Among the considerations which (we may suppose) exert the chief influence in prompting a man to crime, or in deterring him from it, we must regard the probability of detection and punishment, as by no means the least. Not that a man who is about to commit a crime considers very scrupulously either what measure of punishment is affixed to a certain shade of crime, or what are the chances for escaping detection; but there is a general conviction abroad in all communities on these subjects, engendered by observing from time to time the proportion of criminal acts that escape detection, and the proportion of criminal actors that evade merited punishment; and this general impression influences evil-disposed persons quite as much as any other class. Hence when the idea prevails that the chances are quite even, in favor of escaping detection, or that if detected, the chances are quite equal, that the threatened punishment may be evaded, there will be of course a proportionate relaxation of restraining influence upon criminal propensities. Let two or three children in a family succeed in a plan of disobedience in several instances, which are not detected, or let the prescribed punishment be withheld from a few offences that are clearly made out, and mischievous effects will soon become evident. Perhaps some of our readers have never taken the trouble to survey the stages through which a criminal process must be conducted, and the embarrassments which attend it. Besides the reluctance to prosecute, and thus expose one’s-self to a very undesirable notoriety, and incur the enmity, and possibly kindle the resentments of a malevolent and reckless heart, there is, in the country-districts, an inefficiency of police arrangements, of which an accomplished rogue well knows how to take advantage.