punishments. This is most conspicuous in the numbers sentenced to transportation, which, on a comparison of the two last periods of three years, has decreased 14.1 per cent., a ratio more than double the decrease of the Commitments. The sentences passed in the two last periods of three years were as follows: 58 2 13 3 18 Imprisonment above 3 years 3 years, and above 2 years 1 year 35 10 13 548 465 464 1,477 464 454 360 1,278 6 mths. 2,064 2,060 2,594 6,718 2,332 1,927 1,654 5,913 6 months, and under 12,462 13,212 14,799 40,473 13,477 12,574 12,035 38,086 632 653 601 1,886 531 566 398 1,495 2 years, 1 year, Whipped, Fined, and Discharged In the six years above-mentioned, the number of prisoners detained in custody as insane was― In each of the six Classes of Offences the proportion of Acquittals and Discharges in the last year was as follows: Malicious Offences against Property... 65.77 22.37 5th Forgery, and Offences against the Currency.. The considerable variation shown by the above figures would probably to a great extent arise from the difficulty of proof which attends some crimes, and in consequence of the severe penalties which attach to others. The direct comparison of the ages of criminals extends no further back than the last four years; the periods under which they are calculated having been altered in 1842, to assimilate them to the quinquennial periods adopted in the general census. The two following Tables prove a decrease of the offenders classed under each of the several periods of age; but that the decrease has been much less on the class under 20 than on the class above that age. This is clearly shown by the increasing proportion of the offenders aged under 15 years, and aged 15 and under 20 years, and the decreasing proportion of those above that age. The increasing proportion of Female offenders, which has been remarked in former Tables, still continues. During the time of the great increase of the commitments, this proportion increased in a higher ratio; and it has not decreased in an equal ratio in the last three years of decreasing commitments. Thus there appears to be an almost uninterrupted increase in the proportion of Female offenders; for the sudden decrease in 1842 is peculiar to that year, and is caused by the commitment of 1,141 persons for seditious offences, who were all males. The increase in the first of the above three years, 1837-39, was comprised of 20.8 per cent. females, and 8.9 per cent, only of males. In the second three years, 1840-42, which includes the seditious offences, 23.3 per cent. of females, and 20.8 per cent. of males. The decrease in the last three years, 1843-45, was females 4.3 per cent., and males 7.2 per cent. The information with respect to the instruction received by the persons committed shows, as in former years, that the proportion of those who have been entirely without instruction continues to decrease, and the proportion of those who have received the first elements of instruction to increase in nearly the same ratio,-a result which must be attributed to the increasing diffusion of education, of which it is a proof. The following figures show the relative proportion in each of the last nine years: The centesimal proportion of the different degrees of instruction in the last three years of decreasing commitments is compared, in the following Table, with the two previous periods of three years of increasing commitments; From the preceding Table, it is clear that the increasing proportion of criminals who have received the first elements of instruction suffered no interruption during the great decrease of commitments in the last three years. This is an additional proof, were such necessary, that instruction is unconnected with the causes which lead to crime; and that the increase in the proportion of instructed criminals must, as already stated, be referred to the progress of instruction among the classes from which the criminals come. The Table exhibits another important fact, that in the three years, 1840-42, a period of much suffering to the labouring classes, when distress may have led many, who would have withstood ordinary temptations, to the commission of crime, the rate of increase of those who had received the first degree of instruction was more than double what it had been in the three antecedent, or in the three succeeding years; but the rate of decrease of those who were entirely uninstructed continued the same. WHITEHALL, 4th April, 1846. PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Fourth Ordinary Meeting, 1845-6. Monday, 16th February 1846. Rev. Dunbar S. Halkett. Thomas