dered thereafter incapable of giving testimony in any of the courts of this State." Rev. Stat., ch. xxxiv, sec. 50. In the Revised Code, eighteen. years later, one or more public whippings, "not less than thirty-nine lashes on his bare back," were substituted for cutting off the ears.

A discussion of crime and its punishment under the Constitution of 1868 is by no means an easy task. That instrument is distinguished throughout by a high regard for human liberty, and generally for its humanitarian spirit. Offenses punishable with death were reduced to four in number, and of those, burglary in 1889 and murder in 1893, were divided into two degrees, only one of which is capitally punished. Corporal punishment was abolished. A penitentiary was established, and imprisonment for high crimes and fines for petty misdemeanors was the dominant note in the new order. Previous to that time the longest term of imprisonment named by law was three years; now, with the abolition of the death penalty, the limit has gone to thirty years, and it is by no means a dead letter.

It can hardly be claimed that the new policy has been developed either by the Legislature or the courts in quite the spirit of the Constitution. The confinement and guarding of criminals is an expensive proposition, and it was found difficult to make the State and local prisons self-supporting by the labor of the prisoners within those institutions. There was superadded to the imprisonment authority to farm or hire out prisoners, or employ them upon the roads or upon other public works, so that it became, in a measure at least, a speculation in cheap labor, which has not been free from abuse.

The laws abolishing imprisonment for debt and creating the homestead and personal property exemptions, together with the preëxisting insolvent debtor's law, have apparently contributed to the embarrassment of our criminal system. They have greatly impaired the ability of the courts to give relief against persons of small means who fall short of their obligations in matters heretofore remediable in civil actions. It is almost certain that this measurably accounts for the ever-pressing demand upon the Legislature to create new offenses to cover real and fancied grievances, and too often, there is reason to suspect, for the purpose of winning some selfish advantage not otherwise attainable. It is pertinent in this connection to note the increase in the body of our criminal law. The Revised Statutes, published in 1837, covering the accumulated legislation of more than one hundred and fifty years, had ninety-one sections in its chapter on Crimes and Punishments. The Revised Code, published eighteen years later, in 1855, had one hundred and twenty sections in that chapter, while Pell's Revisal, published in 1908, has five hundred and seventy-six sections. Many of these statutes

are wise and just, and the natural and legitimate outcome of new and rapidly changing conditions, but so great an increase in the body of the criminal law can hardly indicate a healthy system.

The history of crime and punishment cannot be separated from the judicial administration of the criminal law. The rotating system by which our courts change judges twice every year has been destructive of steady and uniform administration of the criminal law, and has created in the public mind an impression that punishment rests in the caprice of the judge, rather than in his discretion or any law of the land. As if this were not enough to strain the system almost to the breaking point, recorders' courts have been set up here and there over the State. They have no place in the judicial system contemplated by the Constitution; they are not required to be presided over by men versed in the law, but such as they are, may determine, without a jury, cases upon which experienced Superior Court judges would not dare intimate an opinion for fear of discipline by the Supreme Court. Here we may see a road sentence of a year or more imposed for an offense which experienced judges dispose of with a fine of twenty dollars.

Under these conditions a discussion of crime and punishment would mean a consideration of individual cases, and the lack of unity, symmetry, and scientific development of the criminal law and administration which are essential to the protection of the public and the reform of the criminal. This would carry us beyond the scope of this paper.

It would be a grave wrong to society and to this Association to leave this subject without calling earnest attention to the serious menace to society which these conditions entail. Human liberty is become a jest in the courts, and among those whose duty it is to conserve it. Leading newspapers praise judges and solicitors for the number of convictions and the aggregate number of years of prison sentences imposed. We cannot hope for great improvement while courts get their living from the costs and counties get labor for their public works at an expense of board for the prisoners and the payment of court costs. The selfish element is too great a consideration. Good citizens need greatly to bring to the investigation of our criminal law their best intelligence and their best humanity.

This paper would fail to present a true account of the history of the administration of the criminal law in this State if it omitted mention of certain beneficent provisions of our law.

1. Boards of county commissioners are authorized to establish houses of correction in their respective counties, issue bonds to raise money for their establishment, levy taxes for their maintenance, and appoint a manager and directors for their government.

2. The directors of the State's Prison are authorized to establish a reformatory, either within or outside the prison, where convicts under the age of 15 years shall be confined separate and apart from other convicts.

3. Offenses by any minor under the age of 16 years, where the punishment as now fixed by law cannot exceed ten years, shall be misdemeanors, and he may be sentenced to a house of correction, fixing a minimum and a maximum term, the latter not to exceed ten years. At any time after the expiration of the minimum term the authorities in charge of such offender may let him out on parole upon such terms as may be deemed wise and just, not to extend beyond the maximum term. Under certain circumstances the sentence may be to the county farm or to a public or private reformatory, or offenders may be apprenticed. Any such offender may be recaptured if he violates his parole.

4. The most practical agency at this time for dealing with youthful criminals is the Stonewall Jackson Manual Training and Industrial School. It grew out of the hearts of the good women of the State. It is being worked to its full capacity and is a splendid example of remedial punishment instead of vindictive.

