346 Police of the Metropolis. 



crime does not proceed in the main or even in any material degree (as 

 has been asserted) from the pressure of necessity, it becomes, next, 

 important to consider, as nearly as may be, from what causes it does 

 proceed, and what are the circumstances which have led, of late years, 

 to the increase of it ? 



The increase of crime which appears peculiarly during the last two or 

 three years, we suspect has in a great measure been accidental. Of 

 course, chance must at all times have something to do in such a produc- 

 tion : the amount of offence, in two successive years, is seldom exactly 

 the same ; and there is as frequently a decrease as an exaggeration, for 

 which no direct cause can be assigned. One circumstance, however, is 

 worth notice : public " distress" has very little claim to take the merit 

 of the increase of crime which has appeared during the last three years ; 

 because, in the time of the serious distresses of 1816 and 1819 the quan- 

 tity of offence against property was less than it is at present. The causes, 

 however, of the general increase of crime which has arisen within the last 

 fifteen years, may be looked for, we think, a little in the result of the fol- 

 lowing circumstances : to some diminution which has taken place in the 

 severity of punishments : to an increase in the quantity of property accu- 

 mulated in the hands of individuals, and consequently in the amount of 

 material placed within the scope of theft : something to the increase of 

 our own population in numbers : something (not much) to an increase 

 in the privations suffered by the lower orders, and to the new facili- 

 ties opened for fraud by the advances of luxury among the higher : 

 and very considerably from a decreased apprehension in the minds of 

 the people of several of the punishments inflicted ; as well as from a ces- 

 sation or stoppage in the operation of those drains by which the less fa- 

 vourably disposed part of our population used to be carried off. 



In considering the first of these causes, or supposed causes, then, we 

 beg to set out by stating, that we shall not enter here into any argument 

 concerning the moral legality of punishment by death. We shall assume 

 capital punishments to be just and admissible ; not more because we 

 ourselves believe such to be the case, than because the whole system 

 which we are discussing is founded upon that belief. The question is 

 one which, on its own merits, we should feel no slowness about meeting. 

 We believe the resource, though painful, to be necessary ; and are pre- 

 pared to shew that there is not one of the speculators, who has endea- 

 voured to get rid of it, that does not, when we come to the detail of his 

 scheme, exhibit some alternative incomparably more offensive to public 

 feeling and humanity, in its stead. This question, however, we leave 

 at present entirely ; for a very slight digression upon it would carry us 

 farther than our limits can afford to go. 



That a diminution in the severity of our punishments, as compared 

 with the number of our crimes, has taken place within the last few years 

 in England, is capable of proof. In the year 1805 (to go no farther) the 

 number of commitments in England and Wales, was 4,605 ; and the 

 number of capital punishments 68. In the year 1818, the commitments 

 were 13,560 ; and the capital punishments 97- Here, the commitments 

 have multiplied three times over, and the capital punishments increased 

 one-third. 



The frequency of the punishment of transportation beyond seas 

 has been diminishing, too, during the same period. The heavy charge 

 attending this course of disposing of offenders has deterred government 



