reasonably admitted. Practically speaking, the javelin men regulate the admission by reference to what we might, in deference to the Norman element of our language, express by "douceur," and in obedience to another element call "tipping;" nor do we doubt that the constitutional advisers of Mr. Evelyn could trace this custom from the earliest times.

Let us hope that the progress of civilisation and of education will bring with it a better construction of our courts of justice, an improved taste in our sheriffs, more practical wisdom in their constitutional advisers, and if need be, as in some cases is possible, a more polished demeanour among the judges of assize.

27

ART. III.-JUDICIAL STATISTICS.

1. Judicial Statistics, 1859.-England and Wales. Part I. Police-Criminal Proceedings-Prisons. Part II. Common Law-Equity-Civil and Canon Law. The Returns relating to Police, pursuant to Stat. 19 and 20 Vict., c. 69. London, 1860..

2. Judicial Statistics, 1858, &c., &c. London, 1859.

THE

HE scheme for an annual return of the proceedings of the various criminal and civil courts in England and Wales, was originated in the year 1855. In that year Mr. Redgrave, Criminal Registrar, was directed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to organize and carry out a plan for collecting and tabulating the necessary information; and in the course of last year a volume of judicial statistics was, for the first time, published "in a form approaching completeness." The chief deficiencies, however, in that volume were but of minor importance, being deficiencies in respect of the proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts. But in the volume of the present year no court has been neglected; and "the Judicial Statistics for 1859, include the proceedings of every class of courts in England and Wales for the determination of criminal and civil matters. The details of their

proceedings, and their modes of statistical expression, will doubtless be improved and extended from time to time, and will follow and exemplify the future changes both in the law and the forms of procedure; but the arrangement and completion of a system of judicial statistics has now been fairly established." 2

Part I. of these statistics comprises-1st, statements of the police establishments and expenses, the number of offences committed and offenders apprehended, and the number of inquests held by coroners; 2ndly, statements of the number of persons committed for trial at the assizes and sessions, with the result of the proceedings; and, 3rdly, statements of the condition of prisons, the number of prisoners, and the expenses of the various 1 Jud. Stat., 1858, p. 145. 2 Jud. Stat., 1859, p. v.

establishments, and returns relating to reformatories and industrial schools and criminal lunatics.

Part II. comprises the returns relating to CIVIL matters only; but we do not purpose here to deal with that part. It would be impossible, within the limits of an article of moderate length, to give a satisfactory outline of both Parts; and as the civil proceedings of 1859 "do not materially differ in their results from those of the preceding year,"1 (which were commented on in our Number for November, 1859, vol. viii. p. 152,) we have selected Part I. for analysis on the present occasion. We shall not, however, confine ourselves to the returns for 1859, but shall refer to those for 1858, whenever a comparison of the results may seem of interest.

1. The Police Establishments, &c.-The police force on the 29th September, 1859, consisted of 20,597 men (a small increase on the number in 1858); and, taking the population of England and Wales (according to the last census) at 17,927,609 souls, the average proportion of police to the number of inhabitants is 1 in 870. This proportion, however, varies very much in different districts. For example, in the city of London it is 1 in 210; in Liverpool, 1 in 308; in the metropolitan police district, 1 in 384; in Manchester, 1 in 502; in Birmingham, 1 in 636; in Sheffield, 1 in 708; and, if we turn to the counties, the proportion diminishes very rapidly, being in Warwickshire 1 in 1221; in Suffolk, 1 in 1602, &c. But, as is observed by Mr. Redgrave, population which is calculated on residence forms but a very imperfect basis of comparing the relative amount of the police forces, especially as regards cities and boroughs, where the population is more variable than in the counties.

:

The total cost of the police amounted, in the year 1859, to the sum of £1,485,029 1: 10, being an average cost of £72, 2s. per man. Of the gross sum, £1,105,708 9: 5 was expended on account of "salaries and pay," giving an average of £53, 13s. per man, and £104,491: 15: 8 on account of clothing, which last sum gives an average of £5, 1s. per man. Three-fourths of the

1 Jud. Stat., 1859, p. 102.

charges for pay and clothing are borne by local funds, and the remaining fourth, upon report of efficiency by an inspector of constabulary, is defrayed out of the public revenue,1 which, in the year 1859, was charged with a sum of £310,205: 10: 7 for that purpose; but all payments for allowances, superannuations, horses, harness, station-house charges, &c., are made out of local funds.

The numbers of Known Thieves, Offenders, and Suspected Persons at large, to keep whom in check this large police force is maintained at so heavy an expense, were as follows:

Mr. Redgrave, in his introductory reports, has made some useful calculations to show the proportion which the criminal classes bear to the rest of the inhabitants in various districts; and from these calculations it somewhat unexpectedly appears, that the metropolitan districts (including an average radius of fifteen miles round Charing Cross) are by far less infested by these persons than other great towns and ports. Thus, the proportion of the criminal classes in the metropolitan districts is now ] in 194; in seats of the woollen and worsted manufacture (Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, &c.,) 1 in 137; in seats of the cotton and linen manufacture (Manchester, Preston, Salford, &c.,) 1 in 124·6; in seats of the small and textile fabrics (Norwich, Nottingham, Derby, &c.,) 1 in 1194; in the commercial ports of Liverpool, Bristol, &c., 1 in 964; in the pleasure towns of Brighton, Bath, Dover, &c., 1 in 874; in towns depending upon agricultural districts (Ipswich, Exeter, Reading, &c.,) 1 in 86·6; and in Birmingham, Sheffield, and Wolverhampton, the seats of the hardware manufacture, 1 in 54·4.

The expense

1 The city of London is excepted from this benefit. The corporation defrays all the expenses of its police, numbering 608 men. exceeds £47,000.

The state of prostitution in the same towns has been separately estimated by Mr. Redgrave. Here, London, though not the highest, is yet high in the moral scale. The proportion of prostitutes in the seats of the woollen manufacture, is 1 in 559-2; in the seats of the cotton manufacture, 1 in 469-7; in the seats of the hardware manufacture, 1 in 453·5; in the metropolis, 1 in 371-6; in the seats of the manufacture of the small textile fabrics, "where the young of both sexes are closely brought together," 1 in 3459; in the towns depending upon agricultural districts, 1 in 241; in the pleasure towns, "doubtless charged with the vices of other districts," 1 in 2099; and in the commercial ports, where notoriously prostitutes abound, 1 in 173.4.

The returns next deal with the number and nature of the crimes recorded by the police (not including charges summarily dealt with), and the number of persons apprehended in pursuit of the criminals. "The crimes known and recorded by the police," says Mr. Redgrave (Rep. 1859, p. ix.), “are of the class which are proceeded against in the criminal courts, to the exclusion of the lesser offences; and if it could be assumed that all such crimes are included in these returns, their numbers, when compared with the apprehensions which ensue, would be a successful proof of police vigilance. But though it may be concluded that crimes which, from their atrocity or magnitude, cause alarm and hue and cry, will not fail to be known and recorded by the police, it cannot be supposed that the large amount of petty depredations which must result from the criminal class already enumerated, can be fairly represented by the 36,232 cases which appear in the returns under the wide definition of Larceny. Such a statement must rather be taken as a proof of how little accurate information is possessed of the extent of the pilfering and depredation, which all the evidence in the returns tends to show must be successfully committed." 1

The number of apprehensions, however, is no test of police

1 Mr. Redgrave is not quite accurate in supposing that the amount of petty depredation is represented by the 36,262 recorded cases of Larceny to which he refers, for in that number the charges summarily disposed of are not included.