GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



329 



The commercial navy was as follows in 1879 and 1878 : 



The following table gives the postal statistics for the year ending March 31, 1880 : 



The railroad statistics for 1879 were as fol- 

 lows : 



all have a militia and a volunteer corps of their 

 own. According to the "Army Estimates" 

 1880-'81, the army was composed as follows : 



The number of telegraph-offices in 1878 was 

 5,259, of which 1,401 were private and rail- 

 way stations. The length of the government 

 lines was 41,334 kilometres, of wires 183,554 

 kilometres. The number of dispatches sent, 

 exclusive of press and official dispatches, was 

 23,385,416. 



The British army is filled up exclusively by 

 recruiting. The term of service is twelve years, 

 after which a soldier can serve for nine years 

 more. At the end of three years he can also 

 enter the reserve, one year in the regular army 

 being counted as three in the reserve. By the 

 reorganization of 1872, the United Kingdom is 

 divided into sixty-eight military districts. In 

 each district there is one brigade depot of 182 

 men, two battalions of the regular army, which 

 alternately serve abroad, two battalions of mili- 

 tia, and the volunteers of the district. Besides 

 these there are the following organizations : In 

 Ireland there is a police force under military 

 discipline, consisting of 13,000 men and 4,000 

 horses ; the Channel Islands have a militia of 

 300 officers and 7,000 men, subsidized by the 

 British Government. India has a police force, 

 under military discipline, of 190,000 men, the 

 officers of which are Europeans ; the colonies 



In 1878 the army was distributed as follows : 



