_
* * * * *
PROGRESS OF CRIME.
(From a paper in _Fraser's Magazine_, entitled the _Schoolmaster in
Newgate_--evidently from the hand of a shrewd observer, and the result
of considerable experience and laborious investigation.)
By a reference to the Old Bailey session calendar, it will be seen that
about 3,000 prisoners are annually committed to Newgate, making little
short of 400 each session, of which there are eight in a year. Out of
the gross number, about 350 are discharged by proclamation. Of these
nothing can be said, as they must be considered innocent of the crimes
with which they were charged, there not being _prima facie_ evidence to
send them on their trials. There remain 2,550 who are tried, with the
progressive increase of 4-7ths annually. Some persons have supposed this
accumulation of offenders bears a regular proportion to the progress of
population. As well may they assert that the demand for thieves in
society regulates the supply, as in other markets of merchandise. The
cause is in the maladministration of the laws--the sending out so many
old offenders every session to teach and draw in the more juvenile and
less experienced hands--with the uncertainty of punishment, by the
inequality of sentences for crimes of a like nature--to which may be
added the many instances of mistaken, or rather _mis-directed_ leniency,
compared with others of enormous severity for trifling offences; all
which tend to induce the London thieves to entertain a contempt for that
tribunal.
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