“There are, fortunately, good reasons for thinking that in many respects the standard of conduct prevalent nowadays is very probably higher than it was even in the memory of the present generation, and we may perhaps in an indirect way find support for this view in the falling numbers of the prison population, in the sense that this phenomena is doubtless evidence of a humaner tendency in society, of a more careful discrimination in its way of dealing with those who fail to conform to its laws. “To go further, and to assume that these statistics are proof of a real decrease in delinquency, is, however, a very different matter, and is much more than the evidence will warrant. The statistics of imprisonment, it must be remembered, are peculiarly misleading. “To a greater extent even than is the case with other statistics of criminality, the oscillations in the numbers of the prison population are affected by fluctuations in economic conditions; for the rise or fall in general prosperity influences not merely the number of offenses committed, but also the proportion of these offenses which will be compensated by the payment of fines. A year, therefore, of booming trade, such as last year was in so conspicuous a degree, will ordinarily be a year in which the forms of illegality that are numerically of most importance, such as crimes of acquisitiveness and parasite offences generally, will be fewest, and in which also the proportion of petty offenders who pay fines will be highest. “These two influences, both tending in the same direction, have probably been the most important factors in bringing about the decline in imprisonment. But their effect has certainly been helped by another tendency which the student of sociology will note with interest and approval--the tendency, that is to say, to be more sparing than formerly in the use of this particular mode of punishment. Public opinion has changed considerably within the last few years with regard to the value of imprisonment, more particularly in its application to certain categories of offenders, and in harmony with these newer and better views the law has provided a wider choice of alternative penalties.