CRIME AND EDUCATION IN MANCHESTER. T HE Spectator, to the great
annoyance of many of its friends, has never been able to believe either that philanthropy would greatly diminish poverty, or that education, however widely extended, would extinguish crime. Most philanthropic institutions, however beneficial to the character of those who support them—and their benefit in that way is enormous—increase poverty by re- laxing industry, owing to the removal of the one natural whip, the fear of hunger or discomfort. The most in- dustrious and enterprising population in Europe, the Scotch, was bred up for centuries without a Poor-Law, under a clear conviction that it must work or starve ; and consequently it does work all over the world. There is nothing on earth like Chinese industry, because there is nothing on earth like the physical suffering which idleness produces in China. On the other hand, we can see nothing in education which should create much hope of its extinguishing crime. Increased knowledge increases greed, for it increases that rage for comfort which is now upsetting all existing industrial arrangements —often to their great improvement—and developing on the Continent that thirst for the goods of others which, under the names of Socialism and Anarchy, is producing a scientific and methodised revolt againt the older and better systems of society. There is no reason perceptible to human thought why education should extinguish or even diminish lust, and as a matter of fact, the best-educated- take the Regent d'Orl6ans—have often in that respect been the most criminal. As to murder, that springs from im- pulses as strong in the cultivated as the ignorant, and some classes of murderers, poisoners, for example, have belonged in an immense majority to the former. It is therefore with no bias in favour of the popular ideas that we would call our readers' attention to the recent comments on crime in Manchester put forward by the City Recorder and the Chief Constable, the total effect of which is that while education does not extinguish, or perhaps even greatly reduce, the aggregate of crime, it does so profoundly modify its character that civilisation gains greatly, even if morality does not.
The Manchester Recorder, Mr. H. W. West, Q.C., judging from his speech delivered in Court in December last, is evidently deeply impressed with the effect of educa- tion on crime. He alleges, almost in so many words, that, aided of course by some other influences, one of which is prosperity, it has reduced crime in Manchester in less than ten years by no less than two-thirds per thousand of the population. The working of the Education Act, which was passed in 1876, became effective by 1883, and from that year indictments sank till, although the popula- tion has largely increased, and the police have grown more efficient, only 1,884 indictable offences were committed in 1891, against 3,748 in 1882. The number of persons com- mitted for trial—that is, who were presumably guilty of serious crime—was in 1882, 482, while in 1891 it had fallen to 274. These are astonishing results ; and though it is very difficult to be sure about .a sub- ject affected by so many influences, it is not pos- sible, or at all events it is hyper-sceptical, to doubt that education has been one main improving force. Com- parative prosperity may have effected something, for want is one cause of crime, though not, as Mr. Morrison has recently demonstrated, a principal one ; and the improved police may have effected more, fear acting unquestionably on the criminal class as an acute deterrent. It has been stated that in the great Indian Mutiny, during which in many districts every crime was punished with death, crime in those districts entirely disappeared, those in- clined to commit it being unable to face a consequence which, as there were no juries, they found to be in- evitable. If crime, by some natural and inevitable law, were followed by scarlet-fever, there would be very little crime. Still, after allowing for both these causes of decreased crime, education must have had some influence, and a beneficial one, though as to its extent we have still to hear the opinion of Mr. Malcolm Wood, the able and ex- perienced Chief Constable of Manchester. He knows of something which does not come before the Recorder, the amount of undiscovered and, so to speak, clever crime ; and he shakes his head. "While far from depreciating the good effects upon the masses which have sprung from the Educa- tion Act, the Chief Constable can state to the Committee that there never was a time when crimes were so frequently committed by persons of good education as the present. The value of property stolen by ordinary thieves, &c., during the year was £6,398 ; whereas the amount by which various. firms, &c., were defrauded by persons of good education by means of forgery and fraud during the same period was upwards of £90,000. From the very nature of the cases,. these delinquencies are in the majority of cases hushed up ; but the Chief Constable can readily give particulars of many cases where persons of good position have absconded, rendered restitution, and otherwise condoned their offences. Hardly a day passes that letters are not received complaining of long-firm' frauds which are rampant in all parts of the country, and all of which require the ingenuity and dexterity which are alone given by a good education." That is precisely, as we have said above, what we should have expected ; but then, does it prove what we imagine to be the conclusion of the Chief Constable,—namely, that the benefit to Manchester from education has been comparatively slight. We are bound to admit that it does not. The reason is a singular problem, but the fact is certain that violent crime exercises upon civilisation, and therefore upon the capacity of ordi- nary people for leading respectable lives, some ten times the effect that non-violent criminality does. Three acts of unpunished brigandage committed in Man- chester in a year would disorganise society more than all the swindlings of the " Long Firm," that is, would not only injure prosperity much more—we suppose that is admitted—but would let loose a great deal more of the predatory and other evil instincts of the people. The latent impulse of lawlessness would spring up rampant,. and you would have instantly ten criminals for every brigand. There is, however, a still better illustration of this influence to be quoted. Immense as Manchester is. among cities, the crime of rape may be considered practi- cally extinct within its limits. There was only one case last year, where there were eleven some years ago. That does not imply of itself that morality is greatly im- proved, for the offence is always that of a very few ; but it does mean that every woman in Manchester may be- fearless for her honour, and may, if she pleases, pass through life doing every work she has to do, but always pure, wholesome, and sweet. It is hardly possible to con- ceive a greater advance in civilisation, and the instance exactly indicates the nature of the influence at work. Ex- tinguish violent crime, and you leave human beings free to be good if they will, the supreme end, we should say,. of all civilisation. Non-violent crime may be infinitely harassing, as, indeed, the practice of adroit swindling seems to be in Manchester ; but it coerces nobody, and exercises the influence rather of a depressed season for sales than of an epidemic of crime. The writer has lived in countries where violent crime was rife, and for a time nearly unpunished ; and he can assure Mr. Malcolm Wood that if every fifth member of a " Long Firm "" turned burglar or dacoit, Manchester would in a year be, an infinitely worse place morally, as well as infinitely more disagreeable to live in. If education has only changed the type of crime, it has done much, and it is difficult to resist the evidence afforded by the returns of the Criminal Court& that it has succeeded in doing more.
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