A curious case of alleged forcible entry (curious from its singularity) was brought before the magistrate at Marlborough Street on May 23, 1874, and reported in the newspapers of the 25th. The doctrine that offences against the game laws are 'no sin' has been enunciated in a publication entitled the AntiGame Law Circular,' in which also various other doctrines of a similar nature are supported.

Pp. 475-477Touching offences extinct or nearly extinct.

Witchcraft, as already stated, ceased to be a crime by the provisions of the statute 9 Geo. II., c. 5. Forestalling, regrating, etc., were offences at common law until the passing of the Act 7 and 8 Vic., C. 24, S. I, though the statutes relating to them had been repealed by 12 Geo. III.,

C. 71.

The Act by which fines and recoveries were abolished is 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 74. The fine was commonly an action of which a fictitious covenant on the part of the alienor to convey lands to the alienee was regarded as the basis. It had the effect of evading sundry difficulties in other forms of conveyance. The recovery was an action in which there was introduced a fictitious Hugh Hunt, who was supposed to have disseised the alienee at some time before the alienor came into possession. It is needless to consider in this place their legal effect.

Pp. 478-481. Statistics, 18051873, and note.

The principal statistics of crime, from the year 1805 to the year 1854, are to be found in the Sessions Papers 1819 vol. xvii., 1831-32 vol. xxxiii., 1854-55 vol. xliii. (‘Criminal Tables'), and from the year 1856 onwards in the Judicial Statistics. From those publications have been extracted or computed the figures for the various years mentioned in the text. In 1855 was passed the 'Criminal Justice Act,' 18 and 19 Vic., c. 126, which gave to justices of the peace the power of dealing summarily with certain cases of larceny. The decrease in the number of sentences to transportation and to the substituted punishment of penal servitude has been very remarkable-from 4,488 in 1843 to 1,493 in 1873 (Report of Directors of Convict Prisons, 1873, p. xix.). It probably indicates some decrease in the more serious forms of crime; but on the other hand, there is reason to believe that the substitution by the Act of 1864 of five years for three years as the minimum term of penal servitude has had a progressive effect in reducing the number of persons sentenced, and that the general softening of manners has had its influence in causing greater leniency in sentences in general. The number of persons committed for trial, therefore, is probably a surer indication of the course of crime than the number sentenced to penal servitude, though here, again, the leniency of modern times may have decreased the committals for trial, and swollen the totals of summary convictions. In any case, however, it will hardly be disputed that life and property are in less danger from

thieves and robbers than they ever were before. Some remarks on the sense of insecurity at the beginning of the present century will be found in Mr. Frederic Hill's 'Crime,' p. 4, etc.

The apparent decrease of crime with the collapse of police organisation, and its apparent increase again with the renewal of police organisation (as distinguished from real increase and decrease) are well shown in the Compte Général de l'Administration de la Justice Criminelle en France,' for the years 1871-1873 (pub. in 1873, 1874, 1875).

Pp. 481-484.

staff.

During the reign of Edward III. the number of the judges varied considerably (chiefly, no doubt, by reason of the terrible pestilences for which the period was remarkable). But there were even during that reign sometimes as many as four judges of the The judicial Court of King's Bench, six judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and six Barons of the Exchequer. From that time to the present there have been some not very considerable fluctuations (which are detailed, with the authorities, in Foss's 'Judges'); but in accordance with the stat. II Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV., c. 70, the number of judges to each Court was increased from four to five-one chief and four puisne. According to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act of 1873, the number of puisne judges in the Divisions corresponding to the ancient Courts was to have been rigidly restricted to four; but the section relating to this matter was repealed by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act of 1875, s. 3. It should, however, be added that the Equity jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer was transferred to the Court of Chancery in 1841. By the stat. 12 Ric. II., c. 10, it was provided that there should be no more than six justices in any commission of the peace, and this was confirmed by the stat. 13 Ric. II., st. 1, c. 7. By 14 Ric. II., c. 11, the number was limited to eight; but anyone who takes the trouble to inspect the actual commissions, a generation or two later, will discover that these enactments very soon became obsolete.

For the effect of the Municipal Corporation Act of 1835, as affecting borough justices, recorders, and sessions, see the stat. 5 & 6 Will. IV., c. 76, ss. 98-111; see also the amending statutes 6 & 7 Will. IV., cc. 103-4, and 1 Vic., cc. 78, 81; and see the 'Reports of the Commissioners to Enquire into Municipal Corporations,' ordered by Parliament to be printed, 1839. Recent enquiries have shown that some ancient abuses eluded the grasp of the Acts, but the general effect was as stated in the text.

The Old Bailey Sessions come into notice at an early period. Their transformation into the Sessions of the Central Criminal Court was effected by the stat. 4 & 5 Will. IV., c. 36. See also 19 & 20 Vic., c. 36. The Middlesex Sessions of the Peace are held twice a month, in accordance with the stat. 7 & 8 Vic., c. 71.

Pp. 485-487.

ment.

