The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-31 00:00:00

CRIME AND IGNORANCE.

We think that, although the ordinary connexion of
ignorance and crime is still as distinctly. traceable as
ever in the calendars of assizes and sessions—which
now contain a column, marking the degree of profi-
ciency of every prisoner in the elementary knowledge
of reading and writing—there is beginning to be dis-
cernible in these calendars the operation of an exten-
sion of these rudiments of instruction amongst the
class of persons in which criminals are generally found
to exist. For example, in the calendar of prisoners
for trial at the present South Lancashire Assizes on
charges of felony, generally of a very serious descrip-
tion, we find the numbers to stand as follow :—There
are just 100 prisoners named in that calendar of
whom we find 30 (that is 30 per cent.) can neither
read nor write ; 24 can read imperfectly, but can-
not write ; 34 can read and write imperfectly ; seven
can read and write well ; and five can read and write
in a superior manner.' Of the seven who can read and
write well, three prisoners are charged with crimes
against person, not property, viz. fratricide (from sud-
den passion), manslaughter, and rape ; a fourth with
forgery (which offence required a degree of intelligence
and education), and the others with horse-stealing
and other felonies. Of the five, who are still more
proficient in reading and writing, four are indicted
for forgeries ; and the fifth, a clerk in the post-
office, for stealing a letter. We apprehend that
few persons are now to be found who would gravely
contend that education is an evil, because it has
in some few instances enabled individuals to com-
mit forgery. The answer to such an obsolete argument
would be that, of persons able to read and write well,
this calendar contains only 12 per cent., while there
are 30 per cent. of criminals utterly ignorant of both
reading and writing ; 44 per cent. more who are
ignorant of writing, and can only read imperfectly;
and 34 per cent. more who only read and write iin-
perfectly. The two classes would stand thus :-0f
comparatively ignorant and uneducated persons, 88
per cent. ; of comparatively educated persons, 12 per
cent. As it appears to us, this is a very cogent argu-
ment for national education ; and such facts ought to
appeal powerfullrto the legislature, in behalf of some
comprehensive measure for that purpose. But as we
have stated (though, not having former calendars at
hand, we cannot state how much per cent.), even this
melancholy statement of things shows, as we believe,
a decided improvement on the calendars of a few
years back, when they first began to record these
things. Fifteen per cent. of the prisoners in this
calendar are females ; and 17 per cent. (both sexes)
are under 20 years of age.

Last week, at the Court of Assize of the Saone-et-
Loire, a man named Laboricr was tried for the murder
and robbery of the widowDucrot, who kept a wine-shop at
Macon. The crime was committed in December last, and
the prisoner was arrested in Geneva the following month.
This man, whose character was of the worst description,
confessed his crime immediately. He said that having. but
two sous left, and not knowing where to find a sleeping-
place, he knocked at the door of the widow Ducrot's house,
in the hope of persuading her to let him in. She spoke to
him from the window, and then came down' to open the
door. It was, he said, at the moment the door was opening
that the idea of the murder and robbery came across his
mind. He struck her a violent blow with his fist on the head
which stunned her, and then tied a rope round her neck and
strangled her, He immediately ransacked the drawers of
the table, and took away about 600 f., together with a gold
chain and ring, which his victim wore at the time. On
the trial, the great point of interest arose respecting the
truth of the prisoner's statement, that the crime was un-
premeditated. Several circumstances—such as his de-
claring the day before that he was to receive money in a
day or two—his having a rope with him when he struck
the woman down—and the evidence of a medical man,
that the blow on the head was not given with the hand—
seemed to prove that Laborier was lilt telling the whole
truth. The jury, however, gave in a verdict of attenuat-
ing circumstances, and he was condemned to hard labour
at the hulks for life.

ABSURDITIES.—It is absurd to despair when the
clouds lour. We should look upward for comfort. When
the heaven over our head is dark, the earth under our
feet is sure to be darker. It is absurd to lend money to
a man whose friendship you wish to preserve. It is ab-
surd for an infidel to tell you to abandon your Bible ; tell
him you will do so when he brings you a better book.
It is absurd to exhibit violent passion in your family,
foaming and fretting at every little annoyance that may
cross you, and, at the same time, expect them to be
placid. It is absurd, if you have half a dozen children,
all of different dispositions and capacities, to give them
all the same education, with the expectation that they
will all shine in the same sphere. It is absurd not to go
to bed when you are sleepy, because it is not a certain
hour. It is absurd to see a man professing Christianity,
bristling up with anger twenty times a day like a hedge-
hog. It is absurd to suppose that a Leghorn hat, loaded
with flowers, will cure the headache. It is absurd to
suppose that a gold watch will cure the consumption.—
Boston Transcript.
THE LATE CHARLES MATHEWS AND THE INT
COME TAX.—Whilst the late Charles Mathews, the
comedian, was performing in Tate Wilkinson's company,
at York, he took it into his head to resist the income
tax, which was then in operation, and which would at
that time have pressed heavily upon his little income. He
sent into the Commissioners a long and numerous list of
the drawbacks on his salary, and enumerated with inge-
nious minuteness his stock in trade. He began with
wigs, and described them in all their infinite variety,
thus—" black wigs, white wigs, brown wigs, red wigs ;
bush wigs, tye wigs, bob.wigs, bishops' wigs, wigs with
a tail, wigs without a tail, lawyers' wigs, judges' wigs,
parsons' wigs, powdered wigs, old men's wigs, young
men's wigs," &c. Natural heads of hair, namely—red
hair, grey hair, flaxen hair, countrymen's. hair, and
bald heads of every description. Beards, whiskers, mus-
tachios, eyebrows, &c. Stockings of every colour were
then enumerated. After these regular requisites were
given came the miscellaneous part of his stock ; such as
" hats, feathers, caps, cravats, stocks, ruffles, frills, neck-
erchiefs, pocket handkerchiefs, pens, books, ink, paper,
music paper, red ochre, rouge, carmine, hair powder,
wax candles, Indian ink, camels hair pencils, hares' feet,
whiting, burnt corks, cold cream, soap, and huckaback
towels." The first covered several sheets of paper.
-While it was being read, the Commissioners listened with
imperturbable gravity at first, but presently, no longer
able to contain themselves, they burst out into roars of
laughter, and exempted the comedian, who heard no
more of the income tax while in York.
A LESSON ON SLEEPING IN CHURCH.—We clip the
following from the St. John Morning News. If we might
be allowed to judge, we should say it is " not bad." "A
few years since an aged clergyman in the western part of
the province, speaking of the solemnity attached to the
ministerial office, said, that daring the whole term of
forty or fifty years, that he bad officiated therein, his
gravity had•never but once been.disturbed in the pulpit.
On one occasion he noticed a man directly before him,
over the railing of the gallery, with something in his
hand, which he soon discovered to be a huge quid of
tobacco, just taken from his mouth. Directly below sat
a wan asleep, with a mouth wide open. The man in the
gallery was intensely engaged in raising and lowering
his band, taking an exact observation, till at last, having
got it just right, he let fall the quid, and it went plump
into the mouth of the sleeper below. The whole scene
was so indescribably ludicrous, that, for the first and last
time in the pulpit, an involuntary smile forced itself upon
the' countenance of the preacher.
Yesterday a Court of Directors was held at tEe
East India-house, when Col. Sir George Arthur, Bart.,
K.C.H., was appointed Governor of the Presidency of
Boinbay. - •