GREAT BRITAIN". 



335 



prices in London of the best household coal 

 were, in 1870, $4.62 (gold); in 1871, $4.81 

 (gold) ; in 1872, $6.22 (gold) ; in the first six 

 months of 1873, $8.25, (gold), the highest 

 price being $11.25 (gold). The highest price 

 of coke for the iron-trade, put in truck at the 

 oven at Pease's West Collieries in Durham, 

 was, in 1870, $3.12 (gold); in 1873, $10.63 

 (gold). Coal which was practically unsalable 

 before, found a brisk demand at from $1.87 

 (gold) to $3.12 (gold). 



Colonial Produce. The imports of cotton 

 into the United Kingdom from the British 

 possessions abroad amounted in the year 1872 

 to 444,873,520 pounds, an increase of near- 

 ly 11,000,000 over the preceding year. The 

 quantity imported from the West Indies fell 

 off, bat British India, with Ceylon, increased 

 the supply sent thence to 443,234,736 pounds, 

 being 12,000,000 more than in 1871. The 

 import from the United States was somewhat 

 more than double this, being 928,696,040 

 pounds. This was, however, a decided falling 

 off from the import of the preceding year. 

 The total import from all quarters was 1,408,- 

 837,472 pounds. The total import of wool 

 was 306,379,664 pounds, of which } was from 

 the colonies. The import of cocoa from the 

 colonies also increased in 1872 to 8,294,975 

 pounds, being 1,000,000 more than the pre- 

 ceding year. But the import of coffee from 

 India and the colonies fell from 131,000,000 

 pounds in 1871 to 114,220,843 pounds in 1872, 

 the decrease being in the supply from India, 

 Ceylon, and the Straits Settlements, which 

 was nearly 127,000,000 pounds in 1871, hut 

 only 107,606,483 pounds in 1872. The import 

 of colonial rum also declined from above 

 7,000,000 gallons in 1871 to 6,208,653 gallons 

 in 1872 ; the decrease was chiefly in the supply 

 from British Guiana. The import of colonial 

 sugar and molasses did not quite keep up to 

 that of tin- preceding year, being 5,301,085 

 cwt. in 1871, and 5,224,461 cwt. in 1872 ; but 

 this was more than made up by the increased 

 consumption of beet-root sugar from the con- 

 tinent. 



Pott-Office and Trustee Savingi-Bankt. 

 The annual return from the trustee savings- 

 banks of the United Kingdom shows that at 

 the end of their year, on the 20th of Novem- 

 ber, 1872, the amount due to depositors was 

 39,680,652 = $198.403,260 namely, in Eng- 

 land and Wales, 32,546,401 = $162,732,005; 

 in Scotland, 4,452,492 = $22,262,460 ; in Ire- 

 land, 2,221,852 = $11,109,260; and in the 

 Churimsl Islands, 459,907 = $2,299,535. To 

 this is to be added 19,318,889 = $96,591,695, 

 due at the end of 1872 to depositors in post- 

 otfioe savings-banks; making the total depos- 

 its, in round numbers, 59,000,000 sterling = 

 $295,000,000. The deposits increased in 1872 

 by upward of $15,000,000 ; in the post-office 

 savings-banks by more than $11,250,000, and 

 in the trustee savings-banks by $4,300,000. 

 The number of accounts open was nearly equal 



in the two classes of savings-banks; in the 

 trustee banks, 1,425,147, and in the post-office 

 banks, 1,442,448. The number of accounts 

 will soon reach 8,000,000, for those in the 

 trustee banks increased by 21,069 ill the past 

 year, and in the post-office banks by 138,956. 

 There were 484 trustee savings-banks in the 

 United Kingdom at the end of the year, but the 

 post-office banks had risen to 4,607 in num- 

 ber. 



Railways in 1872. The number of miles of 

 line open at the end of 1872 was 15,814. The 

 total paid-up capital (shares and loans) was 

 569,047,346 = $2,845,236,730. The number 

 of passengers conveyed (exclusive of season 

 ticket-holders), 422,874,822, averaging 26,740 

 to the mile. The traffic receipts were 51,- 

 304,114 = $256.520,570, or 3,244 = $16,220 

 per mile. 



Pottal and Telegraph Statistics. The gross 

 revenue from the post-offices for 1872 was 

 5,208,922 = $26,044,610 ; the cost of man- 

 agement, 2, 754, 764 = $18, 773,820; and the 

 net revenue, 2,454,158 =$12,272,790. The 

 number of letters delivered is not stated in 

 exact figures, but did not differ far from 

 900,000,000. The number of post-offices 

 was 12,200, besides more than 8,000 road and 

 pillar letter-boxes: 30,617 persons were em- 

 ployed on postal duties alone. The number of 

 telegraph-messages sent in 1872, exclusive of 

 press and news messages, was 14,858,000. 

 The press and news messages contained up- 

 ward of 28,000,000 words. There were 5,400 

 telegraph-offices, of which 3,593 were postal 

 offices also. The length of telegraph- wires 

 was 105,200 miles. 



The lit. Hon. BENJAMIN DISRAELI, D. C. L., 

 Premier of England, and First Lord of the 

 Treasury in the new cabinet of February, 1874, 

 one of six commoners who within the last 

 Itundred years have attained to that exalted 

 position, has been a prominent figure in Brit- 

 ish politics for nearly thirty-seven years. He 

 is the eldest son of the late Isaac Disraeli, the 

 author of "The Curiosities of Literature," and 

 " The Amenities of Literature," and the grand- 

 son of an Italian merchant who migrated to 

 England in the last century. The family are 

 of Jewish extraction, and his ancestors were 

 expelled from Spain by the Inquisition in the 

 fifteenth century, and found refuge and protec- 

 tion in the Venetian Republic. Benjamin Dis- 

 raeli was born in London, December 21, 1805, 

 and carefully educated under his father's su- 

 perintendence in private schools. At about 

 the age of seventeen he was articled to a soli- 

 citor with the view of qualifying him for a gov- 

 ernment office, which had been obtained for 

 him by his father. The drudgery of a lawyer's 

 office being distasteful to him, he gave it up 

 after three years, to engage in literary pursuits. 

 In 1827 he published his first novel, " Vivian 

 Grey," which was succeeded at intervals by 

 other brilliant works of fiction, including " The 

 Young Duke," "Contarini Fleming," "The 



