Let us deal first with offences against property.  As has just been pointed out these constitute eight per cent. of the annual amount of crime.  But according to inquiries which I have made, one half of the annual number of offenders against property, so far from being in a state of destitution, were actually at work, and earning wages at the time of their arrest.  Nor in this surprising.  The daily newspapers have only to be consulted to confirm it.  In a very great number of instances the records of criminal proceedings testify to the fact that the person charged is in some way or other defrauding his employer, and when these cases are deducted from the total of offences against property, it considerably lessons the percentage of persons driven by destitution into the ranks of crime.  Add to these the great bulk of juvenile offenders convicted of theft, and that peculiar class of people who steal, not because they are in distress, but merely from a thievish disposition, and it will he manifest that half the cases of theft in England and Wales are not due to the pressure of absolute want.

But what shall be said of the other half which still represents four per cent. of the annual amount of crime.  According to the calculations just referred to, the offenders constituting this percentage were not in work when the crimes charged against them were committed.  Was it destitution arising from want of employment which led them to break the law?  At first sight one may easily be inclined to say that it is.  These people, it will be argued, have no work and no money.  What are they to do but beg or steal?  Before jumping at this conclusion it must not be forgotten that there is such a person as the habitual criminal.  The habitual criminal, as he will very soon tell you if you possess his confidence absolutely, declines to work.  He never has worked, he does not want work; he prefers living by his wits.  With the recollection of imprisonment fresh upon him an offender of this description may in rare instances take employment for a short period, but the regularity of life which work entails is more than he can bear, and the old occupation of thieving is again resorted to.  To live by plundering the community is the trade of the habitual criminal; it is the only business he truly cares for, and it is wonderful how long and how often he will succeed in eluding the suspicion and vigilance of the police.  Of course, offenders of this class, when arrested, say they are out of work, and will very readily make an unwary person believe that it is destitution which drives them to desperation.  But as was truly remarked a short time ago by a judge in one of the London courts, nearly all of these very men are able to pay high fees to experienced counsel to defend them.  After these observations, it will be seen that the habitual criminal, the man who lives by burglary, housebreaking, shoplifting, and theft of every description, is not to be classed among the destitute.  Criminals of this character constitute at least two per cent. of the delinquents annually brought before the courts.