52 Human Physiology. 



of whom 66,000 were males, and over 50,000 females, and 

 15,000 were under 16 years of age. 



By the returns of 1861, it appears that nearly 500,000 

 offences, great and small, came under the cognisance of the 

 police, and that nearly 300,000 persons were punished ; but 

 263,500 of these were for small offences, such as petty thefts, 

 drunkenness, assaults, &c. Of the 30,000 known thieves and 

 depredators, the 3,800 receivers, very few were in any way 

 dealt with. In 1861, the cost of police and prisons was said 

 to be 



Police and Constabulary, ^1,579,222 



Outlay in local Prisons, ... ... ... 542,306 



Outlay in Convict Prisons, 253,731 



Cost of Convict Establishments abroad, ... 171,861 



^2,547,120 



" But how," asks the writer, from whom I borrow these 

 figures, " are we to estimate the expense of keeping the known 

 but unconvicted criminals? It is certain that they live at the 

 cost of the community, and that in many cases they live very 

 well. They do not work, and they do steal. They are main- 

 tained by a local rate, just as surely as the malefactors whom 

 we shut up in gaol, though it is a rate assessed and levied by 

 themselves. Few who know the recklessness, and sometimes 

 the luxury, and always the wastefulness of the criminal class, 

 will be disposed to think that the undetected depredators 

 (those out of prison) can be maintained at as small a cost 

 as those who are provided for during their confinement on 

 a systematic scale, at the public table, and in public build- 

 ings. The average cost of a prisoner in local gaols is 26 

 a-year, in convict prisons it is ^33. We believe that very few 

 thieves and ruffians at large spend much less than 205. a-week. 

 But we will take a more moderate estimate, and calculate 



