The elements which determine the greater or less severity of judicial repression are of two kinds:-- 1. The ratio of persons acquitted to the total number of prisoners put on their trial. 2. The ratio of the severest punishments to the total number of prisoners condemned. <p 87> Certainly the proportion of acquittals ought not to indicate a difference in the severity of repression as such, for condemnation or acquittal ought to point merely to the certainty or otherwise of guilt, the sufficiency or insufficiency of the evidence. But, as a matter of fact, the proportional increase of convictions does partly represent greater severity on the part of the judges, and still more of the juries, who display it by attaching weight to somewhat unconvincing evidence, or in too readily admitting circumstances which tend to aggravate the offence. This is confirmed also by the rarity of acquittals in cases of contumacy. Of these two factors the former is certainly the more important, for it is a psychological law that man, in regard to punishment as to any other kind of suffering, is more affected by the certainty than by the gravity of the infliction. And it is to the credit of criminal theorists of the classical school that they have steadily maintained that a mild yet certain punishment is more effectual than one which, being severe in itself, holds out a stronger hope of escaping it. Nevertheless it is a fact that they have carried the theory too far, by seeking to obtain excessive mitigations and abbreviations of punishment, without exerting themselves to secure certainty by reforms of procedure and police administration. The diminution of the rate of acquittal is evident and continuous, both at the Assizes and in the Tribunals, except for the last quadrennial period. This may of course indicate a more careful management of the trials by the judges; but it certainly shows <p 88>an undoubted tendency towards increased judicial severity, which, meanwhile, has not arrested the growth of crime. PERCENTAGE OF ACQUITTALS IN FRANCE. Tried in Assize Courts. Tribunals. Total 1826-30 ... ... 39 .. ... 31 ... ... 32 1831-5 ... ... 42 ... ... 28 ... ... 30 1836-40 ... ... 35 ... ... 22 ... ... 23 1841-5 ... ... 32 ... ... 18 ... ... 19 1846-50 ... ... 36 ... ... 16 ... ... 17 1851-5 ... ... 28 ... ... 12 ... ... 13 1856-60 ... ... 24 ... ... 10 ... ... 7 1861-5 ... ... 24 ... ... 9 ... ... 6 1866 9 ... ... 23 ... ... 17 ... ... 8 1872-6 ... ... 20 ... ... 6 ... ... 6 1877 81 ... ... 23 ... ... 5 ... ... 6 1882-6 ... ... 27 ... ... 6 ... ... 6