numbers in Scotland, and adding for travellers and visitors, the number of persons of Irish birth in England and Wales in 1863, may be estimated at less than 800,000, or about oneseventh of the population of Ireland; but oneseventh of the committals in Ireland would be, in 1863, 7,856. It would thus appear that the committals amongst 800,000 Irishmen in England and Wales were nearly two and a half times greater than the number of committals amongst the same number of Irishmen at home.

The following is a summary of some of the principal results of the Irish criminal statistics noticed in the preceding report :

"A favourable feature of these statistics is the decrease in the number of persons committed or bailed for trial at assizes and quarter sessions, from 6,666 in 1862, to 6,078 in 1863.

"A decrease took place in the following crimes-murder, from 41 to 22; manslaughter, from 90 to 65; burglary, from 117 to 101; housebreaking, from 54 to 38; robbery, from 95 to 62; assembling armed unlawfully, from 28 to 11.

"As respects the conduct of the labouring classes, it is satisfactory to observe, that whilst offences connected with combinations or conspiracies to raise the rate of wages were at the small number of 15 in 1862, there were no persons tried at the assizes or quarter sessions for these offences in 1863.

"An unfavourable feature in the Irish criminal statistics of 1863, is the increase of the following offences ;-sending letters threatening to murder, from 10 to 22; shooting at, stabbing, and wounding, from 65 to 107; taking and holding forcible possession of land, from 83 to 135; attacking and injuring dwellinghouses and lands, from 13 to 26. The special offence of setting fire to dwelling-houses, persons being therein, which is chiefly committed by disorderly inmates of workhouses, increased from 7 in 1862 to 24 in 1863.

"It is satisfactory to find that Ireland, in 1863, has fewer criminal classes known to the police than is to be found in an equal population in England and Wales. Thus the Irish criminal classes known to the police are 22,290, whilst in an equal population in England and Wales they are 31,090. The number of the

criminal classes in confinement exhibits a no less satisfactory result. Thus, there were in Ireland in 1863, in local prisons (exclusive of debtors), 2,803, in convict prisons, 1,768, and in reformatories, 591, or 5,162 in all; whilst in an equal population in England and Wales there were 4,854 in local prisons, 2,167 in convict prisons, and 883 in reformatories, or 7,904 in all.

"A favourable feature in the statistics of the criminal classes in Ireland is the small amount of prostitution-the number of prostitutes. being 3,465-whilst there are in an equal population in England and Wales, 7,783. The number of brothels or houses of ill-fame are, in Ireland, 657, and in an equal population of England and Wales, 1,947.

"An unfavourable feature in the statistics of the Irish criminal classes are the vagrants and tramps under 16 years of age, which were in 1863, 3,399, as compared with 1,975, to be found in an equal population in England and Wales.

"Whilst the number of the criminal classes is so much less in Ireland than in England and Wales, the number of offences committed is greater. This greater number, however, is made up mainly of offences of a less serious character. Thus the number of offences determined summarily in Ireland, in 1863, was 227,522, whilst the corresponding number, in an equal population in England and Wales, was 108,170: this gives an excess of 119,352 in the Irish offences. The heads under which this excess chiefly occurred are, drunkenness, and drunk and disorderly, 35,039; Highway Acts, 36,720; common assaults, 8,834; Nuisance Removal Acts, 7,807; Stage and Hackney Carriage Acts, 5,105; malicious and wilful damage and trespass, 4,987; breaches of the peace and want of sureties, 4,480; and offences not classified, 18,234: these heads make a total of 121,206, more than accounting for the excess. The punishments inflicted upon those convicted summarily indicate that the excess in Ireland was amongst offences of a less serious character than in England and Wales; thus, of 187,005 persons convicted in Ireland, 141,169 were fined, and only 287 got more than three months' imprisonment, and only 21 were whipped. In England and Wales, of those convicted there were fourteen times as

many as in Ireland sentenced to whipping, seven times as many imprisoned above three months, five times as many sent to reformatory schools, and four times as many imprisoned for upwards of fourteen days.

"It appears that in the entire of Ireland, exclusive of the Dublin metropolitan police district, there were 7,274 of the more serious offences, that is, indictable offences not determined summarily, committed in 1863, as compared with 13,387 in an equal population in England and Wales.

