ly and foreboding in the extreme.

The criminal returns of Great Britain and Ireland for the last twenty
years, demonstrate that the uneducated criminals are about a third of
the whole: in other words, the educated criminals are to the uneducated
as two to one.[9] In Scotland, the educated criminals, are about _four
times_ the uneducated; in England, just double; in Ireland, they are
nearly equal. Nay, what is still more remarkable, while the number of
uneducated criminals, especially in Scotland, is yearly diminishing,
that of educated ones is yearly increasing.[10] In France, the criminal
returns have for long demonstrated that the amount of crime, in all the
eighty-four departments of the monarchy, is just in proportion to the
number of educated persons which each contains; a fact the more
remarkable, as three-fifths of the whole inhabitants of the country have
received no education whatever.[11] Of the criminals actually brought
before the Courts of Assize, which correspond to our Old Bailey and
Circuit Courts, it appears that about four-sevenths are educated, and
three-sevenths destitute of any instruction; which gives a greater
proportion of criminals to the educated than the uneducated class, as
three-fifths of the people are wholly uninstructed.[12] But what is most
marvellous of all, the criminal returns of Prussia, the most universally
educated country in Europe, where the duty of teaching the young is
enforced by law upon parents of every description, and entire ignorance
is wholly unknown, the proportion of criminals to the entire population
is TWELVE TIMES greater than in France, where education of any sort has
only been imparted to _two-fifths_ of the community.[13] These facts are
startling--they run adverse to many preconceived ideas--they overturn
many favourite theories; but they are not the less facts, and it is by
facts alone that correct conclusions are to be drawn in regard to human
affairs. In America too, it appears from the criminal returns, many of
which, in particular towns and states, are quoted in Buckingham's
_Travels_, that the educated criminals are to the uneducated often as
three, generally as two, to one. These facts completely settle the
question; although, probably, the whole present generation must descend
to their graves before the truth on the subject is generally
acknowledged.

But to any one who reflects on the principles of human nature, and the
moving powers by which it is im