is also freedom; but freedom within limits, found necessary for the preservation of a like freedom for our brother man, and for the maintenance of the general welfare. It is precisely such liberty that we are developing in modern times: developing by means of law-criminal law. Think of it! Freedom of body, freedom of thought and speech, freedom of religious worship and belief-these are all modern achievements, guaranteed by law to-day. Political and civil liberty, the right to vote, the right to own property (especially for women); industrial liberty also-that is, the right to work (in general) where and when one wishes-these are forms of true freedom, struggled and fought for through the ages, established and still developing under the law to-day.

The key-note of the nineteenth century, writes Gladstone, the great English statesman, near the end of his long life, is "Hands off," "Strike off the fetters." Individual liberty, freedom of action and of thought, the opportunity to do that which seemeth best, have come to man far more fully in this than in any former age of the world's history. The unyielding, curiously cramping, despotic customs of savage races are not for us. Yes, strike off the fetters, the swaddling bands of infant societies, the hard, stern rules that hold and tame and socialize the brave, but cruel and passionate boyhood of mankind; for the leaders of the human race, the great Aryan civilizations, no longer need them, or most of them. They have grown strong through social discipline. They have learned through long centuries of drill in nature's school to walk upright, physically, mentally, and to some degree morally. It is no longer imperatively necessary, as in ancient days, to unite every available social force for the mere preservation of the social life against disruptive violence within the group and blood-thirsty enemies without, ever eager, ever ready to attack at the first evidence of weakness. The world is be

340

War Decreasing, Crime Increasing

coming a less cruel, a far safer place to live in. Not only are the rights of fellow-citizens enlarged, protected and respected, at least within the letter and beneath the shield of law, but there are international rights and duties, an international customary law as well. We shudder with horror when ambassadors, legations, women and children, or unarmed and wounded prisoners of war are slaughtered by the Chinese; but the masses of the yellow race regard all such as enemies, and think it right to kill them. The preservation of the Chinese Empire, the maintenance of its ancient religions and ways of life, they believe demand such barbarous actions. Our early ancestors held much the same ideas. Even Charlemagne, the great hero of early European Christianity, did not hesitate to slaughter thousands of brave, unarmed Saxons, who had voluntarily surrendered themselves, when he thought the welfare of the Frankish Empire and the spread of the Christian religion demanded it. Yet, as a rule, he was far more kind and generous to enemies than other conquerors of that olden time.

As the nations grow larger and more civilized the sphere of war is becoming gradually more exclusive. That is, organized hostilities are becoming practicable only between large social groups, and probable only for a comparatively few great causes. Meanwhile, the sphere of crime is becoming rapidly more inclusive. Men who formerly would have been enemies, because members of petty, independent, hostile groups, have become criminals to-day, through inclusion in a single commonwealth. The amount of war is decreasing; the amount of crime is increasing. Industry and commerce, Christianity and education, are strongly opposed to warfare, at any rate between the leaders of the world's civilization; but they are persistently demanding and securing new social prohibitions for the punishment of evils formerly disregarded. The brother

hood of men seems less visionary than of old, for the widespread flowering of Christian love in manifold forms of practical charity and wise, uplifting helpfulness, is truly marvelous in this our day. Even the rights of animals to kindness and the law's protection have been recognized and enforced by the humanitarian spirit of the age. Social morality is growing increasingly sensitive to little rights and wrongs. Small evils are being made crimes as well as great ones. The standard of right action, to which every citizen must conform at his peril, is being raised far higher than of old, and one result of this is seen in the largely increased volume of crime and criminals among the nations of modern Europe; while the success of this education through social punishment in moralizing and uplifting the people, is plainly manifest in the decreasing statistics for many old and serious forms of crime, and indeed for many ancient misdemeanors also.