66 A favourable feature of the statistics of crimes committed in Ireland (outside the Dublin metropolitan police district), is the small number of the following crimes :murder, attempts to murder, and shooting at, 165, whilst the corresponding English proportion is 225; manslaughter 47, as compared with 62, the English proportion; offences against property, with violence, 569, as compared with 1,393, the English proportion; and offences against property, without violence, 2,807, as compared with 10,234, the English proportion. The unfavourable features of the criminal statistics of Ireland (outside Dublin) are malicious offences against property 892, as compared with 196, the English proportion; assaults with intent to do bodily harm 492, as compared with 72, the English proportion; and assaults 1,187, as compared with 121, the English proportion.

"Another favourable feature of the statistics for Ireland is the small number of inquests, 2,929, whilst the number in an equal population in England and Wales was 6,150.

"In connexion with the smaller number of the more serious crimes in Ireland, and especially of crimes against property, with or without violence, and the smaller number of the criminal classes in Ireland than in England and Wales, the proportion of police to population is important to notice. The average proportion of police to population in Ireland is 1 to 417, whilst in England and Wales it is 1 to 887. The greatest police force is in the North Riding of the county of Tipperary, where it is 1 to 195. The greatest proportion in England. and Wales is at Hove in Sussex, where it is 1 to 418. The lowest proportion of police to population in Ireland is in the county of Londonderry, where it is 1 to 1,000. The

highest proportion in any county in England is in the Island of Ely, where it is 1 to 1,063, and the lowest in Rutlandshire, where it is 1 to 2,733. In the borough of St. Ives, in Cornwall, the proportion of police to population is as low as 1 to 7,027.

"The cost of the police in Ireland is 780,111 12s. 4d., or 2s. 81d. per head of population, of which 9 per cent., or 2ąd., is paid from the local taxes, and 91 per cent., or 28. 54d., from the general taxes. The cost of the police in England and Wales is 1,658,2657. 14s. 5d., or 1s. 74d. per head of population, of which 76 per cent., or 1s. 3d., is paid from local taxes, and 24 per cent., or 4ąd., from the general taxes.

"A point of importance in connexion with the great excess in Ireland of juvenile vagrants and tramps under 16 years of age, is the absence of industrial schools in Ireland. There were 1,339 children in the English industrial schools in 1863.

"Another point similarly suggested is the large number of persons confined as criminal lunatics in Ireland, 755, compared with 251, the number so confined amongst an equal population in England and Wales. The very different nature of the offences for which they appear to have been confined is also observable -90 per cent. of the committals in Ireland being by justices, while in England and Wales only 8 per cent. are committals by justices; and in Ireland only 1 per cent. are convicts who have become insane after trial, and have been removed by order of the Lord Lieutenant, while in England and Wales 62 per cent. are convicts who have become insane after trial, and have been removed by order of the Secretary of State."

"The commissioners obtained returns to show what number of Irish-born persons have been removed to Ireland from England and Scotland since the close of the last session of Parliament, when an Act was passed to amend the law of removal from England to Ireland. The principal amendments in that Act (26 and 27 Vict., cap. 89) are contained in the second, third, fourth and fifth sections, and were intended to provide for the continuous safe custody of the person removed until delivered by the person in charge of him at the workhouse of the union in Ireland to which he had been directed by warrant to be removed; and, in the next place, to secure by penalty a strict observance of the section prohibiting females and children under fourteen to be removed as deck passengers in the interval between the 1st October and the 31st March. In the few months which have elapsed since the Act was passed, the provisions above mentioned appear to have been less carefully attended to by the Guardians of English metropolitan parishes and unions than by the removing authorities in other parts of England.

"Considering the long continuance of the distress in Lancashire, the rare occurrence of removals from that county into Ireland is remarkable, and cannot be owing altogether to the operation of the change as to the term and area of the residence which constitutes irremovability, but rather to the liberality of the relief afforded from private as well as public sources. The number of persons who become chargeable and appear likely to remain so in the Irish workhouses after removal from England and Scotland is not a large proportion of the number actually removed, so far as may be judged from returns recently supplied to us from the workhouses to which they were removed. Of 222 persons removed from England between the 1st September and the present time, 100 only remain chargeable in the unions to which they were removed; and of 116 persons removed from Scotland in the same period, 32 were so chargeable. There were, during the same period, 156 persons placed under orders in England who had not arrived at their destination; and 70 under orders from Scotland who had not so arrived.

