A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Part 33

It would be the means of destroying those hopes and chances which encourage criminal people to persevere in their depredations upon the Public.

A Summary View of the Prisoners _committed_, _tried_, _punished_, _disposed of_, and _discharged_ in the Metropolis, in _One Year_, ending in October, 1795.

_Number of prisoners, punished and disposed of._

+-----------+--------------------------------------------------- Names of Died Prisons Capitally convicted[A]

Sentenced to Transportation[B]

Imprisoned in Newgate Imprisoned in Bridewell Hospital Imprisoned in the House of Correction of Middles.e.x Imprisoned in Tothil-Fields Bridewell Imprisoned in Surry Goals Sent to the Philanthropic and Marine Societies Sent to serve his Majesty in the Navy and Army Pa.s.sed to Parishes Sent to Hospitals Total +-----------+--+--+---+--+---+--+--+--+--+---+----+---+--------- +-- Newgate 7 51 153 85 54 20 39 409 L Poultry O Compter 334 10 44 72 460 N D Giltspur O Compter 249 75 125 44 493 N Bridewell Hospital 4 835 44 883 +-- +-- New Prison M Clerkenwell 5 3 58 66 I D House of D Correction L in Cold E Bath S Fields 4 128 132 E X Tothil- Fields Bridewell 2 7 37 122 26 194 +-- +-- S U R New Goal, R Southwark 10 11 16 1 38 Y +-- +--+--+---+--+---+--+--+--+--+---+----+---+--------- 22 61 174 85 583 54 37 36 10 216 1282 115 2675 +--+--+---+--+---+--+--+--+--+---+----+---+---------

[Footnote A: 16 executed]

[Footnote B: 106 transported]

_Number of Prisoners discharged by the Magistrates, and from the Eight Gaols, in One Year._

+-----------+------------------------------------------------- Names of Discharged by Magistrates for want of Proof Prisons Discharged by Proclamation and Gaol Delivery Discharged by Acquitals [Transcriber's Note: Acquittals]

Discharged after being whipt Discharged after being fined Discharged after suffering imprisonment Apprentices discharged Offenders bailed out of Prison Discharged by Pardon Total discharged +-----------+----+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+-------------- +-- Newgate 134 272 12 11 20 129 578 L Poultry O Compter 199 27 226 N D Giltspur O Compter 287 10 10 45 11 114 477 N Bridewell Hospital 249 38 287 +-- +-- New Prison M Clerkenwell 237 170 35 9 9 127 587 I D House of D Correction L in Cold E Bath S Fields 568 231 60 353 111 1323 E X Tothil- Fields Bridewell 253 274 6 1 27 154 715 +-- +-- S U R New Goal, R Southwark 130 74 35 2 28 269 Y +-- +----+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+-------------- 1674 893 418 24 56 697 149 422 129 4462 +----+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+--------------

N.B. Although the Author has been at infinite pains to render this Summary as exact as possible, yet from the different modes adopted in keeping the accounts of Prisons, he is not thoroughly satisfied in his own mind that the View he has here given is accurate, to a point.--He is, however, convinced that it will be found sufficiently so for the purpose.

[To face page 430.]

It would not only remove that aversion which Prosecutors manifest on many occasions, to come forward, for the purpose of promoting the ends of public justice; but it would prevent, in a great measure, the possibility of compounding felonies, or of suborning witnesses.[125]

[Footnote 125: Notwithstanding the severity of the Law, the composition of felonies and misdemeanors is carried to a much greater height than it is almost possible to believe; and various artifices are resorted to, to elude the penalties.--An instance occurred in August 1792; where a Jew was ordered to take his trial for a rape, committed on a married woman.--The offence appeared, on examination, to be extremely aggravated.--The Grand Jury however did not find a bill; which was thought a very singular circ.u.mstance, as the proof had been so clear before the Magistrate. The reasons were afterwards sufficiently explained; which show, what corrupt practices, artifices, and frauds will be used to defeat the ends of justice:--In consequence of a previous undertaking between the Jew and the husband of the woman who had been so grossly abused, a sum of .20 was left in the hands of a publican, which the prosecutor was to receive if the bill was not found. In this confidence the woman gave a different evidence from that which she had given before the Magistrate. The Jew, however, cheated both the husband and the wife; for he no sooner discovered that he was safe, than he demanded the money of the publican and laughed at the prosecutor.]

