The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-03 00:00:00

ELEMENTARY EDUCA7ION.

A parliamentary paper just issued, completing a
return already made for England and Ireland, shows
the proportional number of men and women in
Scotland who, on marrying, made their mark on
the register, and could not (at least did not) sign
their names. In Scotland, in 1855, 11.4 per cent.
the men who married had to make their mark,
and 22.8 per cent. of the women ; in 1865 the pro-
portions were nearly the same-11.4 per cent. of
the men and 22.2 per cent. of the women. In Eng-
land, in 1851, 29.5 per cent. of the men, and 42.2
per cent. of the women, made their mark ; and in
1865, 22.5 per cent. of the men and 31.2 per cent.
of the women. Ireland had no civil registration in
1855 ; in 1865, 40.6 per cent. of the men and
52.2 per cent. of tha women made their marks and
did not write their names. Thus in round numbers
the proportion of the illiterate stood as follows,
naming the countries in this order--Ireland, Eng-
land, Scotland. Of the men 40, 22, 11 in 100, and
of the women 52, 31, 22 in 100. In Scotland
education appears to be most backward in Ross and
Cron' trty, as many as 33.8 per cent. of the men
and 47.5 per cent. of the women made their mark
in 1865. The county of Inverness is not very much
better off : the illiterate were 27.4 per cent. of the
men and 48.8 per cent. of the women. Then fol-
low the counties in which there is a large proportion
of Irish—Dumbarton, Linlithgow, Renfrew, Lanark

—all with a proportion of illiterates much above
the average for the kingdom. The insular county
of Shetland and the purely highland county of
Sutherland have 28 in 100 of their women unable to
write ; but the number of the men thus illiterate
is in that county almost exactly the average, and
Shetland only 7 per cent. The great county of
Edinburgh had only 6.2 per cent of the men and
only 11-G per cent, of the women unable to write in
18!15. The greater county of Lanark, with its
Irish immigration, has to acknowledge this condi-
tion of 15.1 per cent. of its men and 31-4 per cent.
of its women ; and this county has more than a fifth
of the population of Scotland. The successful work-
ing of the parochial school system of Scotland has
been in the high proportion of persons in the rural
districts able to write. The classification adopted
in this return shows in the districts contain-

jug parliamentary borough, 13.2 per cent. of the
men and 26.4 per cent. of the women in 1865
making their mark and not signing their name ;
in the districts not containing parliamentary
boroughs, only 9.3 per cent. of the men, and only
17.2 per cent. of the women. It is a remarkable

fact, and not exceptionally peculiar to the year
1865, that in all the 33 counties of Scotland only
two—lnverness and Ross and Cromarty—show a
proportion of men who had to sign by mark so high
as the average of all England ; and except in those
two counties and in Renfrew no county in Scotland
shows a proportion of men so high as the common
English mean, who had to sign their names by mark.
In 14 Scotch counties more than 95 in a hundred of
the men who married in 1865 signed their names
upon the register, and in 13 counties more than 90
per cent. of the women. The small amount of pro-
gress shown by the average for the whole kingdom
in 1865 as compared with 1855 is to be laid to the
blame of the town districts. The districts contain-
ing parliamentary boroughs had in 1855 only 12.7
per cent. of the men marrying who had to make
their mark, but in 1865 13.2 per cent. ; and of the
women the number was 24.8 per cent. in 1855, but
26.4 per cent. in 1865. On the other hand, the
districts not containing parliamentary boroughs had
in 1855 9.9 per cent. not signing their names, bu_t
in 1865 only 9.3 per cent. ; and of the women 20. i
per cent. of illiterates in 1855, but only 17.2 per
cent. in 1865. These figures show where the
schoolmaster is wanted. In the whole United
Kingdom 239,769 marriages were registered i n the
year 1865, and 23.70 per cent.of the men and
32.98 per cent. of the women did not sign their
names upon the register, but made their mark.

FORE-AND-AFT-RIGGED SHIPS.—The Marine De-
partment of the Board of Tralo has issued a notice that
masters who hold certificates of competency bearing the
words "of fore-and-aft rigged vessels" only, are not
deemed by the Board as holding certificates appropriate
to the station of masters of brigantines, or other square-
rigged vessels, and that on and after the let of January
superintendents of Mercantile Marine offices will not be
satisfied with the production of those qualified certificates
in any cases except in those of bona fide fore-and-aft-
rigged vessels. _ •

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