494 The Police Report. [Nov. 
and that he has little chance (perhaps less inclination) to do any thing 
but resort again to dishonest courses as a means of living, is at once 
open to all the injurious impressions which are likely to be made by the 
society into which he is thrown: that he makes the best use of his time 
he is to pass in prison, profits, as well as he may, by the advice and 
experience of abler and older thieves, and returns almost invariably to 
the community more competent and better disposed to be mischievous 
than he was before? The only cure for this is, as complete a severance 
as can be effected of the infectious member from the society which he 
would contaminate. 
In a subsequent part of the Report is stated, the result of the Com- 
mittee’s inquiry into the condition of the metropolitan prisons, which 
they find generally to be extremely ill adapted for the reformation of 
offenders. We have no doubt that such places abound with evils of 
all kinds, and it is not only natural that they should do so, but almost 
impossible to make them otherwise. In an abode, the main object of 
which is, or ought to be, not only the personal detention of criminals, 
but that they should be made to experience privations as irksome, and 
as painful as may be, consistently with the preservation of their health— 
from which every thing like comfort should be, upon principle, excluded, 
there must be much to shock the common sensibilities of human nature. 
But this is unavoidable. Prison discipline, with a view to reformation, if it 
be not a fallacy, is obviously impracticable. The first step in it must be 
by a perfect classification of prisoners, and this cannot be taken but at an 
expense which would, perhaps, be very ill bestowed, and which, in the 
present state of the gaols, is unadvisable. To effect a sound cure, you 
must go much deeper ; to deal so with crime, that its commission shall 
not be easy, its detection and its punishment certain, is the true philan- 
thropy, and of all prison discipline, that is the best which makes offenders 
feel all the bitterness of the punishment the law has awarded them. 
The Committee recommend, too, the more frequently holding of ses- 
sions of the peace, which would facilitate the operation of an improved 
system of police. In the metropolis and the adjacent districts, there 
appears to be no objection to this measure; but it would of course 
be difficult of execution in the country, and as it must greatly increase 
the expense of the administration of criminal justice (already burdensome 
enough), without, as we can at present perceive, affording any adequate 
advantage, this seems to be a recommendation not likely to be speedily 
carried into effect. 
The Committee give their’own opinion of the causes which have 
influenced that increase of crime they have found to exist. These are 
the more ready detection and trial of culprits, the facilitating of prose- 
cutions, the allowance of costs to prosecutors and witnesses; and to 
these they might have added the recent alterations in the criminal laws, 
which have simplified their operation, have increased certain classes of 
crimes (receivers of stolen goods, for example), among which a great 
part of the increase is to be found, ensured convictions, and reconciled 
prosecutors to the sometimes expensive, and almost always painful dis- » 
charge of their duties. The difficulty of getting rid of convicted crimi-. 
nals, and of preventing their return to society, at least in the impure 
state in which they quitted it, is a cause of the increase of crime in’ the 
metropolis, the effect of which is obvious. The frequent summary com- 
mitments by magistrates have also a powerful tendencv to increase crime, 
