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there were not more than about twelve in the whole of East Lothian , where the population was about 36 , 000 . "This small number of offenders is not inconsistent with a large number of offences ; for in the same way as a great many hats are made by a single hatter , and a great many shoes by a single cobbler , so a great many thefts are committed by a single thief . Thus , in my Fourth Report a case is mentioned , which will be more particularly noticed hereafter , where it is estimated that as many as twenty thousand separate offences were probably committed from first to last by only fifteen persons . Many similar instances appear in my other reports , and in the reports of Mr . Clay , the zealous , benevolent , and able chaplain of the prison at Preston . "
If we couple this with , the fact that most of the criminals are known to be such by the police , and moreover , that the great stimulus to crime may be said to spring from the receivers of stolen goods , also known , it does seem a hard case that the Legislature cannot by some summary measure get rid at least of the more dangerous " receivers . " One cannot but agree with Mr , Hill that our system of checking crime is radically wrong : — " It is still too much directed to detection and too little to prevention , thus reserving high rewards till great offences have been committed , instead of making all reward simply dependent on the small amount of crime .
" So long as the police receive large premiums for Ihe apprehension of great criminals it is evidently their interest ( although many of them are , no doubt , too honourable to be so swayed ) that great criminals should exist ; their motive for the extinction of such offenders being scarcely greater than that of a poacher for the extirpation of hares and pheasants . And great as is this objection to the practice of offering such rewards , it is not the greatest ; for the terrible cases of " bloodmoney" that have sometimes come to light , show that official villains have been found , under the stimulus of these rewards , to get up evidence against persons who were wholly innocent . " One great advantage of a register of crime , such as I have described , would be the means thereby afforded of regulating the payments to the police on sound principles .
" With a good system for paying the police , and with other good general arrangements , powerful motives would be created for striking at the main roots of crime by seizing on the receivers of stolen goods—the burglar capitalists—instead of directing so much attention to the apprehension of single offenders . " The following evidence given to me by an intelligent prisoner , an inmate of the Edinburgh Bridewell , before the reform of that prison , appears in my Report ibr 1838-9 : — " Has had a great deal of conversation with thieves of all ages who have come to the Bridewell , and the followin g is the result of the information he has received : — Stealing is generally done systematically , and as a matter of regular business . Most of the thieves know each other , and know the circumstances of the various
robberies that are committed . They associate much together . The chief body of the thieves in Edinburgh live in the wynds and closes out of High-street . With vigour and talent on the part of the police , and with proper prisons to receive the offenders , the whole system might be knocked on the head . There are four or five houses which tLe thlevca Lavp frequently mentioned where they can get food , drink , and lodging on credit , it being well known how they are to procure the means of paying . At these houses also they meet girls of ill fame . All these houses are situated either in the High-street , or in wynds leading from it . They serve as nests and centres of crime . Many of the young thieves have also mentioned
public-houses where they are allowed to drink to any extent , tho characters of whose landlords declarant had always supposed to be respectable . There is no difficulty of disposing of stolen goods . Women frequently act as agents for ypnng thieves . There is one notorious person named , living- on the south side of the town , who pretends to be a travelling jeweller , but who is in fuct a receiver of stolen goods . Every one ' going to dispose of stolen articles gives a peculiar knock at his door . A little boy , who lately slept with declarant , told him that he had sold u watch to this man for 9 s ., which he had stolon from his brother-in-law , and which he believed to bo worth 61 . "
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" An important advantage arising from vigorous measures to reduce tho number of criminals at largo , would bo , that the situation of every remaining criminal would become more difficult . " Some persons , indeed , lmvo fears that to withdraw a number of criminals is only to create a void which will call new criminals into existence . J 5 ut this appears to ino to he a great mistake !; founded probably on a false analogy between crime and food , or Home other tiling for which there i . s a natural demand , the pressure of which would increase with any diminution in tho number of producers . Such , however , is not tho case with crime , for crime is opposed to tho interests and feelings
of society ; and tho community at largo would be glad to drive it out of existence ; and instead of the expansive power of crime increasing with every contraction , I believo the reverse to be tho case , and that the withdrawal of every oriininal , inasmuch jib it tends to break up organization for dishonest purposes , and to bring each remaining offender more prominently before the public eye , weakens the position of criminals generally , and facilitates tho Complete suppression of crime . Jfc is this want of a crowd of offendoru to afford the mean * of a division of labour and mutual concealment that , in my opinion , docs much to account for tho almost total absence of crime in many small places . "
Mr . . 11 ill examines into tho causes of crime , refuting by the way Hovcnr opinions which aro current ; on this topic , and making some admirable suggestions , among which , tho following may bo cited : — " Some of tho most objectionable taxes , in tlieir tendency to crenl . e crime , an ; those which afford temptations to steal money . An regards cheques ' , indeed , provided they are to bo paid through u bunk , a security has of Into years been devised ; but no such safeguard has yet been extended to bank-notes " , though thin might readily bo dono if there were no stump duty to prevent , ordinary bank-notes being made payable , like bunk post-bills , a certain number of days after sight .
