Tower of London, most solemnly declared, that they are restrained by no principles whatever of morality or religion; and he has often had occasion to witness the extreme ignorance of the younger part of this class, when called upon to give evidence in judicial proceedings. Of the nature of an oath they had not the least conception, NOR EVEN OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPREME BEING*.*" It is impossible to read such passages as those we have just transcribed, without reflecting with consternation and anguish on the prodigious increase of crime by which the last twenty years have been mournfully distinguished. Notorious as the fact is, we feel it due to our readers to lay before them some of the testimonies to it which Mr. Smith has collected; and we strongly recommend, to such as have not yet read that affecting document, the Report of the Committe of the House of Commons on Criminal Commitments and Convictions. Our first witness shall be Mr. Æneas Macdonnel, a Roman Catholic, who has inserted the following particulars in an attack upon the Society formed for the Reformation of Ireland. We are not now canvassing his object: our sole concern is with the facts he adduces, which are fully verified by other accounts. "When Mr. Peel introduced his plan for the reform of the criminal law, last year, he alluded to this subject; and it is from his speech, and other Parliamentary papers, that I shall take my proofs for the present. It appears, that in 1812 the number of committals amounted to not less than 6576; an immense number, when we consider what a large proportion of offenders are admitted to bail. However, as Captain Gordon and his associates had not then commenced their devout operations for the reformation of the world, we must make all due allowances for the imperfections of your uninstructed countrymen. The work of evangelization then commenced with extraordinary ardour, and continued with increasing zeal, and, no doubt, usefulness, from year to year, up to the last year; and we shall see its beneficial fruits in 1825. We have seen, that in 1812, the committals in England and Wales amounted to 6576 persons; whereas, in 1825, in consequence of the evangelical labours of Captain Gordon, Lord Bexley, and others, they amounted only to 14,437! Poor Popery had nothing to say to that enormous change. Oh, no, the Evangelizers had the ground all to themselves; they were the tillers and the reapers, and behold their fruit-the number of committals more than doubled! What says The Courier to that? But, perhaps, it would be pretended, that this was the solitary instance of one year. We shall see how that is, by taking a period comprising several years. In the seven years preceding 1815, the committals amounted to 47,522. Well, the Evangelizers went then to work with all manner of schemes for reformation; and what was the result? Why this: that in the seven years preceding 1825, the committals amounted to 93,282! What says The Courier to that? I would thank the journalist, with the aid of Gordon's intellect and accomplishments, to inform me what had Popery to do with that increase, and to say whether any or all of the Catholic countries of Europe could furnish such a specimen of the increase or the extent of crime, apart from political subjects? Again; it may be said, that this is not a fair criterion, in * See Mr. Smith's Address. asmuch as the magistrates are too prone to unjust committals.. Well, let us see how the facts stand as to convictions, and confine ourselves to the capital convictions for the same periods. The capital convictions for the seven years preceding 1815, amounted to 4126! Yes, in seven short years, 4126 of our fellow-subjects, in England and Wales, were consigned to ignominious death for criminal offences, without any civil commotion having led to the condemnation of a single individual of that appalling number. Then the Evangelizers took the morals and religion of the country into their holy keeping, and behold the result! In the seven years preceding 1825, the capital convictions in England and Wales amounted to eight thousand two hundred and forty-four! My lord, my lord, this is indeed an awful statement; no triumph in contrast, no success in proof, no defeat of our opponents in argument, can take precedence over the frightful reflections that such a statement suggests-8244 capitally convicted in England and Wales within seven years! Why, my lord, nations have struggled for freedom, and despots for dominion, without incurring such a sacrifice of human life. But I am anxious to part the odious subject which has been thus forced upon our consideration by The Courier and its ally Mr. Gordon, and I shall notice only one fact more. Of all the crimes in the calendar, none proves so much the anti-social character of the guilty party as the crime of theft. It is not committed in indulgence of any political feeling, or any passion, not even of revenge, but indicates, except in very few cases, the disregard of moral and social principles. Yet we find, that in the latter period there were convicted of that single crime not less than 43,000!" Smith, pp. 48, 49. Now, in corroboration of this appalling statement, we present the following brief extracts from the Report of the Committee to which we have already alluded. The first object to which the attention of the Committee was turned, was to inquire into the increase of the number of commitments, as compared with the increase of the population. The increase of population from 1801 to 1821 is as follows: 1801 1821 1806 1816 1826 The number of commitments for trial in England and Wales from 1806 to 1826: 