250 AN AMERICAX FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



In the prisons of England, in 1841, it was found that 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 favored with 

 " instruction superior to reading and writing." * 



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



The chaplain of the Brecon jail reports, that though the ma- 

 jority 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 " ignorant, stupid, and unconcerned." Another jail 

 chaplain observes of those " children, or men still childish," under 

 his care, who had been instructed in reading and writing, " they 

 had not learned to think about or understand 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." 

 (The reader may be reminded of what I said of sailors' reading.f) 

 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 " ignorance is 

 uniformly accompanied with the greatest depravity "\ 



To return to the Hereford jail : I intimated that every thing 

 said in admiration of it seemed necessarily ironical and bitter ; 

 but I do recall one pleasant, and, I doubt not, true word, for it 

 "it is a palace compared with the old one." 



* Parliamentary Document, 1842. 



tP- 25. 



J Jail Returns to the House of Commons. 1848 



