360 



GREAT BRITAIN". 



tricts, more than one-fourth of them in Lon- 

 don, and only 9,803,811 in the rural districts. 

 The number of births in England and Wales, 

 for the year 1871, was 797,143; of deaths, 

 515,096; and of marriages, 190,015. The num- 

 ber of paupers in England and Wales, the same 

 year, was 1,081,926, of whom 189,839 were 

 adult able-bodied paupers. In 1872, to July 

 of that year, the number was only 977,664, 

 of whom 153,753 were adult and able-bodied. 

 This reduction of 104,000 was due in part to 

 the large emigration of that year, and in part 

 to the greater stringency of the Poor Law 

 Boards. Probably, a report made up to Jan- 

 uary, 1873, would show, despite all precau- 

 tions, a larger aggregate than that of 1871. 

 The poor-rate collected in 1871, in England 

 and Wales, was 12,121,440=$60,607,200, or 

 $2.67 per head for the entire population. The 

 proportion of paupers to the population, in 

 England and Wales, is about one to every 

 nineteen inhabitants. In Scotland it was, in 

 1871, as one to twenty-seven ; in Ireland the 

 class assisted by the relief unions is much 

 smaller, only about one to 71 of the popula- 

 tion, but no account is taken there, as in Eng- 

 land and Scotland, of the large number of 

 tramps, beggars, and vagrants, who gain their 

 livelihood by begging and petty thefts, and 

 who are not, as in England and Scotland, re- 

 ported by the police. The local taxation for 

 the relief of the poor, county, and borough 

 police, roads, and bridges, drainage, and light- 

 ing of towns, etc., in the United Kingdom, for 

 the year ending March 31, 1872, was 25,- 

 117,000=$125,585,000, or $4 per head of the 

 population, and the combined public or gen- 

 eral and local taxation, for the same time, 

 amounted to 99,825,000=$499,125,000, or 

 nearly five hundred million dollars, equal to 

 $15.66 to each inhabitant. 



The total amount of public revenue in the 

 United Kingdom for the year ending March 

 31, 1872, was 74,708,314 13*. M =$373,541,- 

 573.27, of which 20,326,000=$! 01,630,000 

 was from customs duties, 44,512,000=$222,- 

 560,000 from excise, stamps, land, house, and 

 property taxes ; 4,680,000=$23,400,000 from 

 the Post-Office (a net surplus of $11,120,000 

 over the cost of administration); 755,000= 

 $3,775,000 from the telegraph service, which 

 yielded a net revenue of $1,500,000. The crown 

 lands yielded a net revenue of 375,000=$!,- 

 875,000, and the remainder of the revenue, 

 4,060,314 13s. Id. =$20,301,573.27, was from 

 miscellaneous sources. The expenditures for 

 the year ending March 31, 1872, were 71,860,- 

 020 Gs. 5d. =$359,300,101. 60, of which 26,839,- 

 601 7*. 8<Z.=$134,198,006.91, or about T \ths of 

 the whole expenditure, was for the manage- 

 ment of the public debt and for interest ; 1,- 

 797,475 1*. 2d. = $8,987,375.29 is put under 

 the head of charges on the Consolidated Fund, 

 and includes the Civil List, 406,238 17s. 9<Z.= 

 $2,031,194.43 (being the sum expended for the 

 support of the Queen, royal household, and 



royal family ; and a variety of annuities, pen- 

 sions, salaries, allowances, and gratuities. The 

 item of supply services, including the army, 

 navy, and various departments of civil service, 

 post-office, telegraph, and packet service, con- 

 sumed 42,852,943 17s. Td. =$21 4,264,719.39; 

 while 370,000=$1,850,000 were expended on 

 fortifications. The estimated revenue for the 

 year ending March 31, 1873, was 74,91 5,000: 

 $374,575,000, and the estimated expenditure 

 for the same year, was7l,313,000=$356,565,- 

 000, to which will be added about $16,500,- 

 000, the amount of the Geneva award to the 

 United States. 



The national debt fluctuates within certain 

 moderate limits from year to year. On the 

 31st of March, 1872, it stood as follows : Fund- 

 ed Debt, 730,986,800, equal to $3,654,934,- 

 000 ; unfunded debt, 5,155,100=$25,775,500 ; 

 estimated capital of the terminable annuities 

 belonging to the funded debt, computed in 

 three per cent, stock, 55,749,070=$278,745,- 

 350, making a grand total of the debt of 791,- 

 890,970 = $3,959,454,850. The statistics of 

 imports and exports in Great Britain are al- 

 ways a year behindhand in their publicatioi 

 and hence we have no returns later than thos 

 of the year ending December 31, 1871. Frci 

 these we learn that the total imports into the 

 United Kingdom for that year were 331,015,- 

 480=$1, 655,077,400; and the total expoi 

 from the United Kingdom, to other countries 

 and its own colonies, were 283,574,700= 

 $1,417,873,500. Of the imports, 61,134,463 = 

 $305,672,315 were from the United States, and 

 there were exported to the United States, the 

 same year, 38,692,837=^193,464,185. The 

 importation of raw cotton into Great Britain 

 was of the value of 55,907,070=$279,535,350, 

 of which nearly $150,000,000 came from the 

 United States. Of corn and flour, the total 

 import was 42,502,252 = $212,511,260, of 

 which, probably, two-fifths came from the 

 United States, directly or indirectly. 



Shipping. The total tonnage of British and 

 foreign ships, which entered and cleared at ports 

 of the United Kingdom, either with cargoes 

 or in ballast, in the year 1871, was as follows : 

 British, 28,034,748 tons ; foreign, 13,513,130 

 tons. Total tonnage, 41,457,878 tons. The 

 number and tonnage of vessels built, and first 

 registered in the United Kingdom in 1871, was : 

 of sailing-vessels, 485, tonnage, 60,260 ; steam- 

 ers, 537, tonnage, 330,798. The number of 

 seamen employed on board British ships was 

 202,477, of whom 20,263 were foreigners, and 

 the remainder of British birth. 



Textile Industry. The quantity of raw cot- 

 ton imported into Great Britain in 1871 was 

 greater by nearly 388,000,000 pounds than in 

 any former year, the total amount being 1,778,- 

 139,776 pounds, of which 1,409,905,616 pounds 

 were retained for home consumption. The 

 same year, 323,036,299 pounds of wool were 

 imported in addition to the large home yield. 

 Of this, 187,946,505 pounds were retained for 



