MORAL STATISTICS OF RUSSIA, FROM THE OFFICIAL STATEMENT DRAWN UP BY C. F. HERMANN, ST. PETERSBURGH. The portion of Russia investigated is the western part of the central provinces of the empire, commonly called the plateau of Oka, which includes both the capital and province of Moscow; the years to which the tables refer are 1821 and 1822, and the immediate subjects of inquiry are suicides and homicides. In the year 1821 the population was 10,593,251, and the number of proved suicides 520-doubtful (non constatés) suicides 132. In 1822 there were proved suicides 505, doubtful 168. The homicides, in 1821, were 223; and, in 1822, were 200. Taking the mean of both years, it appears that there was one suicide for every 16,000 inhabitants, and one homicide for every 50,000; and, consequently, that the suicides were three times more numerous than the homicides. On examining the separate provinces, it appears that suicides and homicides are proportionably greater in the province of Moscow, where the population is most dense, and both are least in the province of Kostroma, which is the most thinly populated. The number of doubtful suicides is greatest in the provinces along the Volga, and those bordering on the steppes of Tartary. The next head of inquiry is the sex of those who committed suicide; in 1821 there were, of proved suicides, 428 men, 92 women; in 1822, 406 men, 99 women; whence, taking the mean of both years, the proportion of male to female suicides is as 48 to 1. Of proved suicides there were, in 1821, 111 men, 21 women; in 1822, 146 men, 22 women; whence, taking the mean, it appears that the proportion of male to female in this class is nearly as 6 to 1. And, combining both classes of suicide, the proportion is as 4 to 1. The interest of these details increases when we come to investigate the class of life in which these suicides were committed. Peasants (gleba ascripti) in 1821, 387 men, 71 women, total 458; in 1822, 400 men, 98 women, total 498; mean amount for both sexes, during the two years, 478. Merchants, traders, and freemen, in 1821, 77 men, 22 women, total 99; in 1822, 77 men, 16 women, total 93; mean amount for both sexes, 96. Soldiers, in 1821, 57 men, 17 women, (soldiers' wives and suttlers we presume) total 74; in 1822, 53 men, 6 women, total 59; mean amount for both sexes, 66. Nobles of every grade, in 1821, 15 men, 3 women, total 18; in 1822, 17 men, 1 woman, total 18; mean term for both sexes, 18. Clergy, in 1821, 3 men, no women; in 1822, 5 men, no women; mean term, 4. It is obvious that, in order to apply these tables, we should know the proportion of these classes to the bulk of the population, but this is very difficult to be ascertained. Mr. Hermann, however, calculates, from data which appear tolerably exact, the following table of the classes of population in these provinces:- Peasants, 8,000,000; middle class, 2,000,000; nobility, 200,000; soldiers, 200,000; clergy, 100,000. If this be, as we believe it will be found, a tolerably close approximation to accuracy, we have, among the peasants, 1 suicide in 16,7574; middle class, 1 in 20,833; soldiers, 1 in 3,009; nobility, 1 in 11,111; clergy, 1 in 25,000. Hence it follows, that the clergy and middle classes are the persons most satisfied with life in the Russian empire; that the peasants, though serfs, are not very discontented; that the nobility have a more difficult station; and that the soldiers are in the worst state of all. With respect to the kind of death, it appears that the rope is the favourite instrument of self-destruction in the middle and lower classes, and the pistol among the nobility and soldiery. Drowning is very rarely attempted; there were but seven cases of it, and of poison only three. Let us now turn to homicides; the mean terms for the two years are, men 141, women 33, children 37; whence we obtain the following proportions:-men to women as 4to 1; men to children as 3 to 1; women to children as 1 to 1; both sexes to children as 4 to 1. The mean The next examination is as to the classes. terms for the two years were, among the peasantry, 101 men, 254 women, 31 children, 158 total; middle class, 194 men, 3 women, 2 children, 25 total; soldiers, 10 men, 14 women, 3 children, 15 total; nobles, 6 men, 2 women, no children, 8 total; clergy, 3 men, woman, 11⁄2 children, 51⁄2 total. The principal remark on this statement is, that childmurder is most common among the peasantry, and more rare among the soldiers than might have been expected. The greatest number of men slain were the victims of anger or intoxication, and were killed by blows of the fist or a cudgel; the number of persons slain by sharp weapons was on the average of the two years 26 men, 6 women, no children, total 32; being little more than a fourth of those who fell by the fist or cudgel. The number murdered by fire-arms was only four men and one woman. The cases of poisoning were six in the two years, and three of these are believed to have been accidental. With regard to family connexions, we must take the two years together. One father was murdered by his son; one mother was murdered by her son; five husbands were murdered by their wives; twenty-three wives were murdered by their husbands; one son was murdered by his father; three men were slain by their brothers. Nearly all these domestic crimes occurred in the class of peasants: three, however, belong to the clergy. Out of the 413 homicides committed in the two years, the perpetrators of 206 only have been discovered and brought to trial. It is known, however, that there were 127 murders committed by peasants; 20 by discharged soldiers and deserters; 7 by merchants and traders; 6 by the clergy, or persons in their employ; and 4 by noblemen. Further, that 80 murders were committed by women, viz. 72 mothers murdered their children; 5 wives killed their husbands; 3 uncertain cases. Among these murders there were only six of masters by their slaves, domestic or rural. As far as we are enabled to judge from former inexact statistical tables, it would seem that crimes of violence in this division of Russia are diminishing. Soldiers' Children. - The "St. Petersburgh Journal" states, that 160,105 children of soldiers and recruits were educated at the expense of the Crown in the year 1832. During an interval of eight years, 4,343 such children were brought up as clerks in offices; 2,308 as assistant-surgeons ; 452 as land-surveyors; 586 as shipwrights; and 120 as musicians. Artillery. This branch of the military department has Synoptical Table of the State of Education in Russia, ac- |