just been printed. Itpresents some interes-
ting features and facts in relation to the
social condition of Loudon, and, taken in
connection. with the police return in this
city for the quarter ending April 80,
suggests some curious comparisons. For
instance, in the number of arrests made in
London in 1866 there was a decrease from
1865 of not less than 4400. Our own last
quarters returns taken as basis for the ar
rests ofthe whole year, will show an increase
of nearly 5000 arrests this year over those
of 1866. Comparing the size of the two
cities, the decrease in arrests in London
and the increase in New York is the more
striking. For drunkenness 6732 persons
were arrested in London last year, and
965l arrests for disorderly conduct as well
as drunkenness, total of 1888, against
1929 arrests in 1866 for drunkenness
alone in this city. The full return for this
class of arrests this year in New York,
based upon the return for the first quar-
ter, will show 2l ,240--an increase of 5000.
But arrests for drunkenness in London
are quite evenly divided between males and
females, since there was an excess of only
one hundred and sixty-two arrests of men
for this otfense, showing that the women of
London are far more degraded in this re-
| spect than in this city or in any capital of
| Europe.
There is a class of arrests in London,
Paris and other European cities which is
almost unknown in New York, namely
Arrests for attempt to commit suicide. OF
such there were two hundred and ninety.
eight in London last year, but only one
| person was committed for trial. 1t is esti-
mated that there is an annual average of
| two hundred and forty actual suicides in
| London, to which must be added the
unsuccessful attemps, making FIVE hundred
and thirty-eight cases last year. Even
| Paris, where suicides are so frequent, pre-
| sents no such picture as this. The absence of
arrests in this city on account of "attemts''
may possibly be an indication that in the
few cases which really occur the attempt is
| generally successful. Here, too, suicides is
considered folly rather than crime.
| The class of people who commit mis-
demeanOrs in London, as well as in New
York, to a great extent are persons who
have no trade, calling or occupation.
Arrests of cabmen and sailors are quite
frequent in London, and as laundresses are
indicted oftener than women of any onther
respectable occupation, the washing bu-
siness is considerd demoralizing in that
city. 1t is certainly surprising, comparing
the same classes in London and this city,
| to learn that two hundred and ninety
millners were arrested last year in London
| for drunkenness.
| Of3lSS prisoners tried and convicted in
| London in 1866, only three men and one
| women had received what Is termed "supe-
rior instruction." one-fifteenth of the whole
number could read and write well; one
forth of the whole number had received no
| educationj whatever. Our own returns, on
the other hand, show great number OF
arrests of well-educated persons, or those
whose "station," as the Appraiser would
callit, warrents the supposition of superior
instruction" The return for one quarter
only, to May /, show the arrest in this city,
among Others, of IS editors, 2 clergymen,
"a artists, u aeters, IL reporters, 80 lawyers,
81 physicians, % teachers, 240 printers, IL
telegraph operators, 100 Scholars" 10
United States officers, 28city officers, besides
agents, brokers, contractors, merchants,
dentists hotel keepers, and more than one
thousand clerks. This is the return fol
three months in this city alone Brooklyr
shows for the same quarter the arrest of
editor, 4 reporters, As printers, z lawyer
and 4 scholars, and the great number o
respectable" arrests in our own Metro
politan Police district every year woulC
astonish Inspector Bucket of London.