The readers of our Journal cannot fail to be aware of the unusual interest which has recently been awakened on this subject. Our present number contains sundry evidences of it, and by referring to the cover, a notice will be found, the design of which is to provoke inquiry and discussion, with a view to reformatory measures. As human nature is substantially the same all the world over, and as like causes produce like effects, we have transferred to our pages several interesting and important passages from the last report of the inspector general of English prisons, bearing particularly on this subject. In respect to the first cause of juvenile depravity, which we just commented on, drunkenness-- "Statistical returns show that the amount of money expended in intoxicating drinks of one kind or another in Great Britain, is between fifty and sixty millions of pounds sterling per annum,--a sum fully equal to the whole national revenue. "Now such an enormous expenditure on any one object must produce a noticeable effect upon our social condition. Were such a sum annually expended on the reclaiming of waste land and the improvement of what is but partially cultivated, and the erection of comfortable dwellings, in a few years our whole island would be a garden of beauty and fertility. "But what are the results produced? "The physicians of our lunatic asylums tell us that intemperance is the cause of a large proportion of the cases of insanity. "The medical officers of our infirmaries and dispensaries tell us that many diseases are caused, and more are made fatal, by habits of intemperance. "The masters of our poor houses tell us that they can trace the pauperism of most of their inmates to their own intemperance, or to that of their parents. "The governors and chaplains of our prisons tell us that most of the crime in our gaols is directly or indirectly caused by strong drink. "If the offences to which habitual drinking has ultimately led could be ascertained, I believe we should find that four-fifths of the recorded offences have sprung from it." Although the remedy for this enormous evil is justly regarded as lying to a considerable degree in the hands of educators, it is maintained that "much may be done to abate the evil by reducing the number of licensed public houses both in town and country, and by greatly raising the expense of strong drink."