EDUCATION AND CRIME. 57 



out of every hundred criminals then supported by the 

 state 



33 had never learned to read or write ; 



56 were able to read and write imperfectly ; 



7 were able to read and write well ; and only 



1 in two hundred and twenty-two had been favoured with 

 &quot; instruction superior to reading and writing.&quot;* 



Only 28 in every hundred were over 30 years of age ! 

 So soon in crime come forward and pass away the children 

 of ignorance. 



The chaplain of the Brecon jail reports, that though the 

 majority of the prisoners to whom he ministers are able to 

 read imperfectly, yet their education has been so defective 

 that they have no notion of the bearing and connection of one 

 part of a sentence with another. Nine out of ten of them 

 were ignorant of the merest rudiments of Christianity. The 

 chaplain of the Bedford jail states that the great majority 

 of prisoners there confined are &quot; ignorant, stupid, and uncon 

 cerned.&quot; Another jail chaplain observes of those &quot; children, 

 or men still childish,&quot; under his care, who hadkeen instructed in 

 reading and writing, &quot; they had not learned to think about or un 

 derstand any thing that they had been taught ; the ears had 

 heard, the tongue had learned utterance, but the mind had 

 received no idea, no impression.&quot; (The reader may be 

 reminded of what I said of sailors reading. j- ) From the 

 Bucks county jail it is reported that about half the prisoners 

 have never been taught to read and write, and about one 

 quarter are ignorant of the alphabet ; and that &quot; ignorance 

 is uniformly accompanied with the greatest depravity.&quot; ] 



Had we not better give up our &quot; godless schools,&quot; and 



* Parliamentary Document, 1842. 

 t Walks and Talks, i. 33. 



% Jail Returns to the House of Commons, 1848. 

 3* 



