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968 THE IiE AD IB; [No. 443, September 1...
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STATISTICS QE CRIME.—ENGLAND. The statis...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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„ Sg&.Lia&Sm^T^Ia-^^^^ Ix Is Not Often T...
land " seldom the names of their occupants . This is easily explained . The term of ihe offices is almost always very short , and it is only in meagre intervals , left by professional avocations in the Edinburgh CQurts > that the Scottish legal officials can appear in St . Stephen ' s at all . Some few names have escaped this general oblivion . Dundas became known ^ by the strenuous fight he maintained against the rising ; school of Scottish Whigs , political disciples of Dugald Stewart , orators of " the Speculative , " founders of the ISdinbttrgh Review , but still more by the higher positions to which Pitt ' s friendship and his own administrative talents raised him , and by the judicial investigation into his alleged
peculations . One of the highest literary reputations of the day preceded Jeffrey to London , and bespoke for him an attention not commanded by his office . Mr . Rutherford was known to the few as a man of high scholarship and culture . Mr . Moncrieff , enjoying a tenure of power under Successive Ministers longer than four times the ordinary term of a Lord Advocate ' s office , has asserted a high position in the House , if he be not so generally known as some of his predecessors out of doors . The last Lord Advocate , Mr . Inglis , laboured under special disadvantages . Twice did he fail as a parliamentary candidate , and he never
possessed a seat at all under Lord Derby ' s 1 S 52 jidministratipn . And after the formation of the present Ministry , only a few months elapsed when , by ; the death of Lord Justice Clerk Hope , a judicial ofiSce became vacant , too tempting to be refused , and the acceptance of which withdrew him , still almost a younajnan , from the parliamentary arena in which he \ 0 L only plucked his first laurels , and from the forensic contests in which for years he had distanced every competitor . But by his " Act to make Provision for the better Government and Discipline of the Universities of Scotland" lie did enough to make his tenure of office memorable , and to entitle him to the thanks of his
fellow-countrymen . He had a difficult task to deal with . Legislation in this direction had been for long contemplated . Indeed , his Act only . partially cai-nes out the recommendations of a Royal Commission which visited the Scottish colleges some five-and-twenty years ago . But there were several vested interests which bristled up at what they chose to call projeeted spoliation . The Scotch " Established Church , a church in whose tabernacles a small minority of the people worship , wished to retain a monopol y of academic , as they still do of parochial , education . Edinburgh shopkeepers , who elect in their Town
Council professors of Greek and Metaphysics , refused to acknowledge their unfitness for the task . The body of graduates advanced impracticable pretensions . Every theorist wanted increased facilities for the collegiate propagation of his own theory . Every religious dogmatist wanted his own dogma taught from professorial chairs , to the exclusion of all other opinions . , That in the face of these and a host of minor obstacle ^ Mr . Inglis succeeded in passing a bill which does iso wiuch in the way of reform , and provides elastic facilities for the doing of so much more , is most creditable to his own tact and perseverance ,
and to the responsive sense of Parliament . The act has a larger and a smaller object . It provides for the union of the two small colleges at Aberdeen into one university ; and it makes certain changes , uniform in general ... intent , but . yarieci by special necessities , in the constitution of the governing bodies of the four Scottish universities . A Principal need no longer be a Professor of Theology , Or even a clergyman . The source of the governing power in each university is to bo a court , lormed on the widest and most liberal basis , comprising the chancellor , professors , and graduates of every Faculty . In the special case of Edinburgh , where most of the vacancies are now filled up by the Town
Council , they retain a large share of power and influence . The powers of these courts are full and unequivocal , exercising a higher function than the senatiw * of ^ aoh ^ o ^ ge ^ but ^ n ~ 8 a ^ the ratification of the Sovereign in Council . We omit comment on these wiso improvements , in order to ocenpy what possible space remains to us with some reference to the latter , and in our eyes more important , portion of the act—that which snakes provision for further and larger changes . A commission of men eminently fitted for the task , is appointed to weigh and mature these future improvements . Among the commissioners are the Duke of AVgyll , . Lords Aberdeen and Mansfield , Sir W . Gibson Craig , Mr . Inglis himself , Mr , Stirling of
