Hanging in there

In the blog offering of yesterday "Sinners and Dinners" I confessed to how very close I had come to committing a felony relating to tinned goods, specifically Exhibit A, 1 tin of Fray Bentos Corned Beef.

I came to realise the magnitude of my fledgling criminality very quickly and managed to regain some personal pride and respect and walk away.

It was not a matter of nature versus nurture as many psychologists would have us believe but common decency. I am well fed, able to purchase nourishment when I need it and therefore not generally susceptible to temptation.

I give thanks that I was not alive in Victorian England.

The recent release of archived records, specifically the 279 Volumes of English Criminal Records covering the period 1791 to 1892 makes for chilling and sober reading indeed.

For all of their enterprise and invention, pomp and circumstance the Victorians holding positions of influence and authority over the nation and vast Empire were particularly nasty when it came to punishment of crime of the lower classes.

In contrast the Georgians appeared wholly enlightened and a bit soft in that only 50 offences attracted the sanction of Capital Punishment, usually death by hanging but by 1815 under the new monarchy this had increased significantly to 222 crimes punishable by death. The Penal Code or Bloody Code as is became more aptly named emphasised the savagery of the century span of Victorian England.

Over the period the records testify to 1.4 million criminal trials.

The fortunate ones, relatively speaking, were the 900,000 imprisoned although gaol conditions were primitive and injurious to health and welfare. A further 97,000 were transported and the numbers do not relate to hardened criminal men but included women and children.

The list of Capital Crimes illustrated the level of control and suppression that the ruling classes were intent on visiting upon the lower classes who in the majority were motivated not by greed or avarice but just finding a means to survive in deprived and insanitary conditions.

Bad language, for example, could provide you with a fast track through the Courts to the gallows. Scrumping the fruit from your local area could be perilous as could being in the company of gipsies for a month.

If you dared impersonate a Chelsea Pensioner or if a former soldier or sailor were caught begging without a licence then future prospects were not good. The more literate in society could suffer the drop if found guilty of writing a threatening letter, or perhaps a justified strongly worded complaint of maltreatment or injustice which upset someone in authority.

Poaching remained with the death penalty as had been the case in history mainly down to the encroachment on the assets of landed classes by the poor, hungry and desperate in society.  Damaging Westminster Bridge was beyond the naughty and beware any young children  who were suspected  on the basis of strong evidence of being malicious, whatever that may relate to in everyday life.

Destruction of property was staunchly prosecuted and that included the innovative money raising phenomena of Turnpike Roads should they be damaged by the actions of individuals.

Street crime, often depicted in films and drama as romantic and iconic for example in the activities of Fagin in Dickens' Oliver Twist was in reality more desperate and sordid and pick pocketing was a capital offence.

Rural crime too was equally harshly sanctioned from mauling of cattle to stealing from a rabbit warren.

I have every sympathy for those returning to their hovel homes in Victorian England after dark following a hard shift of manual labour in factory, mill, colliery pit or for the benefit of capitalistic enterprise without an opportunity to scrub away the perspiration and grime of their activities as being out at night with a blackened face was on the list of heinous crimes.

I have joked a bit about the criminal justice system of the period but with the intention of trying to emphasise the ridiculousness of many of the crimes of which citizens were convicted and sentenced to death.

Over 10,000 men, women and youths were despatched to the hangman including a 14 year old child.

God Save the Queen and Rule Britannia indeed.