1828.] General Increase of Crime. 357 



treating them leniently, to put the country by any means to so much 

 cost. A man who is convicted a second time in a court of justice as a 

 thief, is fixed as a thief for life. A first conviction, in point of fact, 

 generally settles the question of what his future conduct shall be : but 

 beyond a second, the most sanguine reformer (in his senses) can hardly, 

 we should think, entertain a hope. Then there certainly seems to be 

 no reason or at least we are at a loss to perceive any why a man 

 should go on living in the community for the sole purpose of committing 

 crimes, if there are any means by which that community can get rid of 

 him. When, we know from experience, that he will go on offending, 

 until he is (say) transported, is it not more reasonable, instead of wait- 

 ing for his thirteenth offence- if we can do so say to transport him for 

 the third ? 



We have, for instance, for the last year, a catalogue of say 2,500 

 culprits : nineteen of them in twenty thieves : of these not thirty 

 will suffer capitally : not so many as a hundred will actually be tran- 

 sported beyond seas: the rest will all be, within a short time the 

 greater part within two years turned out again to prey upon the 

 public: and, during this interval, the active and industrious part of 

 the community the poor no less than the rich are furnishing the 

 means of subsistence, in idleness, to the caterpillars ! 



Our impression is, then, that one of the most important steps that 

 , could be taken towards the diminution of crime in England, would be 

 the resort to some species of punishment, which should remove offenders 

 in the beginning of their career, instead of allowing them to remain 

 session after session, and year after year, a pestilence to the community : 

 and which should, moreover for this is the material circumstance 

 either get rid of them at a slight expense, or make them, if we are com- 

 pelled to incur expense, in some way useful to the country in their 

 exile. This is a problem of difficulty ; and we know that the scheme 

 which we are about to suggest, will be met by many with objection. In 

 fact, no scheme for disposing of offenders ever could be devised that 

 would not be open to very easy exception. It is scarcely possible to 

 deal very benignantly with such persons, and yet justly with the com- 

 munity at large. There is so much misery necessarily attached to the 

 lot of even honest industry and poverty, that it is difficult to provide, 

 especially and directly, for any class of parties, without almost protect- 

 ing instead of punishing them. Our own view, however, decidedly is, 

 that the true policy is rather the reverse of that now in popularity. 

 We must, even at the hazard of being stigmatized as oppressive, take 

 care that, in all arrangements, we preserve the honest man : the hanged 

 part of society must not have all the preference over the unhanged ; and 

 we confess that, in the absence of any more available plan and we shall 

 be extremely glad to have our attention directed to any we have a 

 feeling that a good deal might be done by a change in the constitution 

 of our military force employed in the colonies. 



The consumption of human life, in our colonial regiments, is enormous. 

 Seven years almost always reduces a regiment entirely to a skeleton ; and 

 not unfrequently less than three years nay even two years, and some- 

 times one year is sufficient to produce the same effect. Of course our 

 readers will be aware that this havock proceeds from the unwholesome- 

 ness of the climate ; there being, in fact, in the islands, no peril or death 

 at all from war. The number of the troops maintained in our colonies 



