lums, and
the poor-houses, and the hospitals, in most cases sent there as the
result of their own ignorance or imprudence. Last Christmas day the
dinners provided at the workhouses for the inmates fed between 30 and
40,000. Add to these our prison population, and our criminal classes,
and our prostitutes,--and what a picture we get of the Night Side of
London, of the classes whose existence is a reproach or a curse. In
London one man in every ninety belongs to the criminal class.

According to the last reports, there were in London 143,000 vagrants
admitted in one year into the casual wards of the workhouses. In 1856 it
appears that in all 73,240 persons were taken into custody, of whom
45,941 were males, and 27,209 females; 18,000 of the apprehensions were
on account of drunkenness, 8160 for unlawful possession of goods, 7021
for simple larceny, 6763 for common assaults, 2914 for assaults on the
police; 4303 women were taken into custody as prostitutes. The period of
life most prolific of crime is that between the 20th and 25th years. The
convictions upon trial in 1856 were in the following proportions:--Under
10 years of age, 1; 10 years and under 15 years, 91; 15 years and under
20 years, 610; 20 years and under 25 years, 770; 25 years and under 30
years, 390; 30 years and under 40 years, 410; 40 years and under 50
years, 188; 50 years and under 60 years, 90; 63 years and upwards, 37.
The committals for murder in the year 1856 were 11; they were 12 in 1855,
10 in 1854, 7 in 1853,11 in 1852, 8 in 1851, 11 in 1850, 19 in 1849, 11
in 1848, and 10 in 1847. Of the larcenies in dwelling-houses last year,
only 315 were committed by means of false keys, as many as 2175 through
doors being left open, 679 by lifting up a window, or breaking glass, and
31 by entering attic windows from empty houses. Again, 1595 such
larcenies were committed by lodgers, 1701 by servants, and as many as 673
by means of false messages. The cases enumerated under the last three
heads are such as the police could hardly be expected to prevent. 2371
persons were reported last year to the police as lost, and of these the
police restored 1084. The City returns, for which I am indebted to the
kindness of G. Borlase Childs, Esq., surgeon to the force, are for 1856,
as follows: number of persons taken into custody; males 3030, females
1014; of these, 1083 males and 450 females were discharged; 1628 males,
517 females were summarily convicted or