BELGIAN TELEGRAPHIC LINES. 



291. It appears from this statement that about 40 per cent, of 

 the despatches transmitted and received in Belgium, are inter- 

 changed with foreign countries, and that one-third of all that 

 passes on Belgian wires is matter passing en route between 

 foreign places. Nearly half the gross amount received for 

 telegraphic despatches is produced by despatches transmitted 

 between foreign stations, and only passing en route through 

 Belgium. This is explained by the fact that such despatches 

 passing always from frontier to frontier, and in the majority of 

 cases from Ostend to the Prussian frontier, the entire length of 

 the kingdom, pay for the longest class of telegraphic distance. 

 This is one of the advantages which the Belgian telegraph derives 

 from the geographical position of the country. 



292. To show the proportion in which the telegraphic service is 

 shared by different subjects of correspondence, we shall take the 

 classified subjects of dispatches of August, 1853, the month in 

 which the correspondence was most active. In this month there 

 were 5799 despatches transmitted on the Belgian wires, which are 

 thus classified: 



In relation to length the proportion was as follows :- 



135 



