Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/262

Rh 250 ENGLAND [KDUCATION. State of educa tion among adults. Propor tion of persons unable to sign Iheir names to marriage registers. school board taxation in the whole of England and Wales was I STd. per pound sterling in the year 1874-75, and rose to 3 43d. per pound in the year 1875-76. Adult Education. Though as yet unaffected by the in troduction of the system of compulsory education, there is, nevertheless, a vast progress of general instruction visible among the adult generation, as is proved by the constantly growing numbers of persons able to sign their names to the marriage registers. The annual numbers, carefully collected by the registrar of births, deaths, and marriages, as among the most noteworthy tokens of the educational condition of the people, show that while in the quinquennial period 1841-45 there were in England and Wales 32 -6 per cent, of men and 4 8 9 per cent, of women who signed the marriage registers with &quot; marks,&quot; being unable to write, the proportion very steadily decreased from period to period, and from year to year, till it had fallen in 1871-75 to 18 - 5 per cent, in the case of men, and to 25-2 per cent. in the case of women. Thus there was in the thirty -five years from 1841 to 1875 a decrease of 15-5 per cent, in illiterate men and of 25-6 per cent, in illiterate women. The proportion of males and females unable to write varies greatly in the several counties of England and in Wales, as will be seen from the following table, which gives the percentage of both sexes who signed the marriage re gisters with &quot;marks&quot; in the year 1875, according to the 38th annual report of the registrar-general, issued in 1877 : Counties. Percentage of Persons signing with &quot;Marks.&quot; Men. Westmoreland Surrey 9 Middlesex 9 Rutlandshire I 11 Hampshire 12 Northumberland 12 Kent 13 Devonshire 13 Sussex 15 Lincolnshire 15 Cumberland 15 Gloucestershire 16 Northamptonshire 16 Derbyshire 16 Berkshire 17 Cheshire 17 Yorkshire 17 Herefordshire 18 Leicestershire 18 Lancashire 18 Oxfordshire 10 Dorset 19 Wiltshire 19 Essex i 20 Somerset 20 Nottinghamshire 20 Warwickshire 21 Durham 21 Cornwall 22 Worcestershire 22 South Wales 23 Huntingdonshire 24 Cambridgeshire 25 Norfolk 25 Buckinghamshire 25 Shropshire 25 North Wales 25 Suffolk 26 Bedfordshire Hertfordshire 27 Monmouthshire 27 Staffordshire 30 Women. 8 12 13 10 11 21 12 17 10 14 23 17 18 21 12 27 28 15 23 34 14 15 15 15 17 26 26 31 25 25 36 20 17 20 21 25 83 19 30 21 31 37 England and Wales 17 23 Large as seems the proportion of male and female adults still unable to write in England, the registrar-general, in his 38th annual report, published in 1877, arrived at the Educa- hopeful calculation that &quot; if instruction increases in future tional years at the same arithmetical rate as it has done in the years from 1841 to 1875, then all the men will be able to write in 38 years, and all the women in 31 years.&quot; XII. Crime and Pauperism. The wide-spread belief that increase of education will lead to a decrease both of crime and pauperism receives some confirmation from the criminal and other statistics of England and Wales for more than a generation, though not to the full extent that might be desired. As regards crime, the decrease of it, while of a fluctuating nature, was much less in proportion than the increase of education, as shown by the number of persons committed for trial before juries in England and Wales and either convicted or acquitted. The following table shows these numbers for every fifth year from 1841 to 1876 : Numbi of Clini Years. Number of Persons Committed for Trial. 1841 1846 1851 1856 1861 1866 1871 1876 27,760 25,107 27,960 19,437 18,326 18,849 16,269 16,078 Xumber of Persons Convicted. 20,280 18,144 21,579 14,734 13,879 14,254 11,946 12,195 Xumber of Pei-sons Acquitted. 7452 6935 6359 4672 4423 4572 4283 3841 The small difference between the number of persons con victed and acquitted and the total committed comprised those found to be and detained as insane. It will be seen from the preceding table that, while the total committals decreased from 27,760 in 1841 to 16,078 of crirr in 1876, and the convictions from 20,280 in J 841 to 12,195 in 1876, the downward progress was not regular, but inter mittent, fall and rise following each other. Thus there were fewer convictions in the year 1871 than in 1876. The fluctuations in crime and the number of criminals must be referred to complicated causes, chief among them the state of trade and commerce, which, according as they are either flourishing or depressed, greatly influence the con dition of welfare of the masses of the population. The classes of offences for which persons were committed classes for trial in England and Wales, and either convicted or offence. 1 acquitted by juries, in each of the three years from 1871 to 1873, were as follows : Classes of Offences. Against the Person... Against Property com mitted with Vio lence Against Property committed without Violence. . . . Malicious Offences against Property ... Forgery, and Offences against the Cur rency Other Offences not included in the above Classes Years. Total 1871 1872 1873 1871 1872 1873 1871 1872 1873 1871 1872 1873 1871 1872 1873 1871 1872 1873 1871 1872 1873 Number Committed or Bailed. 2,175 2,082 2,011 1,509 1,325 1,233 11,265 10,225 10,516 197 162 161 483 395 379 640 612 593 Number Convicted. 1,418 1,403 1,347 1,146 1,034 952 8,457 7,609 7,968 102 89 81 403 336 327 420 391 414 Xumber Acquitted or Discharged. 735 658 638 360 290 279 2,798 2,604 2,533 94 70 78 80 59 52 216 220 177 16.269 14,801 14,893 11,946 10,862 11,089 4,283 3,901 3,757