Statements of the number of criminal offenders committed to the different gaols in England and Wales. [London, England]. Eyre and Strahan, His Majesty's Printers.. 1816

SCARCE CONTEMPORARY BOOK ON CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN GEORGIAN ENGLAND.

4to. 23 printed pages. Publisher's imprint at the foot of the final printed leaf. Separated into ten sections that are in turn subdivided into England and Middlesex: 1/People sent for trial. 2/Not prosecuted 3/ Crimes of those convicted 1810-15. 4/ Crimes of those acquitted 5/ Crimes of those not prosecuted 6/ All crimes 1810-15. 7/Sentences of the convicted 8/Number and persons executed 9/Number of people at trial in each county 1809-15 10/ People tried, convicted, acquitted, sentenced and executed 1809-15. Scattered mild foxing. New endpapers and four new blank pages between endpapers and original text. 14 x 22 cm. Contemporary full calf rebacked. Gilt lettering along expertly renewed calf spine. Contemporary boards with scrolling blind floreate borders within blind double fillets (rubbed but in good condition; corners professionally repaired). Henry Addington (1757-1844) was the State Minister responsible for the gathering and publication of this statistical document. Prime Minister from 1801 to 1804, Addington was ousted (by William Pitt the Younger) due to the fierce criticism of his conduct of war against Napoleon. He returned to government again as Home Secretary from 1812 to 1822, the longest continuously serving holder of that office since it was created in 1782. Over the course of the nineteenth century, use of the death penalty was increasingly restricted to the most serious offences. It was removed from pickpocketing in 1808, and from many more offences in the 1820s and 1830s. Although an average of one thousand people were sentenced to death each year in this period 1810-15, only seventy-one were executed on average. Transportation, whipping and imprisonment were alternative punishments for crimes ranging from shooting, stabbing, highway robbery, high treason, rape, sodomy, horse stealing, theft, forgery, counterfeiting money, burglary and arson. Three people were tried for stealing children in 1815; in the same year 22 servants were tried for embezzlement; seven went to court for rape and the same number for murder, that year; while 1815 saw a noticeable rise in those tried for theft, the number of cattle thieves had dwindled to none. The number of convicts transported to Australia was markedly on the decline with opposition at home and abroad. An 1816 statute restricted the pillory to perjury only and the punishment was abolished in 1837. Some statistics break down the numbers according to gender and others for each county. COPAC only locates two copies worldwide, at Oxford & Southampton Universities. A rare book, concerned with crime, justice & punishments in Georgian England.