A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Part 36

4. Persons, who not having wherewithal to maintain themselves, live idly without employment, and refuse to work for the usual Wages

5. Persons begging in the streets, highways, &c.

5th. ROGUES and VAGABONDS _described by the said Act of the 17th Geo. II. cap. 5. and subsequent Acts_; punishable by Six Months' Imprisonment--namely,

1. Persons going about as Patent Gatherers or Gatherers of Alms, under pretence of Loss by Fire, or other casualty.

2. Fencers, Bearwards, Strolling Players of Interludes, or other Entertainments

3. Minstrels, (except those licensed by the Lord Dutton in Ches.h.i.+re)

4. Persons pretending to be, and wandering in the habit of, Gypseys

5. Fortune-Tellers, pretending Skill in Physiognomy, Palmistry, &c. or using any subtle craft to deceive and impose on others

6. Persons playing or betting at any unlawful Games or Plays

7. Persons who run away, and leave their Wives and Children upon the Parish

8. Petty Chapmen and Pedlars wandering abroad without a Licence

9. Persons wandering abroad, and lodging in Ale-Houses, Out-Houses, or the open Air, and not giving a good account of themselves

10. Persons wandering abroad, and pretending to be Soldiers or Sailors, without proper Certificates from their Officers, or Testimonials from Magistrates

11. Persons wandering abroad, pretending to go to work in Harvest, without a proper Certificate from the Parish

12. Persons having Implements of House-breaking or Offensive Weapons, with a Felonious intent

13. Persons concerned in illegal Lottery Transactions, as described in the Lottery Acts, 27th, 33d, 34th, and 35th Geo. III.

6th. INCORRIGIBLE ROGUES, _punishable with Two Years'

Imprisonment and Whipping, or Transportation for Seven Years, if they break out of Prison--namely_,

1. Persons stiled End-Gatherers, buying, collecting, or receiving Ends of Yarn in the Woollen Branch, against the stat. 13 Geo. I. cap. 23.

2. Persons, who being Rogues and Vagabonds, have escaped after being apprehended, or who shall refuse to be examined by a Magistrate, or who shall give a false account of themselves after being warned of their punishment

3. Persons who shall escape out of any House of Correction before the period of their imprisonment empires

4. Persons, who being once punished as Rogues and Vagabonds, shall again commit the same offence.

[-->] _There are a great many other trivial Offences denominated Misdemeanors, subject to pecuniary Fines, which it is not easy to enumerate. Since almost every statute, whether public or private, which pa.s.ses in the course of a Session of Parliament, creates new offences--the shades vary as Society advances, and their number is scarcely within the reach of calculation._

The crimes mentioned in the first and second cla.s.ses of the foregoing Enumeration (except Petty Larceny) are always tried by the Superior Courts:--The offences specified in the third cla.s.s, as also Petty Larceny, and every species of misdemeanor and vagrancy, are generally tried, (with some few exceptions) by the Justices in their General and Quarter Sessions, where, in certain cases in Middles.e.x, they act under a commission of Oyer and Terminer. The Magistrates in Petty Sessions, and in several instances a _single Magistrate_, have also the power of convicting in a summary way, for a variety of small misdemeanors, and acts of vagrancy: and of punis.h.i.+ng the delinquents with fine and imprisonment.

It generally happens in the Metropolis, that out of from 2000 to 2500 prisoners who are tried for different crimes, in the various Courts of Justice, above 5-6th parts are for larcenies, acts of vagrancy, and smaller offences; where the Benefit of Clergy, either attaches, or does not apply at all. The major part are, of course, returned upon Society, after a short imprisonment, or some corporal punishment, too frequently to renew their depredations on the public.--But a vast proportion (as has already been shewn) are always acquitted.[132]

[Footnote 132: All endeavours towards the prevention of crimes will ever be attended with unconquerable difficulty, until some general House of Industry can be established in the Metropolis: where persons discharged for petty offences, as well as strangers and others out of work, may have an opportunity of finding, at least a temporary employment, sufficient to maintain them. An Inst.i.tution of this sort would be a work of great charity and humanity; and it is earnestly to be hoped, that the view of the subject given in this Work may induce the Legislature to form a Police Establishment, calculated to promote such a mult.i.tude of good and useful objects;[E] more especially as with proper management it would very soon pay itself.]

