namely, the immoderate use of opium in various shapes, chiefly by way of laudanum, in families, and especially with infants, without the advice of proper physicians. My inquiries into the subject have led me to the conviction that innumerable parents create in their children that diseased craving for stimulants which, with so many individuals, ends in open and violent intemperance, and with many more in a constant use of ardent spirits, not much less injurious in its consequence. The united efforts of medical gentlemen, as of all those who are in the habit of instructing the people on important points, might produce a great change towards the better.

Intemperance, however, which on all hands is admitted as the most fruitful source of crime in our country, will be certainly counteracted in a degree by universally-spread education, for the reasons already mentioned; namely, because it trains and regulates the mind, connects the individual with stronger links to society, informs him in regard to his duties towards the Creator, the society he lives in, and towards himself and his family, and assists in producing self-respect.

"The facts which have lately appeared from the inquiries instituted in England as to the extent and consequences of intemperance in that country, the statements collected by Mr. Caspar as to intemperance in Prussia, and many details given to the public by Mr. Quetelet with regard to intemperance in France, show that the remark I have just made is also applicable to those countries.

"But is there no test, then, by which we may ascertain whether universal education tends to prevent crime, or whether ignorance promotes it? It seems to me that there is a means by which we may solve this question to the satisfaction of every fair inquirer, namely, by ascertaining the degree of education which every convict has obtained. If we should find that, in a country in which few individuals grow up without some school instruction, an immense majority of convicts are men who have not received a fair school education; if thus ignorance almost always accompanies crime; and if, at the same time, it is easy to account for a connexion between the two on general and simple grounds, drawn from the nature of our mind and of human society in general, I think we are authorized to conclude that there actually does exist a necessary connexion between the two, and that by diffusing knowledge of a moral and scientific character we may hope for a decrease of crime, and be assured that though crime may in reality or apparently have increased for some reason, it would have increased still more without general ed

ucation.

"The greatest circumspection, indeed, is necessary in drawing conclusions from statistical statements. Many opinions, apparently founded in reality, have currently been believed for many years, and, in the end, been found to be erroneous. But if, as I have stated, repeated facts agree with the conclusions at which we would arrive in the most cautious way of reasoning by analogy, and on principles which are always considered to hold; and if, in particular, our conclusions are corroborated by those individuals who, before all others, have a sound and practical knowledge of criminals, it would seem that we may adopt the result thus arrived at as truth.

"There is no warden or superintendent of any penitentiary of note with which I am acquainted, who does not consider want of education and ignorance as some of the most active agents in producing crime; and if there be any subject connected with education, or any affairs of human society respecting which the knowledge of practical men is indispensable, or reasoning on which, without ample knowledge of facts, is more gratuitous, that subject is prison discipline and the true charac

IGNORANCE AND CRIME.

29

ter of convicts. But, as will be seen from the following letters, there is but one opinion among these gentlemen.

"When I first saw the statements to which I have alluded at the beginning of this letter, I directed a series of queries to the wardens of our most prominent penitentiaries, and received from nearly all of them the readiest answers, not indeed always on all of my questions. This would have taken, in some cases, too much time; yet the statements with which the gentlemen favoured me are quite sufficient to prove that not only education, but instruction even in the most elementary knowledge, is very deficient in most convicts.

"As Mr. Wood, the warden of our Eastern Penitentiary, has given the answer on a number of my queries in his last report on the penitentiary under his charge to the Board of Inspectors, I shall give an extract from that quarter.

"As to the three other letters, they are too valuable not to be given without curtailment. They prove once more the facts, that, 1. Deficient education, early loss of parents, and consequent neglect, are some of the most fruitful sources of crime. 2. That few convicts have ever learned a regular trade, and, if they were bound to any apprenticeship, they have abandoned it before the time had lawfully expired. 3. That school education is, with most convicts, very deficient or entirely wanting. 4. That intemperance, very often the consequence of loose education, is a most appalling source of crime. 5. That by preventing intemperance, and by promoting education, we are authorized to believe that we shall prevent crime in a considerable degree.”

