CEYLON BRANCH — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 79 



From the Fi seal's Return last mentioned, it appears that 

 of the 145 prisoners, there were 43 under twenty-five years 

 of age, 80 between that time and forty, and 22 above forty 

 years old, though perhaps the statement must be received 

 with caution, from the want of correct registers. It makes 

 the greatest amount of crime between the ages of 25 and 40, 

 and about one-sixth of the whole number of offenders above 

 40 years of age. The same general fact appears from another 

 report of the Fiscal, where the average age of all the pri- 

 soners taken together, was about 30, and that of the Singha- 

 lese and Malabar prisoners taken by themselves about 35. 

 In Scotland, crime appears greatest between 20 and 30, and 

 there is perhaps but one-ninth of the offenders above 40 

 years old. The like appears in some of the agricultural 

 counties of England ; in others, as Warwick, Worcester, 

 Wilts, about one-half the total number of persons committed 

 are between 15 and 25 years of age ; and in others, as Kent, 

 there is more than one-fourth between the ages of 15 and 21. 

 It would be difficult to say in all cases, how much of this 

 difference depends on the growth of crime, and how much on 

 the period of its detection : but in this country it must be 

 mainly owing not to slowness of growth, but to inactivity in 

 checking it. 



The return states, that the prisoners were all males : there 

 were then no females in the gaol. From reports in the year 

 1833, it would appear, that out of 923 offenders, then in the 

 several gaols throughout the Island, there were 



Males. Females. 



For Felonies ; 639 16 



—Misdemeanours 230 38 



Total— 54 



which makes the number of females but i-16th of the entire 

 number of offenders — very different this from the county of 

 Stafford in England, for instance, where out of the same 



