8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Canada, Holland, France, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, 

 in the order named, Mr. Mulhall also computes that the average 

 man in the United States works 113 days to gain his food for a 

 year, as compared with 114 days' work in England ; in England 

 he works 34 days for his clothing, here he works 49 ; house-rent 

 and taxes take 29 and 33 days in England, 30 and 33 days in the 

 United States ; and the Englishman consequently has 91 days in 

 the 300 left for other purposes, including savings, whereas the 

 American has but 75. The banking capital and deposits of Eng- 

 land are $125 per inhabitant ; of Australia, $150 ; of the United 

 States, $50. The railroads of the United States carried 270,000,000 

 passengers in 1882, those of England carried 752,000,000 ; and the 

 slight difference in railway rates is by no means an explanation 

 of the difference. The school attendance in England has increased 

 from forty per cent less per capita than ours in 1880 to about the 

 same. The post-office returns show a greater increase in the use 

 of the mails in England than here. And that faithful index of 

 popular condition, the criminal calendar, shows a steady decrease 

 for a long period, until, in 1885, there was but one conviction to 

 3,272 persons in England ; while America has one conviction to 

 930 persons, which has been about the rate for a considerable 

 time. And the statistics of pauperism, while not so favorable for 

 England, show a steady and rapid decrease for fifty years, and 

 the ratio of paupers to population is about one fourth what it 

 was in 1840. It would be interesting, had we space, to show the 

 greater consumption per capita of many articles in England than 

 in America, as of woolen clothing, sugar, and rice, the total con- 

 sumption of food products being about the same per capita ; and 

 to show the vast increase seen in England during the past forty 

 years. Suffice it to say that the facts indicate a greater average 

 of welfare in England than in this country. " There are few 

 questions of fact upon which the general public are more misled 

 by our public men than this," says Mr. Gunton, in his " Wealth 

 and Progress " ; " but the facts all point to the same result, viz., 

 that the increase in wealth, in projDortion to population, has been 

 greater in England than in this country." Lastly, but most im- 

 portant of all to lovers of liberalism, legal equality, and popular 

 government, England has, during the past twenty years, grown 

 democratic "by leaps and bounds," and her vast wealth is cer- 

 tainly known to have been reaching a state of more equal distri- 

 bution, while we have been erecting an aristocracy of wealth. 

 The explanation of all this reduced to its simplest form is not dif- 

 ficult. England's citizens buy in enormous quantities and in the 

 cheapest markets, and sell in enormous quantities in the dearest 

 markets. The Englishman buys at $10, puts $1 worth of labor on 

 the material, and sells at $15. We buy at $15, put $1 worth of 



