Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-24

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Archbishop of Canterbury has recently
been affected with a spasm Of apprehension
because of what he believes to be the rapid
increase of luxury and crime in Great
Britain, and he has been sending abroad a
circular letter calling attention to this sup.
posittious state of affairs, and urging re-
newed use of the agencies approved by the
Church to remedy it. As to the Arch
bishops statement regarding the increase
of luxury, the presumption is that it
possesses a good deal of truth. The fact
undoubtedly is that there are more people
in affiuent circumstances than at any for.
mer time, and when people are rich they
usually indulge in more or less luxury. 1t
may also be admitted that some deleteri.
Gus consequences are liable to arise from
this increase of luxury, for it is very well
known that when people are rich and at
the same time idle, they are apt to get into
mischief, and to do harm to themselves
and Others.
Bat when it is alleged that crime is on
the increase, there are means of testing
the assertion, and when the test is applied
the results do not bear out the Archbish-
ops charge. The progress of England in
civilization is in most respects analogous to
that of the United States, and therefore it
may be presumed that the two countries
are nearly on level in this respect. Now
an examination OF the statistics of crime
in England makes it certain that there has
been steady decrease in the more serious
offenses for several centuries, and that while
the laws have become milder continually,
the aggregate of crime has correspondingly
diminished. One striking proof of this
consists in the TACT that the number of
Judges in England to. day is only one eighth
OF the number in the time of Edward the
Third, when allowance is made for the in.
crease of population. Again, in London,
a city containing . population, including
all the suburbs, little short Of four millions,
there, are employed no more than twenty
three paid magistrates, of whom eleven
only are at any one time on the bench. In
the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the
whole population of England was less than
five millions. a single county required more
magistrates than are needed now for the
whole OF London.
Again, it must be remembered that at
present the greater perfection of the police
administration results in an apparent In
crease in the number of arrests, because
there are fewer evasions Of justice. OF old
probably not one crime in ten was ever
made the subject of Judicial investigation,
whereas now not more than one in ten
goes UNPUBLISHED. And it is certain that
the more heinous offenses are much fewer
than of old. Murder and house breaking
and robbery on the highway were formerly
almost as frequent as petty larcenies are at
present. Then again the severity of the
laws, by condemning petty offenders to
death, cleared away a great many of the
class of habitual criminals, who to day
SNClL s-AO LN|O4Ao DH re-
peated petty offenses committed in the
course of the same year. Il ia sometimes
maintained that commercial crimes have
become more rife of late years, but this
charge will not bear examination any bet
ter than the other. It would, for instance,
be impossible to adduce parallel in recent
times to the state of commercial morals
at the pcrioi of the South Sea excitement
Wall street and the California stock mar
ket must both pale their Intellectual fires
before that colossal aggregation of frauds.
Ii we go further, and inquire into the
general morals of society, we must con-
clude that there has been equally steady !
improvement. a century ago drunken
ness was considered entirely compatible
with the highest breeding. Now no
drunkard is admitted into respectable
circles. The relations between the sexes
were in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries certainly much freer and |
coarser than at present, as witness the
fact that the current fiction of the
eighteenth century was go brutally can
did in its language that it would not now
be admitted to the shelves of any public
library. 1t is true that this coarseness, or
even as would now be thought, nastiness,
did not of necessity indicate much
lower standard of morals, but it assuredly
indicated a much lower standard OF
propriety and refinement, and no in
ferences can be drawn from it which are
not less favorable to the society which
tolerated and relished it than to that of
the present time. Taking the brosdest
possible survey OF the situation, there
tore, We think it must be admitted
that crime has not increased, but has
diminished that public morals have SEN
slbly improved; that there is very much
less coarse sensual Indulgence than fern.
erIy and that so far as external indca-
tons go the world has been growing better
instead OF worse. L. is probable that what
really has alarmed the Archbishop of Can
teronry IS the decline OF religious enthu-
siasm and even interest, and it must be
acknowledged that from the standpoint of
the Church this is serious symptom.
But it is none the less true that whoever
to maintain charge of modern
social degeneration ought to have bet
ter evidence than His Grace the Arch
bishop appears able to gather in this con-
necsion. I.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH ON
THE SPOT.
The exConfederate speaker who at Dali
as, Texas, the other day declared chat
i he was not sorry that Garfield was shot,"
md proclaimed his readiness "to kill
. Yankees again" appears to have met
With very different reception to that
which he would have had in the North.
, "a t,-ro That HE acd.a,1o = ....-. :, ! /