We have a sound basis for an estimate sufficiently impressive. There is a standing army of one hundred and thirty-five thousand men and women, at war with the community, and living on plunder and vice,—yesterday, engaged in depredations upon property—to-day, rioting in reckless extravagance,—to-morrow, reduced to pinching want. Supposing each of them to spend one hundred and twenty-five dollars a year,—say two and a half dollars a week, we have a sum total of nearly seventeen millions—and this cannot be levied upon the public at less than double that sum. This would amount to but a fraction less than thirty-five millions of dollars, and, with the costs already enumerated, would swell the grand total to very nearly fifty millions, as the annual expense which the criminal classes of England and Wales entail upon the community. It is to be regretted that we have no reliable data from which to form even a probable estimate of either the number of criminals or the cost of crime in any one of our States or cities, so far as our information extends. If there were such, even in one State or city, an inference, of more or less value, might be drawn from a comparison of population, police force, &c. We can scarcely suppose that the incentives to crime are much more numerous and powerful here than in England. It is not found that crime abounds most in seasons of depression in business or of reduction of wages or employment, but the contrary; and therefore, the facilities with which people in our country obtain a living may, perhaps, rather promote than prevent crime. That we make much less of all crime here than is made in the older countries, is very obvious; and that escape or impunity is much more common here than there, will not be denied: so that, on the whole, we may reasonably conclude that if the tax imposed on the public, as the direct consequence of crime, could be ascertained, its enormous amount would awaken an interest in the means of preventing or suppressing it, which the considerations of humanity and religion seem inadequate to excite. ART. IV.—REFORMATION OF FEMALE DISCHARGED CONVICTS. THE TWENTY-SEVENTH REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH LADIES’ SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE REFORMATION OF FEMALE PRISONERS, 1858. FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE HOWARD INSTITUTION, 1858. FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WOMEN’S PRISON ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK. “THE ISAAC T. HOPPER HOME,” 191 TENTH AVENUE, 1859.