26 CEIMHTAL STATISTICS. 



The results of these comparisons are singular, but I have no 

 means of accounting for the difference exhibited in the educa- 

 tional proportions of the two periods. 



The facts here brought under review are merely preliminary to 

 a very wide field of inquiry which lies open before us, and invites 

 investigation. There is the nature of the offence, the locality in 

 which it is committed, and the number of times the offender has 

 been punished before. Such inquiries as these in connection with 

 the nationality, religion, age, sex, civil and social condition of the 

 offender, require more time and labour than I have at command at 

 present, and would occupy more time than would be convenient 

 for discussion at one reading, and all this is in connection with 

 our own statistics. Then there is the collection of materials for 

 comparison with other Countries similarly situated with our own, 

 which forms a third subject of inquiry not less interesting nor less 

 important. When I have leisure I may pursue the inquiry 

 further in these directions, but I should be glad if some other 

 member of the Society would take up the question, who might be 

 able to devote more time to its investigation than I can promise 

 myself. 



Some persons may, perhaps, inquire the practical utility of 

 investigations of this kind — how a knowledge of the facts con- 

 nected with crime will conduce to the main object in view, 

 namely, its repression. The reply is, that a standard of com- 

 parison having been once obtained, we can ascertain how each 

 locality in which we are interested differs from the average, and 

 by examining the nature of the offences and the condition of 

 the offenders, we may elicit the local causes which create an 

 excess. 



The value of statistical information on this important question 

 cannot be doubted. It will stimulate the benevolence, and give aim 

 and effect to the energies of the philanthropist ; it will furnish the 

 legislator with materials on which to found remedial measures for 

 social derangement ; and though the conclusions may consist in a 

 bare numerical statement of aggregate results, yet they come 

 home with all the power of stubborn facts, and often tell more 

 than the most eloquent moral appeal. From information thus 

 furnished, it cannot be questioned that public attention is often 

 fastened with an intensity never before given to the subject, to 

 the moral degradation of a State ; and means have been adopted 

 for carrying the blessings of education and order into those dark 

 recesses where ignorance and vice appeared to have most strongly 

 fortified themselves. 



The individual who seeks facts merely to support a hypothesis 

 in which he blindly believes will throw them aside the moment 

 they militate against his arguments ; but the man who seeks facta 



