Nature and Number of Crimes. 345 



Of the crimes against the person, it appears that 1-4 consists of assaults 

 and bodily injuries ; 1-3 of deaths by violence, (and which, coupled with 

 suicides, amount to not less than 700 annually, or nearly 2 per diem;) and 

 infanticide, perjury, poisoning, &c. fill up the list in successively decreasing 

 proportions. 



Of crimes against property, 85 in 100 consist of thejts of various kinds. 

 Robberies by domestics form 1-4 of the total number of robberies ; high- 

 way robbery does not amount to 1-30 of the whole. After theft come the 

 various kinds of fraud, incendiarism, forgery, &c. 



The total number of offences against property (though not the more 

 serious kinds, nor crimes of violence) seems to have increased of late years 

 both in France and England j but this M. G. mainly attributes to the 

 number of relapsed criminals fles recidivesj among the young, and to the 

 neglect of prison discipline. There is a Gaelic saying, " It is not easy to 

 straighten in the oak the crook that grew in the sapling;" and no proof 

 is wanting from criminal records to convince us, that any great and decided 

 improvement in national morals must be produced by operating on the 

 minds and manners of the young. Unfortunately this class, when delin- 

 quents, are treated nearly as if they were grown up and hardened offenders j 

 and from being intermingled with associates who have known more of vice 

 than themselves, they seldom come out of prison half so corrigible as they 

 went in, M. Guerry's reflections on this topic are very judicious and in- 

 teresting, but we have not space here to exhibit them in detail. 



Crimes of both classes are (as might be supposed) committed in very 

 different proportions by offenders of different sexes. As a general result 

 it appears that 



Of every 100 crimes against the person, 86 are committed by men ; 



14 . . women ; 



property, 79 . . men j 



.. .. 21 .. women. 



We must be cautious however in taking these numbers as indicative of 

 the comparative morality of the sexes, on account of the great difference 

 existing between them as to their temptations and physical ability to com- 

 mit crimes : so that M. G. is led to conclude, that although on the whole 

 we may allow a higher morality to the sex, there is in reality less dispro- 

 portion in this respect than is commonly supposed. 



Of crimes against the person committed by women, poisoning forms 



that his destiny is in the hands of chance, may be applied as well to the community 

 as to the individual man : 



" Know that the human being's thoughts and deeds 

 Are not, like orean-billows, blindly moved : 

 The inner world — his microcosmas — is 

 The deep shaft out of which they spring eternally : 

 They grow by certain laws, like the tree's fruit ; 

 No juggling chance can metamorphose them." 



