340 Moral Statistics of France. 



by the higher branches of government, (however objectionable on some 

 grounds) have undoubtedly the effect of enabling that government to 

 collect the Statistics of Crime, in a far more complete and scientific form 

 than is practicable under the existing arrangements in this country. And 

 it is, I believe, witli truth that M. Guerry remarks, " Never among any 

 people has an undertaking of the kind been executed in a manner so com- 

 plete :" and, though as yet little known in France itself, this digest of facts 

 has rightly obtained from foreigners the appellation of a national monu- 

 ment, and has been viewed as a model for the imitation of all civilised 

 nations, who have any desire to be acquainted with their moral condition. 

 Many of the European states indeed are now following the example of 

 France, but few of them have as yet adopted a system so comprehensive 

 and exact. 



Favoured perhaps by his situation as an advocate in the royal court, 

 M. Guerry has availed himself of all the official documents bearing upon 

 his subject, and has combined and cl.issified them under all the various 

 aspects they can be made to assume. His essay was published in 1833, 

 having been first submitted to the French Institute, by whom as usual it 

 was referred to a committee consisting of M. M. Lacroix, Silvestre, and 

 Girard. The reporter of the committee (M. Girard) bears strong testi- 

 mony to the fidelity with which our author has treated his subject, and 

 especially to his entire freedom from bias to particular systems — a matter 

 of no slight moment in a compiler of statistical tables. His conduct on 

 this point indeed is worthy of all praise and imitation.* 



The official returns, which form the ground-work of M. G.'s volume, 

 relate to crimes, as modified by sex, age, and season, their apparent causes, 

 their relative frequency, and geograj)hical distribution; the slate of in- 

 struction throughout France, of charitable benefactions, and the number 

 and distribution of suicides, besides a mass of other particulars which M. 

 G. has condensed in an appendix. 



We must notice that the estimates of the number and proportions of 

 crimes are not founded on the number of the convicted, but on that of the 

 accused, it being of no consequence as to the statistical result, whether 

 the accused in each case is the guilty party or not, so long as the crime 

 itself is established as a fact. From the formalities necessary before a 

 case can come before a jury in France, (which are even greater than 

 among ourselves) M. G. estimates that out of 1000 cases brought before 

 the courts of Assize, there are scarcely 20 in which the acquittal of the 



• "Aucun esprit de syst^me ne nous a dirige, nous n'avons chevchfe d'appui 'k 

 aucune theorie. C'e<lt ^t^ montrer des vues peu philosophiques, et nial coraprendre 

 les inter^ts de son pays, que de s'attacher a faire ressortir les faits favorables a une 

 doctrine en negligeant ceux que lui paraissaient contraires. Nous avons d'ailleurs fait 

 connaitre avec soin les sources oii nous avons puise, et donn6 ainsi les moyens de 

 B'assurer de notre exactitude et de notre sincerite." — Pref. p. iii. 