" If this change wore made , and if tho law allowed the . same free use of paper money in the rest of the kingdom an it does in Scotland , there would seldom be much temptation , so far as money is concerned , to turn hig hwayman , footpad , or burglar ; for the money when obtained would hi ihe main be of no value , as i ( , n payment could instantly be stopped . Tho common offence , also , of stealing from lcttorn would gradually disappear ; and the public would be afforded tho great
convenience , which they have not at present , of being able to transmit money by letter without danger . " The following touches on a pressing and important subject , and one which needs the most earnest discussion , instead of the timid evasion it generally meets with : — " While we may congratulate ourselves on the great erasures from the class of unjust laws , tending to create habits of crime , we miTst still turn with shame and regret to the state of deprivation , amounting , not unfrequently , to positive servitude , in which we find so many of our humble countrywomen . The married woman , in the lower classes , is in effect so indissolubly bound to the man whom she has once received as her husband , that whatever may be his offences against
conjugal fidelity , sobriety , honesty , kindness , or duty of any kind , so long as they do not place him immediately within the grasp of the law , she has no protection either for herself or her children against any wrongs he may think proper to inflict . How many poor wives are there who would most cheerfully and effectually maintain themselves and their children , in other words , do their husband ' s whole duty , if they could but be guaranteed against his violence and dishonesty ! Application for legal redress avails little or nothing . To obtain divorce , or even separation , involves an expense beyond the total earnings of years—perhaps of a whole lifeand complaint to a magistrate , the only process open , obtains at best but a temporary relief , followed , in all probability , by more malicious , if less open ill-treatment .
" How often does it occur , that , after the husband has absconded for years , during which the deserted wife , by painful toil and rigid self-denial , has kept her family in decency , and got together some little store , he has returned only to destroy her comforts , sell up her little furniture , and strip her even of those very implements by which alone she can earn her own and her children ' s bread ! " The profligate , returning from an adulterous life—the brutal soldier , discharged for misconduct—the very convict , released from transportation , comes back in full authority to despoil and oppress the wife whom he ought to have cherished , and the children whom he should have reared . " During the time of my inspection in Scotland , many , I believe tho majority , of the murders that were committed were those of wives and husbands ; most of which would probably have been prevented could the suffering party have obtained a separation .
" The State of New York , which lately set so good an example to this country m the / unction , as respects procedure , of what , it may be hoped , will one day be always found united in another sense besides that implied by the ' fusion' of law and equity , has now made an advance worthy of general imitation , towards rendering legal justice to women , by decreeing , that the property of a married woman in New York shall , without special covenant , be at her own disposal , instead of being handed over to her husband . " A striking instance of the evils resulting from the want of the means of obtaining a divorce under proper circumstances , and of the injustice caused by the uncertainty and conflicting character of some of our laws , is afforded by the case of
Lolly , which , though tolerably familiar in its early stages to the legal profession , is not , I believe , generally known in its sequel even to lawyers . A * person of this name having married in England , afterwards procured a divorce in Scotland ; such a proceeding , when there is good ground for it , being there within the reach of any one of moderate property , though beyond that of the poor . After a time Mr . Lolly married again ; and , in the words of Lord Brougham , when speaking as Lord Chancellor , in so doing he acted ' honci fide , and in the confident belief , founded on the authA'ity of the Scotch lawyers , that the Scotch divorce had effectually dissolved his prior English marriage . ' Nevertheless he was brought to trial at Lancaster for bigamy , convicted , and transported .
" After the expiration of his period of punishment , Mr . Lolly , while still in Australia , by industry and perseverance acquired a considerable property for a person in his rank of like , and at length returned to England ; but hearing on his arrival that his second wife had , in his absence , married again , he was so bitterly disappointed and distressed that ho destroyed himself . After his death , notwithstanding her subsequent marriage ; , this second wife churned in the Ecclesiastical Court the right of administration , and in effect that of succession to his property ; and after a full hearing of the cause judgment was given in her favour ; thus reversing , as far sis it was competent to this Court , the verdict of the Criminul Court , and awarding a degree of wealth to one partner of an act ; , though the oilier partner of tho same act hail been disgraced , banished from his native country , and condemned to associate for years with felons . "
We have so frequently urged the necessity for a new law of partnership , that we need only quote this further testimony : — " In the category of laws tending to produce crime , although its evils may not he equally manifest , I should put the present law of partnership ; for this law , by rendering partnerships dangerous , tends , perhaps , more than anything else , to separate the employers and the employed ; to prevent tho sympathy ami union of interests which might , otherwise exist between them ; to check , among the workmen , the growth of the feeling of self-respect , ( so moral and so truly conservative in il , s tendency ) which results from the sense of proprietorship ; and to give rise to that system of tyranny to which 1 have already referred , and wherein bodies of workmen attempt , by violence and terror , to deter their fellow-operatives from obtaining a living except on such terms as they , the dictators , may choose to prescribe .
"At present , as is well known , an employer dares not , admit his workmen into any degree of partnership , because thereby his whole property might bo jeopardized ; but if , us the great , principle of non-interference to which this country owes so much of its energy and superiority would dictate , people wore allowed to form partnerships on what , terms they pleased , partnerships with limited liabilities would probably noon become general ; and into these , under judicious regulations , any number of people might , safely be received . " Tho only cases in which it , seems proper for the law to interfere are where por-Hon . s attempt to mislead the public as to l , be real terms of their partnership , and thereby to obtain money or credit ; on fiilso pretences ; or where they evade the agreements they have entered into .
"On such an arrangement , as thai , contemplated a workman might put 10 / ., 20 ? ., 50 / ., or 100 / . into the concern in which be was employed , and to that extent become a partner ; receiving , in addition to bin wages as a workman , u proportionate share , of the general profits . And no doubt tho chief proprietor would noon find his account in this ; for , besides being relieved from tho anxiety attendant on having hi « whole property at stake , ho would puyluko hugely of . the benefit resulting
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February 19 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 187
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1853, page 187, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1974/page/19/
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