Influence nf Instruction on Crime. 3.59 



•' If tlie instruction," he concludes, " hitherto attempted has not produced 

 all the benefits anticipated, it has at least destroyed many absurd and in- 

 jurious prejudices ; it has given some orderly habits ; it has favoured tlie 

 application of the working classes to the less onerous employments, and 

 has thus tended to mitigate and improve their social condition." 



We have preferred presenting M. Guerry's views on this important topic 

 in a complete state, that no one may conclude from his strict adherence to 

 the guidance of facts, that he is opposed to the cause of public education.* 

 It is proper however to state some circumstances vvhicli tend to modify 

 the conclusions adopted by our author, respecting the influence of instruc- 

 tion on crime, and which may be found more in detail in an article in the 

 "Companion to the British Almanac for 1835" (p. 53). M. G.'s data 

 then we must observe, show but imperfectly the intellectual condition of 

 the whole people, inasmuch as they tell us nothing respecting the state of 

 instruction of females, as they include only young men of the ages at which 

 they are liable to be drawn for the army ; and above all, as no distinction 

 is shown in the returns made to the Minister of War, of the number of 

 conscripts who have received instruction beyond reading and writing. Now 

 it is shown very satisfactorily in the Essay just referred to, that the average 

 number of convictions among the instructed class being 1592 annually, 

 (which is rather a smaller number than M. G.'s ratio of 38 instructed to 

 100 inhabitants should produce) the proportions in which these 1592 had 

 enjoyed the different degrees of instruction stand thus : 



No. 10. Instructed Convicts. 



As the proportion of the convicted to the committals is smaller among 

 the better instructed criminals, it is evident that so far the basis on which 

 M. G. calculates the distribution of crime, viz. the number of the accused, 

 is unfavourable to an exact estimate of the influence of instruction. Again, 

 when we examine the intellectual condition of persons accused as relapsed 



• "This opposition comes of the iiiipcrfcction of the education of those who show 

 it ; — an iinperl'ection that has other bitter fruitR. The only excuse for it is the igno- 

 rance of these opinionists of the lengtli, and breadth, and height, and depth, of the 

 Rocial error which they [' by incogitato habit'] espouse and circulate." — Simpson, 

 p. 37. 



