STATISTICS OF THE UNITED EIXGDOM. 471 



"who cannot claim to have originated co-operation, but who have given a wonder- 

 ful impulse to the movement. Very important, likewise, are the Buildin» 

 Societies, which expend annually about £2,000,000 upon the purchase of land 

 and houses. As to the Trade Unions, whose principal object it is to regulate, 

 and, if jjossible, to raise the wages of the industrial classes, their number is very 

 considerable. Mr. Howell estimates it at 3,000, with 1,250,000 members, and an 

 annual income of nearly two millions sterling. One of the most numerous 

 amongst this class of societies is that of the agricultural labourers, which at one 

 time numbered 90,000 members, but has recently greatly fallen off : one of the 

 most powerful is that of the mechanical engineers.* 



Crime has diminished at such a rate and with such steadiness as to make it 

 certain that there can be no question of a fluctuation merely due to temporary 

 causes. t AYe cannot doubt after this that, owing to the progress of education and 

 other causes, manners in England have become milder. Although assaults and 

 murders are still more numerous than in France, they decrease from year to year. 

 As to the minor offences, it is difficult to institute a comparison between the two 

 countries, and if they are more numerous in France, this may be due to the 

 greater severity of French magistrates. All Ireland swells the criminal statistics 

 to a less extent ihan the metropolis, in which about one-third of the crimes 

 placed on record are committed. Drunkenness is one of the most widely spread 

 vices in England,^ and a foreigner walking through the towns is, above all, struck 

 by the large number of drunken women he meets with in the streets. Insanity, 

 resulting from an abuse of strong drink, is becoming very frequent. Yet it is 

 from drink and its abuse that the English Government derives a considerable 

 proportion of its revenue ; and the Established Church, too, takes its share, for it 

 is the proprietor of several hundred much-frequented public-houses. 



It cannot yet be asserted that all the children of the United Kingdom are 

 in the receipt of even an elementary education, nor could the schools accommo- 

 date them if their parents desired to send them there. Great progress has 

 nevertheless been made in public education within the last few years. Up 



* Friendly societies, &c., as far as returns have been received (1878) : — 



X Dawson Bums estimates the beer, wine, and spirits consumed in 1873 at 152,478,920 gallons, 

 being equal to 7,260,000 gallons of pure alcohol. The enormous sum of £'126,000,000, or £3 16s. a head, 

 was expended, according to him, upon drink. 



