Dissenters............................................................
150
Infidels................................................................
5
These statistics are taken from the report of the British Parliament,
which, for learning and intelligence, as a deliberative body, has not
its superior, if it has its equal, in the world, and it is surely a
sufficiently Christian body to be accepted as authority in this matter,
since a large number of its members are clergymen. These statistics
hardly sustain the allegation that "Infidelity is coupled with
impurity."
We are willing to stand upon our record. But, lest it be claimed that
this is a British peculiarity, allow me to defer to the patriotic
sentiment of my readers by one other little set of tables which, while
not complete, is equally as suggestive.
"In sixty-six different prisons, jails, reformatories, refuges,
penitentiaries, and lock-ups there were, for the years given in reports,
41,335 men and boys, women and girls, of the following religious sects:
Catholics..................................................................
16,431
Church of England....................................................
9,975