The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-24 00:00:00

of the Evening Mail armed cap-a-pie with a ream of

foolscap, and old Major LIN wrapped in a web of
flannel ? The idea is dreadful—our brain swims
round as we think of it, and in a moment we are on our
knees pleading our past errors, and intreating for
quarter in the name of the British people.
With a happy flexibility of mind, and genius for
which his biographers have amply lauded old Doctor
JOHNSON, the Orangemen of Down have not for-
gotten the affairs of the next world, in all their
quarrels for• the possession of a double share of this.
Like the great CIESAR, they would die decorously,
their limbs properly adjusted, and their robes flung
gracefully around them. In effecting an escape from
earth, they would not wish to leave it, without leaving
an effect behind them. Mark the following resolu-
tion, which stands appended to that upon which we
have been commenting :
" Proposed by the Rev. H. Hamilton, and seconded by the
Rev. C. Lett—

" Resolved---That it is the decision of this meeting. that in
our future attendance on the funerals of brethren, each Lodge
in this district shall provide hat crapes, and the Masters of
Lodges in addition to be furnished with shoulder scarfs, to the
exclusion of every other emblem, such being conceived more
solemn and appropriate to such melancholy occasions, and not
opposed to any existing law.'

Having conveyed them to their own grave, after first
paying a compulsory visit to our own, and that of our
country, we may now take our solemn departure ; leav-
ing the Reverend Gentlemen who proposed andseconded
the above resolution, to read the funeral service. May
the whole brotherhood rest in peace ! and may no wag
on this side of the channel disturb them with his laugh-
ter at their threats of impotent vengeance. In their
death they are as lovely and law-loving as in their lives !

Whether education tends to diminish crime has been
before disputed, but we do not recollect that the point
has ever been so distinctly questioned by any British
writer as it has been by Mr. HENRY BULWER, in his
late work on France, in which he takes the negative
of the position. From M. GUERRY'S Tables, to
which he refers, it is manifest that where the greatest
property is, there also is the greatest amount of crime,
whether as against person or property. Thus upon an
average of six years, ending in 1830, the proportion of
crimes committed in the North of France is 25 per
cent. against person and 42 against property ; in the
south, 24 per cent. against the person, and 12 against
property ; and in the centre, 14 per cent. against the
person and 12 against property. Such statistical ac-
counts are of great value ; but before we can reason
upon them to any good purpose, we must have before
us all the relative statistical accounts which bear upon
the subject matter to which we apply them. All the
accounts necessary to the conclusion drawn by Mr.
HENRY BULWER were not before him when he drew
it. M. GUERRY, however, furnishes a general state-
ment, which proves the truth of our observation, that
wherever crime exists among a people, the greatest
amount of it will always be where there is
the greatest amount of property. " Thus," as ob-
served by M. GUERRY, " points the population
of France, active, and industrious in the North ;
indolent, passionate, charitable, in the South ; igno-
rant, honest, religious, and attached to their parents in
the Centre." As industry and activity prevail in the
North of France, so there also is both the greatest
amount of property and the greatest amount of crime.
Two qualities, however, are added to the Centre which
do not appertain to the North and South—namely,
religion .and attachment to parents, for the absence
of which no education, let it be what it' may, can com-
pensate ; and if the North and South are honest, they
are at least not so characterized by M. GUERRY.
But the accounts given by him, which are referred to
by Mr. H. BULWER, are not sufficient to show what
the state of education is in those departments. All
that we have is one account showing that upon the
average of three years, ending in 1830, the proportion
of young men who could read and write out of those
inscribed on the register of the military census is 53
per cent. in the North, 33 per cent. in the South, and
27 per cent. in the Centre ; . and another account
showing that upon the like average the proportion of
persons accused, knowing at least how to read, brought
before the Court of Assizes, was 47i per cent. in the
North, 29i- in the South, and X 26 per cent. in the
Centre ; and a third account, showing that in the year
1829 the number of male pupils, compared with the
population, was in the proportion of one male pupil
for every 16 inhabitants in the North, one such pupil
for every 43 in the South, and one for every 49 in the
Centre. The state of education must be at a low ebb
in a country where, in the most active and industrious
part of it, namely, the North, 52- out of every 100 of
the population cannot read at all. The proportion of
accused, including all who could merely read, furnishes
no information whatever as to the influence of
education upon the state of crime,, as far as
education is concerned, in France. Some facts,
however, are stated which can leave no room for doubt
as to the state of crime in France compared with the
state of crime in England ; for it is stated that while
in England the committals of females are in the pro-
postion of one to five, the females in France are in the
proportion of one to three. But what is meant by
education still remains, and Mr. H. BULWER re-
marks justly, " that we must not only Jill the mind,
we must form the character. We must not only
give ideas, we must give habits, we must make
education moral as well as intellectual. 'We must
give men great designs, and good desires, at the same
time that we invite them to exertion, and make easy to
them the paths of ambition." There is, however, more
of sounding words than of good sense in this passage.
It is addressing the few in a matter which relates to
the many ; but it may serve to show us our own errors
in education, which ought to embrace the information,
and through information the well-being of the lowest
as well as the highest in the community, to teach all
the use of things before they are taught the use of
letters, and of words, which, after all, only serve to
render the use of things more perfect and more bene-
ficial. For the great bulk of the people, education
ought rather to be useful than intellectual ; but still it
ought to be so conducted as that a mind of intelligence
or intellectual power, wherever it may exist, may have
the means of developing itself. In his brother's book
upon England, there are many useful suggestions upon
this subject ; and to the suggestion which he himself
has made, we would add that a knowledge of religion
should not be overlooked when we are dealing with the
effects of education upon crime, or when we are dealing
with education at all. We think that Mr. H. BULWER
has been too much influenced by a theory which he has
adopted, that the state of crime, as of every thing else in
a state, is to be accounted for from circumstances to be
found in it, " though," he sap, " if his book has any
merit, it is that of being written without the object of
advancing any legislative dogma of his own." The
truth is, the question is one into which a great number