[Footnote E: Vide _page_ 99 _n._]

In order to form a judgment of the proportion of the more atrocious offenders tried at the Old Bailey: the number acquitted; and the specific punishments inflicted on the different offences in case of conviction, one year has been selected; a year in which it was natural to expect from the immense, and indeed, unparalleled bounties which were given for seamen and soldiers, that the number of thieves and criminals would be greatly reduced,--namely--_from the month of April_, 1793, _to the month of April_, 1794,--including eight Sessions at the Old Bailey--

The following Table shews in what manner 1060 prisoners, put on their trials during that period, were disposed of.[133]

[Footnote 133: In the year 1795, 1894 prisoners were tried at the Old Bailey, and the different a.s.sizes in the Country, exclusive of a much greater number at the General and Quarter Sessions of the Peace, in the different Counties. These trials in the Superior Courts of Judicature, produced the following results:--

a.s.sizes London. in the Total.

Country.

Received Sentence of Death 44 174 218 " " " Transportation 84 159 243 Imprisoned and Whipt 129 411 540 Judgment respited to serve his Majesty 23 25 48 Acquitted 150 351 501 Discharged for want of Prosecutors 91 253 344 --- ---- ---- 521 1373 1894]

The Crimes for which the different Offenders were tried, were these following:

Murder 46 Felony 315 Manslaughter 29 Arson 5 Larceny 998 Bigamy 3 Burglary 101 Receiving b.e.a.s.t.i.a.lity 2 Robbery 58 stolen Goods 61 Rape 9 Horse and Cattle Frauds and Perjury 2 stealing 108 Misdemeanors 101 Sedition 2 Forgery 16 Rogues and --- Coining 17 Vagabonds 21 47 --- ---- --- 351 1496 --- ----

_A_ TABLE, _shewing the Prisoners tried at the Old Bailey, from April 1793, to March 1794, inclusive._

-------------+------------------------------------------------------ Persons committed for trial.

Of whom, acquitted and discharged.

Prisoners convicted, and their Punishments.

Death.

Transported for 14 years.

London, Transported for 7 years.

Middles.e.x, Whipt & Imprisoned.

and Imprisoned 6 months and Westminster. upwards.

Imprisoned 3 months & otherwise disposed of.

Sent to serve the King.

Judgment respited Total punished.

-------------+----+-----+--+-+---+--+--+--+--+--+------------------- London Sessions 199 70 6 1 50 10 29 20 8 5 129 Middles.e.x and Westminster 861 497 62 1 117 38 51 49 30 16 364 +----+-----+--+-+---+--+--+--+--+--+------------------- 1060 567 68 2 167 48 80 69 38 21 493 [134] -------------+----+-----+--+-+---+--+--+--+--+--+-------------------

[Footnote 134: The acquittals will generally be found to attach mostly to small offences which are punishable with death: where Juries do not consider the crime deserving so severe a punishment, the delinquent receives no punishment at all. If all were convicted who were really guilty of these small offences, the number of victims to the severity of the Law would be greatly increased.]

Thus it appears, that in London only, of 1060 prisoners, tried in the course of a year, only 493 were punished; of whom 197, after a temporary confinement, would return upon the Public, with little prospect of being better disposed to be useful to Society, than before.--It may be estimated that in all England, including those offenders who are tried at the County Sessions, upwards of five thousand individuals, charged with criminal offences, are thrown back upon Society every year.--

But this is not all,--for according to the present System, out of about _two hundred_ and upwards who are, upon an average every year, doomed to suffer the punishment of death, _four-fifths_ or more are generally pardoned[135] either on condition of being transported, or of going into His Majesty's service, and not seldom without any condition at all.

[Footnote 135: As punishments became more mild, clemency and pardons became less necessary.--Clemency is a virtue that ought to s.h.i.+ne in the code, and not in the private judgment.--The Prince in pardoning gives up the Public Security in favour of an individual; and by the exercise of this species of benevolence proclaims a public act of impunity.--Let the Executors of the Laws be inexorable; but let the Legislature be tender, indulgent and humane.

BECCARIA, cap. 46.]

Hence it is, that, calculating on all the different chances, encouragements to commit crimes actually arise out of the System intended for their prevention:--_first, from the hope of avoiding detection and apprehension;--secondly, of escaping conviction, from the means used to vitiate and suborn the evidence;--thirdly, from the mercy of the Jury, in considering the punishment too severe;--and fourthly, from the interest of persons of rank or consideration, applying (under circ.u.mstances where humanity becomes the friend of every person doomed to die), for the interference of Royal Mercy, by Pardons_.