160 REPORT — 1856. 



crime, but fall into excesses when prosperity returns. This notion, opposed to the 

 malesuada fames of the poet, isbasSd on some criminal statistics, principally composed 

 of the records of summary convictions in a few localities. But it is not fair to esti- 

 mate the morality of a nation by the number of petty offences committed in one or 

 two districts, or even throughout the entire country. The returns of the summary 

 convictions before magistrates do not afford a correct test either of the number of 

 prohibited acts committed, or of the guilt of the perpetrators. Most of the offences 

 which swell these returns are of a most trivial character; and at one time the acts 

 which constitute such offences are committed with impunity, while at another the 

 excessive vigilance of the police and over-energy of the public in the assertion of their 

 rights, let nothing escape. But even if these alternate fits of remissness and zeal (the 

 necessary consequences of the petty nature and trivial character of the offences in 

 question) did not occur, and the summary convictions afforded a true representation 

 of the quantinn of prohibited acts committed, the test they furnish must be objected 

 to. The accurate measure of crime is to be found in the returns of offences sent for 

 trial to assizes and quarter sessions. These are usually of a serious and well-defined 

 character ; and for that very reason, the acts which constitute them are rarely committed 

 without being made the subject of legal investigation. These are the returns to be 

 employed in measuring the morality of a nation, and they should not be mixed up 

 with the summary convictions. To do so is to be guilty of the absurdity of confound- 

 ing together, as if they were on a footing of equality, the most serious offences and 

 trifling misdemeanors, and placing in the same category with the robber and the 

 murderer the man who slights the dignity of a policeman, heedlessly offends an irasci- 

 ble wayfarer, or happens to drive on the wrong side of the road. The returns of the 

 committals for trial at assizes and quarter sessions in England and Wales from 1 844 to 

 1854 (the last year for wliich they have been published), show clearly that crime 

 increases when the physical condition of the people deteriorates, and vice versa. 

 In 1844 the number of committals was 26,542; in 1845, 24,303; 1846, 25,107; 

 1847,28,833; 1848,30,349; 1849, 27,816; 1850,26,813; 1851,27,960; 1852, 

 27,510 ; 1853, 27,057 ; and in 1854, 29,359. The first year in which the committals 

 increased is 1 847, a year of distress ; the rise then being nearly 4000. This rise was 

 maintained with an addition of nearly 1500 in 1848, likewise a year of distress, partly 

 owing to the same causes as in 1847, and partly on account of political disturbances 

 and apprehensions. In 1849, the causes which before had depressed the condition of 

 the labourer died away. Food was cheap and employment abundant. Emigra- 

 tion had removed many of the working classes, and those who remained at home found 

 the demand for their services increased ; and in that year we find the committals de- 

 cline by nearly 2500. The succeeding years were likewise seasons of prosperity, and 

 during these the criminal returns exhibit no marked fluctuation. In the last year of 

 the series, the number of committals rose by a little over 2000, but at the same 

 time the condition of the people was impaired owing to the enhanced price of food and 

 other necessaries of life, and also to the waste of the national resources and partial 

 derangement of trade occasioned by the war. It may be observed in conclusion, that, 

 if the number of committals in 1844 was but 26,542 and in 1854 29,359, the popula- 

 tion had increased in the interval in a greater proportion. The criminal returns for 

 Ireland tell a similar tale, when we take into account the changes experienced in the 

 physical condition of the people. Indeed, the lesson is the more instructive from the 

 fact of the changes in the condition of the people having been greater than those ex- 

 perienced in England, so that the corresponding fluctuations in crime exhibit more 

 strongly the marked connexion between the two. During the years of distress the 

 committals rose to over 40,000, and when prosperity visited the land they fell to less 

 than a fourth of that number. The returns of the summary convictions (as might be 

 expected) do not exhibit in their fluctuations any constant relation to the changes in 

 the physical condition of the people; but, as far as they go, they more frequently 

 follow the same than an opposite course to that of the other criminal returns. So 

 much for the results of the statistics of summary convictions, the class of offences fronr 

 which it had been inferred that poverty and privation are conducive to popular 

 morality. But, taking the statistics of real and formidable offences, we arrive at the more 

 agreeable conclusion, that, when the people are comfortable, they are well-conducted ; 

 while it is only when they suffer privation, that a general increase of crime takes place . 



