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The Moral Effects of Clerical and Secular Instruction
| 865 Protestants, | 791 Roman Catholics, | and 898 Jews in 1000 could read. |
| 666 Protestants, | 564 Roman Catholics, | and 781 Jews in 1000 could write |
| 135 Protestants, | 209 Roman Catholics | and 102 Jews in 1000 could not reed |
Thus the Roman Catholics were 2 to 1 more ignorant than the Jews, and 3 to 2 more ignorant than the Protestants. Then see page 185, "Signing Marriage Register with marks, 1864 to 1874:"
| Number Signing with Marks in Every 100 Married. | |||
| Marriages Performed Married. According to the Usages of the | Men. | Women. | Mean. |
| Church of England | 6.10 | 11.90 | 9.00 |
| Presbyterians | 5.07 | 11.10 | 8.08 |
| Wesleyans | 5.94 | 10.36 | 8.15 |
| Independents | 4.67 | 10.79 | 7.73 |
| Baptists | 4.62 | 7.59 | 6.11 |
| Lutherans | 1.81 | 5.26 | 3.51 |
| Unitarians | 6.25 | 3.12 | |
| Calvinistic Methodists | 9.28 | 4.64 | |
| Other Protestants | 9.31 | 9.01 | 9.18 |
| Roman Catholics | 14.88 | 29.18 | 22,02 |
| Jews | 1.44 | 3.83 | 2.63 |
| Lay Registrars | 6.63 | 16.42 | 11.52 |
| Mean | 7.62 | 15.21 | 11.42 |
Shewing the Roman Catholics as 8 times as ignorant as the Jews, and 3 times as ignorant as the Protestants.
| Religion. | Estimated Mean Population. | Average Number of Prisoners. | Prisoners Per 10,000 of the Population. |
| Protestants | 577.307 | 931 | 16 13 |
| Roman Catholics | 190,324 | 581 | 30 53 |
| Jews | 3,983 | 9 | 22 60 |
| Pagans | 19,688 | 61 | 32.51 |
| Other Sects | 1,931 | 6 | 31.02 |
| No Religion | 5,452 | 3 | 5.58 |
| Unknown | 1 | ||
| Totals | 798,688 | 1,595 | 19.98 |
Thus the Roman Catholics, Pagans, and a small number of "other sects," were 2 to 1 more criminal than the Protestants, and 3 to 2 more criminal than the Jews; but 6 to 1 more criminal than persons of no religion!!!
Mark this, you who would introduce religious teaching into our State Schools! Tour own statistical records of facts warn you not to permit Sacerdotal Interference with the primary instruction of your children. If you suffer it, beware lest your Protestants become as criminal as your Roman Catholics.
But note above—that if your Protestants are only about half as criminal as your Roman Catholics, Protestants are 3 times, while Roman Catholics are 6 times as criminal as persons of no religion!!! Shall we have sacerdotal instruction and 30½ criminals in every 10,000 people, or exclude religious instruction, and reduce criminality to 5½ in every 10,000 people ? If you fancy that this prospect is hopeless, turn to page 85 of the same volume, and note there grounds for thinking differently. While from 1861 to 1871 Protestants increased at about the same rate as the whole population—35 per cent, the Roman Catholics at 55½ per cent, Wesleyans at 102½ per cent, Episcopalians at 21½ per cent, Presbyterians at 29½ per cent, Independents at 42 per cent. Baptists at 81 per cent, and Jews at 23 per cent, we find that the persons of no religion, whose criminality was only 5½ in 10,000 people, increased in numbers at the rate of 388 per cent!!! If this ratio and that of the increase of population continue, in 1910 (only 30 years) the population should be 2½ millions of no religion, and with only 1375 criminals, or 225 fewer that we have now!
Permit clerical interference with primary instruction, and we may then have instead 554 times that number, or 762,500 criminals, or more than our whole population at the last Census!