One very important section of the denizens of Darkest England are the criminals and the semi-criminals.They are more or less predatory,and are at present shepherded by the police and punished by the gaoler.
Their numbers cannot be ascertained with very great precision,but the following figures are taken from the prison returns of 1889:--The criminal classes of Great Britain,in round figures,sum up a total of no less than 90,000persons,made up as follows:--Convict prisons contain.11,660persons Local prisons contain.20,883,,Reformatories for children convicted of crime .1,270,,Industrial schools for vagrant and refractory children .21,413,,Criminal lunatics under restraint.910,,Known thieves at large .14,747,,Known receivers of stolen goods .1,121,,Suspected persons .17,042,,-------Total 89,046
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The above does not include the great army of known prostitutes,nor the keepers and owners of brothels and disorderly houses,as to whose numbers Government is rigidly silent.These figures are,however,misleading.They only represent the criminals actually in gaol on a given day.The average gaol population in England and Wales,excluding the convict establishments,was,in 1889,15,119but the total number actually sentenced and imprisoned in local prisons was 153,000,of whom 25,000only came on first term sentences;76,300of them had been convicted at least 10times.But even if we suppose that the criminal class numbers no more than 90,000,of whom only 35,000persons are at large,it is still a large enough section of humanity to compel attention.90,000criminals represents a wreckage whose cost to the community is very imperfectly estimated when we add up the cost of the prisons,even if we add to them the whole cost of the police.
The police have so many other duties besides the shepherding of criminals that it is unfair to saddle the latter with the whole of the cost of the constabulary.The cost of prosecution and maintenance of criminals,and the expense of the police involves an annual outlay of #4,437,000.This,however,is small compared with the tax and toll which this predatory horde inflicts upon the community on which it is quartered.To the loss caused by the actual picking and stealing must be added that of the unproductive labour of nearly 65,000adults.
Dependent upon these criminal adults must be at least twice as many women and children,so that it is probably an under-estimate to say that this list of criminals and semi-criminals represents a population of at least 200,000,who all live more or less at the expense of society.
Every year,in the Metropolitan district alone,66,100persons are arrested,of whom 444are arrested for trying to commit suicide--life having become too unbearable a burden.This immense population is partially,no doubt,bred to prison,the same as other people are bred to the army and to the bar.The hereditary criminal is by no means confined to India,although it is only in that country that they have the engaging simplicity to describe themselves frankly in the census returns.But it is recruited constantly from the outside.In many cases this is due to sheer starvation.Fathers of the Church have laid down the law that a man who is in peril of death from hunger is entitled to take bread wherever he can find it to keep body and soul together.That proposition is not embodied in our jurisprudence.
Absolute despair drives many a man into the ranks of the criminal class,who would never have fallen into the category of criminal convicts if adequate provision had been made for the rescue of those drifting to doom.When once he has fallen,circumstances seem to combine to keep him there.As wounded and sickly stags are gored to death by their fellows,so the unfortunate who bears the prison brand is hunted from pillar to post,until he despairs of ever regaining his position,and oscillates between one prison and another for the rest of his days.I gave in a preceding page an account of how a man,after trying in vain to get work,fell before the temptation to steal in order to escape starvation.Here is the sequel of that man's story.
After he had stolen he ran away,and thus describes his experiences:--"To fly was easy.To get away from the scene required very little ingenuity,but the getting away from one suffering brought another.
A straight look from a stranger;a quick step behind me,sent a chill through every nerve.The cravings of hunger had been satisfied,but it was the cravings of conscience that were clamorous now.It was easy to get away from the earthly consequences of sin,but from the fact--never.And yet it was the compulsion of circumstances that made me a criminal.It was neither from inward viciousness or choice,and how bitterly did I cast reproach on society for allowing such an alternative to offer itself--'to Steal or Starve,'but there was another alternative that here offered itself--either give myself up,or go on with the life of crime.I chose the former.I had travelled over 100miles to get away from the scene of my theft,and I now find myself outside the station house at a place where I had put in my boyhood days.
"How many times when a lad,with wondering eyes,and a heart stirred with childhood's pure sympathy,I had watched the poor waifs from time to time led within its doors.It was my turn now.I entered the charge room,and with business-like precision disclosed my errand,viz.
that I wished to surrender myself for having committed a felony.
My story was doubted.Question followed question,and confirmation must be waited.'Why had I surrendered?''I was a rum'un.''Cracked.'
