-------------+------------------------------------------------------ |Persons committed for trial. | |Of whom, acquitted and discharged. | | |Prisoners convicted, and their Punishments. | | |Death. | | | |Transported for 14 years. London, | | | | |Transported for 7 years. Middlesex, | | | | | |Whipt & Imprisoned. and | | | | | | |Imprisoned 6 months and Westminster. | | | | | | |upwards. | | | | | | | |Imprisoned 3 months | | | | | | | |& otherwise disposed of. | | | | | | | | |Sent to serve | | | | | | | | |the King. | | | | | | | | | |Judgment | | | | | | | | | |respited | | | | | | | | | | |Total | | | | | | | | | | |punished. -------------+----+-----+--+-+---+--+--+--+--+--+------------------- London | | | | | | | | | | | Sessions | 199| 70| 6|1| 50|10|29|20| 8| 5|129 | | | | | | | | | | | Middlesex and| | | | | | | | | | | Westminster | 861| 497|62|1|117|38|51|49|30|16|364 +----+-----+--+-+---+--+--+--+--+--+------------------- |1060| 567|68|2|167|48|80|69|38|21|493 | |[134]| | | | | | | | | -------------+----+-----+--+-+---+--+--+--+--+--+------------------- [Footnote 134: The acquittals will generally be found to attach mostly to small offences which are punishable with death: where Juries do not consider the crime deserving so severe a punishment, the delinquent receives no punishment at all. If all were convicted who were really guilty of these small offences, the number of victims to the severity of the Law would be greatly increased.] Thus it appears, that in London only, of 1060 prisoners, tried in the course of a year, only 493 were punished; of whom 197, after a temporary confinement, would return upon the Public, with little prospect of being better disposed to be useful to Society, than before.--It may be estimated that in all England, including those offenders who are tried at the County Sessions, upwards of five thousand individuals, charged with criminal offences, are thrown back upon Society every year.-- But this is not all,--for according to the present System, out of about _two hundred_ and upwards who are, upon an average every year, doomed to suffer the punishment of death, _four-fifths_ or more are generally pardoned[135] either on condition of being transported, or of going into His Majesty's service, and not seldom without any condition at all.