The county, city, borough, and liberty prisons are enumerated in the annual Reports of the Inspectors of Prisons, in the Judicial Statistics of each year, and (in a more accessible form) in the H. C. Prison establish- Sess. Paper, 1873, No. 156; the Convict Prisons in the Reports of the Directors of Convict Prisons, and in the Judicial Statistics. The comparison of the numbers of ancient and modern prisons is founded on an inspection of the Patent Rolls of the reign of Edward III., on which the Commissions of Gaol Delivery are enrolled, but somewhat irregularly.

Full statistics of reformatories from 1854 to 1871, and of industrial schools from 1857 to 1871, are given in English Efforts for the Prevention of Juvenile Crime,' by Mr. C. R. Ford, late Secretary of the Reformatory and Refuge Union. A yearly Report on both is published, and the chief points relating to them find a place in the Judicial Statistics of each year. The statutes relating to reformatories are 17 & 18 Vic., c. 18; 29 & 30 Vic., c. 117; and 35 & 36 Vic., c. 21; and to industrial schools, 20 & 21 Vic., c. 48; 29 & 30 Vic., c. 118; 34 & 35 Vic., c. 112, S. 14, etc.

CHAPTER XIII.

PART I.

P. 491.

Note on the

'Greatest Hap

piness Principle.'

THE passage in the text in which mention is made of the Greatest Happiness principle is not in any way to be taken in depreciation of the intellectual efforts of the Utilitarian School, the greatest of whom was Bentham. It was, perhaps, his chief merit that, unlike many philosophers, he wished to give the widest range impartially to all the faculties-mental, moral, and physical -of each individual, so far as was possible without injury to other members of the body politic. But in his scheme he attributed to mankind at large a breadth of sympathy (no doubt possessed by himself and others like him) which would be hardly intelligible to a cunning savage, or to those modern representatives of the savage in civilised states who know no gratification so great as that of driving a hard bargain. To any one who really has a regard for his fellows, such as Bentham possessed and taught, the Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number is a principle which would be a truism were there no difficulty in defining happiBentham's definition-enjoyment of pleasures and security from pains (Principles of Morals and Legislature,' I. i. &c.)—might perhaps be accepted if all human beings were constituted exactly alike; but until they are so constituted the maxim 'quot homines, tot sententia' will be applicable to pleasures as to all other subjects of human opinion. The emotion of sympathy and the practice of beneficence afford much pleasure to some persons, less to others, and to some, perhaps, none at all. The unsympathetic would accordingly accept the Utilitarian doctrine in one sense, the more sympathetic in another. To the less highly organised intellects it would be a self-regarding system of the narrowest kind, which they would be perfectly able to practise without any aid from philosophers; to the more highly organised it would be, as Bentham intended it to be, a system allowing full play to the sympathetic sentiments, without which it loses all its beauty and all its practical adaptability to civilised society.

ness.

It is unnecessary to mention in detail the various interpretations

which might be given, and which have, in fact, been given to the Greatest Happiness principle. Bentham himself was not satisfied with Priestley's famous expression, 'The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number' (Deontology,' Ed. Bowring, vol. i., p. 298). It may be added that the words are less precise (and express nothing more) than those of an earlier and a far greater Teacher-'Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' The latter may be interpreted as meaning that the foundation of true morals is the due exercise of all the faculties; and the difficulties impeding that due exercise have never yet been removed by modern philosophers.

From the days of Plato to the days of Prudhon, there have been innumerable systems devised for the mitigation of social ills, and especially for the removal of the inequalities of property. There is, however, not one which has had even a partial success in practice, and the sole result of those which have not been treated with contempt has commonly been most useless bloodshed. The teaching of history is, above all things, that history cannot be set at nought, and that any attempt to force human beings into conformity with a philosophical scheme at variance with past experience must necessarily fail. In a savage or semi-savage tribe there need not be any property; but there has never yet been a highly civilised society in which property did not exist. No one was more fully persuaded of this fact than the great Utilitarian philosopher Bentham. His words deserve to be remembered no less by the adversaries than by the advocates of his doctrines. It is the right of property,' he said, which has overcome the natural aversion to labour, which has bestowed on men the empire of the earth, which has led nations to give up their wandering habits, which has created a love of country and of posterity. To enjoy quickly, to enjoy without punishment, this is the universal desire of man; this is the desire which is terrible, since it arms all those who possess nothing against those who But the law which restrains this desire is the most possess anything. splendid triumph of humanity over itself.' ('Principles of a Civil Code,' ix.)

The Greatest Happiness principle, or the principle of Utility, was, in its original form, novel in name rather than in essence. It taught no more than the fulfilment of the law, together with the encouragement of that tender emotion which had already been extolled by Christ. So far as it protected the rights of person and of property, its truth was already acknowledged; so far as it dealt with the sentiments, its teachings were as vague as any which had preceded. And here lies the weak point of all moral codes founded on à priori arguments; if their authors attempt more than was accomplished by Jesus, if they pretend to give details where only principles can be laid down, they either fail in their object