on with other countries. In Germany, the number of booksellers
is 2651, of which 2200 are retailers, 400 publishers only, while 451
combine the two. They are distributed--36 in Frankfort, 56 in
Stuttgart, 52 in Vienna, 129 in Berlin, 145 in Leipsic. The figures
are suggestive. Another fact may be instanced: in 1851 the number of
visits to the British Museum for reading was 78,419--giving an average
of 269 per day, the room having been open during 292 days. The number
of books consulted was 424,851, or 1455 daily. This is an agreeable
view of what one part of society is doing; but there is a reverse to
the picture, as shewn in a recently published parliamentary report,
from which it appears that in 1849 the juvenile offenders in England
numbered 6849--in Wales, 73--of whom 167 were transported; in 1850,
the numbers were respectively 6988, 82, 184, shewing an increase under
each head. Of the whole number in confinement last November, 169 were
under thirteen years of age, and 568 under sixteen: 205 had been in
prison once before, 90 twice, 49 three times, 85 four times and
upwards; 329 had lost one parent, 103 both parents; 327 could not
read, and 554 had not been brought up to any settled employment. These
facts may be taken as demonstrative of the necessity for multiplying
reformatory agricultural schools, such as have been established in
various parts of the continent with the happiest effects.
Among the prizes just announced by the French Academie, is one for
'the best work on the state of pauperism in France, and the means of
remedying it,' to be adjudged in 1853. It is greatly to be wished that
some gifted mind would arise capable of taking a proper survey of so
grave a question, and bringing it to a practical and satisfactory
solution. Some people are beginning to ask, whether it would not be
better, with the proceeds of poor-rates, to send paupers to colonies
which are scant of labourers, rather than to expend the money in
keeping them at home. The Academie of Literature, too, has offered a
prize for an essay on the parliamentary eloquence of England--a
significant fact in a country where the legislature is not permitted
to be eloquent, and where forty-nine provincial papers have died since
the 2d of December. Coming again to science: the judicial _savants_
have awarded a medal to Mr Hind for his discovery of some two or three
of the minor planets--an acknowledgment of merit which will not fail
of good results in
|