It would also be the means of counteracting the various tricks and devices of old thieves; and occasion an equal measure of Justice to be dealt out to them, as to the novices in crimes:--It would do more,--It would protect real innocence,--for in such cases the Public Prosecutor would never fail to act as the friend of the prisoner.

The prevailing practice in criminal trials, in the true spirit of mildness and humanity, induces the Judge to act in some degree as counsel for the prisoner.--Without a Prosecutor for the Crown, therefore, every trifling inaccuracy in the indictment is allowed to become a fatal obstacle to conviction;[126] circ.u.mstances which would frequently throw great light upon the charges, are not brought under the review of the jury, and thus public justice is defeated.

[Footnote 126: In criminal cases, a defective indictment is not aided by the verdict of a Jury, as defective pleadings are in civil cases.

Indeed wherever life is concerned, great strictness has been at all times observed. That able and humane Judge, SIR MATTHEW HALE, complained above a century ago,[C] "_That this strictness has grown to be a blemish and inconvenience in the law and the administration thereof; for that more offenders escape by the over-easy ear given to exceptions in indictments, than by their own innocence: and many times gross murders, burglaries, robberies, and other heinous and crying offences remain unpunished, by those unseemly niceties; to the reproach of the Law, to the shame of the Government, to the encouragement of villainy, and to the dishonour of G.o.d_."[D]]

[Footnote C: He died 1676.]

[Footnote D: Hale, P.C. 193.]

Upon an average, the Magistrates of the Metropolis commit annually, (out of many times that number who are equally objects of punishment,) from about 2500 to 3000 persons, male and female, for trial, at the seven different Courts of Justice in and near the Metropolis; charged with a variety of felonies, misdemeanors, and other petty offences.

But after fully convincing their own minds, from a careful, and in many instances, a most laborious investigation, that the parties are guilty, they are obliged, from experience, to prepare themselves for the mortification of seeing their labour and exertions in a great measure lost to the Community: the major part of these criminals being returned upon Society, without any effectual steps adopted for their reformation, or any means used for the prevention of a repet.i.tion of their crimes. A considerable proportion of this wretched number may have suffered perhaps a slight punishment for their demerits; but which produces no effect that is not ultimately mischievous to the Community; since it serves merely to initiate them, in a greater degree, in the knowledge and means of committing new acts of fraud and villainy.

To establish a System calculated to prevent criminals from returning to their evil practices after punishment is the very essence of good Police; but notwithstanding its importance to the Community, no measures have ever yet been adopted, calculated to attain so desirable an object.--It is however ardently to be hoped, that the period is fast approaching, when this great desideratum will be in a certain degree obtained; and that the suggestions offered in the subsequent Chapters, may tend to accelerate the renovation of this forlorn and miserable cla.s.s of outcasts, by means of an appropriate _Penitentiary System_.

CHAP. XVI.

_On Punishments.--The mode authorized by the ancient laws.--The period when Transportation commenced.--The princ.i.p.al crimes enumerated which are punishable by Death.--Those punishable by Transportation and Imprisonment.--The courts appointed to try different degrees of crimes.--Capital punishments, extending to so many offences of an inferior nature, defeat the ends of justice.--The system of Pardons examined:--their evil tendency.--New regulations suggested with regard to Pardons and Executions.--An historical account of the rise and progress of Transportation.--The expedients resorted to, after the American War put a stop to that mode of punishment.--The System of the Hulks then adopted.--Salutary Laws also made for the erection of Provincial and National Penitentiary Houses.--The nature and principle of these Laws briefly explained.--An account of the Convicts confined in the Hulks for twenty-two years.--The enormous expence of maintenance and inadequate produce of their labour.--The impolicy of the system exposed by the Committee on Finance.--The system of Transportation to New South Wales examined.--Great expence of this mode of punishment.--Improvements suggested, calculated to reduce the expence in future.--Erection of one or more National Penitentiary Houses recommended.--A general view of the County Penitentiary Houses and Prisons:--their inefficacy in reforming Convicts.--The labour obtained uncertain, while the expence is enormous.--The National Penitentiary House (according to the proposal of Jeremy Bentham, Esq.) considered.--Its peculiar advantages over all others which have been suggested, with respect to health, productive labour, and reformation of Convicts.--General reflections on the means of rendering imprisonment useful in reforming Convicts.--Concluding observations._

Imperfect in many respects as the criminal Law appears, from what has been detailed and stated in the preceding Chapters, and much as the great increase of capital offences, created during the last and present Century, is to be lamented:--it cannot be denied that several changes have taken place in the progress of Society, favourable to the cause of humanity, and more consonant to reason and justice, in the appropriation and the mode of inflicting punishments.