Keir , Mr . Moncrieff , and Mr . Murray Dunlop . They are to revise all foundations and trusts , to regulate the powers and the elections of officebearers , the courses of studies , and t he amount ol fees . They are to recommend the foundation of hew chairs , and the employment of assistants . They are to consider the amalgamation of the four universities into one , the existing universities to become its affiliated colleges . . The recommendation , often reiterated and presented in the act in various forms , to employ assistants to several of the professors , is to us the most important unachieved change . The
recommendation is nearly tantamount to the introduction of the tutorial system . If it be undeniable that the systems of training at Oxford and Cambridge fail , on account of a too exclusive dependence on private chamber instruction , and carelessness about the more spirit-stirring system of professorial prelections , the converse is , we believe , far more applicable to the Scottish colleges . We write from no inconsiderable personal experience ; and it cannot be denied that almost every Scottish professor either raises the standard of his teachings so high that a large majority of his class , unassisted by tutorial guidance , sjain little or no benefit ; or , on the
other hand , actuated by a questionable but meritorious desire to be of general service to his pupils , fixes it so low as to drill rudiments into those who ought to have known them before they sat under him , necessarily at the expense of those who learn nothing new , and only go to school once again . There are not a dozen fellowships in all the Scotch colleges ; nothing to bind students who have " gone through their course" to academic retreats and pursuits . Both defects could be remedied by the one change . A fellowship ought not to be a mere reward for successful study . It ought to be-the ' 'instrument for further teaching . How much greater would have been the hold on the mind of the age of such
a teacher as Sir William Hamilton , if the filial piety of old alumni or wise munificence of the State , had provided the requisite assistance to maintain , as fellows and tutors , for some four or half-dozen years , such men as Mr . Veitch , or Mr . Spencer Baynes , or Dr . Cairns—their own minds impregnated with Sir William ' s method , apt to teach , and who would have taught hundreds who have left the old class-room and gone into the world , ignorant of his ripe philosophy , and mindful of nothing else than the awe and respect engendered by the , to them , mysterious elaborations of half-perceived principles .
968 The Iie Ad Ib; [No. 443, September 1...
968 THE IiE AD IB ; [ No . 443 , September 18 , 1868 .
Statistics Qe Crime.—England. The Statis...
STATISTICS QE CRIME . —ENGLAND . The statistics of crime in England and Wales iu 1857 are contained in a large volume lately published by the Government , headed " Judicial Statistic ? . " It includes , first , Police , Criminal Proceedings , Prisons ; and , secondly , Common Law , Equity , Civil and Canon Law . Every one of these subjeots is in due time to be annually described . At present , however , only the first part , confined to England and Wales , is literally complete . Scotland and Ireland have their own statistics . Of the second part , only a preliminary report is published , stating what is to be done , and supplying models of the forms hereafter to be filled up . It must be well understood that these elaborate accounts , present and future , speaking of them as a whole , state only what is done Under the law by the judicial authorities , and leave the more important questions of what the law ought to be , and how it should bo administered , and what are the causes of crime , independent of > v \ vs to punish it , wholly untouchod . By accounts of the means taken to inflict punishment , and how much is inflicted , we never can get at the reason for inflicting it , uor at any of its consonuenccs , further than the more or less
punishments continually recorded , wluou arc an index to the orimes committed . As a review of the whole subject of orimo , those statistics , however enlarged and ! accurate , must ulways bo incomplete . Hith ' o rt ^^^ records of the punishments infiietod and of the proceedings of the judicial authorities . No returns , says Mr . Redgrave , the oompilcr of the present volume , speaking of civil justice , give us / 'the particular information necessary to a clear and concise elucidation of the jurisdiction and procedure ot eaoh court ¦ , suoli returns have been from tiino to tune prepared for Parliament , but they exhibit only isolated faots to meet special inquiries . " llioy aro necessarily misleading from being imperfect . Nor
