merely of relieving supervisees of the obligation to report to the police. Ten persons who had been sentenced to death had the sentence commuted to penal servitude for life. Four free pardons were granted-the same number as in the previous year. Remissions of various terms of penal servitude, imprisonment or other punishments were allowed in 305 cases; and 57 convicts were granted licences at an earlier date than that at which they would ordinarily have become entitled to them under the Prison Rules. In 172 cases the remission was granted for medical reasons, and in 265 cases on such considerations as the youth of the offender or the provocation received. In only 13 cases were persons released on grounds affecting the original conviction.

PART II.-CIVIL STATISTICS.!

In these Statistics, prepared under the supervision of Sir John Macdonell, there is no substantial change in form. Once more, as in recent years, the distinguishing feature is the marked decrease in the total amount of legal business in all the Courts commenced and heard during the year 1912. Comparing the present quinquennial period, 1908-12, with that of 1903-8, there is only a decrease of 1'01 per cent., but the actual diminution of proceedings commenced for the last three years has averaged 50,000. The grand total of proceedings commenced for 1912 is 1,368,455, as compared with 1,502,517 for 1908, or a decrease of 134,062 in five years. The total increase or decrease is of course governed by the number of County Court plaints, and these are principally responsible for the present large deficit. Proceedings. in the County Courts reached the high-water mark in 1904, after an unbroken rise since 1888. Since 1904, with the

1Judicial Statistics, England and Wales, 1912. Part II.-Civil Judicial London: Wyman & Sons. 1914.

Statistics.

exception of three years, 1908, 1909 and 1910, there has been a corresponding decline. The causes of this decline are stated to be (1) the decline in the credit system, (2) decrease in committal orders, and (3) the state of trade. We shall return to these later.

The chief results shown by these returns have been summarised by Sir John Macdonell in his admirable Introduction, as follows: (1) A continuation of the decrease in the total proceedings begun in all the Courts; (2) A corresponding decrease in the total actions heard and determined, etc., in all the Courts; (3) An acceleration of the hearing of appeals in the House of Lords; (4) An increase in matters in the Divorce Court, with a decline generally in the other divisions of the Supreme Court; (5) A pronounced decline in the business of the County Courts and most other inferior Courts; and (6) A decrease in the number of debtors imprisoned.

Compared with 1911 the proceedings commenced in all the Courts have fallen from 1,421,691 to 1,368,455, and the proceedings heard from 446,971 to 426,865.

Relatively to an increased population these figures are naturally even more striking. In proceedings commenced the decline is from 3,958.9 per 100,000 of population to 3,745 12. In proceedings heard from 1,236.7 per 100,000 of population to 1,168.22.

These figures, says Sir John Macdonell, are the smallest on record since 1900. This general decline was no doubt due in some measure to the state of business, employment, and wages in 1912. The rise in wages, which usually coincides with an increase in litigation, was counteracted to some degree by a rise in prices. Unemployment was only very slightly greater than in 1911, being 3°2 as against 3'0. Although the number of disputes commenced in 1912 was less than in the preceding year, the number of workpeople involved was far greater, being 1,437,032 as against 961,980.

Moreover, the aggregate duration of these disputes was four times as great, being 40,346,400 working days as compared with 10,319,591. Apart from those subsidiary causes, Sir John Macdonell considers the decline may be attributed to causes of a more permanent nature. First, a large and probably increasing number of disputes are settled by arbitration. Many trades have completely organised systems of arbitration for the settlement of disputes relative to quantity and quality of goods, and as to the performance generally of contracts. These arbitrations are usually quite informal affairs, and only come before the Court, if at all, upon applications to enforce awards under the Act of 1889, or for the appointment of an arbitrator or umpire. The practice of introducing an arbitration clause into contracts is growing, but to what extent it is impossible to say, since the data requisite for even an approximate estimate are not available. In building and engineering contracts, a very usual clause appears to be that under which the architect or engineer is made the sole and final judge of all disputes under the contract and of its construction. And, finally, the tendency of the Legislature to insert in Statutes provisions for arbitration, compulsory or optional, and even to devise special administrative ways of settling classes of disputes, is growing. In the case of some Statutes it is true these provisions are seldom invoked, but in the case of others the contrary is the fact. In Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks cases, no fewer than 5,279 were heard before the Comptroller in 1912; under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908, 79 arbitrators were appointed by the Board of Agriculture, and under sect. 31 of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 284 disputes were settled by the Board of Trade in the years 1910 and 1911. To this cause must be added those more particularly affecting the County Courts, already mentioned, and to which we shall refer later,

Upon examining the figures relating to the particular Courts, we find a substantial reduction in the number of appeals to the Appellate Courts, both in those commenced and in those heard and determined. In the former the total is 1,377, as against 1,562 in 1911, and in the latter I,IIO as against 1,197.

Upon analysis of these figures in appeals commenced to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, there has been a decline from 128 to 100, but in appeals heard there has been an increase from 93 in 1911 to 132 in 1912. This latter figure is quite exceptional, and is explained by the unusual number of appeals entered in 1910 and 1911, 185 being still pending at the beginning of 1912. in Indian appeals entered is from 47 to 38. figures as a whole, there has on the averages of the last 10 years been no very material change. There is a slight increase in the last quinquennial period over the one preceding.

The decrease

Taking these

In the House of Lords, although the number of petitions presented was practically the same as in 1911, only 59, instead of 72, were actually disposed of, this being apparently largely due to the fact that the House sat for judicial business only 80 days, instead of 100 as in 1911. It is curious to observe that the number of successful appeals to the Judicial Committee is far greater than those to the House of Lords, which would appear to indicate a higher standard of legal knowledge in the English Courts. The most important feature, perhaps, is the time-table of the House of Lords. The public will be gratified to learn that an enormous improvement in this respect has taken place in the last decade. In 1902 the majority of appeals took from one to two years from the date of the order of the Court below to the final adjudication in the House of Lords. In 1912 the majority only took half the time. Nineteen were heard from six to twelve months after setting

down for hearing; 27 from three to six months after setting down, and II were actually heard under three months from setting down. Contrary to expectation, there was a considerable drop in the number of appeals from the Court of Session, Scotland. Out of 18 disposed of, only nine were actually adjudicated upon as against 22 in 1911. Of 18 petitions to sue in forma pauperis 12 were refused as showing no prima facie case; four were allowed, and in three the pauper appellants proved successful. The Committee of Privileges again had an unusual number of claims brought before it, seven out of the eight being those of the previous year. Of these four went over to the next year, one claim being to the Earldom of Airth, presented in 1906. In spite of the threatened "end of all things," peerages apparently still have attractions for some people. Not since 1906 has there been such a fall in the number of appeals set down in the Court of Appeal-775 as against 862. The decrease being both in appeals from judgments and final orders and in interlocutory appeals. Of the final appeals about onefourth are workmen's compensation cases. The proportion is much the same as in 1911. The decrease appears to be on the down-grade, as the points for judicial interpretation of the Act of 1906 become exhausted, just as the decrease commenced in 1903 of appeals on the Act of 1897. In spite of the reduced number of those set down for hearing, the arrears left over were considerably larger than in 1911, being 228 as against 193. The quinquennial average is only 1616. On the other hand, there appears to have been a slight speeding up in the period between setting down and the hearing.

Of the 209 appeals pending and set down, 49 were affirmed, 31 revised, and four new trials ordered, leaving arrears pending at the end of the year to the number of 68.

The comparison between appeals from the Chancery Division and the King's Bench Division is again favour