354 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



close of 1872, was 169,437 kilometres (1 kilo- 

 metre = 0.62 English mile). The number of 

 stations was about 5,400. The number of 

 dispatches, in 1873, was 17,294,334; in 1874, 

 19,116,634; and in 1875, 20,766,277, exclusive 

 of the press, the Government, and the " news " 

 messages. 



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 68 military dis- 

 tricts. In each district there is one brigade 

 depot of 182 men, two battalions of the regular 

 army, which alternately serve abroad, two 

 battalions of militia, and the volunteers of the 

 district. According to the army estimates for 

 the years 1876-'77, the army was to be com- 

 posed as follows : 



Total. 



17,275 



84,924 



5,710 



128,C>24 



2,481 



8,014 



1,574 



82,800 



2,181 



force, under military discipline, consisting of 

 13,000 men and 4,000 horses; the Channel 

 Islands have a militia of 300 officers and 8,000 

 men, subsidized by the British Government ; 

 India has a native army of 140,000 men, and a 

 police force, under military discipline, of 190,- 

 000 men, the officers of both of which are Eu- 

 ropeans ; the colonies all have a militia, a vol- 

 unteer corps of their own. The home Govern- 

 ment stations troops only at fortified places, 

 except in the Cape Colony, where peculiar 

 circumstances exist, and in places where policy 

 demands it, as in Hong-Kong. 



The navy consists of 61 iron-clads, about 

 300 steamers, and 170 sailing-vessels. Of this 

 number 252 were in commission on August 1, 

 1876, 121 being at home, and 131 abroad. The 

 navy is manned by 46,607 seamen, 14,000 

 marines, and 20,840 men belonging to the 

 Royal Navy reserve. 



The circulation of the notes of the Bank of 

 England, and the average of bullion kept on 

 hand by that institution, together with the 

 total bank-note circulation in the United King- 

 dom, in 1870, 1875, and 1876, were as follows: 



Besides the above, there are the following 

 organizations: In Ireland there is a police 



The finances, commerce, and the movement 

 of shipping of the British colonies, in 1874, 

 were as follows, according to the " Statistical 

 Abstract for the Colonial and other Posses- 

 sions of the United Kingdom, 1860-1874" 

 (London, 1876) : 