is the case of . " criminal justice" very different . Mr . Hill , the Recorder of Birmingham , long ago bore his testimony to the records being neither " full nor accurate . " " Prom year to year , ' * says Mr . Redgrave , " the jurisdiction of justices has been enlarged ; important classes of offences have been added , but no steps have been tak en to secure any complete record of the exercise of this extensive jurisdiction . Legislation has been busy in many directions for the reformation and punishment of criminals , but very inadequate means have existed
of tracing with what result . " Now , for the first time , we have returns of what the police establishments throughout England effect , and ' what they cost , but this information , because newly collectea , is admitted to be still very deficient . " Hitherto the knowledge of crimes ana of their amount has been evidenced only by the number of persons proceeded against in the criminal courts . " "Lesser offences and infractions of the law , punished su mmarily , ' * have hot been recorded . In future they will be . Now , for the first time , the number of coroners * inquests , which embrace a vast amount of crime , are
included in the statistics of crime for the year 1857 . But incomplete as these are admitted to be after nuincrous additions and corrections , prior to 1805 the Legislature took no pains whatever to learn the consequences of its own penal enactments , and it went on multiplying laws without possessing any correct knowledge of the effects ot what it was doing . Mr . Redgrave charges it now with making laws without even the " means of tracing" the results of its own enactments . Being officially informed of its wrong doing by the Home-office , which makes itself the censor of the Legislature ,
it may , ' perhaps , become more sensible of its own shortcomings , and take at least as much care to learn the consequences of increasing the number of offences , as to learn the number of pounds of cotton yarn exported and of silk imported . Reflecting men are shocked at the great trouble and expense it imposes on the nation to secure correct accounts of every sheep and pig imported , and every pound of paper manufactured , while it has neglected to provide its constituents or the public witli the means of testing exactly the utility of its most important
enactments . . After these remarks the public will scarcely place implicit confidence in the statistics of crime committed in England and Wales in 1 S 57 . Ihe facts stated arc all true , but they are not the whole truth They do not exhaust the subject . It is stated , for example , that the number of police , constabulary , & c , in lS 57 , was 19 , 187 , and the cost 1 , 205 , 579 / ,, which will be considerably greater m 185 S but not a word is said about the number and expense of ushers and clerks of . courts , j udges , and all the other instruments for administering the nrimmni' law . Nor is there any means of
ascertainin" it , because it is jumbled up with the expenses of the civil law , so that the public is necessarily kept in ignorance , and must be , notwithstanding this ofiicial information on one point , of the total cost and total evils of repressing iind punishing " W ° e arc told also by Mr . Redgrave that the " actual amount of crime committed cannot , probablv at any time , be exactly ascertained , ymj of a low crimes , such as murder , robbery , burglary , & c , where a hue and cry is raised , and m many cases of theft , do the returns approach to accuracy and completeness . " They are ^ el y , liowcvcr , to be wore complete of 1857 than of 1850 , and of every succeeding year than of the year wlncn ¦ ptoccdoU it . For 1857 , the effects of summary jurisdiction are , for the first time , stated ; and as tao police returns , from which they arc gathered , are imnvniilnhlv ineoinnloto . it seems certain that tw witft
enormous number of persons reported as dealt summarily in 1 S 57 will bo surpassed in 1853 . « 1857 , in England and Wales , with a population ot 19 , 300 , 000 , 309 , 233 were proceeded against summarily . Of these 135 , 474 , were discharged by justices , and 233 , 759 convicted . Besides those imnmarily dealt with , 32 , 031 were P « JJ « gj ttgafoBUiMgdteta ^ , ; ffl " . M ] ff , ,. t 0 ul . li ^ iCda--persons prosecuted criminally , tuougir ^ ho . r- ^ - not include all the criminals ot" the community « 1857 . This number is , however , equivalent to i «« every 45 of the population . Now . v » ° » VT number of irresponsible persons , such an ml « nw » imbeciles , and idiots , is considered , the numl > w . Q » persons engaged in the administration ot U » c «*"! and llio various brandies of the public service , ana the wolUo-do middle classes , who rarely or novw incur the peuaUioa of the law , and when wo consuiw
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18091858/page/16/
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