These provisions, except the last named, are now dormant and largely unknown, but they are instruments ready to our hands to begin the process of saving the beginners in crime, by which we shall cure and not destroy those who go astray.

North Carolina Bibliography, 1916

BY MINNIE W. LEATHERMAN.

The Bibliography includes publications issued from the date of the last meeting of the Association, November 8, 1915, to the date of the present meeting, December 5, 1916. In the two preceding reports articles appearing in periodicals were listed as an experiment, but the plan did not prove feasible. Hence periodical literature is not included in this Bibliography and probably will not be in succeeding reports.

BOOKS

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS: c, copyright; ed., edited; il., illustrated; p., pages; por., portrait; v., volume; S., D., O., refer to size of book.

ANDERSON, Mary Louisa. The child and other verses. Knickerbocker Press, 1916.

ARTHUR, John Preston. History of Watauga County, North Carolina; with sketches of prominent families. 0.364p.il. Richmond, Waddey, 1915. $1.50.

BASSETT, John Spencer. Middle group of American historians. D. Macmillan (Oct.), 1916. $1.50 net.

BASSETT, John Spencer.

Plain story of American history. D.545p.il. Macmillan, (Mar.) 1916. $1.00 net.

BROOKS, Eugene Clyde. Woodrow Wilson as President. O.572p. Row, Peterson, 1916. $1.60.

COLEMAN, Sara Lindsay. Wind of destiny. DeLuxe edition. Doubleday, (Oct.) 1916. $10.00.

CONNOR, R. D. W. Story of the United States for young Americans. D.406p.il. Raleigh, Thompson Publishing Co., 1916. 40c.

CRAVEN, Bruce, and EVERETT, R. O. Federal income tax; a plain pre

sentation of the complex law for the benefit of the lawyer and the business man. 0.439p.il. Trinity, N. C., Bruce Craven, (Mar.) 1916. $3.00.

DIXON, Thomas. Fall of a nation; a sequel to the Birth of a nation. 0.362p.il. Appleton, 1916. $1.35 net.

DARGAN, Olive Tilford. The cycle's rim; sonnets to one drowned at sea. D.73p. Scribner, 1916. $1.00 net.

GREENLAW, Edwin. Outline of the literature of the English renaissance. HILL, William Laurie, and HILL, H. G. Bluebird songs of hope and joy. D.192p.por. Bost, Badger, c1916. $1.00 net.

HORNE, Ida Carolina Harrell. Simple Southern songs; ed. by her son, Herman Harrell Horne. 198p.por. facsim. Privately ptd.1916.

JARRETT, Robert Frank. Occoneechee, the maid of the mystic lake. D.284p.il.por. N. Y. Shakespeare Press, 1916. $1.50 net.

KNIGHT, Edgar Wallace. Public school education in North Carolina. D.384p. Houghton, 1916. $1.50.

LOCKHART, Walter Samuel. Hand-book of the law of evidence for North Carolina. D.384p. Cincinnati, Anderson, (July) 1915. $5.00. MCBAIN, Howard Lee. Law and the practice of municipal home rule. 0.724p. Columbia University press, 1916. $5.00 net.

MCBAIN, Howard Lee, and WALKER, Nathan W. How we are governed in North Carolina and the nation. D.272p.il. N. Y., McBain, 1916.

MACELYEA, Mrs. Annabella Bunting. The MacQueens of Queensdale;

a biography of Col. James MacQueen and his descendants. 0.261p. Charlotte, Observer Printing House, 1916.

PLYLER, Marion Timothy. Leroy Lee Smith, a lawyer of the old school. D.154p.por. Raleigh, Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1916. POOL, Bettie Freshwater. Literature in the Albemarle. 0.335p.il. Elizabeth City, B. F. Pool, (Nov.) 1915. $2.00.

SMITH, Charles Alphonso. O. Henry biography. O.258p.il.por. Doubleday, (Oct.) 1916. $2.50.

EDITIONS, REPRINTS AND COMPILATIONS

BASSETT, John Spencer. Life of Andrew Jackson. New ed. O.766p.il. Macmillan, (Feb.) 1916. $2.50 net.

FOERSTER, Norman, editor. Chief American prose writers. 0.626p. Houghton, c1916. $2.00 net.

FULTON, Maurice G., compiler. Southern life in Southern literature. Ginn 1916. 80c.

MORDECAI, Samuel F. Law lectures; a treatise from a North Carolina standpoint on those portions of the first and second books of Sir William Blackstone which have not become obsolete in the United States. New ed. O.1524p. Durham, Mordecai, (Mar.) 1916. $10.00.

POLK, William Mecklenburg. Leonidas Polk, bishop and general. New ed. 2v.0.il.maps. Longmans, 1915. $4.00 net.

POTEAT, Hubert McNeill. Selected letters of Cicero. D.201p. Heath, c1916.

RUMPLE, Jethro. History of Rowan County, North Carolina, containing sketches of prominent families and distinguished men. D.618p. il.por. Salisbury, Elizabeth Maxwell Steele Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, c1916.

SMITH, Charles Alphonso, editor. Short stories, old and new. O.292p. Ginn, (Dec.) 1916. 60c.