CRIME IN ENGLAND AND IN IRELAND.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 541, 6 July 1869, Page 4

CRIME IN ENGLAND AND IN IRELAND.

The official volume of " Judicial Statistics of Ireland" for the year 1867" shows that in that year the police report, among the cases for indictment, 1306 offences against the person ; and Dr Hancock, the compiler of the volume, comparing the returns with those for England in 1866 (writing probably before he could have access to a digest of the English returns for 1867), calculates that the Irish return, to be equal with that for England, allowing for difference of population, should have showed only 753 offences against the person, instead of 1306. Tin? large difference between the returns of the two countries is caused mainly by the larger number in Ireland of cases of assault of such a character that they are sent for indictment, and not disposed of summarily. The murders also in Ireland, reported by the police in their returns for 1867, 64 in all, were nearly twice as many as in a like population in England in 1866, but the attempts to murder, and wounding with intent to do bodily harm, were much less numerous in Ireland than in a like population in England — 107 instead of 191. The police reports show further a much smaller number of offences against property in Ireland than in an equal population in England. It must be borne in mind, however, that in Ireland there are twice as many policemen to population as the number in England, and much less property to tempt thieves. If we reckon the murders according to the verdicts of coroners' juries, murder would seem to be far more frequent (in an equal population) in England than in Ireland ; but further legal investigation often shews that the verdicts of coroners' juries have to be qualified and corrected. The Irish coroners' returns of 1867 state 45 murders pf infants and 30 pf persons above a year old, making 75 in all, and this is 40 less than would make a mvnber equal to that of the coroners' returns for a like populatipn in England. Taking the coroners' returns of all murders in Ireland in 1867 and in England in 1866, the number of infanticides were nearly equal in both countries in an equal population ; but infanticide in Ireland was 62 times as prevalent as murder among the population above a year old (allowing for the number of each class living), and in England 23 times as prevalent as murder among the older population. The verdicts of coroners' juries are by no means an infallible guide to the character of the crime ; but, whether murders or not, the number of violent deaths of infants, both in England and Ireland, is very startling. The number of persons proceeded against summarily in Ireland in 1867 for being druuk, or drunk and disorderly, should have been 27,465 to be in the same ratio to population as in England ; but, instead of this, they were 76,415, of whom 57,572 men and 11,567 women were convicted. The effect of the large proportion of police in Ireland is illustrated by such returns as the following : — The police returns in Ireland show the number of known prostitutes to be

3032, as compared with 6819 in an equal proportion in England, and yet there were 3693 charges against prostitutes under the Vagrant Acts in Ireland, and only 1644 in an equal population in England, The criminal classes at large in Ireland in 1867 are enumerated as follows : — Known thieves, 2755 ; receivers of stolen goods, 1053 ; prostitutes, 3032 ; suspected persons, 3521 ; making a total of 10,361, which (allowing for difference of population) is not quite half the number in England. But the vagrants and tramps in Ireland, 12,626, were 3892 more than in an equal population in England. This is attributed partly to the absence of industrial schools in Ireland, and partly to the more stringent Poor-law of Ireland ; the average number of persons relieved being much less than a third of the number in a like amount of population in England. Adding to the criminal classes at large the number in prisons and reformatories, the total '1 number (including tramps and vagrants) of the criminal classes in Ireland in 1867 is found to be 27,424, being nearly 10,000 less than the number in an equal population in England ; so that the number in prison and out of prison was 26 per cent, less than in England,