The extract from Mr. Wood's report, to which Dr. Lieber refers, has the following concluding paragraph:

"There are among mankind some who have been liberally educated and carefully superintended during their youth, who nevertheless become abandoned, and we see others without these advantages rise to the first stations in society; yet the disproportion is great. I therefore believe that, had the two hundred and nineteen convicts above mentioned received a suitable education, both moral and physical, and been placed with good masters until twenty-one years of age, to learn some practical business, where they would be taught industry, economy, and morality, instead of spending their youth as they have, few of them would ever have been the inmates of a prison. All philanthropists agree that the best mode of preventing crime is properly to educate youth."

The agent of the Singsing prison, Mr. Wiltse, in his reply to Dr. Lieber's inquiry, says, "Whatever may be the fact in other countries, there can be little doubt that education and early application to some kind of business would have a powerful tendency to decrease crime. From my long intimacy with criminals, I have found that a large majority of convictions may be traced to the formation of bad habits in early life, from a total neglect on the part of their parents or guardians in giving them education, and confining their attention to some systematic business."

The Rev. Mr. Smith, the chaplain of the Auburn State-prison, states that, out of 670 prisoners, there were only three that had received a collegiate education, and eight that had received an academical education; and all the remainder had received only a very

poor education, or none at all. Of the same 670, only 8 were total abstinents, 159 were moderate drinkers, and 503 were intemperate drinkers; while 402 had committed their crimes under the actual influence of spirituous liquors, and 257 had had intemperate parents.

Mr. Pillsbury, the warden of Connecticut State-prison, answered the inquiries addressed to him by saying, "The whole number of convicts in Connecticut State-prison is 180. No convict here has ever received either a college or classical education, nor has any one of such education ever been an inmate of this prison. The chaplain, who from 1827 to 1830 was acquainted with nearly 1000 convicts in the State-prison at Singsing, and with many other convicts in the prisons of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Auburn, had never known a liberally-educated convict in prison." He then states that, of 100 convicts who came to the prison, the usual proportion is not more than eight who can read, write, and cipher; 75 in 100 acknowledged themselves to be habitual drunkards; and 44 in 100 admitted that they had committed their crimes while under the excitement of liquor; while there was not a single convict among all the number who before his conviction could read and write, was of temperate habits, and followed a regular trade.

This last fact is as important as any that has been stated, and deserves especial notice, as well as the concluding paragraph of Mr. Pillsbury's reply, which seems to remove altogether the erroneous impression created, of an increase of crime corresponding to an increased extension of education. He says,

"Since the prison has been established in this place, some seven or eight years ago, the number of convicts has considerably increased, and hence the French commissioners and English gentlemen may have naturally inferred that there must have been an increase of crime in equal proportion. But the truth of this matter seems to lie here. As soon as the new prison was built, the criminal code was revised, and alterations made so as to punish a larger number of offences with confinement in the state-prison. Besides, because the discipline of the prison was thought to have a strong tendency to reform those who came under its influence, and as such economy was used as to make the labour of the convicts more than meet the expenses of the whole establishment, the courts in the different counties were more than ever before inclined to sentence individuals to the state-prison for the same offences. For some time past there has been a very manifest decrease in this state in the instances both of crime and convictions. Ever since last January there has been a diminution of at least twenty in the number of convicts."

Who is there, after this mass of evidence as to ignorance and intemperance being the chief causes of crime, that will not admire and commend the rulers and legislators of America for doing their utmost to promote education and temperance; and, at the same time, lament that Great Britain, with all the superior advantage of centuries of previous civilization, should be behind her own daughter, America, in this respect?

Many will remember the difficulty with which the comparatively small sum of 20,000l. was wrung from the ministry of England for the building of schoolhouses, wherever the population of the district would furnish an equal amount to that which they required from the public funds; while in the State of New-York alone the amount of the Common School fund is nearly two millions of dollars, of which nearly one million is paid yearly for teachers' wages, and the rest expended in the erection of schoolhouses, purchases of books, and supplies of fuel.

