1851-5 … … 1.1 … … 48 … … … 61
1856-60 … … 1 … … 49 … … … 61
1861-5 … … .6 … … 48 … … … 64
1866-9 … … .5 … … 47 … … … 68
1872-6 … … .7 … … 49 … … … 66
1877-81 … … .7 … … 50 … … … 66
1882-6 … … 1 … … 49 … … … 65
These figures, if they do not show (as might have been foreseen) so large an increase of severity as in the percentages of acquittals, yet prove that repression has not diminished even in the serious character of the punishments. On the other hand, we can see that, in the assize cases, excluding the first period, before the revision of 1832, whilst capital punishment shows a certain diminution (especially due to the laws of 1832, 1848, &c., which reduced the number of cases involving the death penalty), though continuing at a certain level since 1861, sentences of penal servitude and solitary confinement show a con<p 90>tinued increase from the second period, and especially since 1851.
So also at the Tribunals, except for a few oscillations, as in the ninth period, there is a sustained increase of repression.
And the fact that this increased ratio of the more serious punishments actually indicates a greater severity on the part of the judges can only be contested on the ground of a simultaneous increase of the more serious crimes and offences. On the other hand, we note in France a general decrease of crimes against the person (except for assaults on children), and still more of crimes against property.