CITY OF LONDONDERRY. 
The above table, presenting merely a view of the crimes committed within the short space 
of one year, and the small compass of one county, is not capable of being satisfactorily sub¬ 
mitted to the tests proposed by MM. Quetelet and Guerry. It may be, however, interesting to 
make the application so far as it is practicable.. 
With regard to the three classes of Crimes— against the person, against property , and 
against the community —it appears, at first view, that a vast majority have been committed by 
persons between the ages of 20 and 30 : this is in exact conformity with the principle of the 
above writers, who fix upon 25 as the maximum period of criminality in males, and towards 30 
in females. On the other hand, the predominance of ignorant delinquency is against their results. 
It may be also observed—that the crimes against property are nearly a mean between those 
against the person, and against the community. 
In reference to crimes against the person there are but few instances of conviction for heinous 
offence ; nor is it to be inferred from the number of committals for murder that any such 
crimes really took place—such committals being notoriously common throughout Ireland, in cases 
wherein there is not the faintest colouring of malice prepense. The age too of six out of eight of 
those committed—10 to 20 —diminishes the probability of its existence. The instances of assault, 
which are on the other hand very numerous, are probably the result of drunken squabbles, or 
party differences : those committed by males are twelve times as numerous as those by females. 
The influence of season is but slightly perceptible. 
In reference to crimes against property the convictions for serious delinquency are more 
numerous. In all cases the offenders were males,—and the most heinous crime, arson, was 
committed by a youth under twenty. Larceny is divided equally between the sexes—but in mis¬ 
demeanor, (a crime variable in its nature, and scarcely capable of definition,) the proportion of 
male criminals is to that of female as 13 to 1. Juvenile profligacy is here also remarkable—one- 
fourth of the crimes having been committed by youths between the ages of 10 and 20. The 
preponderance of summer over the other seasons is also very great. 
In reference to crimes against the community, with the exception of misdemeanor, the 
male convictions are to the female as 29 to 1. The summer season here also appears the most 
prolific. 
Retributive Justice. —This branch of the subject relates to the interior of the gaol, which, 
as will have appeared from its topographical description [see Section 2], is w'ell calculated for the 
adoption of two great features of improvement in prison discipline—classification, and inspection. 
The former, however, excepting the separation of the sexes, was abandoned on the 12th of June 
in the present year (1835), strict silence having being found to answer the same purpose, to 
enforce which a turnkey is always present during meals and work. With regard to the latter, 
the exemplary assiduity, as well of the board of superintendence as of the officers of the gaol, 
has called for the frequent approbation of the Inspectors General. In their Report, for example, 
of 1826, the following testimony occurs “ On the whole, the gaol of Derry must be considered 
as of the first class in accommodation ; and the discipline of the whole establishment bears the 
marks of that constant attention which is paid by the board of superintendence.” The Report 
for 1831, in like manner, asserts that—“the unremitting attention paid by the board of super¬ 
intendence to this new gaol, has secured that regularity, cleanliness, and order, which must be 
manifest to every person visiting it.” And again, in the Report for 1833, it is stated, that— 
“ the prison exibits a system of discipline and good order, which leaves an inspector nothing to 
do but record his approbation for the information of government and the grand jury.” 
Much information on the subject of gaol discipline has been diffused by an excellent 
“ Report of William Crawford, Esq., on the Penitentiaries of the United States, addressed to 
his Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department,” and from the work entitled 
“ Du Systeme Penitentiare aux Etats Unis et de son Application en France," by MM. 
G. de Beaumont and A. de Tocqueville: much more may also be expected from the pen of Dr. 
Julius, who was sent out to America some years since by the Prussian government, and that of M. 
Ducpetiaux, of Brussels, who lately visited this country. However, before the appearance of the 
interesting volume of MM. de Beaumont, and de Tocqueville, (which was first made known to 
the British public by an excellent article in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 23.), the discipline 
of the gaol under consideration was in a great degree modelled after that of the Auburn Peni¬ 
tentiary, in the state of New York. The most valuable features of the system there pursued are 
adopted here—solitude at night, and labour in common workshops by day, but with the observance 
of rigorous silence—while corporal punishment, as a means of enforcing such silence, is not 
resorted to, the Derry criminal being literally “ unwhipped of justice.” At this gaol, also, 
the prisoner receives one-third of his earnings, a regulation which exists in none of the 
American establishments. By the act 7th Geo. 4. c. 74, all pauper prisoners, that is, those 
supported at the public expense, are obliged to work, debtors included. The males are employed in 
carpentry, carrying and breaking stones for repairing the roads in the city and liberties, pulveriz- 
