distinguishable from porcelain; another had forged an axe-blade of steel, etched the surface and fixed it upon a polished ebony rod with a terminal spike, forming a miniature ice-axe, and so forth.) Religious service is provided for the convicts, but so far as we could learn no educational means whatever, although, according to various reports which were handed to us, by far the larger proportion of the prisoners are Roumanians who can neither read nor write.[72] The total number of persons, men and women, confined in the sixteen State prisons in Roumania in 1880, _including untried offenders_, was 5,252, or about one per thousand of the whole population. Of these 850 were undergoing forced labour in the mines, and 2,491 were imprisoned for less serious offences. Only 265 were minors, and about 100 or 150 women. A strange contrast to our criminal statistics. Besides the inmates of State prisons there were 1,665 persons confined in the district prisons on January 1, 1881, who had been convicted of minor offences. [Footnote 72: In 1874 the Assize Courts had judged in all 1,493 persons (1,441 men and 52 women). Of these there were: |Peasants 961|Roumanians 1,394|Above twenty years of age 1,303| |Artisans 186|All other nations 99|Above sixteen and under twenty 153| |Traders 54| |Under sixteen 11| |Officials 60| |Age unknown 26| |Sundries 232| | | | | | | | _____| _____| _____| | 1,493| 1,493| 1,493| In looking over the statistics given to us (by authorities) we found several small errors. In the main, however, they appear to be correct.] III.