little of the anxiety of the daily struggle for existence; and when she marries she is as little independent as she would have been had she left her father's house for her husband's without any intermediate period of servitude. The Census returns show that in 1871 the great bulk of the grown women in England and Wales were still employed in domestic occupations. But, though small in proportion to the whole female population, there is, nevertheless, a number (which, taken by itself, is by no means inconsiderable) of women earning, or attempting to earn, their daily bread by daily labour, and competing not only with their fellow-women but to some extent also with men. The more enduring they may be in body and the more masculine in mind, the greater, obviously, is their prospect of success in this unequal struggle. But while the women who survive and continue to support themselves approximate more or less closely to the male in energy and resolution, those who are too impatient to persevere, or are unsuccessful from other causes, commonly yield to the temptation to seek a readier means of subsistence by prostitution. Thus, on the one hand, there arises a class of women hardened in the school of adversity, and differing little from men in the natural tendency to commit crime, so far as the tendency is connected with self-reliance and courage-on the other hand, a class of women whose natural weakness leads them astray when they are without the protection of a home and feel themselves to be outcasts. It is probable that female criminals abound most in the latter class, but it is also only reasonable to suppose that the less women differ from men in their occupations, the less will be the difference in the number of male and female criminals. All the facts which can be ascertained thus point to the conclusion that the love of adventure which is characteristic of youth, and courage, and a masculine disposi tion, is closely associated with the tendency to commit many of those acts which are now (but which were not always) defined to be crimes. So long as the legal definition of crime remains as at present, it should be the object of the state to divert that strength and enterprise which might be employed in murder, assault, and robbery into channels in which they might be useful rather than injurious. But there may, perhaps, be a doubt whether all criminal tendencies can be diminished except on condition of a corresponding diminution of that activity and vigour without which the criminal would hardly be able to pursue his career successfully. With the diminution of crime, and especially of crimes of violence, there has been a perceptible subsidence of the military spirit in England. The increase of wealth, and the variety of employ Loss of military spirit attends the weakening of savage instincts. ments which have grown up since the last participation of England in a long European struggle have not only shown how much is to be lost and how little to be gained by war, but have given a very large portion of the population a direct interest in maintaining peace. The merchant and the manufacturer are anxious to avoid any quarrel with a foreign power which would close any markets against them. The artisan and the day-labourer have similar interests, and the men who in former times would have been pleased to become soldiers are more and more drawn into peaceful occupations by the prospect of better pay than is to be earned in the army. These results appear not only in the policy which holds aloof from interference in Continental dis putes, but also in the difficulty with which recruits are induced to join a regiment, and the readiness which many of them show to desert from it. Hence arises the very grave question whether British civilisation is advancing towards its own destruction, and incurs danger from a foreign military barbarism in proportion as it progresses towards its own perfection. It is, however, threatened also by other dangers, at which, as well as at this, a glance may be more conveniently cast elsewhere. Action and reaction of causes and effects. Each In the meantime there is sufficient evidence to show that respect for the laws which protect person and property is closely associated with peace, with abundance of occupations offering the means of subsistence by honest industry, with contentment, and with a well-settled government. cause, however, becomes an effect in turn, and each effect a cause. The absence of crime, no doubt, aids in rendering a government secure, a people contented, and a lucrative employment attractive. When the well-being of a state is anywhere disturbed, the injury to the part affects the whole, but its character is most affected by the greater or less development of the military spirit. A nation frequently engaged in war is compelled to choose between two alternatives—either to seek continually new quarrels in order to find an outlet for its military strength, or to derange its labour-markets by suddenly throwing into them, at intervals, a great number of men more skilled in handling a weapon than in earning a livelihood. In the one case it exhausts all its energies in destroying weaker powers; in the other it has to pass through periods of discontent among its own people, with an increase of crime as the inevitable consequence. Part 3-Crime in relation to Contemporaneous Education: Induced Tendencies. It has often been maintained, with the aid of examples from various countries as far apart as Iceland and Italy, Alleged dimi- that education is the one great panacea for by education.' crime-that when a people is educated it at once imbibes a respect for life and property. nution of crime This opinion deserves careful consideration, because it has had, during many generations, the sanction of many writers who have undoubtedly given the subject very serious attention. Attempts have also been made to demonstrate its truth by the statistics of crime in England, and from the time of Beccaria to the present it has never altogether lost favour. the word 'edu The first difficulty which is encountered in any attempt to estimate the effect of education upon crime is that Ambiguity of education is one of the most ambiguous words cation.' in our language. In the broadest sense the education of any individual is the sum of the external circumstances which induce in him any thought or any action. The causes determining his character at any age after infancy can be exhaustively divided into two classes inherited tendencies, and tendencies created or strengthened during his life. To such creation or strengthening of tendencies, or to the suppression of others, the term education may fairly be applied. To say that education of this kind may be made a very effectual preventive of crime is little more than a truism. It is but saying, in other words, that when crime is clearly defined, and when means are so well adapted to ends by the state that habits opposed to crime become a part of the nature of all whose nature is not incorrigible, the criminals will be reduced to the smallest possible number. This is a proposition which few would care to dispute, and it is sufficiently illustrated by the whole course of the history of crime in England. In proportion as the state in general has shown indifference to human suffering, and set a low value upon human life, the population has been prone to deeds of violence, bloodshed, mutilation, and torture. A contrary example has already had contrary effects. Education, in instruction, cessarily di as now under dence from modern stat's history. Education, however, is now commonly held to mean. instruction by a schoolmaster with the aid of printed books. The subjects first taught are usually reading, writing, and arithmetic ; and it has been the sense of gravely and frequently maintained that a human does not nebeing who can read, write, and cast accounts minish crime may be expected to show a due regard for stood: evilife and property, where the uninstructed human tics and past being will rob and murder. The propounders of this doctrine commonly omit to describe the mode in which they suppose that the three accomplishments operate in preventing crime, and they appeal to the fact that few highly educated and many uneducated or illeducated persons are convicts, as a proof that their opinion is correct. It is perfectly true that graduates of Oxford or Cambridge are not often brought to trial, and that the majority of criminals have not gone through an extensive course of reading, and are not accomplished penmen. But it is not less true that very few men who are colour-blind, very few men with hare-lips, very few men six and a half feet high, very few men measuring forty-five inches round the chest, and very few women with beards are to be found in any of our gaols. Yet no one probably |