| Rate in all France | 7.2 |
| Rate in cities | 11.4 |
| Rate in the country | 4.4 |
From this we draw the conclusion that for Protestants city life is decidedly the best, and it will be the duty of ministers to crowd as many of their flocks as possible out of the polluted air of the country into the moral atmosphere of the cities, and in England to endeavor to concentrate them particularly in the very virtuous communities of London and Liverpool. But we are sorry the gospel trumpet gives such a feeble sound in the country districts, and we hope some of the city clergy will get a call to go into these benighted districts, (abjuring the brown-stone fronts and high salaries,) and bring them back at least to the level of the city population, where there are so many and varied temptations, and such surprising purity. Our Catholic people seem to flourish better in the country, and we sincerely hope that those who come over from Europe will get farms out West, instead of settling down in New-York or other cities. We did have an idea that the influence of religion was best exerted in the country, where the pastor knows each one of his flock, and would rather have compared the country people in Protestant lands with the country people in Catholic lands, to test the influence of religion upon them; but as the New Englander seems to think the comparison is best made in the cities, we leave every reflective person to form his own judgment. If the New Englander is right, we fear our Lord was wrong in asking us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation;" but Protestants should rather pray, "Lead us into temptation," because it is precisely in temptation they are most virtuous.
We did not intend to say a single word on the subject of murders, etc., because we have not any complete statistics on the subject, and because we do not like the labor of hunting them up, just at present; but as this thing is paraded before us like a red rag before a bull, we will just make one dash at it, and, giving it a blow sufficient to dispatch it, leave the rest of the matter until we find it convenient to take it up. Mr. Seymour gave the following items in his book:
| Ireland | 19 homicides to the million. |
| France | 31 homicides to the million. |
| England | 4 homicides to the million. |
and we find the following table in the New Englander:
To the Million of Population.
| ENGLAND. | FRANCE. | |
| Convictions of murder and attempts | 1½ | 12 |
| Convictions of infanticide in various degrees | 5 | 10 |
We give the latest returns on the subject from the "Handbuch" for France and from Thom's Official Directory for England and Ireland, 1869.
| CONVICTIONS AND SENTENCES TO DEATH. | EXECUTIONS. | |
| 1864. France | 9 | 5 |
| 1867. England and Wales | 27 | 10 |
| 1867. Ireland | 3 | 0 |
It will not require much ingenuity to see where the truth lies. "Ex uno disce omnes."