The results for the later period (Table V) are still more striking. Before the Middlesex court alone, during the fifty-five years commencing in 1726, were 523 cases of single women and 191 cases of married couples; but 189 of these couples were tried during the twenty-five years ending in 1750--there being but two isolated cases of confession after that date--and 181 within the first fifteen years. On the TABLE VI PENALTIES IMPOSED IN CASES COMPRISED IN TABLE V[590] =================================== Fine | Single | Married | Wives | Women | Couples | --------+--------+---------+------- £12½ | .. | 1 | .. £9 | 1 | .. | .. £6 | 1 | 2 | .. £5 | 18 | 37 | .. £4 | 48 | 61 | 3 £3 | 6 | .. | .. 50s | 10 | .. | 1 40s | 24 | 2 | 4 30s | 9 | .. | 3 25s | 8 | 1 | .. 20s | 43 | 3 | .. 15s | 20 | .. | .. 10s | 96 | 2 | 2 5s | 169 | .. | 16 4s | 11 | .. | .. 3s | 13 | .. | 2 2s | 7 | .. | .. 1s | 10 | .. | 1 | --- | --- | --- Total | 494 | 109 | 32 --------+--------+---------+------- other hand, 337 single women were convicted during the twenty-five and 257 during the same fifteen years. Again, 118 out of the 181 married couples tried between 1726 and 1740 appeared and, presumably, freely confessed their faults. The leading years in this regard are 1730 with twelve, 1732 with twenty-nine, and 1734 with sixteen confessions. The leading quinquennium is the second (1731-35) with sixty-six confessions as compared with thirty-nine in the first (1726-30) and nineteen in the third (1736-40). To offset these figures we find thirteen presumably voluntary confessions by single women in the second quinquennium, none in the first, and two in the third. These facts seem to point directly to the action of special causes in producing this kind of immorality, or, at any rate, its confession. Whether this action was local for Middlesex cannot positively be determined from these documents alone; although, as will soon appear, other evidence shows that this cannot be assumed. After 1725 the records for Suffolk are incomplete; but it is surprising that during the seven years (September, 1725, to October, 1732) covered by Table VII there were in that county only seven convictions of married couples, not one of whom freely confessed, as compared with forty-eight cases of single women, including one confession.