tates.
Pauperism, with its attendant evils and crimes, is almost unknown in
those countries, while in England, where the common people are worse
educated than those of any Protestant nation in the world, pauperism has
become an evil which her wisest statesmen have given up as unmanageable.
In 1848, in addition to hundreds of persons assisted by charitable
individuals, no less than 1,876,541 paupers (_one out of every eight of
the population!_) were relieved by the boards of guardians of the poor,
at an expense from the public purse of nearly thirty millions of
dollars.

In our own country, the same pains have not been taken to collect
statistics on this subject, because comparatively little controversy
about it has existed here to call forth inquiry. We as a people have
generally taken it for granted that popular education lessens crime and
pauperism. Still, facts enough have been recorded to show the same
results here as elsewhere. When an educated villain is convicted, like
Monroe Edwards or Professor Webster, the fact becomes so notorious by
means of the press, that it is unconsciously multiplied in our
imagination, and we think the instances more numerous than they really
are. We never think of the scores of obscure villains that are convicted
every week all the year round. A quotation or two from the facts which
have been recorded, will be sufficient to satisfy us on this point.

In the Ohio penitentiary, out of 276 inmates, nearly all were reported
as ignorant, and 175 as grossly so.

In the Auburn prison, New York, out of 244 inmates, only 39 could read
and write.

In the Sing Sing prison, no official record has been made on this
point. But the Rev. Mr. Luckey, for more than twenty years chaplain of
the prison, is obliged by the prison regulations to superintend and read
all the letters between the prisoners and their friends. In this manner
he becomes personally acquainted with the condition of the convicts in
regard to education. He reported a few months since to the writer of
these pages, that while there are always some among the convicts who
have been educated, yet the great mass of them are stolidly ignorant.
There are usually between one and two hundred learning to read, and this
does not include the half of those who are unable to read, as the
attendance upon the class is voluntary, the accommodations are meagre,
and most of the prisoners are indifferent to their own improvement. Not
five in a hundre