GREAT BRITAIN. 



377 



Tax on Buildings. 1852, 727,026; 1870- 

 '71, 1,129,125=$5,645,625. ^ 



Value of Imports. Official values, 1825, 

 37,468,279; 1850, 105,874,607. Real value, 

 1870-71, 303,257,493=$1,516,387,465. 



Value of Exports. 1825, 58,935,252; 1850, 

 190,089,643; 1870-71, 244,108,577 = $!,- 

 220,542,885. 



Tonnage entered. 1825, 3,192,730 tons; 

 1850, 7, 100,476 tons; 1870-71, 18,113,364 tons. 



Tonnage cleared. 1825, 2,699,514 tons; 

 1850, 7,404,588 tons; 1870-71, 18,526,218 

 tons. 



The following table will also be of interest 

 to financiers. It shows a comparative view of 

 the returns of the Bank of England, the bank 

 rate of discount, the price of consols, the price 

 of wheat, and the leading exchanges, during a 

 period of four years, corresponding with No- 

 vember, 1871, as well as for ten years ago, viz. : 



RAILWAY STATISTICS. On the 1st of June, 

 1871, there were 15,537 miles of railway-lines 

 open in the United Kingdom, having a total 

 capital of paid-up shares and loans of 529,- 

 908,673=$2,649,543,365, and their traffic re- 

 ceipts for the year were 45,078,143=$225,- 

 390,715. The trains of these railways con- 

 veyed, during the year, over 330,000,000 of 

 passengers, an average of 21,518 per mile, and 

 their traffic-receipts averaged 2,794=$13,- 

 970 per mile. 



POSTAL STATISTICS. The number of letters 

 delivered in the United Kingdom in the year 

 ending January 1, 1871, was 862,722,000, nearly 

 seven-eighths of which were delivered in Eng- 

 land and Wales. The number of book-pack- 

 ets, newspapers, and pattern-packets, delivered 

 the same year (ten-thirteenths of them in Eng- 

 land and Wales), was 130,169,000. The money- 

 orders issued (a little more than seventeen- 

 twentieths in England and Wales) were of the 

 value of 19,993,987=$99,969,935. The num- 

 ber of depositors in the post-office savings- 

 banks was 1,183,153 (nineteen-twentieths of 

 them in England and Wales), and constituting 

 nearly one-half of all the depositors in savings- 

 banks in the United Kingdom. The balance 

 due depositors January 1, 1871, was 15,099,- 

 104=$75,495,520 (fourteen-fifteenths of it due 

 in England and Wales). 



TELEGRAPHIC STATISTICS. The telegraphic 

 business in Great Britain is entirely owned by 

 the Government, and under the control of the 

 Post Office Department. On the 31st of May, 

 1871, there were 2,383 postal telegraph-sta- 

 tions open, and 1,828 railway-stations from 

 which telegrams could be sent, making 4,211 

 stations in all. The average number of mes- 

 sages weekly was about 212,000. 



The statement in this article that " one-fifth 

 of the entire population were either partially 

 or wholly dependent upon charity for a sub- 

 sistence " requires, perhaps, some statement of 

 facts. In England the number of adult pau- 



pers, exclusive of vagrants and the casual 

 poor in 1871, is officially stated at 1,081,926, 

 and the same class in Wales at 143,836 ; the 

 population the same year being 22,704,108. 

 The number of vagrants and casual poor is 

 variously stated partly, perhaps, from defec- 

 tive returns, partly from a habit of repeating 

 their visits, which this class has at times, to 

 particular districts; but any estimate which 

 puts the number in the various towns and 

 boroughs of England and Wales below 1,400,- 

 000 is far below the truth. To these must be 

 added the criminal classes, both those tempo- 

 rarily detained in police-stations, jails, and lock- 

 ups, and those in the convict-prisons. These, 

 who are distinct from the pauper class, are yet 

 fed and in part clothed at the public expense. 

 These, not including the ordinary police cases, 

 are about 170,000. The reformatories furnish 

 nearly 30,000 more, and the county and bor- 

 ough insane asylums for pauper insane, of 

 which there about one hundred and thirty, 

 full 32,000 more. These, it is to be remem- 

 bered, are only the adult poor, insane, etc. 

 When we consider the very large number of 

 children of these pauper families, and the out- 

 cry which has been made in regard to the mul- 

 tiplication of these helpless dependents upon 

 public charity, an outcry to which the popular 

 satire " Ginx's Baby " owes its popularity, 

 we may well be certain that the number of 

 pauper children exceeds that of pauper adults. 

 This is the law of Nature everywhere, and, if 

 we put them down at 1,400,000 for England 

 and Wales, in the absence of any positive cen- 

 sus, we shall unquestionably be below the 

 truth. We have, then, 4,277,762, or in round 

 numbers 4,300,000 of the pauper and depend- 

 ent classes in England and Wales alone, which 

 sufficiently demonstrates the fact that one- 

 fifth of the population are dependent, partially 

 or wholly, on charity. The condition of Scot- 

 land in respect to pauperism is a little better, 

 and that of Ireland considerably worse. 



