thanks to those individuals and societies, particularly the National and British and Foreign, which have taken even the first step in the intellectual advancement of the people; but we request them to contemplate with us with apprehension the facts disclosed in the following table, resulting from an examination respecting the education of 1,052 prisoners in the Penitentiary at Millbank.

The results contained in the foregoing table are abundantly confirmed in all their details by the records of the prisons for juvenile offenders in this country.

Lord John Russell, in his Letter to the Lord President of the Council, says, "The reports of the chaplains of gaols show that to a large number of unfortunate prisoners a knowledge of the fundamental truths of natural and revealed religion has never been imparted."

The Report of the Chaplain respecting the prisoners of the county gaol at Bedford in 1838, states "that their great leading characteristic was ignorance, heathenish ignorance of the simplest truths." At Midsummer Quarter Session he reported that

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as to the condition, mentally and morally, of his unhappy charge, he regretted to say it could scarcely be more ignorant or degraded. It was his conviction that no pen could depict in colours sufficiently dark the moral and spiritual ignorance and debasement of the vastly greater number of those unhappy beings who pass through the prisons." *

Respecting the county gaol of Hertford, the Visiting Magistrates report, "The schoolmaster has been regular and diligent in discharging the duties of his office. During the year there have been 72 discharged, exclusive of those who did not fall under his notice and instruction, of whom 30 had been taught to read the Psalms and New Testament imperfectly, or so far to improve themselves as to read well. Of the rest, some have progressed to a knowledge of most words of two syllables, and the remainder were totally ignorant, the short periods of their imprisonment not admitting of improvement." The Report of the Chaplain of the House of Correction at Preston says, "The following table shows the amount of ignorance in the 1129 individuals committed for various offences during the year, and the connection subsisting between that and the causes which have led to their offences:

* Gaol returns under 4 Geo. 4, c. 64, and 5 Geo. 4, c. 12, dated 20th Feb. 1839.

"If we consider the educated criminals as represented by the amount of those who are able to read and write well,' the proportion is remarkably small: and the inference surely must be, that education prevents or restrains crime, either by the operation of those good and religious principles which it should be its great object to communicate; or, at the least, by giving a taste and capacity for pursuits incompatible with the low and debasing propensities which open the door to crime for the ignorant and sensual. On the other hand, it is evident that the greatest absolute amount of crime is the result of ignorance and drinking combined. It is also, I think, specially worthy of observation, that, as the scale of instruction rises, intoxication begins to exhibit itself as a gradually increasing cause of crime, until, with the educated, it appears paramount over every other which can be distinctly ascertained."

The following is an extract from the Report of the Chaplain of the County Gaol at Warwick, on the condition of the criminals confined in that prison, presented at the Michaelmas Sessions in 1836.

"Their condition as regards education, is this; of every twenty-four who are committed, on an average seven have been taught to read and write; eight can read only; and nine can do neither; most of those who can write can read tolerably well, though their writing is generally a very poor performance; but at least the half of those who can read only, do it very badly. With regard to those important parts of education, religion and morality, generally speaking, no instruction whatever appears to have been given to them; for in a vast majority of instances, the persons who come to prison are utterly ignorant both of the simplest truths of religion, and of the plainest precepts of morality. Further, it seldom happens that any effort has been made to bring the reasoning faculties into healthy exercise; and the mind being thus left blank, as far as regards every thing that is good, it ceases to be a wonder that evil principles should so readily be adopted. Indeed, where such a miserable system of education is found, as appears

́to prevail in many places, it were much better that nothing were attempted; for people often appear to learn only just sufficient to render ignorance conceited, and to supply them with fresh incentives to vice. As far as regards religious worship, it is very true that at some period of their lives most of the pri soners have attended a place of worship of some denomination, but very few have been taught to consider this as an imperative duty, but rather as a matter of indifference, which perhaps it may be better to do than leave undone."

Many similar extracts might be given from the reports of other chaplains of gaols, all confirmatory of the brutal state of ignorance exhibited by almost all the offenders who come under their observation; but these may suffice. We have, however, placed in the Appendix a table containing a summary of the proficiency of the prisoners in Norwich Castle in reading and writing at the time of their commitment, taken at different periods, from 1826 to 1835.*

But the consequences flowing from this neglect are not fully exhibited in such returns. The expense of the penal administration for the prevention, detection, and punishment of crime in England and Wales, amounts to £1,213,082,† and the number of juvenile offenders in the prisons last year was 12,000.

On the 12th of February, 1839, by her Majesty's command, Lord John Russell laid upon the table of the House of Commons the letter which he addressed by her Majesty's command to the President of the Council, with Lord Lansdowne's reply. His Lordship's letter commences with words which cannot be too attentively considered,-"My Lord, I have received her Majesty's command to make a communication to your Lordship on a subject of the greatest importance. Her Majesty has observed, with deep concern, the want of instruction which is still observable among the poorer classes of her subjects. All the inquiries which have been made show a deficiency in the general education of

*See Appendix, Table No. II.

+ See Returns for 1834 and 1838.

the people, which is not in accordance with the character of a civilized and Christian nation."

In the Treatise on the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith thus describes the condition of a people whose education is neglected by the Government :

"In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far greater part of those who live by labour, that is, of the great body of the people comes to be confined to a few very simple operations, frequently to one or two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects too are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention, in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of the ordinary duties of private life. Of the great and extensive interests of his country he is altogether incapable of judging; and unless very particular pains have been taken to render him otherwise, he is equally incapable of defending his country in war. The uniformity of his stationary life naturally corrupts the courage of his mind, and makes him regard with abhorrence the irregular, uncertain, and adventurous life of a soldier. It corrupts even the activity of his body, and renders him incapable of exerting his strength with vigour and perseverance in any other employment than that to which he has been bred. His dexterity at his own particular trade seems in this manner to be acquired at the expense of his intellectual, social, and martial virtues. But in every improved or civilised society, this is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the great body of the people,