THE DEMON OF GREED. 



creased with, enormous rapidity. AVhile men's deaths 

 from intemperance have increased about 58 per cent, in 

 the twenty years, those of women have increased more 

 than 100 per cent. The causes that lead to this fatal 

 amount of intoxication are various ; but no one will deny 

 that the facts here set forth show the existence of some- 

 thing seriously wrong in our social conditions, and that 

 the evil is rapidly increasing. 



There is yet one more indication of our deterioration. 

 One of the arguments in favor of national education was 

 that it would certainly decrease crime. Herbert Spen- 

 cer told us that it would not have that effect; that there 

 was nothing in educating the intellect to have any effect 

 on the amount of crime, though it might have an effect 

 upon its character. And he seems to have been right. 

 Owing to changes in the classification of offenders, in the 

 nature of their punishment, in the criminal law, and in 

 the practice of the Courts, it is not difficult to obtain 

 figures showing a decrease, as is often done by officials 

 who will not readily admit that our systems of punish- 

 ment have no reformatory action. But a gentleman 

 who has had a lifelong experience of prisons and pris- 

 oners, and has made a serious study of the whole subject, 

 arrives at a different conclusion. -He tells us that, after 

 a careful examination of all available statistics for the 

 last thirty years, and making all needful corrections for 

 the changes above referred to, he considers it proved that 

 crime has increased, and at a greater rate than the in- 

 crease of the population for the same period. The re- 

 sult, which he thinks to be as near the truth as can 

 be obtained from prison and criminal statistics, is as 

 follows: 



