as compared with the two preceding years, but still the total is greater than for any other preceding year of which there are statistics. Looking at this figure from another point of view, we find that the proportion of persons tried for indictable offences to every 100,000 of the population in 1910 was 185. For 1909 and 1908 the corresponding proportions were 190 and 194. If we go further back, we find that the average proportion during the period of 1887-91 (when the number of persons tried averaged 56,280, or just about 10,000 less than in 1910), was 198; during the next five years (1892-6) the proportion was 182. For 18971901, the figure was 165; for 1902-6, 176; and for 1907 it was 177. Of recent years, 1908 is the high-water mark of crime, both absolutely and relatively to population; and the figures for 1910 show that the decrease which occurred in 1909 was continued. The actual decrease as compared with 1909 was 761, and as will be shown it is accounted for by a decrease of about 1,000 larcenies and frauds.

An examination of the figures in more detail shows that offences against the person increased, as compared with 1909, by 98, the figures being 2,751 and 2,653 respectively. Offences of violence decreased from 1,495 to 1,316, a difference of 179. Sexual offences on the other hand show an increase of about 24 per cent., from 1,158 to 1,435. It is suggested in the Introduction that two facts may help to account for this. First, there was an increase of 30 in the number of persons tried under the Incest Act, which became law in 1908, the figures being 21 in 1909 and 51 in 1910. Second, the Children Act of 1908 extended the power of justices, enabling them to deal summarily with cases of indecent assault. Formerly, no doubt many cases of indecent assault were reduced to common assault, in order that they might be disposed of summarily, and the figures are striking. In 1908 the number of persons tried summarily for indecent

assault was 37, in 1909, 232, and in 1910, 415. The increase by 277 in the figures for sexual offences may therefore be very largely accounted for in this way. The figures for burglary, housebreaking and robbery, remained fairly steady, while those for larceny and fraud fell by about 1,000. Thus, the number of persons tried for burglary was 658, as compared with 787 in 1909, and an annual average of 706 for the period 1906-10; for housebreaking 986 persons were tried, as compared with 997 in 1909, and an annual average of 9co for 1906-10; for robbery, the corresponding figures are 166, 177, and 190 respectively. There were 46,152 persons tried for larcenies (simple and minor) in 1910, compared with 47,363 in 1909, and an annual average of 45,098 for 1906-10. It is noteworthy that as regards larceny of post letters the figures rose from 74 in 1909 to 99 in 1910, the annual average for 1906-10 being 72. Perhaps the most striking variation of the figures relating to indictable offences (contained in Table A B) is to be found in relation to the uttering of counterfeit coin. The total jumped from 121 to 171, while the annual average for 1906-10 is only 110.

We turn next to the figures for non-indictable offences, criminal in character. In this category are included such offences as (1) assaults, including aggravated assaults, assaults on constables and common assaults; (2) brothelkeeping (3) cruelty to children; (4) malicious damage to animals, fences, trees, &c.; (5) unlawful pledging; (6) unlawful possession; (7) stealing work-house clothes; (8) offences under the Prevention of Crimes Acts; (9) stealing animals, fences, trees. shrubs, fruit, &c., and receiving such things when stolen; and (10) certain offences under the Vagrancy Acts, viz., such as frequenting, being found in enclosed premises, &c. The total number of persons tried for these offences was 73,105, compared with 74,399 in 1909-a decrease of 1,294. In detail we find,

as compared with 1909, that assaults fell from 43,161 to 42,647; stealing, unlawful possession, &c., from 6,628 to 6,054; malicious damage, from 15,196 to 14,535. The steady fall in the figures for assault is very striking, and apparently indicative of an improvement in general behaviour; the annual average for 1896-1900 is 71,077; for 1901-5, 58,379; for 1905-9, 49,133, while the actual figures for 1910 are 42,647. Thus there has been, in 15 years, a reduction of something like 30,000. In relation to population the result is as follows:-The annual proportion of assaults to every 100,000 of population in 1896-1900 was 22551, and in 1910 was 119°14.

It will be recollected that previously it was stated that 1908 was the high-water mark of crime as regards indictable offences. The total rose more or less steadily from 53,628 in 1900 to 61,463 in 1905; in 1906 there was a fall of about 2,500 to 59,079; in 1907 a rise to the level of 1905; and then in 1908 a jump to 68,116; 1909 and 1910, on the other hand, marking a continued decrease from that figure. Against this melancholy spectacle should be set the picture of a practically unbroken decrease in criminal non-indictable offences from 98,883 in 1900 to 73,105 in 1910. There was, in this class of crime, no such sudden increase in 1908 as occurred in regard to indictable offences, the total being 80,132, compared with 79,682 in 1907 and 82,264 in 1906.

