3^ 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



numbers is better than that which the fortunate few alone obtained 

 before. 



Next as to crime : the facts to note are that rather more than forty 

 years ago, with a population little more than half what it is now, the 

 number of criminal offenders committed for trial (1839) was 54,000 ; 

 in England alone, 24,000. Now the corresponding figures are, United 

 Kingdom, 22,000, and England, 15,000 ; fewer criminals by a great 

 deal in a much larger population. Of course the figures are oj^en to 

 the observation that changes in legislation j^roviding for the summary 

 trial of offenses that formerly went to the assizes may have had some 

 effect. But the figures show so great and gradual a change that there 

 is ample margin for the results of legislative changes, without altering 

 the inference that there is less serious crime now in the population 

 than there was fifty years ago. Thus an improvement as regards 

 crime corresponds to the better education and well-being of the masses. 



Next as regards pauperism : here, again, the figures are so imper- 

 fect that we can not go back quite fifty years. It is matter of his- 

 tory, however, that pauperism was nearly breaking down the country 

 half a century ago. The expenditure on poor-relief early in the cent- 

 ury and down to 1830'-31 was nearly as great at times as it is now. 

 With half the population in the country that there now is, the burden 

 of the poor was the same. Since 1849, however, we have continuous 

 figures, and from these we know that, with a constantly increasing 

 population, there is an absolute decline in the amount of pauperism. 

 The earliest and latest figures are : 



Paupers in Mecei^yt of Relief in the under-mentioned Years at ffiveti 



Dates. 



Thus in each of the three divisions of the United Kingdom there 

 is a material decline, and most of all in Ireland, the magnitude of the 

 decline there being no doubt due to the fact that the figures are for a 

 period just after the great famine. But how remote we seem to be 

 from those days of famine ! 



Last of all we come to the figures of savings-banks. A fifty years' 

 comparison gives the following results for the whole kingdom : 



* 1859. 



