it would be rash to draw such a sweeping conclusion from so isolated a basis.  But when we know that the Victorian statistics are only one set of documents among many, and that all these sets of documents point to the operation of the same law, the case assumes an entirely different complexion.  The results of the Victorian statistics harmonise with the conclusions already reached from a comparison of the criminal statistics of Europe and America.  These conclusions in turn are powerfully reinforced by the experience of Australia.  In fact, the whole body of evidence, from whatever quarter it is collected, points with remarkable unanimity to the conviction that, as far as European peoples and their offshoots are concerned, climate alone is no inconsiderable factor in determining the course of human conduct.

Yet the evil influence of climate, mischievous as it is at present, is not to be looked upon and acquiesced in as an irrevocable fatality.  At first sight it would seem as if the human race could not possibly escape the malevolent action of cosmical influences over which it has little or no control.  The rise and fall of temperature, its rage and intensity, is one of these influences, and yet its pernicious offsets are capable of being held to a large extent in check.  As far as bodily comfort is concerned, it is marvellous to consider the innumerable methods and devices the progressive races of mankind have invented to protect themselves against the hostility of the elements by which they are surrounded.  In fact, an important part of the history of the race consists in the ceaseless efforts it has been making to improve upon and perfect these methods and devices.  We have only to compare the rude hut of the savage with the modern dwelling of the civilised man in order to see to what extent we can shield ourselves from the elemental forces in the midst of which we have to live.  We have only to mark the difference between the miserable and scanty garments of the natives of Terra del Fuego and the attire of the Englishman of to-day to see what can be done by man in the way of rescuing himself from the inclemencies of Nature.  If these conquests can be achieved where our physical existence is in peril, there can be little reason to doubt that advances of a similar nature can be made in the moral order as soon as man comes to feel equally conscious of their necessity.  As a matter of fact, in some quarters of the world these advances have already in some measure been made.  In the vast peninsula of India the structure of society is so constituted that the evil effect of climate in producing crimes of blood has been marvellously neutralised.  It hardly admits of dispute that the caste system on which Indian society is based is, on the whole, one of the most wonderful instruments for the prevention of crimes of violence the world has ever seen.  The average temperature of the Indian peninsula is about thirty degrees higher than the average temperature of the British Isles,