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vigilance or intelligence; but can, at most, prove a desire on the part of the police to appear vigilant. This should be borne in mind; for, otherwise, the returns might lead to the belief that our police is not so inefficient as it really is, and as appears from the following particulars :—

The crimes recorded in the year ending on the 29th Sept., 1859, numbered 52,018, and the number of persons apprehended in the same year amounted to 27,119; whereas the numbers for the preceding year (1858) were 57,868 recorded crimes, followed by 30,458 apprehensions. The persons apprehended were, on their final examinations before justices, disposed of as follows:

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Now, if, from the number of persons apprehended, the number of persons discharged be deducted, we find that, for the 52,018 crimes recorded in 1859, only 16,941 persons were properly apprehended, or successfully prosecuted by the police, thus leaving 35,077 crimes, or 67.4 per cent. of the total number of crimes, altogether unaccounted for; a result almost identical with that of the previous year, 1858, in which, in respect of the 57,868 recorded crimes, 18,669 persons were properly apprehended, leaving 39,199 crimes, or 67.5 per cent. of the total number of crimes recorded in that year, unaccounted for. Mr. Redgrave, in his Report for 1858 (p. xi.), has properly observed, that it is essential "to remember that the commission of a crime, and the detection of the offender, may not occur in the period comprehended in the same return; and that, while in some instances several offenders may be implicated in the commission of the same crime, in others several crimes may be committed by the same offender.' Nevertheless, the calculations we have made may, for all practical purposes, be taken as sufficiently accurate, being based on general

averages, in which excess on the one side may be fairly considered as balanced by deficiency on the other.

It is difficult to account for the impunity with which crime is committed in this country, except on the supposition that our police is wanting in intelligence or vigilance. A grand jury at Liverpool on a late occasion stated their opinion, that the scale of allowances to witnesses, made under an order of Sir George Grey, in February, 1858, materially influences the course of justice. The scale is now so low, that there is a general disinclination to forward the administration of justice by giving information, as every person so doing must necessarily subject himself, not only to trouble and inconvenience, but likewise to pecuniary loss; and the allowance to the police attending the assizes and sessions is so inadequate to meet the additional expenditure incurred by them when living from home, that they are most reluctant to undertake any duty which involves attendances at sessions or assizes. The whole presentment of the grand jury is worthy of careful perusal; but yet it does not account for the fact of an undue proportion of crime remaining unpunished, for the effect of the reduced scale could scarcely have been felt so early as to have influenced the returns for 1858, which, as regards the proportion of unpunished crime, do not show a more favourable result than the returns for 1859.

The inefficiency of the police is attributable to two causes: 1st, The inferior class of men attracted by the rate of pay; 2nd, To the improper and imperfect system of appointment of officers, petty and superior. The first cause is the result of the desire for economy, the false application of the doctrine of supply and demand, and the forgetfulness of another law of commerce-that a good article must be adequately paid for. The second cause is an old one and a difficult: favouritism, interest, obsequiousness, and humbug, are venerable and inveterate, but, be it remembered, not invincible enemies to the working of public institutions. We know enough of the internal working of the police force to affirm, that there is a practice of bullying and sneaking among the petty The presentment will be found in a subsequent page.

officers and the privates, both common and highly detrimental to the service. Some well-known divisions of the metropolitan police, indeed, are notorious for containing questionable characters, both among the officers and men; plausible demeanour in the witness-box being far more studied and rewarded than honest and straightforward performance of other duties. If the general body of police were better officered, better selected, better rewarded, and so retained longer in the service, then we have no doubt whatever that more criminals would be surely detected, and crime more extensively repressed.

The proportion of crime varies very much in the different classes of offences, as will be seen from the following table, in which the crimes recorded are divided into six classes :—

The first class comprises offences against the person—such as murder, attempting to murder, manslaughter, concealing the birth of infants, unnatural crimes, rape, bigamy, assaults, &c.; the second class comprises offences against property, with violence -such as sacrilege, burglary, robbery, obtaining money by threats, piracy, &c.; the third class comprises offences against property, without violence—such as cattle-stealing, larceny, embezzlement, receiving stolen goods, frauds, &c.; the fourth class comprises malicious offences against property—such as arson, destroying goods, killing and maiming cattle, and other malicious offences; the fifth class comprises forgery, and offences against the currency; and the sixth class comprises offences not included in the above classes-such as aiding smugglers, offences against the game laws, prison-breaking, perjury, riot, sedition, keeping disorderly houses, &c., &c., &c.

2

'The calculations necessary to form this Table (which is not given in the Returns) are based on the numbers contained in Table 5, Returns, 1859, p. 22. 2 In Table 5, and indeed in all the tables prior to those relating to criminal proceedings (p. 47), the crimes comprised in this class are placed before the class of malicious offences against property; but in the tables relating to criminal proceedings the order is reversed. It is of little consequence in what order the different classes are placed (although the order we have selected seems to be the natural one); but there should be uniformity in the tables in this respect, and the want of it causes confusion, and embarrasses those who wish to compare the various tables.

VOL. X. NO. xix,

D

TABLE (FOR 1859) OF INDICTABLE OFFENCES,

Showing the number of each class committed (so far as known to the Police); the number of persons apprehended; the manner in which they were disposed of; and the proportion per cent. of Crimes unaccounted for.

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Mr. Redgrave thinks it probable that, of the first two classes of crimes, the great proportion are known to the police and included in the returns; and therefore, even after making allowance for the fact, that the number of persons apprehended in respect of offences against the person, exceeds the number of offences recorded in that class, it is satisfactory to learn from the above table, that the perpetrators of these grave crimes are more readily detected and followed up by the police, than criminals of less degree.1

Under the summary jurisdiction of justices, 392,810 persons were proceeded against in the course of the year 1859, of whom 257,810 were convicted, and 135,000 discharged. The corresponding numbers in 1858 were 404,034, 260,290, and 143,744. The punishments and penalties inflicted were distributed as follows:

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It is difficult, says Mr. Redgrave, to classify for the purpose of general analysis the various offences which are now subject to be summarily dealt with; but an analysis of the graver offences within the jurisdiction of justices is given in the report for 1859, and, as it seems to be the best that can be made, we shall here follow it. In the report, the number of persons proceeded against in each class is given only, but the following analysis comprises also the number of the discharged and convicted, obtained from Table 8 (Returns, 1859, p. 34).

1 The result of the calculations which we have made, is somewhat more favourable to the police than that arrived at by Mr. Redgrave in his report. Mr. Redgrave, in estimating the per centage of the cases successfully pursued by the police, puts to their credit those cases only in which the persons apprehended were committed or bailed for trial, whereas we have included those in which the persons apprehended were bailed simply, or committed for want

of sureties.

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