HARPER's WEEKLY SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1857

WHY DOES CRIME INCREASE?

ALMOST without exception, the criminal returns in all parts of the country show a startling increase of crime-an increase wholly disproportionate to the increase of population. In this State, and especially in this city, where the development of the press enables us to keep a more accurate watch upon ourselves than most of our neighbors can, the increase in crimes of violence is perfectly appalling. Hardly a day passes that the papers do not contain some dreadful account of a murder-some peaceable citizen knocked down and robbed at his own door; or some gambler massacred for his gains; or some policeman shot for doing his duty; or, still oftener, some poor girl decoyed out of earshot, foully outraged, and thrown into the water. The horrid story is becoming so common that is has ceased to be exciting. Equally terrible is the increase of robbery. When the police took possession of Cancemi's rooms they found some five thousand dollars' worth of stolen property there, including an immense variety of female clothing; and as soon as the windfall became know, claimants for fifty thousand dollars' worth of stolen property made formal but unsuccessful applications to the police receiver.

It is true, of course, that allowance must be made for the peculiar condition into which the police system of this city has been thrown by the new police law, and the litigation to which it has led. But this excuse covers but a very brief period of time, whereas the increase of crime is of long standing; and there has been no new police law in Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Massachusetts, though crime seems progressing there near as rapidly as here.

The real cause, we apprehend, of this truly alarming feature of our society must be sought in the maladministration of the law. Our laws are complete enough for their purpose; but, on the one hand, a sad negligence on the part of those who are intrusted with their administration, on the other, a vicious tendency in the public mind toward undue compassion for criminals, combine almost wholly to neutralize and nullify them. Not one-fourth of the rogues, murderers, robbers, and rowdies-either here or in the other large cities of this country-are brought to justice, or even pursued with any thing like vigorous zeal; and the few who are caught, arraigned, and convicted are certain beforehand that the sentence passed upon them will prove a mere idle threat. The only important function of our Governors seems to be to let loose jail-birds upon society; our judges-seemingly from timidity-defeat the law by sentencing to a few years' penitentiary criminals whom the law clearly designed for the halter; between the two, vagabonds may well make light of the terrors of courts and prisons.

In the year 1856, on a full consideration of the criminal returns of England, the British Government came to the conclusion that no more sentences would be shortened, and the law carried out against convicts with the utmost rigor. That is a decision to which we must come. Tenderness to criminals is indeed proving cruelty to society; were our long sentences to the Penitentiary carried out, were our murders hanged, our burglars taken out of harm's way, this would be a safer and more wholesome country to inhabit. It seems beyond a doubt that the abolition of capital punishment has simply had the effect of substituting innocent for guilty victims; our murderers live, while their victims die. It is time there were a reaction from the morbid sentimentality which has inspired our Judges, Governors, and the public of late years. Justice carries not only a pair of scales, but a sword also.