B. Stephen, Esq. The following gentlemen were proposed for election into the Society: Thomas Wigglesworth, Esq. The following paper was read: The Influence of Prices of Wheat on Mortality. By William Farr, Fifth Ordinary Meeting, 1845-6. Monday, 16th March, 1846. On the Principles of Railway Management, and on the profitable increase in the Traffic produced by great reductions in the Charges. By J. Butler Williams, Esq., F.S.S., F.G.S. Sixth Ordinary Meeting, 1845-6. Monday, 20th April, 1846. The following gentlemen were proposed for election into the Society : Robert Peake, Esq. The following paper was read: William Shirreff, Esq. The Criminal Courts of the Metropolis, and their Operation. By Joseph Fletcher, Esq., Honorary Secretary. Seventh Ordinary Meeting, 1845-6. Monday, 18th May, 1846. The following gentlemen were elected Fellows: 1. Prevalence and Alleged Increase of Scrofula. By Benjamin Phillips, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.S., &c. 2. Mortality of the Madras Army from Official Records. By Lieut.Colonel Sykes, F.R.S. MISCELLANEOUS. STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH IN THE QUARTER. "THE Quarterly Returns are obtained from 115 Districts, sub-divided into 576 Sub-Districts. Thirty-four Districts are placed under the Metropolis, and the remaining 81 Districts comprise, with some agricultural Districts, the principal towns and cities of England. The population was 6,579,693 in 1841." 43,708 deaths were registered in the last winter quarter (ending March 31st). This number is less by 6166 than the number (49,874) registered in the winter quarter of 1845. If the increase of the population (about 1·74 per cent. annually) be taken into account, the mortality will also be found to have been less in the last winter than in any of the eight previous winters. This marked diminution of the mortality occurred in more than two-thirds of the Districts from which returns are procured; but is most obvious in the Metropolis, in the Western and North-Western Divisions. In the Districts of the Northern Division, alone, of England, the mortality was considerably higher than in the winters of 1844 and 1845; and this is referred by the Registrars to epidemics of Scarlatina in Sunderland, Tynemouth, and Carlisle. The annexed Table shews that the mortality was considerably above the average in the winter quarters (ending March 31st) of 1838, 1840, 1841, and 1845,-and much below the average of the winter quarters of 1843, 1844, and 1846. Deaths Registered in 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 the March quarters 45,783 42,258 46,206 46,809 44,746 43,620 45,965 49,874 43,708 of 9 years Deaths which would) have been registered if the mortality had been uniform, and the numbers had in-42,392 43,134 43,889 44,657 45,438 46,233 47,042 47,865 48,703 Temperature, the command of food by the working-classes, epidemics, and the general condition of the streets and dwellings, have all a certain effect on the rates of mortality; but there can be little doubt that the low mortality in the present Table is to be ascribed to the extraordinary mildness of the winter of 1846. The mean temperature at the Greenwich Observatory was nearly 5 degrees above the average of 25 years, 8 degrees above the average temperature of the winter of 1845. The mean temperature of the week ending February 14th was 36 degrees; of the week ending March 21st, 38 degrees; of all the other eleven weeks in the quarter the mean temperature was 40 degrees and upwards. The south-west winds prevailed; the fall of rain at Greenwich was nearly 6 inches; 10.26 inches of rain fell at Helston, 13.35 inches at Truro, only 1.92 inches at Newcastle-on-Tyne. (See Meteorological Table, p. 5.) The effects of temperature in the Metropolis are shewn by the annexed Tables. Deaths in the Metropolis from all Causes, exclusive of Violent and Sudden Deaths. Number of Weeks Winter Quarter Mean Temperature ...... 18 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 1845 1320 1089 990 976 970 963 1082 1097 1097 1079 1034 1132 1115 1846 1038 942 1003 874 878 888 858 907 894 829 874 832 988 1845 37.6 40.3 40.8 39.5 32 4 33-4 29-3 311 37.5 29.3 231 33 5 47.0 1846 40 8 40 8 416 489 47.7 43.7 36.2 44.1 51.7 47.6 44.2 38.2 42.9 THE METROPOLIS.-The deaths by Small-pox were 77, and ranged from 3 to 9, weekly. In 1845, 481 persons died of Small-pox. Measles was the prevailing epidemic at the beginning, Hooping Cough at the end of the quarter. Typhus, though more prevalent than in the winters of 1840, 1841, and 1842, was much less fatal than in the winters of 1839 and 1843. |