facts, could we obtain them. For, increased probability of arrest, and added likelihood of conviction, if guilty, would necessarily mean increased statistics of serious crime, if such existed. Social punishment does not seem to be powerless against delinquency.

But is it not possible that some crimes, and those perhaps the most dangerous, have increased; although this does not appear in the statistical totals, because of the diminution under other, less serious, forms? This is not the case. Certain old and most heinous crimes, such as treason and piracy, have almost disappeared, while others, murder, homicide' and most serious wounding (dangerous to life), etc., show a marked decrease. Meanwhile criminals have very greatly multiplied under relatively new and essentially modern forms of serious crime, such as the many kinds of business fraud, forgery and fraudulent bankruptcy.

The records of these offences tell a most interesting and instructive story to those who read aright: a story of changing crimes with changing times. Governments are now too powerful, too well protected by repeating rifles and breechloading cannon to be overthrown by an angry mob, armed with the plunder of the gunshops. "It is surely not a mere coincidence that revolutions and insurrections, so frequent in Europe until 1848, should have entirely ceased since the transformation in arms."2 A German socialist, Bebel, gave the true reason for this great change, when he said, in 1890: "I have already told what the result of a revolution would be, carried on by 200,000 men at most, in this epoch of repeating guns and Maxim cannon; we should be miserably shot down like sparrows." Armed rebellion has become too dangerous and too hopeless a form of crime to be indulged in. The traitor, as a criminal, has practically ceased to exist. Social pressure has been eminently successful against him. 2 Seignobos, p. 675.

1 See next page.

Germany.

Italy.

Spain.

Austria.

England.

France.

'Infanticide (averaging about 70 cases between 1886-95) has been included under homicide for the last two years.

The seas have been swept clean of pirates, for the vast development of international trade and commerce made this absolutely necessary, and the navies of the civilized world speedily accomplished the task. Modern weapons and powerful explosives have brought us peace at home and peace upon the ocean. Are we learning to love peace now for its own sake? Crime is certainly taking a less impulsive and passionate, a more crafty and cautious form. Men are learning to curb their tempers under the rule of law. Not only is the hasty blow that causes death, or danger to life and limb, more rare, but common wounding by cuts and blows-which seemed too natural and human and unimportant to be punished as crime until modern times-this also, with our growing sense of mutual rights and duties, in more peaceful times, has been made widely criminal; and for some nations, as in England and even passionate Italy, the large totals of such crimes show a decrease—a marked decrease in proportion to population. (See table on next page.)

Notice the very large amount of serious wounding in Austria, and Spain (where the numbers would seem far larger in proportion to the population), as compared with the small number of convictions for such offences in England, Germany and France. But in the last named country, the practice of correctionalization is probably responsible for the practical disappearance of serious wounding from the statistics; such offences being generally transferred to the jurisdiction of the correctional tribunals, and included among the lighter cuts and blows. Naturally, also, the increase in medical skill, and in the promptness of medical attendance among all civilized nations have contributed largely to decrease the number of wounds now dangerous to life and limb, and also the number of homicides, by putting many cuts and blows into a less heinous category of crime.

Serious. Light.' Serious. Light. Serious. Light. Serious. Light.

314

All wounding
under the

Code, mostly
serious.

Condemnations for Wounding

Germany. A careful study of the great recorded increase of crime in Germany, under the less serious forms of wounding, political offences, fraud, delites of immorality and lust, reveals two most interesting facts.

First. That this multiplication of criminals is directly traceable to the rapid progress of the nation from a less to a more complex civilization; to the great wave of industrialism now sweeping over the land, crowding the population into factory towns and large cities, those centres of modern progress, culture, democracy and enlightenment; and to the consequent greatly increased interest of the masses in the political, social and economic problems of the day.

Second. That many minor cuts and blows are being changed, even now, in Germany, from mere torts, prosecuted or left unpunished at the pleasure of the person injured, into crimes, punished by society as wrongs against the nation. The old laws of tort, relating to such minor harms to the person, have not been repealed, but offences under them have only just about kept pace with the growth of population. The great increase in such cuts and blows has been placed by society, because of increasing need for repression, under the head of crime. Judicial and penal authorities, representing the nation, have been interpreting more rigorously the laws relating to perilous (gefährliche) wounds; which, although not really serious, are punished as true crimes under the Code. Under this head have been included not only cuts with a knife or other dangerous weapon or instrument, but even slight blows or injuries occurring in wordy quarrels or disputes, which frequently arise where many people are closely crowded together. It will be remembered that in the early years of the nineteenth century such conduct was not yet criminal in England. A clearer perception of what is necessary for the general welfare under new industrial conditions has occasioned this great change