390 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



which included 4,054 females, was 58,396, besides 

 whom about 50,000 persons are employed, 16,- 

 000 being women. The number of letters de- 

 livered in 1888-'89 was 1,558,500,000, the share 

 of England and Wales being 1,327,000,000; of 

 Scotland, 136,000,000; and of Ireland, 95,500,- 

 000. The number of letters per head of the popu- 

 lation has increased from 32 in 1879 to 42 in 

 1889. The number of postal cards carried in 

 the United Kingdom in 1888-'89 was 201,000, 

 000; of book packages, 412,000,000; of news- 

 papers, 151,900,000 ; of parcels, 39,500,000 ; show- 

 ing an increase of 6,700,000 in the postal cards, 

 5,800,000 in the book packets, and 7.800,000 in 

 the parcels, and a decrease of 300,000 in the 

 newspapers as compared with the previous year. 

 The number of money orders in 1888-'89 was 

 10,507,717, and the amount was 26,618,052, 9,- 

 228,183 of them, amounting to 22,957,649, be- 

 ing internal orders, of which 7,560,195, of the 

 amount of 19,267,308, was sent in England 

 and Wales, 1,079,719, of the amount of 2,422,- 

 793, in Scotland, and 588,249, of the amount of 

 1,267,548, in Ireland. The number of postal 

 orders was 40,282,321, amounting to 16,112,079. 

 The revenue from the post-office was 9,102,776 

 and the expenditure was 6,062,902, leaving a 

 net revenue of 3,039,874. 



The telegraph lines on April 1, 1889, had a 

 total length of 30,726 miles, having 183,502 

 miles of wire, nearly all of which belonged to 

 the Government, the telegraph system of the 

 country having been acquired by the state in 

 1870. The number of messages dispatched in 

 England and Wales during the year ending 

 March 31, 1889, was 48.532,669 ; in Scotland, 5,- 

 991,223 : in Ireland, 3,241,455 ; total, 57,765,347. 

 The receipts of the telegraph department in 

 1888- ? 89 were 2,094,048 and the expenses 1,- 

 949,096, giving a net revenue of 124,952, as 

 compared with one of 31,247 in 1888, when 

 53,403,425 messages were transmitted ; a deficit 

 of 84082 in 1887, the first year of the reduced 

 tariff, when 50,243,639 messages were sent ; and a 

 revenue of 245,138 in 1886, when the number 

 of messages was 39,146,283. 



The Army. The regular army, exclusive of 

 the forces of India, according to the army esti- 

 mates for 1890, consists of 7,421 commissioned 

 officers, 1,161 warrant officers, 15,706 sergeants, 

 3,657 musicians, and 124,337 rank and file, mak- 

 ing a total of 152,282 men, an increase of 2,615 

 over the preceding year. The number of horses 

 on Jan. 1, 1889, was 13,238, and the number of 

 field guns was 282. Of the force maintained in 

 the United Kingdom at that date, numbering 

 105,456 officers and men. 73,972 were in England 

 and Wales, 3,913 in Scotland, and 27,571 in Ire- 

 land. There were 3,380 men of all ranks in 

 Egypt, 27,568 in the colonies, and 2,501 on the 

 passage. The Indian forces numbered 72,895 

 officers and men, with 11,092 horses and 318 

 guns. The regimental establishments of the 

 regular forces at home and in the colonies num- 

 bered 142,498 men of all ranks in 1890 ; the army 

 reserve of the first class, 58,300 ; the army re- 

 serve of the second class, 2,300 ; the militia, 141,- 

 444 ; the yeomanry, 14,139 : the volunteers, 259,- 

 524 ; total, 618,205 men. Including the British 

 army in India the total force is 690,629 officers 

 and men, of whom 617,795 were present with 



the colors in March, 1890. The number enrolled 

 in the volunteer corps of Great Britain in- 

 creased from 119,146 in 1860 to 226,469 in 1888. 

 Of the total number of non-commissioned offi- 

 cers and privates in the British army on Jan. 1, 

 1889, 150,048 were of English, 16,838 of Scotch, 

 and 30,302 of Irish birth. 



The magazine rifle that has received the ap- 

 proval of the War Office is one with a bolt-hea " 

 screw, a contrivance that some military author: 

 ties condemn as false in principle, as it is unabh 

 to resist the concussion of firing or the strain 

 extraction. 



Lord Hartington's commission to consider tl 

 reform of the military and naval administratioi 

 made a very guarded report suggesting, how- 

 ever, far-reaching changes, the chief of whk 

 are the abolition of the office of commands 

 in-chief and the appointment of a chief-of- 

 staff. It was found that no definite plans 

 been worked out and agreed on for the defens 

 by the army of the dock yards, arsenals, am 

 coaling stations, at home or abroad, or for th 

 conveyance of troops by the navy to the sta- 

 tions to be garrisoned after the commencement 

 of hostilities. Naval experts gave it as their 

 opinion that the garrisons ought to be on the 

 spot before the emergency arises, and that the 

 navy should be bound by no promises of as- 

 sistance to the forces operating on land. The 

 fact that no combined plan of operations existed 

 for the defense of the empire in any given con- 

 tingency was in the view of the commission a 

 dangerous and unsatisfactory condition of affairs. 

 The report recommends making the First Naval 

 Lord more definitely responsible to the First 

 Lord of the Admiralty and the other lords sub- 

 ordinate to the First Naval Lord, who should 

 maintain constant confidential communications 

 with the chief-of-staff at the War Office in re- 

 gard to the problems involving the co-operation 

 and independence of the sea and land forces in 

 all emergencies likely to arise. The suppression 

 of the commander-in-chief as the only military 

 authority who has the right to advise the Sec- 

 retary of State on anything connected with the 

 army, from the plan of a campaign to the defect- 

 ive design of a heavy gun, in addition to all his 

 duties of command and inspection, would have 

 occurred long before if it had not been for the 

 age and royal connections of the present com- 

 mander-in-chief, the Duke of Cambridge, under 

 whom the army has been without a central con- 

 trol. In practice the Secretary of State goes be- 

 hind the commander-in-chief and takes his ad- 

 vice from the heads of departments or resorts to 

 the creation of technical committees. Out of 

 regard for his susceptibilities the commissioners 

 recommend that the post of commander-in-chief 

 in Great Britain be created, analogous to that of 

 commander-in-chief in Ireland. It is proposed 

 that each of the great departments of the service 

 shall have a head directly responsible to the Sec- 

 retary of State, each independent of the chief- 

 of-staff, whose duties would be to advise the 

 Secretary of State on all matters of general mili- 

 tary policy and all questions as to the strength, 

 distribution, and mobilization of the forces, and 

 the relative importance of the various services ; 

 to collect military information, to prepare a 

 general scheme of defensive operations and plans 



