under arson points rather to the great difficulty of detecting and proving the commission of the offence."

Being administrators rather than theorists, the editors come to their work with knowledge but with the minimum of prepossessions, and their interpretation of the figures may be received with the confidence due to impartiality. The only marked tendency which we have observed is a certain disposition to scoff at the modern school of "scientific criminology," and a strong leaning to common-sense explanations. As the doctrines of this school are not yet elevated to the position of dogmas, this need not be counted an offence. It sometimes takes amusing forms. In the introduction for 1894 a table is given showing the number of convicted prisoners returned as belonging to certain professions, and their proportion to the total number of persons shown in the Census report as engaged in each profession. It appears from this table that the proportion of criminals in the professions of "editor, author, and journalist" is more than twice as high as among the general population. The comment upon this surprising result is, "I do not know what explanation of the high rate of crime among 'authors, editors,. and journalists' will be given by the students of 'scientific criminology.' It seems to me, however, unnecessary to speculate on the reasons why the members of so reputable a profession should be more addicted to crime than other persons, when there exists an obvious explanation of the high figure in the fact that certain criminals are more disposed to claim connection with journalism than with any other profession."

The first and greatest question which arises in any consideration of judicial statistics is whether crime is increasing or diminishing. This is fully discussed in the introduction to the statistics for 1897. After a careful examination of the figures, and as a result of several distinct lines of inquiry, the editor comes to the conclusion that there is a real

diminution in the number of indictable offences, and that this diminution has been continuous since 1882, and is still proceeding. For the last three years the total of indictable offences (including those dealt with summarily) has never reached 51,000, as compared with 56,000 in 1894, and 63,000 in 1882. The substantial reality of this apparent diminution is confirmed by an appeal to other sets of figures. The number of indictable offences reported to the police shows a similar and even more marked decrease. And when, in order to exclude mere passing variations, the method is adopted of preparing a table which contains under each year not the actual figures for the year, but the annual average for a five-year period of which that year is the central point, the result is the same. Treated in this way, the figures for the years 1881-1895 show a steady and almost absolutely regular annual decrease.

The editor, however, applies yet another test to these figures. He compares them with the proceedings taken summarily for certain offences against the Prevention of Crimes Acts and the Vagrancy Act, which are practically peculiar to habitual criminals. These are averaged in the same way, and though they do not show the same marked and regular diminution, there is at least nothing in them to throw doubt upon the conclusions arrived at by consideration of the other figures.

Looking at this careful test, we may reasonably accept the editor's conclusion that we have to do with a progressive decrease of the mass of serious crime. But we have always with us pessimists who maintain that the decrease shown by the statistics is only apparent, and is produced by the growth of humanitarian feeling, which creates an increasing unwillingness to prosecute, while the volume of crime is really as great as ever.

Now, in the first place, it must be observed that the number of crimes committed which are neither prosecuted

nor reported to the police is a thing which cannot be ascertained nor dealt with by statistics. It is and must remain purely a matter of guesswork. If any man declines to believe that the decrease in the figures of which we have just spoken represents a real diminution in the crimes committed, it is impossible to prove categorically that he is wrong; one can only point out the facts and figures which make for a contrary hypothesis.

It must be remembered that it is not only the number of prosecutions that is decreasing: the number of crimes reported to the police shows a more than proportional decrease. We must assume therefore, if we accept the pessimist's theory, that people are becoming so humanitarian that they cannot even bear to tell the police about a crime. "Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem," is their watchword. Considering that one of the most prevalent popular superstitions of the period is that if you come across the body of a suicide hanging up, your first duty is not to cut him down yourself, but to run for a policeman, this seems rather a far-fetched theory. The tendency is rather to expect too much assistance from the police in the matter of crime. That there is often great reluctance to prosecute is of course true; but was it ever otherwise? Some remarkable evidence as to the general reluctance to prosecute sixty years ago will be found in the Introduction for 1896. What has to be proved is that this reluctance has increased to such an extent that the crimes prosecuted bear a very considerably smaller proportion (about one-seventh smaller) to those which are not prosecuted than was the case fifteen or twenty years ago. It would require very cogent evidence to support this, and at present none is forthcoming.

Moreover, there is definite evidence to show that the growth of humanitarian feeling which has led to so great a mitigation of sentences does not necessarily lead to a growing reluctance to prosecute. In fact, it has rather the contrary

effect, especially when it goes hand in hand with a simplification and shortening of procedure. It is noteworthy in this connection that the Summary Jurisdiction Act of 1879, which greatly extended the cases in which indictable offences could be tried summarily, led at once to a large increase in the number of prosecutions. In 1880, 7323 more indictable offences were dealt with summarily than in 1879. And this does not merely represent a transfer of cases from Assizes and Quarter Sessions to Police Courts. The decrease in the number of cases tried on indictment in 1880 was only 1674. There is therefore a balance of 5649 additional prosecutions as the result of the Summary Jurisdiction Act. It seems clear from this experience, that the growth of humanitarian feeling, in so far as it shows itself in speedier procedure and shorter sentences, operates to make people more rather than less inclined to prosecute.

But it may be that people are less disposed to prosecute, not from humanitarian motives, but from a growing dislike of the time and trouble involved. It may be so, but there is no evidence of it before us at present. And some of the figures rather point in the opposite direction. If there was any such growing disinclination, one would expect to find some traces of it in a decrease in the proportion of prosecutions to crimes reported. This tendency would probably show itself in London first of all, where the pressure of business is greatest. But in London there are seventy-three prosecutions for every hundred crimes reported to the police --a higher percentage than in such rural districts as Oxfordshire and Berkshire (including their towns). And the proportion of prosecutions to crimes reported has increased by five per cent. since 1893.

It may therefore, we think, be fairly assumed that Mr. Simpson is right in holding that the apparent lesson of the figures is the real one, and that there has been a regular decrease in the mass of crime, which is still continuing.

He is, however, careful to point out that this does not by any means imply that all kinds of crime are decreasing equally. As a matter of fact, the decrease is due entirely. to a falling off in the number of offences against property without violence- larceny, embezzlement, and so forth. Offences against the person, and offences against property with violence, show a small increase. To our mind the ugliest feature about the figures is the increase of unnatural offences in recent years. The number is not large, but the increase is steady. The annual average for the years 18781882 was 102 (including both offences and attempts); in successive five-year periods, the average rose to 114 and 133, and now stands at 152. The number of crimes of this nature reported to the police has also risen sharply during the last five years. The average for the years 1893-1897 was 199; the average for 1888-1892 was only 142. There is, therefore, reason to fear that this kind of crime is on the increase. It must, however, be remembered that until recently ten years penal servitude was the minimum sentence for the full offence, and the reduction of this minimum must certainly tend to make prosecutions more common.

Another unwelcome phenomenon is a distinct increase in burglary and housebreaking. The annual average of convictions has risen from 1465 in 1883-7 to 1684 in 1893-7, and there has been a much greater increase in the number of crimes of this class reported to the police.

As these crimes are precisely those which are usually committed by the professional offender, the increase is serious enough on any showing. The fact that the number of professional burglars is evidently not diminishing, and the further fact that the number of burglaries, etc., reported to the police more and more outstrips the number of trials and convictions for these offences, are both highly disquieting.

It is not, however, necessary to assume that these figures point to an increase in the number of habitual criminals.