The detections here inserted are necessarily limited to the perpetrators of offences committed within the period of the Return. Within the same period many other offenders have also been made amenable for crimes committed antecedently thereto, as no doubt many will be hereafter arrested for offences here included, who have hitherto eluded detection.
The class of offences, the perpetrators of which have hitherto been the most successful in escaping justice, being exceedingly difficult of detection, and more difficult still to prosecute to conviction, are these—Threatening Letters, Incendiary Fires, House Attacks, and Infanticides.
1. Threatening Letters. The difficulty of detecting the offenders in these cases from the fact that the letters are invariably written in a feigned hand, or by some person at a distance from the locality ; they are also generally posted at some distant place.
2. Incendiary Fires. It requires but a single individual to perpetrate an act of incendiarism; unless, therefore, the incendiary be caught in the act, it is next to impossible to procure evidence leading to the detection of the guilty party.
3. House Attacks. Persons whose houses have been attacked, frequently refuse to lodge an information that the offence has been committed; and almost invariably assert that the offenders are unknown to them, or that they would not be able to identify them, even in cases where there is strong reason to suspect that the right parties are in custody.
4. Infanticides. Information can rarely be obtained in these cases, in which the perpetrators have the strongest motives for concealment.
5. The numbers under the head of " Offenders unknown," refer to cases in which the injured parties were either unable or unwilling to identify the offenders. In most of these cases no informations were lodged before the magistrates.
