TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 103 
the agricultural group of counties there is an excess of 5°9 per cent. of crime. Again, 
if the whole group of the manufacturing and mining counties be subdivided, it will 
be seen that in the northern mining districts crime is 521 per cent. below the ave- 
rage for the whole country; and in the cotton and woollen manufacturing districts 
crime is 7°0 per cent. under the average; but, on the other hand, in the districts 
where the silk and linen fabrics are manufactured there is an excess of 8*5 per 
cent. of crime, and in the hardware, pottery, and glass manufacturing districts the 
excess of crime is 33°5 per cent. above the average of England and Wales. It, how- 
ever, appeared evident that there is something in the condition of the mining and 
manufacturing population having an influence in regulating the amount of crime,— 
one district showing an excess of 33-5 per cent., and another being under the ave- 
rage by, at least, 52 per cent. This led to an inquiry into the supposed increase of 
juvenile crime; and a series of tables were presented showing the relative amount of 
crime at the younger and at the more matured periods of life, by which it appeared 
that if the general result for any or all of the groups or districts, whether in con- 
nexion with an increase or decrease of crime, be compared with the corresponding 
feature at the juvenile ages, there will not be found a single instance in which the 
character of that result is so strongly confirmed by the facts for the younger ages as 
by those at the more advanced period. It follows that if any change be found to take 
place in the criminal calendar of a given district, such fluctuation will be promoted, 
not so much by juvenile crime, as by an increase or decrease among persons in mature 
life, when the conduct and dispositions of individuals come more under the influence 
of external circumstances. In order to obtain, as far as possible, districts in which 
the manufacturing or agricultural feature decidedly prevailed, a variety of combina- 
tions were made, in order to exclude foreign and disturbing elements. This was 
done to determine the legitimate influence of each particular condition of the people 
when unassociated, as far as may be, with other and different conditions; and the 
following is an abstract of the results obtained :— 
Difference per cent, 
District. 
Increase. |Decrease. 
Greatest manufacturing ...........:ssesceeeseeee watewaaniededeeass| i Lone 
Greatest agricultural ...........,...+4 Reet teaceatersats seseee{ 60 
Manufacturing interest 333 per cent. above the average...| 10:8 
Agricultural interest, 50 per cent. above the average ...... 4:2 
Manufacturing and agricultural interests nearly equal ...| 4°5 
Greatest wealth ..........00..06 Meese tae y acis'ed ese tlds <alsesidale Rchios dest 8-8 
Least wealth ...........2..ce0ee Donene ah atehcccsskwarsiecornss'ys es ai] snes eueaaaa 11 
It is thus evident that so far no very marked feature has appeared to connect itself 
peculiarly with any individual group; and that therefore some further analysis is 
required in order to discover that element which is so powerfully concerned in pro- 
ducing the differences shown in some of the earlier combinations to which allusion 
has been made. In England and Wales, 33 per cent. of the males married under 
the Registration Act, signed their marriage registers by their marks, and taking this 
as an index to the state of education, a series of results is obtained. ‘Taking the 
counties in which the proportion signing the marriage register with their marks ex- 
ceeded the general average by at least 334 per cent., and taking also the counties in 
which the ratio so signing their names is at least 25 per cent. under the general 
average, it is found that in the former, the amount of crime exceeds the proportion 
for the whole kingdom by 13-2 per cent., while in the latter group crime is at least 
30°7 per cent. below the average for England and Wales. By some it may be held, 
that in the two groups now referred to, the difference may be owing to some other 
element than simply education. It may be said, however, that the difference may 
arise from the influence of some other element than education—such as the prevalence 
of peculiar manufactures subject to fluctuations in prosperity, to increased wealth, to 
difference of positions in society, and, in fact, to a variety of other causes not elimi- 
nated. ‘To meet the force of this objection, each of the preceding districts or groups 
was divided into two sections, so that one section differed from the other in the degree 