"When it is considered that the Irish poor rates are still suffering from the effects of three

successive bad seasons, and that the burthen still rests upon Ireland of maintaining Irishborn subjects removed in a destitute state from Great Britain, without any reciprocal right of removing to Great Britain British-born subjects falling destitute in Ireland, it is satisfactory to find that in the first beginning of what we trust may prove to be a series of favourable seasons, so decided a relief has been obtained in the pressure of pauperism and in the burthen of relief expenditure, as we confidently expect will be found to have occurred at the termination of the present financial year.

"The tide of emigration from Ireland to America, which has set in with increased force during the last twelve months, has little effect one way or the other on the expenditure of the poor rates in Ireland, beyond the increased amount which the guardians of unions may expend in assisting the emigration of such poor persons wishing to emigrate as might otherwise remain, or become chargeable on the rates. By a comparison of the sums contained in the instruments authorizing such expenditure, we find that in the twelve months ending 25th March, 1864, the expenditure (viz., 4,770l. 4s. 5d.) exceeded that of the preceding twelve months (viz., 2,541l. 3s. 8d.,) by 2,2291. Os. 9d.

.

"The parties emigrating at their own expense are of such a class that if they remained in Ireland they would not be likely to become chargeable, and their departure therefore is no relief to the unions in that respect. It is possible, on the other hand, that some increase to the rates may occur by reason of the emigrant, in a few cases, leaving dependents or relations behind him, who may by his departure be rendered destitute either for a time or permanently; but it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which this may be occurring throughout the country.

the lunatic asylums now in course of construction are complete, it is hoped the workhouses may be relieved to some extent from a class of inmates for which they are not suited.

"The amount of poor rate lodged in the year ended 29th September, 1863, was 723,8431.; the amount of expenditure was 605,9817., and the number relieved 317,6247., showing some increase on the previous year in all these items. The net annual value of property rated in the year ended 29th September, 1863, was 12,623,5391.

"Under the Medical Charities Act there was issued during the year 697,682 dispensary tickets and 192,929 visiting tickets; total, 890,616. The expenditure for medical charities amounted to 109,2061. The number of cases of vaccination was 106,510.

"Notwithstanding the degree of distress indicated by the relief returns for the past year, the alleged cases of death from want have been fewer than in former years. A great facility is now universally afforded to all classes of poor persons in Ireland, not excepting even the holders of land, to obtain admission into the workhouse infirmaries or hospitals for medical treatment in sickness of any description; and we believe that this state of the law, liberally and carefully administered, is the best safeguard which could be furnished against the occurrence of casualties like those referred to. It is satisfactory, at the same time, to observe that much more than half of the out-door relief afforded in the year ended 29th September, 1863, is found from the returns to have been afforded to the families of male or female adults disabled from labour by sickness or accident."

OPEN SPACES (METROPOLIS).

Second Report from the Committee appointed to Inquire into the Best Means of Preserving for Public Use the Forests, Commons, and Open Spaces in and around the Metropolis. THE Committee was appointed the 21st February, 1865, and on the 3rd March was nominated of Messrs. Doulton, Cowper, Viscount Bury, Sir H. Willoughby, Locke King, Du Cane, Henry Baillie, Sir John Shelley, John Tollemache, Kinnaird, Bentinck, Peacocke, Hanbury, Vance, Locke, Lyall, Buxton, Tor

rens, Shaw Lefevre, Aldermen Rose and Cox; Mr. Locke in the chair. The committee sat fourteen times, and examined the following witnesses-The Hon. Charles A. Gore, Commissioner of Woods and Forests, Mr. James Anderson Rose, solicitor, Thomas Turner, treasurer at Guy's Hospital, Colonel Alcock, Philip Hemery Le Breton, and Josiah Wilkinson, members of the Metropolitan Board of Works, Henry Mason Stewart, of the manor of Epsom, George White, clerk of the Board of Health of Epsom, Thomas Alex. Hankey, Robert J. P. Jaquet, and James Levick, of Epsom, Robert Brooks, M.P. for Weymouth, Harry B. Farnall, of the Poor Law Board, Charles A. Smith, clerk of the District Board of Works, Plumstead, Rev. William Aldwin Soames, of Greenwick, Thomas Parker, steward of Lord Dartmouth, Stephen Riddington, of Plumstead and Lewisham Board, John Douglas, surveyor of the Hampstead Board of Works, Frederick James Clark, steward of the manor of Hampstead, Thomas Drake, of Peckham, Charles Graham, deputy-steward of the Lord of the manor of Peckham Rye, Thomas Alcock, M.P., Vice-Admiral W. A. B. Hamilton, of Blackheath, Professor Airy, the Astronomer Royal, John Clutton, Receiver of the Crown Rents for the County of Kent, J. P. Gapiot, of Clapham, Robert Hudson and Benjamin Field, of Clapham, Chester Cheston, steward of the manor of Hackney, Richard Ellis, clerk of the Hackney Board of Works, James Lovegrove, surveyor to the Hackney Board of Works, Henry Doulton, of Tooting, and William James Thompson, Lord of the Manor, John Thwaites, Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works, Hon. James Kenneth Howard, Commissioner of Woods and Forests, Peter Erle, Chief Commissioner on the Charity Commission, Charles Watkins, Forest Keeper of Waltham Forest, and Purlieu Ranger, John Gardiner, solicitor to the Board of Works, J. G. B. Marshall, District Surveyor of the West Ham Board of Health, Sir Denis Le Marchant, Clerk of the House of Commons, and George Wingrove Cooke. And on the 20th June they reported as follows:

