The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-10-22
4 SCIENTIFIC IIEJV OF CRIME.

lCincinnati Telegraph.)
The prevalence of crime in the United
States is startling when statistics are ad
vanced. 1t has been the boast of New
Enganders that their section of country
was the most law abiding in the Union.
But Mr.. Angel. of Boston, thinks differ
emily. He read paper before the Social
Science Association, in Saratoga. in which
he stated that the proportion of crime to
population in Massachusetts, is now SO per
cent more than Ireland. This votary of social
science is not very well posted in criminal
statistics. A little research would have
convinced him that any comparison be-
tween the old Bay State and Ireland would
be very odious to the former. Such q COM
parison would almost justify the convict on
that total depravity does not exist in the
land Of the Puritan. There are more mnr.
ders committed in single year in the city
of Boston than have been committed in
Ireland during the length of the last decade
Robbery is almost unknown. Its people
have illustrated in real life what was said
in poetry of the Acadian farmers-there are
no locks to their doors Tor rather there is
little need of them) and " their houses are
as open as the hearts of the owners"
Every judge in Ireland during the last
year has been compelled, when he opened
the assizes, to express his wonder at the
hrevity of the docket, and the almost en-
tire absence of great violation of law. No
country is more obedient to human law,
because no country is more Catholic. This
ia the secret of morality which Mr.. Angel
has failed to learn. Had he studied the
close connection between tie Catholic doc
trine and the purity of public morals, he
would not have been guilty of the following
ridiculous assertion that, the alarming in
crease of crime in this country was due to
the adulteration of food and drink" Ac-
cording to this enlightened thinker, poor
wheat and coffee that is half hickory fill the
jais and crowd the penitentiaries. Unfor-
tunately for his learned theory, some of the
most poorly fed nations of the world are
the most virtuous, while those countries
where the masses have all the comforts of
life stands lowest in the Rcale of morality.
These wise men of modern times, who cast
religion aside, refuse to consider its bene
fetal influence on society, and fly to science
to guide them, are the blindest fools, by
their own showing, on the face of the earth.
They are condemned out of their own
mouth they are the expouents of their
own ignorance. Crime increases in this
country, because all sense of religion, all
belief 10 Divine Judgement and IN eter-
nal punishment OF siD, is disappearing.
Crime increases most rapidly 10 that part
of the country where intidelity is now the
popular religion, where Protestantism has
reached its last conclusion. The flood,
however, is rapidly spreading, and will
5000 cover the whole country.
Mr. Angel has found that Ireland ia
more free from crime than Massachusetts.
be read the fact. but Il lie searched fer the
cause OF the q f-reDce, he would have
found il, Tot in the adulteTaiion of focd
but in the edalteratiun of religious doc
trlne. He would have learned a truth,
which Yankee school masters and Yankee
! school systeuE are trying to expel from the
human mind, namely that morals and re-
hgious dogma cannot be separated, and
ooctripal errors lead 10 the total corruption
Of public and private life. A man of true
science would have seen the comparison
which Angel made, that the Catholic con-
feesiopal WAS the only power that could
! preyent crime and save society