Pp. 568-572.

punishment.

The Laws of Mental Association, first brought prominently into notice by Hobbes, have attained the singular distinction in psychology of acceptance by psychologists of every shade of opinion. Men act upon them, indeed, as familiar maxims in everyday Labour and life, who have never thought upon them as laws; and so do children, if it be true that the burnt child dreads the fire and takes care not to be burnt a second time. It is unnecessary to give a full account of them in this place; psychologists will understand without difficulty the reference made to them in the text, and they are explained in every psychological work of importance. It can hardly be doubted that, could the pauper and criminal be taught to associate the ideas of sustenance and comfort with the idea of industry, both pauperism and crime would be diminished.

The Howard Association (though, I believe, without anywhere proposing any scheme in accordance with the voluntary system suggested in the text) have been enthusiastic advocates of the employment of prisoners in productive labour, as distinguished from such punishments as the crank, the shot-drill, and the tread-mill. See their Reports, passim.

For the opinions of the Judges, Chairmen of Quarter Sessions, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, Stipendiary Magistrates, etc. see Reports to the Secretary of State for the Home Pp. 573-578. Department on the State of the Law relating to Brutal Brutal assaults. Assaults etc.,' 1875. The description of modern flogging is from what I have seen myself in Newgate Gaol.

Pp. 580-584.

crime.

Among the latest expositions of medical theories in their relations to crime may be mentioned Dr. Maudsley's 'Responsibility in Mental Disease,' a work in which (though full force is given to the doctrine that crime is frequently an evidence of insanity), Insanity and the deterrent effects of prospective punishment are not, as elsewhere, left altogether out of consideration (p. 129). In many. other medical writings on the subject there seems too little allowance made for the fact that any real tendencies which prisoners may show towards insanity may be in part at least caused by their imprisonment, and the generally depressing circumstances in which they are placed.

The suggestion made in the text that abnormal or unnatural sexual offences might fairly be regarded as evidence of mental infirmity is very strongly supported by a table given at p. 27 of the Results of Censuses of the Population of Convict Prisons in England,' taken 1862 and 1873. It there appears that the males convicted both of crimes contra naturam and of rape, are found to be in a far higher degree than males convicted of most other offences weak-minded, epileptic, or insane' in other

respects besides their abnormal tastes; see also Dr. Norman Chevers' 'Indian Medical Jurisprudence.'

The evidence that one kind of abnormal sexual crime is associated with physical, and therefore probably with mental weakness, is rendered most apparent in the form in which the French criminal statistics are prepared. In the 'Compte Général de l'Administration de la Justice. criminelle en France, 1868' (pub. in 1870), the whole of the men above eighty years of age who were accused at the Cours d'Assises, were accused of the same offence-' Viol sur des enfans au dessous de quinze ans,' and they were all convicted. They were, it is true, but 3 in number, but there were 57 men between the ages of 70 and 80 accused of the same offence out of a total of only 61 accused of offences of all kinds. Between the ages of 65 and 70 there were 47 accused of this offence out of a total of 78; between the ages of 60 and 65 there were 33 out of a total of 88; between the ages of 55 and 60 there were 66 out of a total of 177; between the ages of 50 and 55 there were 63 out of a total of 221, and so on progressively until we arrive at the accused between the ages of 30 and 35, of whom only 61 were accused of this offence out of a total of 571. At the age of mature manhood the crime is comparatively rare, but is a little more common between the ages of 16 and 21, at which there were 102 accused of it out of a total of 694. The year 1868 (from the statistics for which these figures have been taken) was by no means exceptional, but is fairly representative of ordinary conditions. Similar results present themselves when the criminal returns of any other year are inspected, even though the enquiry be carried back half a century. See Guerry, 'Statistique Morale de la France,' p. 21; and Quetelet, 'L'Homme et ses Facultés,' p. 247. The form in which our English Judicial Statistics are drawn up does not afford the means of obtaining any information on the frequency with which persons of different ages are accused of criminal assaults upon children, but there is no doubt that the oldest men are in England the greatest offenders.

The evidence that pauperism varies inversely with drunkenness, and consequently with summary convictions, and that the payment of wages has a great effect in increasing the number of persons. charged with drunkenness and disorderly conduct on certain days of the week, has been given in the notes to Chapter xii. p. 654.

Pp. 584-589. Prosperity, adversity, drunkenness, and crime.

The Criminal Tables from 1810 downwards, afford some indication that hard times, and increased competition or diminished demand for labour, are attended and followed by an increase of commitments for larceny and graver offences, and better times by a decrease. The year 1815, when the troops returned home and began to compete with other

labourers, was attended and followed by a marked increase of commitments; so also was the year 1825, when there was great commercial depression. In the year 1835, in which there was a great decrease in the price of corn, following a successive decrease in the three previous years, there was a considerable decrease also in the number of commitments. In the years 1847 and 1848, in which there was much distress, there was also a great increase in the number of commitments, to be followed by a decrease in 1850 when there was renewed prosperity, and by an increase in 1854, when there was a war with Russia. See further the table (printed at p. xix of the 'Report of the Directors of Convict Prisons' for the year 1873) showing the population of England and Wales, with the number of sentences to imprisonment, transportation, and penal servitude, for forty years. See also the table compiled by Mr. Fletcher (at p. 168 of vol. xii. of the Journal of the Statistical Society), showing the progress of criminal commitments from 1810 to 1847, and comparing them with the prices of wheat during the same period; see also vol. ii. of the same Journal, p. 88, and vol. xviii., pp. 74-79 (papers by the Chaplain of the County House of Correction at Preston, on the effect of good and bad times on the commitments to prison), vol. xx., pp. 77-8 (paper by Mr. Walsh), and vol. xxviii., pp. 505-519, 'On the Statistics of Crime in Australia' by Mr. Westgarth. The effect of times of adversity in increasing indictable (or the more grave) offences is shown also in the Judicial Statistics from year to year, in which it is made apparent that crime is more prevalent in the winter months (October to March) than in the remainder. See (e.g.) 'Jud. Stat., Eng.,' 1873, p. xii and pp. 9-12. See also Quetelet, 'Sur l'Homme,' vol. ii., p. 220, and Guerry, Statistique Morale de la France.' In France, at least, the excess of crime during the winter months applies to crime against property alone, as crimes against the person (rape etc.), are in excess in the summer months.

The population of Scotland in 1841 was 2,620,184, and the number of persons apprehended for drunkenness and disorderly conduct 12,509, or one in 208; in 1851 the population was 2,888,742, and the number of persons apprehended for the same offences 27,643, or one in 104. The population of England and Wales was in 1841 15,914,418, and the number of persons apprehended for the same offences 75,268, or one in 211; in 1851 the population was 17,927,609, and the number of persons apprehended for the same offences 70,097, or one in 255.1

For statements made by criminals themselves of the effects of drunkenness in producing crime (which, however, are for obvious reasons probably much exaggerated) see papers by the Chaplain of Preston

1 'Census Report,' 1871, vol. iv. p. 4; and 'Parl. Paper, H. C. Sess. 1853,' No. 531, pp. 6-7.

Gaol, in vol. i., p. 124, and vol. ii., p. 87, of the Journal of the Statistical Society.

It is needless to refer again to the many passages in the text in which the connexion of the military spirit with crime is pointed out. The painful effects of war, however, upon highly civilised countries may be inferred from the French 'Compte Général de l'Administration de la Justice criminelle' of the successive years 1872-1874.

P. 592.

INDEX.