The author read some “Observations on the Amount, Increase, and Distribution of Crime in Scotland,” being the results of an analysis of the Official Tables of criminal offenders for the ten years ending 1850, and of the Prison Board Returns, compared with various statistical data.

The criminal tables of Scotland confirm, in many important particulars, the observations of M. Guerry, M. Quetelet, and Mr Joseph Fletcher, as to the causes of the occasional fluctuations in the amount of crime, the chief of which appear to be—1st, Scarcity of the chief articles of subsistence; 2d, Disturbances of commercial credit, and of the labour market; 3d, Political excitement.