The Schoolmaster Abroad.

marks or crosses denotes a high rate if not of actual regressing of indifference , at any rate , perhaps to some extent , of both combined . Still I am glad , after the lapse of ten years , to see from some statistical returns , which 1 give below , that there is a

gradual breaking down of the great burst of apathy and ignorance in this respect , and that the mighty sea of general instruction appears to be overrunning happily the fallow fields of uninstructedness , leaving a fertile sediment behindwhich will

germi-, nate and fructify , let us hope , in the good providence of God , in after years . I invite the attention of my readers to the following " statistics and story of ignorances , " for they are very striking as they are very encouraging : —

'' The annual abstracts of the marriage registers of England and Wales show a continued decrease in the number of persons who , on marrying , have to excuse

themselves when called upon to sign the register , and make a " mark" instead of writing their names . In the year 1873 " marks " had to be made by lS'S per cent , of the men marrying , and 25 -4 per cent , of the women ; in 1874 , for which the

returns have now been issued , the numbers were reduced to 17-9 per cent , cf the men , and 24 / 2 per cent , of the women . Every one of the 11 divisions of the kingdom shows a smaller number of illiterates , though the same cannot be said of every

county . London shows , iu 1 S 74 , only S'l per cent , of its men making their marks , but 13 T per cent , of the women ; the south-eastern division has onl y 11 ' 5 per cent , of its women not writing their names , but 14 ' 2 p > er cent , of its men . In the

southern parts of England—the southwestern division , the south-eastern , the eastern , and the south-midland—there are generally more of the men than of the women unable to write their names . The

number of women in those parts ignorant of the art of writing is as low as 9-4 per cent , iu Sussex , and is below—commonl y far below—20 per cent , in every county except Hertfordshire , where it is 2 L 6 ; Buckinghamshire 23 ' 9 ; Cornwall 24-1 ;

, , and Bedfordshire no less than 33-1 per cent . This last county may boast of its straw-plat manufacture , but it has the humiliation of showing that one-third of its women marrying and 27 ' 4 per cent , of

the men do uot write their own names and both ratios are higher in the return for 1874 than they were in 1873 . The same disability is shown by 24 / 9 per cent , of the men marrying in Cambridgeshire 25-9 in Norfolk , and 26-1 in Suffolk and

Hertfordshire . But north aud south differ considerably . In three of the five southerl y divisions the ignorant men are less than 19 per cent ., but they are below that ratio in four of the five more northerl y divisions ; the women unable to write are

below IS per cent , in four of the five southerly divisions , but they are above 27 per cent , in four of the five northerl y divisions . The illiterate men reach a high figure in three west-midland counties—in Herefordshire , 24-3 ; in Shropshire , 25 ' 3 ;

m Staffordshire , 31-7 per cent . ; but further north the county returns hardly ever show 20 per cent ., and in Westmoreland they are as low as S per cent . The women unable to write are nearly 26 per cent , in Cheshire , more than 26 in Shropshire and

Warwickshire , more than 27 in Nottinghamshire , nearly 32 in Durham , nearly 33 in the West Riding , more than 34 in Lancashire , and more than 38 in Staffordshire . Several of these counties are in the westmidlandwhich is the worst of all the

, English divisions , showing 24 ' 5 per cent , of the men and 28-5 percent , of the women illiterate . But Wales beats even this . In North Wales , 2 GT per cent , of the men and 34 ' 5 per cent , of the women who were married in 1874 could not write their

names ; in South Wales , 37-1 per cent , of the men and 41-3 of the women , or two in every five . The return gives a separate account for the districts not containing parliamentary boroughs , aud therefore , we may suppose , of a more rural character . In these districts the number of illiterate

men rises to 20-7 per cent ., but the number of illiterate women declines to 21 ' 8 per cent . Yet here , again , South Wales makes a return of 28 ' 4 per cent , of its men illiterate , and 44 ' 7 per cent , of its women . And Monmouthshire keep 3 it in countenance with 35 ' 4 per cent , of its men and 43 ' 2 of its women unable to write . "

It is rather remarkable that in these returns the general education of the women appears to be less than that of the men , so late as the end of 1874 , which clearly