The operation of this system was, that in the year 1832, the expenditure was reduced to $28,156 69, and was, in 1831, kept at the sum of $31,591 15. A careful examination of the results of the two systems, will show, on the same amount of business, a reduction by means of the present one, in the annual expenditure of not less than $10,000, in the balances of the County Treasurers' accounts, and a further saving to the Commonwealth of about two thousand dollars per annum, by reducing the number of prosecuting officers from sixteen, as formerly, to six, as at present. It is found, however, that there is in these expenses a constant tendency to increase. The amount for 1838 is nearly or quite $70,000, being more than four times what it was in 1825, and more than double the amount in 1831. There is little reason to expect that the aggregate of these balances for the current year will not, in like or even greater proportion, exceed that of the last, unless the Legislature shall be pleased to devise and adopt some measures to counteract this progressive accumulation. These balances are made up principally of two classes of expense. One is costs, properly so called, taxed by law in the prosecution of accused parties in the judicial tribunals up to the time of their conviction or discharge. The other is for the expenses of maintaining such parties before sentence, in the county jails, or after sentence, in such jails, or in a house of correction. Of the costs above mentioned, it is to be observed, that one portion occurs before Police Courts or examining magistrates, which are not under the control of the prosecuting officers of the government, and that only the residue is caused by proceedings in the courts of record, under their direction. It is believed, that if these accounts should be analysed, it would be found that the part belonging to the latter description, has not increased as rapidly as the other part, nor beyond the proportion fairly arising from the increase of crime, the natural results of the system under which crime is prosecuted, and the present elaborate mode of trying causes, which accords with the deliberation, intelligence, and growing humanity of the age. Nevertheless, the whole subject may, in a certain sense, be deemed to belong to the department of criminal justice, and the alarming tendency to a constant increase of expenditure, which is seen by a comparison of the accounts of former years with those of more recent date, and especially of the last year, justify an inquiry into the subject. The immediate causes of this increased expense, and the means of reducing it by amendments of the existing laws may unquestionably give rise to a difference of of opinion, and the different interests which might be affected by a curtailment of existing causes of expense would no doubt increase the difficulty of establishing a more economical system. My observation in the practical discharge of my of ficial duties, satisfies me that something may be done to arrest the progress of the evil, without diminishing the efficiency of public justice or impairing the protection of individual rights; but I venture in an annual report, to do no more than state the facts, without attempting to enumerate the supposed causes, or their probable remedy. Abstracts of the reports made by the several District Attornies, are hereunto annexed, and the whole Respectfully submitted, by JAMES T. AUSTIN, Attorney General. January 3d, 1839. |