Under aggravation Years. Total convicted. of previous convictions. 1846 2936 858 1847 3569 1024 1848 3669 1043 --_Parliamentary Reports_, 1846-48. So rapid an increase of crimes, and especially among criminals previously convicted, sufficiently demonstrates the inadequacy of imprisonment as a means either of deterring from crimes, or reforming the criminals. The same result appears in England, where the rapid increase of criminals sentenced to transportation, within the same period, demonstrates the total inefficacy of the new imprisonment system. Transported. Years. England and Wales. Scotland. 1846 2805 352 1847 2896 456 1848 3251 459 And of the futility of the hope that the spread of education will have any effect in checking the increase of crime, decisive proof is afforded in the same criminal returns; for from them it appears that the number of educated criminals in England is above twice, in Scotland _above three times and a half that of the uneducated_,--the numbers, during the last three years, being as follows:-- | | ENGLAND AND WALES. | SCOTLAND. | |Years.| | | | | | | Educated. |Uneducated. | Educated. |Uneducated.| +------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+ |1846 | 16,963 | 7,698 | 3,155 | 903 | |1847 | 19,307 | 9,050 | 3,562 | 1,048 | |1848 | 20,176 | 9,691 | 3,985 | 911 | --_Parliamentary Returns_, 1846-8. Nay, what is still more alarming, it distinctly appears, from the same returns, that the proportion of educated criminals to uneducated is _steadily on the increase_ in Great Britain. Take the centesimal proportions given in the last returns for England--those of 1848:--