The number of persons committed for trial in 1867 was less than the number for any of the four years immediately preceding 1866. The increase in 1867, as compared with 1866, is in the number of males, viz., 328. In the number of females there is a _decrease_ of 206. The following are the numbers committed for trial in each of the last 20 years:— 1848 30,349 1855 25,972 1862 20,001 1849 27,816 1856 19,437 1863 20,818 1850 26,813 1857 20,269 1864 19,506 1851 27,960 1858 17,855 1865 19,614 1852 27,510 1859 16,674 1866 18,849 1853 27,057 1860 15,999 1867 18,971 1854 29,359 1861 18,326 As already intimated in these pages, Lord Kimberley is responsible for introducing the broad and important subject of Criminal Law Reform to the legislature for its reconsideration and reformation. In introducing this bill for the suppression of crime, his lordship reminded the peers assembled that in the year 1853, after a very full discussion with respect to transportation it was resolved, partly on account of the evils of the system, and partly on account of the strong remonstrances of our Australian colonists to whom our convicts had been sent, that it should, to a considerable extent cease, and that accordingly an Act was passed imposing for the first time the sentence of penal servitude as a substitute for transportation in the greater number of cases. From that time transportation was limited to Western Australia and the Bermudas. The numbers sent to Western Australia did not average more than 460 per annum. The colonists, however, despite this moderate consignment, felt by no means flattered by the distinction conferred on them, and in consideration of their strong remonstrances, in the course of a few years transportation to Australia entirely ceased.