296 Notes for the Month. [MABCH, 



speeches upon the recent expedition to Portugal. Upon the editing too 

 (performed by Mr. Therry), considerable attention seems to have been 

 bestowed. 



The Council of Health of Paris has recommended, as a rule to be en- 

 forced in all future buildings, in that capital, that the maximum of height of 

 houses shall never exceed the width of the street in which they stand. This 

 regulation, the report says, will have three good effects : the streets of 

 the city will be always cleaner, the ventilation better, and the accumu- 

 lation of too large a population, upon any given space, will be prevented. 

 The mortality of the city, during the year 1826, is stated at 26,000 souls, 

 of whom 9,000 died in the hospitals and charitable institutions. The 

 number of deaths, dividing males and females, is pretty nearly equal. 

 One-fifth of the whole number this is a curious fact are stated to 

 have died of inflammations in the bowels. The number of suicides has 

 increased considerably in Paris, within the last few years. In 1824 

 there were 371 suicides ; in 1825,, they increased to 396 ; and in 1826 

 the number had risen to 511. 



The same periodical that supplies us with the above table, gives an 

 account of the judicial proceedings in all the criminal courts of Spain, in 

 the same year (1826), which exhibits some curious characteristics of 

 offence. The number of " homicides" tried this includes all cases of 

 death produced by violence, murder as well as manslaughter amount 

 to 1,233; and the cases of robbery, including embezzlements and 

 breaches of trust, only to 2,260 : an enormous extent of crimes of vio- 

 lence, as compared with those of theft. These "homicides" are counted 

 independent of 13 " infanticides" a lower rate, probably, of the same 

 description of crime than we find among us in England five poisonings 

 one cannibalism ! the account adds, that this enormity took place in 

 Catalonia and 1,773 cases of " wounds and maiming." The number 

 of blasphemers, too, punished, is enormous no less than 2,763. The 

 total amount of offences, tried within the year, is 12,939 ; and this arises 

 upon a population of about 11,500,000; making one offender for every 

 885 souls. This is a much higher rate than we find in France or Eng- 

 land; where the average of criminals does not exceed one in 1.200 per- 

 sons : rather the lowest average of the two, in our own country. 



The French writer who notices the above table, takes considerable 

 credit to France and England, for the comparatively minor amount of 

 crime in those countries, which he attributes to their higher state of in- 

 telligence and civilization. It must be recollected, however, that in the 

 account of the 12,939 annual criminals of Spain, nearly one-fourth of the 

 whole (2763), are " blasphemers ;" and another fourth (2,782), come 

 under the head of " sundry excesses ;" among which (as pretty nearly 

 every known description of crime is elsewhere specified under a distinct 

 head), a good deal of religious, and some political sin, may probably be 

 counted. In England, for example, all our crime is " effective ;" we 

 have had but one " blasphemer" Mr. Robert Taylor for a considerable 

 time. Taking off the blasphemy, therefore, and the " sundry excesses" 

 which is certainly a suspicious item the scale of crime would be 

 lower as set against the amount of population in Spain than in France 

 and England ! But all tables of this kind are necessarily uncertain. The 

 amount of crime set forth in them will depend quite as much upon the 

 condition of the police as upon the state of morality upon the quantity 

 of crime detected, and tried or punished, as upon that which actually takes 

 place among the community. 