4346 9091 16,147 Including the number of commitments on summary conviction before magistrates, the increase would be still greater. Smith, pp. 90, 91. And a few lines further on we read: The Rev. Dr. Hunt, from the gaol of Bedford, was examined; and he calculates, that from the year 1801 to 1827, the population of the county has increased to the amount of forty per cent.; while, during the same period, crime has increased ten-fold, or 900 per cent. It is to be remarked, however, that in the year following 1801, criminal commitments more than doubled, and have never since been much below that amount. Smith, p. 91. We subjoin a passage from the valuable Charge of ChiefJustice Best, delivered at the assizes for the county of Somerset last August. It refers, indeed, to the state of morals in a pro vince of England; but we may rest assured that its allegations apply still more forcibly to the capital. "The calendar, he was sorry to inform them, was much larger than they had been accustomed to consider; and most sorry he was to observe, that the increase of crime-always the greatest of national calamities-had visited their county in so serious a degree. Although under any circumstances he should have felt it his duty, in the melancholy times in which they lived, to have called their most serious attention to some general topics, yet he was more strongly induced to do so in this county, to which he was attached by so many particular ties, all uniting to make him feel more keenly the unhappy growth and alarming increase of crime which was so manifest among them. He had yesterday heard an excellent discourse, while attending Divine Service, which made a deep impression upon his mind, and left him, in less appropriate words, the duty of recommending, as the reverend clergyman had done, the imperative necessity which devolved upon men of every station in life, of whatever authority or influence, to endeavour, by every means in their power, to stop this alarming increase of crime, which threatened to convulse the whole frame of civil society. Those whom he had the honour of addressing possessed the means, as persons of reputation and character, as magistrates, as men, of standing between the dead and the living, and staying that flame which was calculated to consume both." Smith, pp. 84, 85. ; Such is the aspect of a country which we are prone to designate the moral garden of the world. In the course of the last twenty years its population has increased one-third, while crime has augmented four-fold; and this in spite of National Schools, and Mechanics' Institutes, and all that apparatus of secular learning from which such Utopian effects had been anticipated. But we are confident that even the sections of the Lanark philanthropist, had he been allowed to slice Great Britain to his taste, would have achieved no greater success. No: it is not by philosophical lectures and academical tactics it is not by forcing to an extraordinary growth the intellect of the working classes, and by overwhelming them with strange knowledge it is not by such instruments and artifices that virtue and happiness are to be recalled to the towns they have deserted. Far be it from us to disparage education, or to wish it less widely dispersed: but education has become the idol of Englishmen, and they ought to beware lest it fall upon its votaries, and crush them to powder. It were well, if, in giving mechanics and ploughmen a stint of science and literature, we could also give them self-government, moderation, and benevolence. But by no such process can the innate spirit of evil be tamed and mastered. One might as well attempt to quench with a garden-engine the fires of Etna, or to batter down a wall of brass with snow-balls, as by dint of mere ethical lectures and catechisms of science to bring the passions of the populace under the jurisdiction of reason and conscience. For twenty years, or more, has the system of national instruction been at work, and there is scarcely a village or hamlet to which it has not penetrated. But is vice less abundant and endemial than it was? Are enormous crimes less frequent-such as burglary, murder, and suicide? Highway-robbery, perhaps, may be more unusual than formerly; but for what other reason, except that the local obstacles to it are multiplied? It is not repressed by any moral impediment, arising from the improved. character of the people. The tremendous fact stares us in the face, that, while population has increased one-third, crime has multiplied four-fold! We are aware that the perpetration of crime does not vary in the exact ratio of commitments and convictions. Yet, after balancing one against the other the respective causes for an increase and for a decrease of prosecutions, we remain convinced that the proportion of crime which falls under judicial cognisance is no greater at the present than it has been at former periods. Certainly the character of our police does not warrant the supposition, that officers of justice exert a singular diligence in bringing delinquency to light, or are less easily softened than their predecessors were by detected culprits. On the state of our police there is an article taken by Mr. Smith from the Times newspaper, which ought to obtain the widest circulation. The scene it unfolds is infinitely digusting; but we shall run the risk of offending a sickly squeamishness for the sake of producing the salutary impression, that evils of such magnitude are not to be corrected by palliatives, by silent and insulated exertions, but demand the combined and unintermitting labours of the whole religious public. The following is the article, which appeared in the Times of Thursday, September 6. "ABUSES IN THE POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS.