28 AUGUST 1869, Page 3

The popular impression about Italy as the land par excellence

of assassination has, it appears, some basis in fact. The proportion of homicides to population is highest in the peninsula, being 10.82 for every 100,000 souls, while in Spain it is 8-24, in Sweden .2.02, in England 1.95, and in Belgium only 0-16. About a fifth of the cases of homicide in North Italy are infanticides, the pro- portion diminishing as we go South, till in Sicily it is only 2 per -cent., a redaction probably in inverse ratio to the importance attached to chastity.