The great nations of the earth have nothing to fear from their rapidly increasing totals of criminality. They but evidence the rise to higher and higher planes of social morality and intelligence, and reveal the care with which. upward progress is being fostered and safeguarded by the creation and enforcement of new and wise criminal laws. Even the coming of freedom, that crown of the nineteenth century, makes necessary many new forms of crime. Personal liberty is a priceless gift, but it is also a most dangerous possession: dangerous both to the man himself and to the society of which he is a member. For unless the individual be well developed intellectually, morally and socially, liberty is very apt to degenerate quickly into license. Hence the absolute necessity for compulsory public education in our great modern civilizations. The ignorant weakling may drift very easily into minor criminality, while the rebellious social laggard will deliberately choose anti-social, selfish con

342

New Crimes Less Deadly

duct, and believe he has the right to do so. Both the temptations and the opportunities for such action are becoming ever more numerous; and therefore, society, while enlarging the sphere of individual liberty and life in ways made possible by the advance of civilization, and now necessary for its continued progress, must defend itself by the large increase and stern enforcement of prohibitory statutes.

Probably the men of each generation think that the new laws of their age create for the most part only minor forms of crime. The more heinous evils have long ago been made criminal by their ancestors. Undoubtedly we think this to-day. The typical crimes of our age are known as contraventions or misdemeanors; termed often minor offences, although some of these modern forms of delinquency are recognized, even now, as no less socially dangerous than many ancient forms of so-called serious crime.2

Yet, upon the whole, it is surely true that the new forms of crime are far less deadly to the social life than are the ancient forms. Thus, the traitor is somewhat more dangerous to the community than the forger; the murderer than the man who neglects to educate his children; the thief than the common drunkard.

On the other hand, new social prohibitions are far more numerous, and occasion more criminal acts, than do the

1 Thus, when the field of crime was being greatly extended in England and Wales, by the summary jurisdiction of justices, and the energy of a disciplined army of police-two modes of increasing and widening social pressure—we read in the police returns for 1857 (Accounts and Papers, p. ix): “The offences with which this large number of persons were charged represent, in a great degree, the vices, rather than the crimes of the population. The offence first in magnitude is assault." Common assaults number 60,695; assaults on peace officers, 12,750; and aggravated assaults on women and children, 2,584. In 1896 the numbers under these three forms of crime are 59,051, 12,315 and 1,743. The decrease in proportion to population is, of course, far greater-from 403.44 (1857-61) to 237.90 (1896). Social pressure seems to be successful here.

'See chap. i, pp. 15-16, and Stephen, i, 489.

ancient penal statutes. In fifty years, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, no less than 5,344 enactments have been added to the statute-book; and perhaps nothing in the old Laws of the Realm causes more surprise than the paucity of legislation, even until the nineteenth century. Is it wonderful that the amount of crime has so greatly increased when such a multitude of actions, formerly unpunished, have been made criminal under the law? Yet are not these prohibitory statutes, in the main, wise and called for by changes and developments in social life? Have we not grown to believe in the necessity of factory and mining legislation, in sanitary laws, in the prohibition of cruelty to children and animals, and in compulsory education? Every one of these great and wise reforms was introduced, in England and elsewhere, only after long and bitter opposition by a large and influential portion of the nation, and not alone by the uneducated.

All the leading civilizations of the world have been advancing along this same path; have been hastening, and enforcing this progress upon their people by the creation of a multitude of new laws and the rigorous punishment of offenders under them. In the German Empire, from 1882 to 1895, new legislation increased the number of delites, punishable under the Code, from 323 to 447, or by 38 per cent. The growth of population in Germany is very rapid, exceeding that of most European countries, and during this period it increased from 45 to 52 millions, or by 17 per cent.; but the number of forms of conduct punished as criminal under the Imperial Code increased more than twice as rapidly as the population. Do we wonder that the German statistics should testify to a very great and continued increase of criminality, "notwithstanding that education is so diffused, and the flowering of industry and commerce so

1 Besant, p. 237.