Show CRIME IN MANCE under the glittering littering vene veneer q r of civilization and refi refinement nemen t for which france claims preeminent distinction there are a moral rottenness and social corruption which have long since ceased to hide themselves in shame and confusion books like Bau Daud dots ets nabob zolas pot bouille and other libidinous productions of modern fiction are bad but they only reflect in an appallingly realistic representation the condition of the french society and family which is utterly bad paternal love and filial affection aeve h bevc shrunk to hollow conven conventionalism ion matrimonial fidelity is a thing more honored in the breach than in t the he observance and offenses agamet public morality and private property arc are pouring over the social body of franco france with it the rushing of many waters the cle clearest areat idea of the growth of crime crime in iti france can be derived from a recently published official report of the minister of justice in in which arc are cora compiled piled the of the administration of justice in the year the crimes comprise four I classes against public order against morality against life and against property while the first class of offenses shows a great decrease from an art average of in 1820 to in 1880 and thus indicates thattie that the F french of today to day are much more contented with their political status than they w were re half a century ago we are shocked by a deplorable augmentation in of offenses against morality ami ax which increased over threefold from to rape and indecent assaults on adults reached e their maximum maximum in in the zenith but fed fell off ON in 1880 to on the other liand hand however immoral assaults on children swelled as a brook aft afler erthe the spring thaws from in the year 1826 these heinous crimes rose in number to in 1880 it is a remarkable fact that claas of crimes is much more 11 ga BH ire frequent quent in n cities than in rural districts altria thus substantiating tb the e old principle plo that the frequency of immorality im corresponds with the increased cre sed density of population the individuals sentenced for of offenses in this class from 1876 to 1880 1355 had grown up without any education making tho the balance appear rather ingvor in favor vor odthe illiterate than the educated a while in the class of crimes crimes against life wo we find that parricides murder of parents by children 11 1826 17 in 1846 and 10 in 1880 the dreadful practices of infanticide and foeticide foet icide have swelled at a horrible rate even frightening the lawmakers mikers sa so that there arc are now pending in n the french chambers several legislative propositions such as one to I the odious and iniquitous law princ principle ipie hitherto prevailing in france that the inquiry into paternity is not admissible thus throwing wing all the odium and miserable consequences of illicit sexual commerce seduction etc on the betrayed woman and letting the more guilty man nan go out free in the last 50 years infanticides have been adjudicated by the as sizes the number having risen from in 1831 to in 1880 bo sides these there have been 70 cases where children in tender years were murdered by their father or mother strange enough that the rural pop illation fur furnishes 75 15 per cent of the infanticide i i for which we have two explanations that the inexperienced country women are easier betrayed and ind ifa less familiar with the modern devices of concealing or removing the effects of ein sin la in the same period the number of abortions rose from 41 to the grand total amounting to 1032 which of course ro represents presents only a small fraction of these heinous offenses and the greater number of them thein evade the eye of justice and the ahe penalty of the die law especially with the ever increasing diabolical ingenuity iu in destroying unborn life to bide the shame of vice of these crimea rimes the cities fumi furnished shedd 60 per atair fr index of f t the le true i inwardness of modern civilization other crines crimea against against t the breath of life were honic homicides ides and ad murders the former slowing an annual average the last four years of the latter of among the motives of these bloody deeds we have domestic record with 22 and 21 percent hatred and revenge with 22 and 20 avarice with 25 and 14 the great share that family troubles furnish in capital crime is ascribable to the fact that in france marriage is indissoluble by legal divorce while all the avenues are left open to licentious desecration of the hymeneal vow cases of poisoning have I decreased in number from year to year the year 1880 recording only 10 for every three male prisoners poison ers the tables chow seven females most cases occur in the country domestic troubles and adultery being 11 tho the principal motives A remarkable decrease has been manifested in crimes against property while the year had such offenses tho the year 18 1880 only yielded 1785 sentences for burglaries larcenie sand similar de although the fact that at present numerous cases are adjudged in police courts which formerly came before the assizes the decrease is still considerable enough to warrant the assumption that the social status and aud material welfare of the maa masses acs is greatly improved to what it was four or five decades ago cases of arson numbered 87 in 1827 rose to in 1855 in 1880 there were fraudulent bankruptcies numbered 1826 in 1880 they had diminished to A very interesting phase of these statistics which to tho the social poli bician and philosophical moralists mora lists is full of significance is the relative authorship of these breaches of the lawas law as distributed between the sexes and here we nye find the following rates percent crime against hale male Fei female nale person and life 41 DO 69 decency cl 61 39 infants 26 74 property 84 16 10 As regards ag age three fifths of all the of offenders ave were below forty years of percent per cent were unmarried i led 38 married divorced showing that married life lif e is a certain bar rier against lawlessness and immorality of any kind distributed as to vocation and moda of life we find class classes es mentioned the appended number of criminals cri agriculture liberal professions industry Indu atry 14 commerce 13 18 laborers and servants A 29 j vagrants and tramps all these figures show that beautiful france though she has off the yoke of imperialism and the incubus of romanism has still more dangerous tyrants to m boover over throw and they are the demons of lust and greed and murder |