from Sir E. Henderson's Report. Apprehensions are rarer, and to escape conviction is comparatively easy.

Of those convicted the ages were as below :

10 years to under 15

1,158

The decade from 20 to 30 is, therefore, far the worst, as it is for nearly all crime.

The sentences received by those convicted are as under: 1 month, 266; 15 days to 1 month, 113; 8 days to 15 days, 370; 7 days and under, 452; fined, 18,112; to find bail, 270.

A Select Committee of the House of Commons reported in 1872, "There is entire concurrence of all the witnesses in the absolute inadequacy of existing law to check drunkenness, whether casual or otherwise, which renders it desirable that fresh legislation on the subject should take place, and that the laws should be made more simple, uniform, and stringent." And, again, "that small fines and short imprisonments are proved to be useless." Yet 18 out of 19 are merely fined; and a month remains the maximum of punishment even for those who have scores of previous convictions; and any legislation or police orders have been in the direction of increased laxity.

5. The worst months for intemperance were May (2,869 apprehensions), August (2,820), March (2,765), July (2,727), June 2,686), and October (2,616), and during most of these months temperance meetings, if not other counteractive and remedial measures usually flag, and are even not uncommonly suspended Is this reasonable or right? In April the females apprehended for drunkenness actually exceeded in number the males.

6. Of those apprehended 3,879 could neither read nor write, 1,105 could read and write well, and 43 are described as of superior instruction. In the preceding year, of those who could read and write well, only 73 were women, while the number in 1880 is 179. In both years only one of those of superior instruction was a woman, which would seem to show that the moral effect of education was visible chiefly, if not only, in women.

7. There were 239 publicans, &c., summoned by the police, but only 151 convicted-i.e. one to every 189 apprehended for drunkenness an eloquent fact.

8. The learned professions are thus represented: clergymen and ministers 6 (2 in 1879, and 4 in 1878); lawyers 16 (23 in 1879, 24 in 1878); and medical men 37 (80 in 1879, 56 in 1878).

Of those who describe themselves as of no trade or occupation 5,822 were men and 11,031 women, these latter being in most cases married women. We may note with pleasure that only 261 were described as female servants, as against 608 in 1879, and 585 in 1878. Clerks, whose education might presumably elevate them above intemperance, still rank high in the list, 396 being apprehended.

9. We must, of course, take these figures, saddening as they are, but as one item in the calculation of the amount of crime that is due to intemperance; for in thousands of other cases the murder, manslaughter, assault, suicide, wilful damage, desertion, and even theft, was due to, or committed under the influence of, intoxication. And even then, taking three-fourths of all crime as due to intemperance, we must add those thousands who have escaped notice, evaded apprehension or conviction, and the quiet and sotat-home drunkards. Any parish priest would probably know of ten undoubted drunkards, who had for the year, or perhaps always, escaped apprehension. We can begin to calculate from these returns, but must not consider the whole extent of the evil is herein indicated.

DRINK AND INSANITY.

ACCORDING to the thirty-fifth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, the total number of registered lunatics, idiots, and persons of unsound mind in England and Wales, on 1st January, 1881, was 73,113, being an increase of 1,922 upon the number registered on the 1st of January, 1880. Of the total named 7,741 were classed as private patients (4,087 males and 3,654 females), and 65,372 paupers (28,886 males and 36,486 females). During the year 1880 the new patients numbered 13,201 (100 in excess of the year 1879), being 6,353 males, and 6,848 females. Intemperance is reported to have been the predisposing or exciting cause of insanity amongst 1,676 of the new patients, of whom 1,230 were males and 446 females, being a proportion of 12.6 per cent. on the new cases admitted to the various asylums. This is a decrease upon the year 1879, when the proportion attributable to the effects of drink was 14.3.

The average weekly cost per head for maintenance, medicine, clothing, and care of patients in county and borough asylums, during the year 1880, was 9s. 91d. There is a separate charge for "wine, spirits, and porter" (except for the latter when used in ordinary diet), and the weekly cost is just under 1d. per head. There appears to be an increasing disposition to exclude the use of alcoholic drinks from the ordinary diet of the patients, or at

178 COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF DRUNKENNESS AND CRIME.

least to give them the option of having milk instead, which is now the practice at several asylums. At Barming Heath Asylum (Kent) the experiment of not giving beer to patients, except as a medical extra, is reported to have been successful and will be continued. At the Norfolk Asylum, the Commissioners report that Dr. Hills considered that the physical condition of the patients had improved since the use of malt liquors had been discontinued at the dinner time.

COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF DRUNKENNESS AND CRIME.

THE following table gives the figures relating to the consumption of intoxicating liquors, also cases of drunkenness and crime for the year 1860, and for each of the six years ending 1879 :-—

On comparing the figures in the above table for the year 1876 with those for 1860, it will be seen that there was an increase in the consumption of intoxicating liquors of 75 per cent.; in apprehensions for drunkenness of 132 per cent.; in the aggregate convictions for crime before magistrates of 106 per cent.; in cases of assault, of 41 per cent.; and in the grosser crimes, viz., indietable offences against the person, an increase of 51 per cent., although the population had only grown 22 per cent.

If the figures for 1879 be compared with those of 1876, it will be seen that the amount of intoxicating liquors consumed during the former year decreased 13 per cent. as compared with the latter; cases of drunkenness decreased 13 per cent.; the total convictions for crime, 4 per cent.; assaults, 15 per cent.; and the grosser crimes, viz., indictable offences against the person, 22 per cent. Mr. Hoyle's Letter to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.

DRINKING IN RELATION TO PAUPERISM, LUNACY, ETC. 179

1860

84.222,172

851,020

5,451,964

1851

94,942, 107

89,423

5,778,943

1862

88,867,563

946.166

6.077,922

1863

92,088,185

1,142,624

6 527,038

1864

1,0 9,289

6,423.381

759,462

971.433 6.264,966

1,034,823
1,039 549

88,361 255,803 38,058 119,026 731,994 83, 98 253,510 39,647 130,981 94,98 272,969 41.129 143,191 802 975 94,745 283,641 43,118 146,197 996,427 103,720.012 100,067 30,731 44,795 137,807 871,482 1865 106,439,561 105,310 312,882 45,95 139, 19 833,314 1866 113,925,458 104,365 339,691 47,648 137,986 782,358 1867 110,122,166 100,357 335,359 49,086 144,629 8 4,195 1868 113,464 874111,465 347,458 61,000 159.723 876,100 112,885,603 122,310 372,707 53,177 163,071 876,478 118 836.284 131,870 389,712 51,713 185,324 914,067 1,079,391 125,586,902 142,343 407,859 56.755 165,289 916,637 1,081,928 151,034 423.581 58,610 154,233 823,431 140,014,712 152 941 456,705 60,296 151.606 735,739 141,342 997 185,730 486,786 62,027 149,558 679.723 142,876,669 202,989 512,425 63,793 153,711 61,876 147,288,759 205,567 526,915 64,916 148,931 6 0,662 1877 142,007,23120,184 519,839 65,633 157,191 571,159 1878 142,188,900 194,549 538,232 68,538 166,875 575,828 1879 128,142,864 178,429 506,281 69.885 175,345 625 081 1880 122,279,275 71,191 189,304 649,637

920,314 6,439,617

958,824

The above table is extracted from "Crime and Pauperism; a Letter to the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, M.P., by William Hoyle." In this letter, which is dated November 3, 1881, Mr. Hoyle says:-"If the figures relating to crime be examined, the following facts will be manifest, viz., that 1876 was the year when there was the largest consumption of intoxicating liquors; it was also the year when there were the greatest number of apprehensions for drunkenness, and the largest number of convictions for crime; or, to put it in other words, the year 1876 shows more intoxicating liquors consumed, more apprehensions for drunkenness, and a greater number of convictions for crime than any year in the nation's history." In regard to pauperism he shows that "the number of indoor paupers in England and Wales, on the first of January, 1881, was greater, and the amount of money actually paid in relief to the poor during 1880 was greater, than during any year in the history of the country."

RETAIL LICENSES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

DETAIL OF LICENSES ON DEALERS IN AND RETAILERS OF EXCISABLE LIQUORS USED AS BEVERAGE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST MARCH, 1881.

* £7,910 was subsequently refunded to spirit retailers in England, and £596 in Ireland, either in consequence of the rateable value of the premises having been reduced on appeal, or the retailers being entitled to the hotel license at the reduced rate of £20 for houses of the value of £50 or upwards.