APPENDIX M (see p. 88).

The fact that astonishingly large numbers of illiterate people find their way to prisons demonstrates the desirableness of some system of instruction being provided for prisoners (see p. 156). The essayist will quote from a paper by A. S. Fiske: "The Massachusetts figures for her state and county penal institutions are as follows : Of all those incarcerated the past year (a total of 14,315), thirty-one per cent could not read and write, and eight per cent more are registered as only able to read and write; making a total of thirty-nine per cent uneducated beyond this point. Only twenty-three per cent are reported as having had any higher education than that of the common schools. Fully two-thirds of our commonschool pupils who have learned to read are not yet advanced so far as to have mastered the rudiments of written arithmetic. Careful and extensive inquiry of wardens, jailers, and superintendents of houses of industry, of correction, and of reformation, and of teachers and other officers of the same, have fully convinced the writer that eighty per cent of the criminal population of New England have never mastered the fundamental rules of written arithmetic, nor entered upon the study of geography or grammar. The great majority of our juvenile delinquents begin in reform-schools, lower than this; and the same is true of the pupils in the evening schools of our adult prisons." [It is greatly to be regretted, that, in many prisons in New-York State and in other States, there are no schools or libraries, even of the humblest kind, for prisoners.-ESSAYIST.]

"Having reached such conclusions concerning New England, it is found that twenty-eight per cent of all the

state prisoners of the country, in 1868, were unable to read or write; that thirty-two per cent of the adult prisoners of New York were equally untaught; that twentyseven per cent of those in her reformatories could not read; and that, of 2,120 prisoners in Ohio, fourteen per cent did not know their letters, and sixty-seven per cent more could not read and write, a total of eighty-one per cent practically without education. If, now, the fact that the utterly unlettered six per cent of the population of Massachusetts commits thirty-one per cent of all her crime be set over the fact, that, of all her 14,315 criminals, but twenty-three had enjoyed educational opportunities beyond the common school, have we not a striking illustration of the fact, that ignorance is the mother of crime? . . . And this fact for Massachusetts is only a specimen of what is true of every New-England State. From three to seven per cent of our population the wholly unlettered in New England and the United States [excluding the Southern States. — ESSAYIST] - commit at least thirty per cent of all our crime; and less than one-fifth of one per cent is committed by those who are educated beyond the common school." Extract from a Paper by A. S. FISKE, A.M., in Report of United-States Commissioner of Education, 1871, 1872, p. 551; see also Report of 1871, by JOHN EATON, Jun., UnitedStates Commissioner of Education, p. 33.

In the State of New York about thirty-one per cent of the adult criminals cannot read or write, while of the adult population at large six and eight-hundredths per cent are illiterate; or nearly one-third of the crime is committed by six-hundredths of the population. In the city prisons of 1870, out of 49,423 criminals, 18,442 could not write, and could barely read, or more than thirty-three per cent.

"In the reformatories of the country, according to the statement of Dr. Bittinger before the National Congress on prison-discipline at Cincinnati, out of the average number of inmates for 1868, of 7,963 twenty-seven per cent were wholly illiterate." - Extracts from the admirable book entitled Dangerous Classes of New York, 1872, by the distinguished philanthropist, CHARLES LORING Brace, pp. 32-35.

"Recent official returns show that the percentage of those who could not read on entering prison was fifty-six in Austria, forty-nine in Belgium, eighty-seven in France, four in Baden, twelve in Bavaria, seventeen in Prussia, sixty to ninety-two in the different provinces of Italy, about forty in the Netherlands, and thirty in Switzerland. In Ireland twenty-two per cent of males and sixty-three per cent of females were illiterate. In England thirty-four per cent of the persons committed to county or borough prisons were totally ignorant. Mr. J. B. Sanborne of Massachusetts, in a report prepared for the International [Prison] Congress, says that the general condition of American prisoners in point of education is low; yet they are not so extremely illiterate as criminals are in many countries, if we except the colored criminals of the South." -SCHEM and KIDDLE'S Cyclopædia of Education, art. "Crime and Education."

With the report of 1872-73 of the United-States Commissioner of Education is a paper by Edward D. Mansfield, LL.D., on "Education and Crime." The paper refers, for authority for its statistics regarding Europe, to facts collected by Dr. E. C. Wines. Dr. Wines, as a commissioner of the United-States Government to organize the International Prison Congress, while travelling in Europe in 1871 propounded a series of questions

regarding prisoners. These questions were answered by reports, many of which were made under direct governmental supervision. "The figures may be taken as thor

oughly reliable."

"In France, from 1867 to 1869, there were under arrest 444,133 persons.

"Number of people unable to read, 442,194; or 95.63 per cent.

66 Average number of convicts from 1866 to 1868 was 18,643.

"Number unable to read, 16,015; or 87.28 per cent. "Average number of juvenile prisoners from 1866 to 1868 was 8,139.

"Number unable to read, 6,607; or 81.14 per cent." Let us assume the total illiteracy of France at the time to which these figures refer at just one-half the population. "At that time France had in round numbers 36,000,000 of people. Then we find these proportions; viz. :"In 18,000,000 of people unable to read and write there were 442,194 arrests; that is, 1 in 40.

"In 18,000,000 of people who were commonly educated, there were 1,939 arrests; that is, 1 in 9,291.

"Thus proving the proportion of criminals in the uneducated classes to be 226 times as great as those of the educated classes."

In Mr. Mansfield's paper, eighty-three per cent of the inmates of all the prisons of Switzerland are stated to be illiterate; the only statement in his figures which differs materially from the statistics already quoted. Mr. Mansfield states that "from the above [his quite lengthy collection of statistics] we find that the proportion of criminals totally ignorant varies in different countries of Europe from thirty-five to ninety-five per cent. But this

does not show the whole truth: for, in the report of the United States, it is almost universally said that but few of the whole number have any thing more than the lowest kind of education; and doubtless this is true of Europe.

See paper of EDWARD D. MANSFIELD, LL.D., in the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 187273, pp. 568-595.

APPENDIX N (see p. 92).

The greatest of the "untold blessings of knowledge is the inestimable privilege which every one who can read can enjoy of studying the Bible, a book which is admitted by all Christians to have been written by divine inspiration, and to contain the only authentic words of Christ, of prophets, and of apostles. In a land in which no one can read, the Bible will not be read. The essayist will apologize for drawing attention to a fact as plainly established by history as that illiteracy and superstition re-act upon each other, and both combine to keep a people in degradation, both are foes to the highest civilization, and of many if not of all the best interests of Christianity. Superstition in many parts of the world puts difficulties in the way of the people acquiring a knowledge of letters. Illiterate people, being fine subjects for superstition to work upon, are often easily imposed upon by groundless terrors or mischievous impostures. When a people are taught to read, one difficulty in the way of their reading the Bible, and, as has been slightly dwelt upon in this essay (see pp. 57-68), of enjoying the great blessings of free institutions, peace, and true national greatness, is removed. The value of letters to those who wish to have intelligent views of the Christian religion has been recog