GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



313 



ie United Kingdom on Jan. 1, 1897, was 20,796, of 

 9,020,282 tons, divided into 12,274 sailing vessels, of 

 2,735,976 tons, and 8,522 steamers, of 6,284,306 tons. 

 The number of seamen employed was 242,039, of 

 whom 33,046 were foreigners. The total number 

 of vessels belonging to the British Empire was 35,- 

 735, of 10,503,307 tons. The number of vessels built 

 and first registered during 1896 was 931, of 519.970 

 tons, divided into 389 sailing vessels, of 57,467 tons, 

 and 542 steamers, of 462,503 tons. Of the total 

 number of vessels belonging to the United King- 

 dom. 7,086 sailing vessels, of 449,192 tons, and 2,752 

 steamers, of 421,404 tons, were employed in the 

 home trade and the adjacent seas ; 220 sailing ves- 

 sels, of 24,640 tons, and 294 steamers, of 232.297 tons, 

 were employed partly in the home and partly in the 

 foreign trade ; and 1,686 sailing vessels, of 2,144,- 

 235 tons, and 3,701 steamers, of 5,661,572 tons, were 

 employed exclusively in the foreign trade. 



Communications. The total length of railroads 

 open to traffic in the United Kingdom on Jan. 1, 

 1897, was 21,277 miles, of which 14.708 miles were 

 in England and Wales, 3,391 miles in Scotland, and 

 3,178 miles in Ireland. The paid-up share and loan 

 capital amounted to 1,029,475.333. The number 

 of passengers carried during 1896 was 980,339,433, 

 exclusive of holders of season tickets. The receipts 

 from all sources were 90.119,122, of which 39.- 

 120,865 came from passengers and 46,175.335 from 

 freight; working expenses, 50,192,424, equal to 56 

 per cent, of the gross receipts. 



The number of letters that passed through the 

 British post office during the year ending March 31, 

 1897, was 1,893,000,000, of which 1,606.500,000 were 

 delivered in England and Wales, 168,500,000 in 

 Scotland, and 118,000,000 in Ireland, being 48 per 

 head of population for the whole United Kingdom, 

 52 for England and Wales, 40 for Scotland, and 26 

 for Ireland. The number of postal cards for the 

 United Kingdom was 336,500,000; of book packets, 

 697,900.000 ; of newspapers, 150,600.000 ; of parcels, 

 63.700,000; of money orders, 10,921,617, for the 

 total amount of 30,249,087, of which 9,314,022, for 

 25,918,853, were inland orders ; of postal orders, 

 67.182,998, for the gross amount of 24,826,874. 

 The receipts of the postal service were 12.146,935, 

 and the expenses 8,253,112, leaving a net revenue 

 of 3,893,823. The telegraph receipts from paid 

 messages were 2,967,353, and expenses 3,108,065, 

 leaving a deficit of 140.714. 



The total length of telegraph lines on March 31, 

 1897, was 41,393 miles, with 279,935 miles of wire. 

 The number of messages in 1897 was 79,423,556, of 

 which 66,950,409 were English, 8,094,360 Scotch, and 

 4,378,787 Irish. 



The Session of Parliament. The fourth ses- 

 sion of the fourteenth Parliament of Queen Victoria 

 and the twenty-sixth Parliament of the United 

 Kingdom was opened on Feb. 8, 1898. In the 

 Queen's speech an expenditure beyond precedent 

 was declared to be necessary in order to provide 

 adequately for the defense of the empire in view of 

 the enormous armaments maintained by other na- 

 tions. The promised measure for the organization 

 of a system of local government in Ireland was de- 

 scribed as substantially similar to that established 

 in Great Britain. Proposals were announced hav- 

 ing for their object to secure increased strength and 

 efficiency in the army and amending the conditions 

 of military service. The bill for enabling accused 

 persons to be heard as witnesses in their defense 

 was revived, as well as the one to improve the pro- 

 cedure in Scottish private-bill legislation. A meas- 

 ure was announced for facilitating the creation of 

 municipalities in the administrative county of Lon- 

 don. A bill to amend the vaccination law was 

 recommended as important. Minor proposals were 



to prevent certain recognized abuses in connection 

 with Church patronage, to constitute a teaching 

 university for London, to amend the prison act, to 

 deal in part with the subject of secondary educa- 

 tion, to amend the law relating to the mercantile 

 marine fund, to guard against fraud in the manage- 

 ment of limited companies, to facilitate the ascer- 

 tainment of the rights of landlord and tenant on 

 the termination of an agricultural tenancy, and to 

 prevent the adulteration of drugs and food. 



The session came to an end on Aug. 12. Out of 

 more than 300 public bills submitted to Parliament 

 only 62 finally received the royal assent, and of these 

 about half were Scotch arid Irish bills or were only 

 of local or limited application. Those of genera'l 

 interest comprised new departures in the laws of 

 Church patronage, habitual drunkenness, prison dis- 

 cipline, and compulsory vaccination, besides the 

 criminal-evidence act, a vagrancy act, a locomotive 

 act, two merchant shipping acts, and other amend- 

 ments of previous statutes not so important. 



The Irish local self-government bill was fore- 

 shadowed by Mr. Balfour in the previous session, 

 when he withdrew the Irish agriculture and indus- 

 tries bill and the Irish poor-law relief bill. His 

 plan for giving the proposed county and district 

 councils control of the rates and local institutions, 

 and at the same time neutralizing the power of 

 these elective bodies to impose undue burdens on 

 the landowners, was at the time accepted in prin- 

 ciple by all Irish members, both Unionists and 

 Nationalists. The bill was carried through with- 

 out serious opposition from either party, except in 

 regard to some details. The poor-law system is 

 modified by the abolition of all official members. 

 In holdings under 4 rental valuation, where the 

 landlord has paid the whole of the poor rate, he will 

 be liable for half which is deducted from the rent. 

 As he has no control over the boards of guardians, it 

 is provided that his liability must not exceed half 

 the rate assessed in 1897 and that the new county 

 councils must limit the expenditure on roads to the 

 average for the preceding three years plus 25 per 

 cent. Ministers of religion are ineligible to the 

 new bodies. The representatives of the landlords 

 were further appeased by a contribution from the 

 imperial treasury in relief of rates. The act con- 

 solidates the poor rate and the county cess into a 

 single tax which is paid by the occupiers. Half the 

 poor rate, which the owner paid previously, and 

 half the county cess, which the tenants bore, are 

 met by a grant out of the imperial exchequer, esti- 

 mated at 730.000 a year. The financial powers 

 previously vested in grand juries are transferred to 

 county councils, elected on the parliamentary fran- 

 chise, with the addition of peers and women. Ur- 

 ban and rural-district councils and boards of guar- 

 dians are elected in the same way. Amendments 

 to the Irish land law were recommended by a com- 

 mission appointed in 1897, which proposed the 

 abolition of the concurrent jurisdiction of county 

 courts in fixing fair rents and the elevation of the 

 sub-commissioners and court valuers to the rank of 

 permanent officials, to be selected from a list ap- 

 proved by some higher and independent authority 

 and subjected to a test as to their qualifications. 

 The uncertainty and instability of the fair rent and 

 the costly process of fixing it periodically the com- 

 missioners would obviate by an automatic method 

 of determining the true value or by converting the 

 landlord's interest into a fixed rent charge. The 

 failure of the potato crop in some of the western 

 districts of Ireland was treated by the Government 

 with such seeming indifference as to draw indignant, 

 reproaches from all sections of the Nationalists and 

 intercessions from Irish Unionists. The Irish Secre- 

 tary, Gerald Balfour, would only agree to supple- 





