The Northern Daily Times. — 1853-11-24 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1853.  IN our impression of yesterday we published the CHAPLAIN'S Report of the,Borough Gaol, for the year ending the 30th September. As it happens to be an important document, and gives an account of crime and criminals in Liverpool, we shall lay before our readers some comments thereupon. It appears that crime is materially on the decrease, that the commitments are fewer, and that the daily average of prisoners confined in gaol have diminished by 100. This, would, indeed, be cheering intelligence were we not informed that such a condition of things is by no means attributable to any improvement in the moral and social condition of our population; that it neither arises from " deterring influences or penal appliances," but is solely and wholly to be ascribed to a far different cause, viz :—increased. employment and  remunerative wages. This fact speaks volumes. It shows that the causes which predispose to crime are most frequently exterior; and that where one person is induced from innate depravity and lack of moral sentiment to perpetrate evil daeds, ninety-nine persons are urged thereto by bitter necessity. Unfortu  nately, ares,all more or less the creatures of circumstances. ,nd there can be little doubt but • that many who..kow justly boast of great virtues, had they been exTosed to the contagious influen.4 •,..-ces of pover:y, disease, and filthy habitations, like ,sB.l our criminal population, would exactly be in a like position with thaie unfortunates. Society is a 7-stern N-EmEsis. 'lt creates an abnormal social ..coudition; and then punishes the individuals who  become deteriorated in consequence. It makes the offender, and demands satisfaction fo.rthe offence. And this is, Justice ! What Society should do is, to lay the axe to the root of the evil, and by removing the first cause of crime save itself from the infliction of criminals.. What can we expect under our present social regime? A teeming population, annually increasing, is growing up in our midst. We know little about them, and we care less. The poor flock together in low, damp, dirty localities, where reeking miasma ever aboundswhere the demon of Pestilence loves to linger and riot—and where virtue is sure to expire. We fly the scene —inhabit fine villas and beautiful mansions—and fancy poverty and vice to be curses of people's own creating. True, we build fine churches and schoolrooms, and some kind people visit those plaguesmitten localities, and distribute coals and tracts. But the churches are useless, and the schools too ;  and though the coals are sure to be consumed, the tracts are never read. Now, we repeat, what can be expected under such circumstances. We suffer  a large mass of moral corruption to exist in the heart of our social system ; and we make no further  efforts to remedy it than to erect prisons, and devise punishments, and inflict death ! Is it any wonder that we should be, as we are, the sufferers in the end ? The MALTHUSIAN theory is now exploded. That was a stupid and impracticable means to an end. As far as that goes, it would be a more effectual plan to collect all our criminals together, and fling them into the Mersey. But even this would not suffice ; for the same class would speedily accumulate again; and we might go on for ever without diminishing either the number of criminals or the ex tent of crime. Get rid, say some, of the surplus population. 'Tis all bosh! There will always be a surplus population. A population cannot be too great, provided a country be well governed. Marriage cannot be an imprudence, or children a burden, according to COLERIDGE, where such is the Society holds precisely the same position as a parent. And do what we might, we cannot relieve ourselves from moral responsibility with re spect to our criminal classes.  The morally depraved, and the physically infirm, should meet with a similar treatment. But how do we act? Why, we build hospitals for the one, pay physicians and nurses to attend upon them, and afford all needful comforts until health be restored. So far so good. But we adopt a course diametrically opposite with regard to the other. We pack them off in closely-covered waggons to gloomy prisons, where the atmosphere reeks with moral poison, and where, if they are not starved, worked to death, or have not resort to suicide in  order to escape the cruelties inflicted by inhuman brutes of governors, they invariably return to society seven times more wicked, incorrigible, and depraved.  Only observe the fatal policy pursued with reference to juvenile delinquents, with which Liverpool more especially abounds. After the period of imprisonment to which they have been consigned expires, they, for the most part, are suffered to go adrift, to prey upon society more effectually than ever. We say, for the most part, because here and there some private reformatory institu  tions receive a few of the less vicious. The Chaplain of our Borough Gaol laments this, and states, that in the way of juvenile reformation  little has been done, not so much for want of objects as for wane of suitable asylums to receive  them. There exists little doubt but that such refuges are most imperatively requisite, provided we have a wish. to stay the course of crime. Experience proves how efficaciously such reformatories would work. In the Report it is stated, " that of 29 cases of juveniles, (sent to various schools of refuge,) 7 have done well, 11 are in the way of doing well, 7 are doubtful, 2 have so far failed, and 2 are hopelessly lost." It is further asserted that, with one solitary excep tion, all these, though young in years, were old in crime, and that no system of prison discipline at present existing would be capable of improving them.  Parliament, it is to be hoped, will take this subject up thoroughly and effectually. A mighty evil exists which requires to be grappled with, and speedily, too. And we hope that our Legislature, at its next sitting, will devise some practical scheme whereby to effect so desirable an object as the reclamation of juvenile offenders. Were this end gained, thousands would be saved from becoming  hardened in vice ; the number of criminals would be decimated; and society itself would be an infinite gainer. • " All crime is madness—madness is disease ;" therefore education and moral training are likely to become more remedial than the felon's cell, or the non•reformatory discipline of our associated gaols.  The subject of Dock Management is one which is exciting the earnest attention of our Merchants, and the Rate Payers of the Borough generally. Greater economy in the expenditure, and increased accommodation for shipping within the present limits of our Docks, are' the two ruling requirements of the day; and amongst the inany'projects which have been made public on this . subject, we have noticed one by Mr.