The Sun. — 1869-01-13 (London, England)

IMINALS.  Mr. Fenwick, the chief constable of Chester, has made some statements on the sul jcct of crime and criminals. The profession of crime is systematically divided into various branches, and the several classes do not associate together. Thieves are not always driven to crime for want of work, as many of them have a trade at their fingers' ends. It is serious to learn that there are at large in England and Wales more than twenty-two thousand "known thieves," and these, with the receivers of stolen goods and "suspected persons," make a total of 1,121,406 persons of criminal tendencies. A very small percentage of these abandon their evil habits and associates. Every policeman throughout England and Wales knows about five persons of criminal tendencies, and the question is, if this army cannot be cured, is it to be endured. Mr. Fenwick declares that ",Fagin" still exists, and is sometimes found in the parents of the juvenile delinquents. Crime is not likely to be prevented or reduced to a minimum while the present system of dealing with confirmed thieves exists. The number of criminals has increased so much that they outnumber the police in the proportion of five to one. Mr. Fenwick advocates the system of scale-punishments and supervision after the expiration of the sentence of imprisonment. The present state of things has existed long enough, and the robbers possess chances wlarh must be taken away.  CRUEL Hoax.—For some days the relatives of friends who have sailed in passenger ships from England have been thrown into the most distressing anxiety in consequence of a notice which has app( a•ed in the public press "that some dreadful shipwreck had occurred in the Bay of Biscay, some fifty bodies having been washed ashore along the coast of Corunna." A telegram sent to the underwriters by Lloyd's agent at Corunna, states " that there is no truth in the report, and that the whole affair is suspected to be a hoax, no bodies having been seen."  A SON ATTEMPTING TO POISON A FAMILY AT ►SnEFFIELD.--On Sunday a young man, named Edmund Barker, 2.5 years of age, file-cutter, attempted to poison his father, mother, brother, and two sisters by putting the contents of a threepenny packet of Battle's vermin destroyer into a saucepan containing broth for dinner. It was found out by the in' ense bitterness of the broth, with no worse consequence than that one of the daughters was sick; and when he was charged with it he laughed. He had often ill used all the members of the family except his father, and threatened to murder them. He continued living at home till Monday evening, when he again threatened to murder them, and to do it effectually this time, and his father then turned him out of the house. He wandered about for some hours, and early on Tuesday morning gave himself up to the police, and confessed his attempt to poison the family. The reason of his doing so was that he was idle, and that his father wanted him to work. He is very intelligent in con. versation, and addicted to the reading of books on history and parliamentary debates. His general conduct at home would lead to the belief that he is not right in his