Miscellaneous Intelligence. 341 



50,420,520 sheets, the Netherlands possessed ahout 21,800,000, exclusive of 

 literary and scientific journals In the same year the newspapers published 

 in England and Wales have been estimated at 25,684,003 sheets; in Scotland, 

 1,296,540; and in Ireland, 3,473,014. The Netherlands have, therefore, a 

 circulation of 60,000 sheets of newspapers in a day; France has 72,380, and 

 England, 70,370; which is at. the rate of one to every 100 persons in the 

 Netherlands; one to 437 in France ; and one to 184 in England. In reviews 

 and magazines the Netherlands are entirely deficient, with the exception of 

 those they import and reprint, and two or three publications devoted to 

 agriculture and other branches of industry. 



Education in the Netherlands. — Tried by the test of education, the posi- 

 tion of the Netherlands is equally favourable as it seems from the amount of 

 its printing. In 1826, out of 3938 communes there were only '184 without 

 schools, being about the sixth part; while in France two-fifths of the com- 

 munes are still without schools. In the latter country the children, who fre- 

 quent the schools, are as 100 to 2019 inhabitants; in the Netherlands they 

 are as 100 to 947, a proportion exceeded by no country in the world, unless 

 it be Prussia, and one that is the more striking, inasmuch as, comparing the 

 number of children between 5 and 15 years old with the. population, the ut- 

 most that could go to school would be 100 children out of every 521 inhabit- 

 ants, which some of the best provinces do, at present, nearly reach. We 

 are not near this in England, even if we count by our Sunday-schools, whose 

 pupils are to our population as 1 to 11 ; those of the day-schools being as 1 

 to 21. Tlic ratio in Scotland has been variously stated as 1 to 7, and 1 to 11 ; 

 aud in Ireland both as 1 to 11.5, anil 1 to 17, the latter of which is the most 

 probable. 



Pauperism in the Netherlands— Our poor rates now amount to a tax of' 

 nearly twelve shillings a head upon the whole population, while the charita- 

 ble institutions of the Netherlands are about the average of three shillings a 

 head, and are excelled by no other nation in Europe, either in their extent 

 or the manner, of their "administration. They may be divided into three 

 kinds; the first being designed to distribute relief; the second to diminish 

 the number of poor; and the third to act as preventives to indigence. The 

 first class are composed of the administrations tor relieving the poor at their 

 own houses, (above 5000 in number,) of the commissions of distributing food, 

 of the hospitals, and some smaller societies; the second comprise the poor 

 schools, the charitable workhouses, the depots of mendicity, and the agri- 

 cultural colonies. It is remarkable that the children educated at the poor 

 schools are in the proportion of 197 out of 1000 to the whole number of poor 

 relieved at their houses, or as about one to five. The indigent class seem, 

 therefore, to participate in the benefits of education more generally than any 

 other— a circumstance which augurs most favourably for their rise in society. 



Crimes in the Netherlands.— In 1826, out of 100 accused, there were in the 

 Netherlands -22 for crimes against the person, and in France 28. Examining' 

 the great crimes for the same year, such as murder, assassination, poisoning, 

 highway robbery, &c> we find them to be in the proportion of 1 to 16, which, 

 since the population of the two countries are in the ratio of 1 to 5, induces 

 the result that the great crimes are three times more numerous in France 

 than in the .Netherlands; and it is remarkable, that in this year there were 

 in France 14 parricides, and 26 poisouings, but in the Netherlands neither 

 •ne nor the other. 



The capital crimes were thus divided : 



Netherlands. France. 



(1826.) (1826.) 



Crimes against the Person - - - 39 873 



Crimes against Property - - - 31 276 



Tims the crimes against the person were four times, and those against pro- 

 perty twice as num. rous in France as in the Netherlands. Crimes against 

 relatives, such as parricide, infanticide, &c., from which the highest degree 

 of depravity may be inferred, were for the two countries as 1 to 11, or, for 

 tli< Netherlands, twice as many in France, with reference to the population. 

 Forgery was as 1 to 7, which makes it a little less common in the Nether- 

 lands ; and theft as 1 to 5, or about the same amount. 