Many persons will also remember the opposition made by the government of England even to the appointment of a committee of inquiry as to the evils inflicted on the country by intemperance; and the ridicule attempted to be thrown on every proposition for restricting the number of spirit-sellers, or placing the traffic under such restraints as would lessen its evils to the poorer classes of society; while in America, the legislatures of Tennessee and Massachusetts have already passed laws prohibiting entirely the sale of ardent spirits in any quantities less than fifteen gallons to one person at a time, by which all tippling-houses and dramshops are extinguished at a single blow, and the traffic restricted only to the dealers in large quantities, by which more than half the evils occasioned by intemperance are removed; and the example of these states will, it is believed, be speedily followed by others.

In connexion with the state of education in Albany, it should be mentioned that, in addition to an ample number of the common schools for the general instruction of the humbler classes, and Sunday-schools attached to every church in the city, there are two first-rate institutions, one called "the Albany Academy," for the education of male youths only, and the other called "the Albany Female Academy."

The Albany Academy was first instituted by the municipal body of the city about the year 1813, and the munificent grant of 100,000 dollars was made from the city funds for the purpose of erecting the building. This is a large and substantial edifice of stone, with a centre and two wings, occupying a front of 90 feet, of three stories in height; the centre is surmounted by a turret or small steeple, and the whole is surrounded by an open space of green lawn. Its position is advantageous and commanding, occupying a portion of the hill on the north, while the Capitol occupies a corresponding site on the same hill on the south, with the great avenue of Washington-street running between them.

The mayor and recorder of the city are trustees ex-officio, to whom are added others from the gentry and clergy of the city, to the number of sixteen in all, and these constitute the governing body of the institution.

The faculty consists of the principal, a professor of Latin and Greek, a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, a pro

fessor of English literature, and a professor of modern languages; to which are added, the assistants and tutors in each department, and these are bound to adhere to the printed statutes, of which a copy is put into the hands of every student on entering.

The students are admitted from the age of six years and upward, . and are taught such branches of learning as their parents or guardians may prescribe. For this purpose, the course of tuition is divided into four branches. In the fourth class or department, the one into which the pupil first enters, he is taught reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, natural history, and general history. In the third class are taught the higher branches of geography, and grammatical construction of style, in prose and verse, the belles lettres, and elements of criticism, and exercises in composition and declamation. In the second class are taught the higher branches of arithmetic, bookkeeping, algebra, mathematics, natural philosophy, architecture, mathematical geography, and drawing. In the first class are taught Latin and Greek, Roman and Grecian antiquities, mythology, ancient history, and biography.

The expense of each pupil, of which there are now about 300 in the several classes, is as follows: 28 dollars per annum for the first class; 20 dollars per annum for the second and third class; and 16 dollars per annum for the fourth class; and, as the building was provided by the funds of the State, it is found that this low scale of expense, from £3 3s. to £5 12s. per annum, is quite sufficient to remunerate handsomely the principal, the professors, and the tutors, besides admitting the gratuitous education of a certain number of the best scholars of the common or district schools, who are selected from year to year, according to their merit, by the trustees of the institution.

The Albany Female Academy was commenced about the year 1817. The funds for its establishment were raised in shares of proprietors, amounting to 30,000 dollars; with this a very fine and commodious building was erected in North Pearl-street, where its noble projecting portico of the lonic order, the pillars of which are about 6 feet in diameter and 50 feet in height, add greatly to the architectural beauty of the street. This institution was intended to give to female youths all the advantages of the best classical and mathematical education which is afforded in other institutions to male youths only; and its whole arrangement is well adapted to this end.

It is under the government of thirteen trustees, who are elected annually by the stockholders, and who, according to the charter, for both of these academies are incorporated, have the general management of its affairs. Its officers are a president, secretary, and treasurer; and its faculty consists of a professor of mental philosophy and rhetoric, a professor of natural philosophy, chymistry, and botany, a professor of the French and Spanish languages,