-After all that has been said of the Bow-street police, and notwithstanding the high reputation of the officers of the establishment for pursuing thieves into their most secret holds, the neighbourhood of Bow Street itself is one of the most dangerous in the whole metropolis. Every night the most revolting scenes of debauchery are represented, and robberies are committed there, and still no attempt is made to abate either the danger or the dissipation. To obtain an adequate idea of the nightly occurrences in the desperate vicinity of Bow Street, it would be necessary for a stranger to visit it, under the protection of an officer, (for the officer is admitted into all the flash houses at all hours) at different periods of the night. Immediately before the theatre doors are opened, a gang of thieves assemble at a public-house close to Drury-lane theatre, and they simultaneously drop their pipes the instant notice is given, and issue forth to plunder the struggling crowd. As soon as the press is over, they return to their smoking crib,' dispose of their plunder to the landlord, and enjoy themselves until the performances are concluded. The signal for industry is then repeated: down go the pipes, and off the thieves scamper, to levy fresh contributions upon the public. Their plans are arranged by such strict rules, and the beat of each is so accurately 6 ascertained, that when a gentleman happens to miss his watch, and gives symptoms of liberality-for robberies are now-a-days difficult to be found out without the precursor of a reward he has only to say in what part of the house he believed the transfer to have taken place, and the buzz (pickpocket) can be in most cases found, and the property restored. The loser, at all events, will have the gratification of knowing from the officer whom he employs, that Jack such-a-body had the thimble,' whether it is ever recovered or not. Each of the thieves, who thus by constant practice attain a wonderful degree of excellence in transferring watches, pocket-books, shawls, cloaks, handkerchiefs, &c., has what he calls his 'pal,' or 'blowing,' to assist him. This pal' is a girl of the town, as great an adept as her 'pal' in the art of prigging. They sometimes come across a drunken man, and if the female can prevail upon the unfortunate fellow to accompany her to Whitehart Yard, or Swan Yard, or any other infamous place in which the most dangerous houses of accommodation are kept, a robbery is sure to take place, and fear of exposure is generally calculated upon as a security from punishment. At two or three o'clock in the morning, the flash houses in this hopeful part of the town abound with buzzes, prigs, cracksmen (house-breakers), and flash dragsmen (coachmen who associate with thieves, and occasionally lend a hand). There are also to be seen sprinkled about the bars and parlours of the flash houses, watchmen, whose silence is purchased with gin. Those 'terrors of the robber' have a little game of their own, but the thieves are never played upon by them. Gentlemen are their aim. If a well-dressed man happens to pass along Bow Street, or any of the neighbouring streets, at a late hour, he must not be surprised at receiving a push from a watchman, and then being accused of a violent breach of the peace. It is necessary, however, to tell him, that if he behaves respectfully to the watchman, who will not scruple to call him a thief, he may be allowed to depart upon a compromise of 5s.; and that if he resists, his watch, and purse, and clothes, are in the greatest peril. Flash dragsmen-a very dangerous sort of gentry-are to be found amongst the coachmen who ply at the corner of Charles Street, Covent Garden, every night, and generally stand in a crowd at that advantageous post. They are very fond of helping gentlemen into coaches, and paying themselves for their trouble, by prigging a watch or a pocket-book; but their chief amusement is 'hustling,' an art in which they excel, as they have been known to push a gentleman from one to the other, without letting him fall to the ground, until he has been dispossessed of every thing valuable about him. Their efforts are of course generally confined to lushy coves' (drunken men), as the gentlemen of the whip on that beat have a sort of reputation to support, and will not countenance an attempt to rob a sober man, inasmuch as he has not been disgracing himself' with too much lush.' It is as well known, that some of the flash-house keepers not unfrequently join in a little buzzing excursion themselves, as that they treat with contempt the Act of Parliament for the regulation of public-houses, by admitting persons at all hours to drink and smoke in their houses. All this is well known to the magistrates, who, however, manifest the greatest indifference upon every occasion on which complaints are made. It is true, that the licence of one of these thieving dens is sometimes threatened, and sometimes taken away; but the influence of a large brewer never fails to restore it, and the same iniquity flourishes every night, although for decency's sake the name of the proprietor may undergo a change. No inspector is appointed to visit the cribs.' The watchmen are the only superintendents, and they are always at the command of the landlord. The patrol will not interfere, for there is no adequate remuneration upon the side of morals, and there is no order issued by their superiors. It is admitted universally, by those who are best qualified to judge of the cause of the increase of crime, that houses of this |