As regards other non-indictable offences,1 the figure for 1910 is 558,811, and for 1909 was 584,707. This decrease of about 26,000 is largely accounted for by a decrease of some 7,000 in the totals for drunkenness (from 182,416 to 175,449), and of 9,000 in the totals for breaches of police. bye-laws and regulations (from 103,628 to 94,370). It will be interesting to observe next year whether the totals for

1 These offences are not criminal in the most serious sense of the term, and, as explained in the Introduction to the volume, consist mainly of breaches of municipal regulations established in the interests of public safety and health, and not involving violence, or cruelty, or gross dishonesty.

drunkenness were affected by the abnormal heat of last summer. There has been of recent years a steady decrease in these figures, the annual average for 1901-5 being 219,422, and for 1906-10, 196,293, and a total for 1910 of 175,449. Should 1911 show a slackening in the rate of decrease, the ingenious speculator will have an opportunity of seizing hold of such decrease, and of the curious fact that in 19091 the number of criminal prisoners received into prison mounted month by month from January to May, and then fell (with slight pauses in August and October) till December, and of combining them in some theory of crime and climatic conditions, as bold as the famous theory of the relations between the price of commodities and sun-spots.

Returning to details, we find that vagrancy offences (begging and sleeping out) fell from 45,408 to 43,884, and offences against the Education Acts from 38,951 to 36,823. Day poaching fell from 3,951 to 3,400, while night poaching rose from 257 to 303. Motor-car offences remained steady, 12,366, as compared with 12,351 and 12,466 in 1909 and 1908. Cases of misbehaviour by paupers fell from 5,982 in 1909 to 4,403 in 1910, the annual average for 1906-10 being 5,208. There were 11,455 women tried for prostitution, a slight decrease compared with 1909, when the total was 11,757, but an increase on 1907 and 1908, with totals of 9,489 and 10,818 respectively. 6,895 Persons tried for offences of Sunday trading numbered 6,895, practically the same total as in 1909, and larger by about 350 than the average for 1906-10. Offences against the Vaccination Acts decrease steadily, 361 persons being tried in 1910, compared with 401 in 1909, 517 in 1908, 946 in 1907, while if we go back to 1903 we find a total of 2,484. As for the offence created by the Vagrancy Act 1898, of living wholly or in part on prostitutes' earnings, 470 persons were tried, compared with 1 See Table XL in the Criminal Statistics for 1909.

495 in 1909, and about 350 in each of the three preceding years.

Combining the figures for all offences-indictable, criminal non-indictable, and other non-indictable-we arrive at a total of 698,305 for 1910, compared with 726,255 for 1909, and with annual averages of 788,730 for 1901-5 and of 733,760 for 1906-10. It is satisfactory to realise that these figures show that the Courts dealt with about 90,000 cases less in 1910 than they did on the average in 1901-5.

Turning to Tables I-X, relating to proceedings at Assizes and Quarter Sessions, we find that 4,053 persons were brought up for trial at Assizes and 9,626 at Quarter Sessions, a total of 13,680. This total is less than in 1909 and 1908, with figures of 14,122 and 13,749 respectively, but is greater than in any previous year since 1888. Of this total 248 were not actually tried, i. e., in 24 cases the prosecution was dropped, in 199 the Grand Jury returned No bill," and in 25 cases the accused was found insane and unfit to plead. Of the 13,342 persons actually tried, 2,043 were acquitted, 11,377 convicted, and 52 found “guilty but insane," and ordered to be detained during His Majesty's pleasure. Of these 52, 30 were indicted for murder. It should be remembered in this connection that these figures include cases of infanticide. It is interesting to

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notice that the number of persons for trial at the Central Criminal Court and the London Sessions was 3,485, or about one-quarter of the total of persons tried on indictment. Of this number 840 belong to the Central Criminal Court, and the remainder, 2,645, to the London Sessions. No other Courts show figures anywhere approaching these. It is worth while to observe that of the persons actually tried at Assizes and Quarter Sessions, 84'4 were convicted, and that 70'54 had previous convictions recorded against them. It is also appropriate, in dealing with the work of Courts of Record, to notice that 178 persons were sentenced