To the statesman and political economist, not less than to the Christian philanthropist, an inquiry into the sources and extent of crime, and the number, condition and previous history of criminals cannot be without interest. Scarcely a day passes in our chief cities, without the occurrence of some startling outrage upon the public peace, or on the person or property of the citizen. Scarcely a newspaper can be taken up, which does not contain a record more or less in detail of acts of violence and fraud. Why are they not prevented? What provokes their perpetration? How are the guilty parties punished, and what is the effect of their punishment on themselves or others? In the absence (to our shame be it said) of reliable statistics on such subjects in our own country, we are compelled to resort to the elaborate and authentic reports made to the British government. And as the vicious dispositions and passions of men are the same there as here, and the temptations to crime, as well as crimes themselves and the methods of perpetrating them, do not materially differ in the two countries, we find great satisfaction and instruction in the information they furnish. In our last number we gave an abstract of the criminal statistics of England and Wales for 1857. Since that time we have received the more full and complete returns for 1858. We do not propose to notice the same class of items to which our former article adverted, but to cull a few facts and results of general and universal interest, which were not then ascertained. The following table exhibits a significant class of facts.