The criminal classes of Great Britain, in round figures, sum up a total of no less than 90,000 persons, made up as follows: -- Convict prisons contain.. .. .. .. .. .. 11,660 persons Local prisons contain.. .. .. .. .. .. 20,883 ,, Reformatories for children convicted of crime .. 1,270 ,, Industrial schools for vagrant and refractory children .. .. .. .. .. 21,413 ,, Criminal lunatics under restraint.. .. .. .. 910 ,, Known thieves at large .. .. .. .. .. .. 14,747 ,, Known receivers of stolen goods .. .. .. .. 1,121 ,, Suspected persons .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 17,042 ,, ------- Total 89,046 ------- The above does not include the great army of known prostitutes, nor the keepers and owners of brothels and disorderly houses, as to whose numbers Government is rigidly silent. These figures are, however, misleading. They only represent the criminals actually in gaol on a given day. The average gaol population in England and Wales, excluding the convict establishments, was, in 1889, 15,119 but the total number actually sentenced and imprisoned in local prisons was 153,000, of whom 25,000 only came on first term sentences; 76,300 of them had been convicted at least 10 times. But even if we suppose that the criminal class numbers no more than 90,000, of whom only 35,000 persons are at large, it is still a large enough section of humanity to compel attention. 90,000 criminals represents a wreckage whose cost to the community is very imperfectly estimated when we add up the cost of the prisons, even if we add to them the whole cost of the police. The police have so many other duties besides the shepherding of criminals that it is unfair to saddle the latter with the whole of the cost of the constabulary. The cost of prosecution and maintenance of criminals, and the expense of the police involves an annual outlay of #4,437,000. This, however, is small compared with the tax and toll which this predatory horde inflicts upon the community on which it is quartered. To the loss caused by the actual picking and stealing must be added that of the unproductive labour of nearly 65,000 adults. Dependent upon these criminal adults must be at least twice as many women and children, so that it is probably an under-estimate to say that this list of criminals and semi-criminals represents a population of at least 200,000, who all live more or less at the expense of society.