Statistical Investigations 417 



(ii) What are the ruoulUi u(>on the lives and conduct of children in after life who don't 

 forget all they have he<>n taught 1 



(iii) What are the raethudx and what are the results, for example in Night Hchoolit and 

 Secondary Schools, in preventing primary' education from b(<irig a wcule^ 



If we know tiot what are the effi-cU) ujx>n our ntitional life of Forster"* Act ia not thia a 

 Rtrangp gap in rea.s<inal)le Kngliind'H knowledge! 



A(l). The resuitu of legal puniHhiiientN -i.e. the deterrent or encouraging effects upon 

 crime of Ix-ing in gaol. Some exctillent and hartlworking reformem tell u«; Whatever you do 

 keep a Iwy out of gaol — work the First Offenders' Act — once in gaol, always in gaol — gaol is 

 the cradle of crime. Other t><|ually zealous and active reformers say a Ixiy must lie in gaol once 

 at least to learn it« hardships l>efore he can bo rt-scued. la it again not strange in practical 

 Kngland that we know no more alxjut thisi 



// (2). Is the career of a criminal from his first committal — and for what action — to his last, 

 whether («) t«j the gallows, or (A) to rehabilitation, recortled ? It is stattMil by trustworthy [jersons 

 that no such stjitistics exist, and that we can only learn the criminal's can<er from himself in 

 friendly confidence — what it has Ix-en from Ijeing in gaol, say for sU'^ling a turnip for a lx)ys' 

 feast^ or for breaking his schoolroom window in a temper because he has been turned out of 

 school for making a noise — to munler or to morality. 



In how many ca.se8 must all our legislation bo experiment, not experience! Any exi>erience 

 must be thrown away. 



H (3). What effect has education on crime? 



(a) Some [HH>plean.swer unhesitatingly : As education increases crime decrease*. (6) Others 

 as unlit>sitntingly : K<lucation only teaches to escape convictitm, or to steal l)etter when released. 

 (c) Others again : Kducation has nothing to do with it either way. 



C. We spend millions in rates in putting people into Workhouses, and millions in charity 

 in taking them out. What is the proportion of names which from generation to generation 

 appear the same in Workhouse records? What is the proportion of children de pauperi.sed or 

 pauperiseil by the Workhouse? Does the large Union S<;hool, or the small, or 'boarding out' 

 return moiv pjiuper children to honest in(le|)endent life? On girls what is the result of the 

 training of the large Union Schools in fitting them for honest little domestic places — and « ' r 

 proportion of them falling int*) vice have to return to the Workhouse? Upon all such sulj 

 how should the use of statistics l)e taught? 



D. India with its 250 millions — 200 millions being our fellow-subjects, I suppose — enters 

 .so little into practical English public life that many scarcely know where this small country is. 

 It forms scarcely an element in our calculations, though we have piles of Indian statistics. [.\s 

 to India th(> problems are :] 



(i) Whether the (leoples there are growing richer or jKxirer, better or worse fed and clothed ? 



(ii) Whether their physical {xjwers are deteriorating or not? 



(iii) Whether fever not only kills less or more, but whether it incapacitates from labour for 

 fewer or more months in the year? 



(iv) What are the native manufactures and productions, needed by the greatest customer 

 in the world, the Government of India, which could l)e had as good and cheap in India, as those 

 to be had from England I 



(v) Whether the native trades and handicrafts are being ruined or being encouraged under 

 our rule? 



(vi) What is the result of Sir C. Wood's (1853) Education Act in India? 



These are only a very few of the Indian things which — I will not .say are hotly contesto<l, 

 for few care either in the House of Commons or out, but — liave their opposites as-serted with 

 equal positivenoss. 



I have no time to make my letter any shorter, although these ai-e but a very few instances. 

 What is wanted is that so high an authority lis Mr Francis Gallon should jot down other great 

 branches upon which he would wish for statistics, and for gome teachiiig func to luie thftnf statintict 

 in order to legislate /or and to ailminister our national life with moi"e precision and experience. 



One authority was consult«d and he answere<l : "That we have statistics and that (tovern- 

 ment nmst do it." Surely the answering question is : The Gi vernment do«.'s not use the statistics 

 which it has in administering and legislating — ^except indeini to "deal damnation" across the 

 floor of the H. of C. at the Opposition and vice verad. Why I Because though the great majority 



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