The Primary Source Evaluation

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This report is an evaluation of the article "The Dangerous Classes" by John T Delane (editor of The Times 1841-1877) Published as the editorial view on the 2nd of January 1863. The report will look at the purpose for which the article was written and the individual who wrote the article. It will then go on to look at the writer’s values, his social standing, the language he used and any presuppositions. The essay will then go on to talk about the article in terms of its truth content and finish with a comparison with another article from the year.

"The Dangerous Classes" was an editorial view/editors comment article printed in, The Times, London edition, January 2nd 1863. The writer was John Thaddeus Delane, editor of the paper. John Delane was the son of a barrister and author. He grew up in Berkshire next to the owner of The Times-John Walter II. Delane attended Kings Collage, London and went on to Oxford University. During his time at Oxford, he wrote articles for several newspapers. Graduating in 1839, he got a job as a reporter for The Times. His father, by this time, had also taken up a post as the papers financial manager. John had his sights set on editing and when the current editor, Thomas Barnes, died in 1840, John Walter II made Delane editor. He was 23 years old. John Delane remained Editor of The Times for 37 years retiring in 1877. He died 2 years later. (The history of the times online) Delane lived an affluent life and was in the upper or ruling class (aristocracy).

Oxford University in the 1800s had a leading role in politics and Delanes attendance at the prestigious university gave him access to government ministers and other such individuals. The Times newspaper during Delanes time as editor "consistently influenced government policy". (Encyclopaedia Britannica) The Times publications in the 1800s were highly regard and hugely influential on British public opinion, it had a reputation for its high standard of reporting with accurate information.

Newsprint according to Judith Rowbotham et al (2003) was the means by which Victorians consciously engaged in debates over what was printed and read in newspapers. These debates shaped public consensus about what constituted acceptable conduct and appropriate penalties. (p21) Newspapers were used as a means of getting mass public agreement or uproar about aspects of crime/criminal behaviour. This public concern often resulted in new laws or modifications to existing laws. A major feature of newspapers in Victorian England was the reporting of crime and scaremongering. The new class based society was obsessed with respectability and newspapers were the means by which such respectability was publically defined and or reinforced. "Such reportage that society worked out the classification to be assigned to a particular offence" (Foucault cited in Cassel’s Saturday Journal (1890) p690))

Writing the "dangerous classes" article could have been an attempt to persuade public opinion and subsequently government policy creators, that recent changes in classifications of crime were a less powerful deterrent, than previous classifications i.e. the 200 crimes punishable by death in the early 1800s, became murder and treason being the only crimes, which brought the death sentence. This, in Delanes view, meant criminals received easy punishments before release back into society.

Delanes article highlights the importance placed on property and the laws punishable with death, which protected it. The article seems to be saying that the system, following the changes in punishment for particular crimes i.e. minimal hangings, inadequate prison sentences and the potential for early release, did not provide any deterrent for criminal activity or protection for society. "the eighteenth-century criminal law was a rigid, fixed and bloody penal code laying down the penalty of death for a broad range of property crimes" (King, p25)

Another explanation for the article is, it is urging officials not to give in to pressure to end transportation, which he talks about as the last available course of action that acts as a deterrent and offers increased security for property and in society. Alternatively, the articles aim is public outcry as a way to influence government policy, in regards to transportation.

Increasing pressure from reformists and objections from Australian colonials led to the building of new prisons e.g. Pentonville in 1853 and Dartmoor in 1850 (Portcities London on line). It was around 1840 that the transportation system changed to the exile system. The exile system differed from transportation as it meant convicts carried out a probationary prison sentence in England before pardoning on condition of deportation. By 1867, transportation/exile stopped and all but the most serious crimes required imprisonment (Hugo cited in Justice and Punishment p51).

The article may also be Delanes way of protesting against the gradual loss of power of the upper/ruling class. The growing numbers of wealthy traders were becoming increasingly more important and influential in government and by the mid eighteen hundreds business interests controlled government policy. The second half of the Eighteenth century was a time of rapid social change. The frequent riots about the price of bread, the sense of danger in the expanding towns and the numbers of urban poor, among other things, highlighted the inadequacy and crudeness the system of controls at the disposal of the ruling class were. (Mann, 1987)

The article states, "Prison is now rather a maison de sants’" (house of health) and "the most ferocious criminal, not being a red-handed murderer indisputably due to the gallows, can only be sentenced to a few short years in a comfortable abode". This comment could easily have encouraged the view that crime could be committed with the intention of improving an individual’s living conditions, through imprisonment. Much the same as some homeless individuals today do, during the winter months.

Public understanding of crime, by the mid eighteenth century, was, it was a factor in the way society functioned. The view that was once crime is between individuals became crime is a disruption of social order. Foucault described the changing nature of crime control as "a move from Sovereignty to government". His quote also, inadvertently, highlights the loss of the aristocracy’s power in the ordering and influencing of society and the courts. (p195)

The newspapers of today maintain the traditional practise of sensationalising social issues, including crime and changes in government policies/laws, in order to stir public opinion. This influence on public opinion through reporting on criminal behaviour is now termed- trial by media. The resulting gossip on issues reported in newspapers still influences and changes opinions and subsequently policy creation.

The Dangerous classes’ article makes the reader presume the writer has an intellectual insight into the criminal classes and as a result, persuading the reader towards the same opinion. The basis of Delane view that authorities should continue to exile criminals because it will make society safer and property more secure is the widespread prejudices in the Victorian era and not on evidence of crime rates falling because of transportation. The wide spread views about the criminal classes in 1863 were reinforced by articles in newspapers, which only served to maintain the class divisions. To the Victorian middle and upper classes all poor people were criminally inclined and of lower standing.

Today criminals and criminal behaviour still comes from the poorer individuals from less affluent areas of towns and cities. Poorer people still make up the majority of cases of crimes of theft, violence, and vandalism. The only difference today is that newspapers report on criminal behaviour regardless of individual importance. However, individuals who are more affluent often receive lighter punishments than poorer people do.

In conclusion, the article is an authentic piece of writing however, the actual subject of the article is not evidence for there being less crime because of transportation or more crime because of crime categorisation for the death penalty changing. The article is an editorial view or opinion and only provides evidence of the divide between the rich and poor people in eighteen hundreds Britain. It also highlights the prejudices and marginalisation of all the poor people as potentially criminal.

Delane was aristocracy and the trend at the time was respectability. Delane in the mid 1800s would have been aware of the changes taking place in society and was probably worried at the prospect of losing his social status or his social status losing the power and privilege that went with it. His target audience was middle-upper class individuals who were literate and would have held the same values as he did i.e. the importance of land and property. His constant use of the "dangerous classes" showed the regard he held himself in, as well as the target audience being upper class readers. The term "the dangerous class", popular among upper class people when referring, to poor individuals from deprived areas. Delanes sensationalising of the dangerousness of crime and risk to property, just like today, will have sold more papers. Even today, scandal, crime, and violence sell more papers.

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