It is clear that if want and suffering exist among the labouring classes we cannot assign as causes of them either an over-stocked labour market or the use of machinery; we are, therefore driven to inquire whether the cause that common-sense would predict as the probable one, that namely of deficient education and training, be really the explanation of them?

We first obtain evidence that considerable numbers of the population in this country are so entirely without education that they cannot write. The Registrar-General adopted the ingenious test of ignorance derived from the ability or inability of the men and women to sign their names to the marriage register, and it is found that the counties exhibiting the highest number of criminals possess the fewest number of men and women who can write. The number of men who signed with marks, because unable to write, in England and Wales in 1866 was 22.5 per cent., or nearly a quarter of the whole number who married.*

* EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.-Now that so much attention is being paid to the great work of education, the proportion of men and women in different parts of Great Britain who were able to sign their names to the marriage register merits attention, seeing that it points out the localities where educational effort should be more particularly directed. The reports of the Registrar-General show that the value of this test has been misunderstood. It has been suggested that young women are nervous in the presence of the clergyman, so make marks when they are able to write their

We next find evidence of the direct connexion between ignorance and crime.

The judicial statistics of 1863, inform us that 35 per cent. of the convicted criminals could neither read nor write, 60 per cent. could read and write imperfectly only, of 2 per cent. the question was not ascertained, and 2 per cent. only were well educated. The probabilities are, that all these unhappy beings had received less training than teaching.

names. But, supposing this to be the case, the test is still available for purposes of comparison, as the timidity which prevents some men and women from writing their names, or the vanity which prompts others to try who can scarcely put letters together, must be almost equally powerful in different counties. But against any women deducted from the ranks of ignorance on the ground of nervousness, must be set a large number who write their names so badly as to prove that they have no command over writing for any useful purpose. The value of this test has also been questioned upon the ground that it is in itself no proof of education, and no doubt many of the men and women who cannot write may possess great intelligence and have acquired many useful arts; but thousands, on the other hand, who read and write are otherwise indifferently educated. In the absence of an examination of the adult population of Great Britain, the proportion of persons able to sign their names in writing may be safely employed as a test of elementary education. Turning to the Scottish Registrar-General's report lately issued, the advantages of the Scotch system of education over those of England become strikingly apparent. It is impossible to say how much Scotland owes to her system of schools and to the Universities, which are accessible to the youth of the kingdom. One in nine of the men and one in five of the women signed with marks in Scotland, while the last report of the Registrar-General for England shows that one in four of the men and one in three of the women of England and Wales could not write their names in the marriage register.-The Times.

C

In the year 1866 the proportion of criminals who were entirely uninstructed, or able to read, or to read and write very imperfectly, was 96.3 per cent., or about 48 persons only in 10,000, who were educated.

In reference to pauperism the census tables give us the same kind of information, namely that the persons who most frequently become dependent on charity, and the occupants of the workhouses, are those who in the social scale are the least educated. Of 43,343 persons in workhouses, the occupations were

Of Agricultural and Farm Servants

These data would appear to be sufficient to determine our conclusion that the fruitful and most frequent cause of want and misery is the deficiency of education and training.

If therefore, we want to know the amount of that deficiency, we may expect to obtain a fair indication of it by finding the amount of pauperism and crime in the country.

If we should find the extent of these social evils moderate, the intelligence and good training of the community may be safely affirmed; on the contrary if found considerable, it may be as certainly predicted that, pro tanto, such a community is nursing the potent and fruitful forces. of its own suffering and destruction.

The Poor-Law Reports furnish us with the following particulars of the amount of pauperism and the number of criminals in England and Wales. Taking the mean of the 5 years, 1862 to 1866, we find the numbers following

These statistics show us that 1 in 20 of the whole population of England and Wales are existing in the most extreme state of want, ignorance, or crime, and judging from the evidence of the clergymen, medical men, and others, who have worked most among the poor, we must conclude that half the whole population are living from hand to mouth, and in a state of poverty which is liable to land them in pauperism, on the occurrence of any unusual strain on their resources from want of employment, severe weather, or sickness.

To bring home our realisations of the facts connected with this fearful condition of our body social, let us refer to a few extracts from the most reliable authorities of the day who have examined them.

The Times, in an article dated January 18, 1867, says "It is a terrible story that reaches us from Poplar, Limehouse, Shadwell, and the adjacent districts; 9,000 persons in Poplar alone, received parochial relief last week, against 3,000 in the previous winter. Between 12,000 and 16,000 persons are receiving charitable or parochial relief in the same parish.

If we

were to publish every letter which reaches us, our columns would be overwhelmed with a perfect wail of distress. To any one who was ignorant of the organisation of the metropolis, it would seem as if there was no provision whatever for