A YEAR'S CRIME.

Otago Witness, Issue 787, 28 December 1866, Page 16

A YEAR'S CRIME.

(From the Nonconformist.)

The judicial statistics of England and Wales tor the past year have just been pubished. The total number of murders was 135, being one in excess of the previous year. 76 were reported from the counties,

1 from boroughs, and 8 by the metropolitan police. In Lancashire 28 cases occurred, of which 13 came from Liverpool. n Yorkshire there were 15 cases; in Durham, 10 cases ;in Somerset, 7 ; in Southampton, 7; Ia Devon, 6 ; in Kent, 6; in Gloucester, Stafford, and Worcester, 5 each. Some of the remaining counties had smaller numbers, while in 13 English and Welsh counties no case of murder occurred. There were 54 attempts to murder as compared with 40 for the previous year ; and 279 cases of manslaughter as > compared with 214 fik the 1 previous year. „ Thejcases of stabbing, shooting at, &c, numbered 69, sho^. iug a decrease of four from the previous year. There were 232 cases of concealment of birth ia 1864 5, being less by three than in the preceding year. Of these, 119 were in the counties, 25 in boroughs, 88 in the metropolitan police district, and none in the City of London. The burglaries reported were 2615, being an increase of 24 on the previous return :

highway robberies, &c, 716 ; arson, 470 ; and attempted suicide, 787. The number of proved offences against the person was 2586; offences against property, with violence, 5160; malicious offences against property, 66£> ; other offence*, 43,298. The total number of persons convicted last year was 312,822, of whom 264,214 were males, and 50,668 females. The cases of stealing and attempting to steal numbered 44,908 ; the assault cases 98,776. There were 10,392 offences against the game laws. The total number of persons proceeded agaiust exceede 1 by 12,000 the number of the previous year. The total number of appeals to quarter sessions from the decisions of justices acting out of sessions in 1865 was 91, of which 57 were affirmed and 34 quashed. The coroners' inquests for last year amounted to 25,011, showing an increase of 224 over the previous year ; 17,566 were males and 7,445 females. The total cost of the inquests was L 74.915 4s 3d, giving an average for each inquest of L 2 19s lOd. The number of commitments in criminal proceedings for the year was 19,614, being very slightly in excess of the previous year. The capital convictions lor the last five years were as follows:— 1861, 26; 1862, 28; 1863, 29; 1864, 32; 1865, 20. Of the twenty persons sentenced to death in 1865, tight were left for execution — one committed Buieide in prison ; in eight the sentences were commuted to penal servitude for life, in one commuted to a year's imprisonment, in one the convict was sent to Broadmoor as insane, ia one (an Italian) a pardon was granted on condition of his leaving the, country, and ia one a free pardon was granted, the verdict not being considered satisfactory. The number of executions last year was seven, compared with 19 in 1864 and 22 in 1863. The number sentenced to death in 1865 is the lowest on record, and contrasts strongly with the number forty years before — the number in 1825 being 1036. The cost of proceedings on indictments paid by the Treasury last year was L 134.901 17s 103, or an average of 17 18s lOd for each case proceeded against. The total cost of the prisons last year was L 558.757 14s 3d. i