The Benefit of Clergy, which for a long period exempted clerical people only, from the punishment of death in cases of felony, was by several statutes[127] extended to _peers_, _women_, and all persons _able to read_; who, pleading their Clergy, suffered only a corporal punishment, or a year's imprisonment; and those men who _could not read_, if under the degree of peerage, were hanged.[128]

[Footnote 127: 1 Edward VI. cap. 12: 21 Jac. I. cap. 6: 3 and 4 William and Mary, cap. 9: 4 and 5 William and Mary, cap. 24.]

[Footnote 128: Blackstone.]

This unaccountable distinction was actually not removed until the 5th of Queen Anne, cap. 6, which extended the benefit of clergy to all who were int.i.tled to ask it, _whether they could read or not_.[129]

[Footnote 129: The benefit of Clergy originated in injustice and inhumanity, and can only be palliated by the rude state of society, when so disgraceful a privilege was legalized and interwoven in the criminal code.--It partakes of the nature of a compromise with villainy.--It perplexes the system of criminal jurisprudence; and since its sting is taken away it would be an improvement to discontinue it totally.]

In the course of the present century, several of the old sanguinary modes of punishment have been either, very properly, abolished by acts of parliament, or allowed, to the honour of humanity, to fall into disuse:--such as _burning alive (particularly women) cutting off hands or ears, slitting nostrils, or branding in the hand or face_; and among lesser punishments, fallen into disuse, may be mentioned _the ducking-stool_.

The punishment of death for felony (as has already been observed) has existed since the reign of Henry I. nearly 700 years.--Transportation is commonly understood to have been first introduced, anno 1718, by the act of the 4th George I. cap. 11; and afterwards enlarged by the Act 6th of George I. c. 23, which allowed the court a discretionary power to order felons who were by law ent.i.tled to their clergy, to be transported to the American plantations for seven or fourteen years, according to circ.u.mstances.[130]

[Footnote 130: It is said that exile was first introduced as a punishment by the Legislature in the 39th year of Queen Elizabeth, when a statute (39 _Eliz._ _c._ 4.) enacted that such rogues as were dangerous to the inferior people should be banished the realm, _Barr.

Ant. Stat._ 269: and that the first statute in which the word Transportation is used is the 18th of _Charles_ II. _c._ 3. which gives power to Judges at their discretion either to execute or transport to America _for life_ the Moss-Troopers of _c.u.mberland_ and _Northumberland_; a law which was made perpetual by the Act 31 _Geo._ II. _c._ 42. 2 WOODD. 498.]

Since that period the mode of punishment has undergone several other alterations; and many Crimes which were formerly considered of an inferior rank, have been rendered capital: which will be best elucidated by the following Catalogue of Offences, divided into six cla.s.ses according to the Laws now in force.

1. CRIMES _punishable by the_ Deprivation of Life; _and where, upon the Conviction of the Offenders the sentence of Death must be p.r.o.nounced by the Judge.--Of these, it has been stated, the whole, on the authority of Sir William Blackstone, including all the various shades of the same offence, is about 160 in number._

_The princ.i.p.al are the following:_

Treason, and Petty Treason; _See page_ 38, &c. Under the former of these is included the Offence of Counterfeiting the Gold and Silver Coin, _See page_ 191-211.

Murder, _See page_ 44, &c.

Arson, or wilfully and maliciously burning a House, Barns with Corn, &c. _See page_ 56.

Rape, or the forcible violation of chast.i.ty, &c. _See page_ 46.

Stealing an Heiress, _See page_ 48.

Sodomy, a crime against nature, committed either with man or beast, _See page_ 46.

Piracy, or robbing ships and vessels at sea: under which is included, the Offences of sailors forcibly hindering their captains from fighting, _See page_ 55, 56.

Forgery of Deeds, Bonds, Bills, Notes, Public Securities, &c. &c. Clerks of the Bank embezzling Notes, altering Dividend Warrants: Paper Makers, unauthorised, using moulds for Notes, &c.

Destroying Ships, or setting them on Fire, _See page_ 57.

Bankrupts not surrendering, or concealing their Effects