at Sing Sing, 289 could not read or write, and
only 42--less than 1 in 20--had received a good common school education.
Auburn prison presents similar statistics. Out of 228 prisoners, only 59
could read, write, and cipher, and 60 could do neither.

The chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary remarks that not only in the
prison of that state, but in others, depraved appetites and corrupt
habits, which have led to the commission of crime, are usually found
with the ignorant, uninformed, and duller part of mankind. Of 276 at one
time in that institution, nearly all were below mediocrity, and 175 are
represented as grossly ignorant, and, in point of education, scarcely
capable of transacting the ordinary business of life.

The preceding, it is believed, is no more than a fair specimen of the
criminal statistics of this country and of the civilized world. I will
conclude this dark catalogue by introducing a statement in relation to
education and crime in a state which, according to the last general
census, contained fewer persons in proportion to the whole population
who were unable to read and write than any other state in the Union.
From this statement it appears that as a people become more generally
intelligent and moral, a greater proportion of their criminals will be
found among the ignorant and neglected classes.

The chaplain of the Connecticut State Prison states that, out of 190
prisoners, not one was liberally educated, or a member of either of the
learned professions. Of the whole number, 109 were natives of
Connecticut; and of these, many of them could not understand the
plainest sentences which they read, and their moral culture had been
more neglected than their intellectual. From the investigations of this
officer, it appears that out of every 100 prisoners only two could be
found who could read, write, and were temperate, and only four who could
read, write, and followed any regular trade.

It is evident, then, that while education increases the wealth and
general happiness of a community, the want of it will reduce a people to
a state of poverty and wretchedness; or, to repeat a sentiment placed at
the head of this article, the different countries of the world, if
arranged according to the state of education in them, will be found to
be arranged also according to wealth, morals, and general happiness; at
the same time, the condition of the people, and the extent of crime and
violence among them, follow a like