"Your committee have proceeded with the inquiry intrusted to them, having in view the resolution of the House, that it is the duty of her Majesty's Government to take steps for

the preservation of the commons and open spaces in and near the metropolis.' They have had the advantage of the opinions of Mr. Wingrove Cooke and Mr. Ridley, inclosure commissioners; of the Hon. Charles Gore and the Hon. James Kenneth Howard, commissioners of her Majesty's woods and forests; Mr. Peter Erle, chief commissioner on the Charity Commission; Mr. Thwaites (now Sir John Thwaites), the chairman, and Mr. Philip Hemery Le Breton, a member of the metropolitan Board of Works, all of whom have been examined before them. They have also examined the lords of several manors and other witnesses interested in the forests, commons, and open spaces, the subject of their inquiry; and they have taken much general and local evidence, with a view of ascertaining as well the present rights affecting those spaces of considering the course they should recommend the House to adopt in future legislation respecting them.

"The first question your committee had to determine was, the limit to which their inquiry should extend. The limit of 15 miles had been first suggested, but several important spaces being situate immediately outside that area, they judged it expedient to extend their inquiry to twenty-two, and subsequently to twenty-five miles round London, measured from the General Post-office, according to the Ordnance Survey. Whilst, however, they have admitted evidence in respect of certain open spaces, in this extended area, this was done in the first instance for the purpose of inquiry, and not to prejudge the question as to what might fairly be considered the proper limit of a metropolitan area, beyond which these open spaces should be considered and treated more with reference to their agricultural capabilities than as directly affecting the interests of the inhabitants of the metropolis as places of recreation. Possibly no exact circle of a definite radius can be drawn which may not appear to embrace too much in one direction or too little in another, and any area which may now be fixed may be found too small in some years' time; but, looking to the necessity of fixing some area, they are inclined to recommend that the district of fifteen miles radius from the General Post-office, according to the Ordnance Survey (the limit prescribed by the General

Inclosure Act of 1845) be adhered to for the present as the metropolitan area, to which special legislation, with a view to the inhabitants of London, should, in the first instance, be directed. As the metropolis extends, it will always be in the power of Parliament to extend this legislative area. In the case of a proposal to enclose any spaces beyond the prescribed area in which the metropolis is interested, Parliament will have the opportunity of considering the requirements of that particular case, upon the bill for its enclosure.

"The evidence which your committee have had before them has shown that there are special circumstances to be considered in every case, and that the rights of the lords and commoners, as well as the views of the inhabitants, vary materially in different localities, and will render some difference in their treatment necessary. To prescribe a proper and sufficient scheme for each forest, common, or open space, would have extended their inquiry beyond all reasonable limits. Your committee have confined themselves to the consideration of those principles which may be embodied in a general measure and serve as a guide to subsequent and more special legislation. This course is precisely that which has been adopted in the Inclosure Acts, in the legislation respecting charities and railways, and in many other analogous cases. At the time of the commencement of this inquiry a bill was before the House for the regulation and improvement of Wimbledon Common. The second reading of that bill was postponed to enable this committee to inquire into the merits of that case, and certain schemes were submitted to them by the parties interested. They considered, however, that the details of those schemes would be more properly dealt with by the select committee to whom that particular bill should be referred; and in making their first report, which had special reference to Wimbledon, your committee confined themselves to the statement of those general principles which, in their judgment, ought imperatively to be observed. They will have occasion, in a subsequent part of this report, to refer to the resolutions at which they arrived in respect of Wimbledon Common, in illustration of the general recommendations which they have now to submit to the House.

"The public of the metropolis have used