342 Moral Statistics of France. 



tistical purposes, he divides France into five regions, each consisting of 

 seventeen adioining departments, not arbitrarily grouped together, but 

 according to their geographical position, and which he distinguishes as the 

 north, south, cast, west, and centre:^' 



This geometrical arrangement of the departments is very advantageous 

 for the comparison of facts, which must be studied in masses, and it is ad- 

 hered to by M. Guerry, as a basis throughout his work. Another general 

 distinction to be kept in mind is, the division of crimes into two classes, 

 according as they are directed against the person, or against property. 



If now we represent the whole number of crimes committed in one year 

 in France by 100, their distribution among the five regions is shown by 

 the following table. 



No. 1. A. Crimes against the Person. 

 Years 1825 1826 182/ 1828 1829 1830 Mean 



,25. 

 ,28. 

 17. 

 ,18., 

 ,12. 



,24. 

 ,26. 

 ,21., 

 ,16. 

 , 13. 



.23. 

 ,22. 

 19. 

 ,21. 

 .15. 



.26. 



.23., 



,20., 



,17., 



.14.. 



25. 

 ,25. 

 19. 

 17. 

 14. 



,24. 



,23. 

 19., 

 16. 



18. 



100 100 100 100 100 100 



.25 

 .24 

 .19 

 .18 

 .14 



100 



North 

 South 

 £ast . . 

 West . . 

 Centre 



North 

 South 

 East . . 

 West . . 

 Centre 



From this table it appears that the relative proportion of crimes com- 

 mitted in either of the five regions does not vary on the average of six 

 years (1825-30), more than 1-25 part for crimes against the person, and not 

 more than 1-50 part for crimes against property. Thus, strange as it may 

 appear, it is certain, says M. Guerry, "que le produit annuel des r^coltes 



* The population of these five regions (1830) is stated as follows :— 



North 8,757,700 



South 4,826,493 



East 5,840,996 



West 7,008,788 



Centre 5,238,905 



31,672,882 

 Corsica 185,079 



Total.... 31,857,961 



