Judicial Statistics - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Judicial Statistics

JUDICIAL STATISTICS

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The second branch of Mr. REDGRAVE's Report, which relates to "Criminal
Proceedings", shows that the commitments for trial last year (1857) maintain
the largely diminished numbers which followed the passing of the Criminal
Justice Act of 1855, to the operation of which this decrease may be
attributed. But on comparing the commitments with those of 1856, there is
nevertheless an increase of 832 commitments, or 4.3 per cent. This increase
extends over 32 counties, and it can hardly in all cases be attributed to
the recent extension of police establishments.

It seems to have arisen chiefly in the great seats of manufacture and
trade. It has been most considerable in Lancashire, where it attained 21.5
per cent.; Yorkshire, 5.3 per cent., and Cheshire, 3.9 per cent.

In the agricultural districts the results are more mixed. In the
metropolis, the decrease in Middlesex shown in the two previous years still
continues, but not to the same extent; while in Surrey nd Kent, a large
portion of the population of which is located in and on the boundaries of
London, the commitments increased.

The number of commitments in the quinquennium from 1848 to 1852 (both
inclusive) was 140,448 and in the quinquennium from 1853 to 1857, 122,094.

As regards this different classes of crime, it appears that in murder and
attempts to perpetrate that fould crime, there is a decrease; and in
maliciously stabbing, wounding, and in manslaughter, a small increase.
Unnatural crimes and rapes continue without any material variation.Bigamy
shows a small decrease. Violent offences against property (class 2) has
slightly increased since 1853, but last year the increase was trifling.
There is a decrease in burglary and housebreaking, but a very considerable
increase in robbery, and chiefly in the most violent description of this
offence. Offences against property without violence (class 3) have
decreased about 36 per cent., as far as they are prosecuted by indictment.
Malicious offences against property (class 4) increased, but they are below
the average of the last 10 years; and in class 5 (forgery nd currency
cases) the increase is more decided, except as regards the forgery of Bank
of England notes, upon which a very marked decrease appears, for the obvious
reason that the ingenuity of the manufacturers of Bank notes renders
imitation difficult, if not impossible. Perjury exhibits an increase.

Political offenses have, happily, disappeared from the calendar. Snce the
year of revolution and riot, 1848, "there has not been a single commitment
for any offence against the Crown or the Government, - nothing bearing the
stamp of treason, sedition, or seditious riot." Even the recent strikes
provoked no seditious meetings or riotous disturbances.

The 20,269 commitments last year resulted in 4,927 acquittals, 35 cases of
proved insanity, and 15,307 convictions. Of those convicted 54 were
sentenced to the scaffold, 110 to transportation, 2,473 to penal servitude,
12,507 to imprisonment, and 163 to whipping and fines.

15.2 per cent. of the convicted were sentenced to penal servitude, now the
sole great secondary punishment. the executions last year, 13 in number,
were all for murder. In five cases this heinous crime appears to have been
committed upon very slight and sudden provocation, while in four cases the
instigations of the devil were assisted by strong drink.

One fellow, R. T. DAVIS (Middlesex), murdered his wife in a sudden paroxysm
of "drunken jealousy." Alluding to the cessation of transportation as a
punishment, Mr. REDGRAVE shows by statistics how greatly it tended to keep
down the criminal population of the country by the periodical expurgations
of the Courts of Assizes.

108,715 convicts (male and female) were thus got rid of between 1787 and
1857. It is not feared, however, that the dangerous classes will be much
swelled by the new system of penal serviturde, and no serious alarm, Mr.
Redgrave thinks need be felt. The greatly diminished severity of
punishments generally is a remarkable fact.

The return of the Reserved Crown Cases shows how small a proportion of the
judgments in criminal cases are set aside on appeal. The total expenses of
the proceedings in the Criminal Courts was £74,719 and that of the summary
proceedings £11,700 making a grand total of £86,419. The average costs are
lower in all the courts, except the Central Criminal Court, than in the
preceding year, and the total average on indictments is reduced from £9
17s. 4d. to £9 2s. 3d., and here we conclude our notice of the second
branch of Mr. REDGRAVE'S valuable report.

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