No. 2. 



Statistics of Great Britain. 



67 



On Ploughs and Ploughing. — John 

 George, John Hunter, Isaac W. Roberts, 

 Aaron Johnson, John L. Williams. 



On Butler. — Joseph Head, Dr. W. Gib- 

 son, John Stiirdivant. 



On Poultry. — Dr. Elwyn, Dr. Emerson, 

 P. Physic k. 



A. Clement, Rec. Sec'ry. 



Statistics of Great Britain. 



From Mr. Laing's Prize Essay.and other authentic 

 sources. 



The united annual income of the people 

 of Great Britain, is estimated from £290,000, 

 000 to £310,000,000. The national debt on 

 the 1st of January, 1843, was £795,000,00( •, 

 so that a little more than two years and a 

 half income would pay it off. 



There have been seventy rail-roads con- 

 structed in Great Britain, at an expense of 

 £60,000,000, and extending- over a surface 

 of nearly two thousand miles. On these 

 rail-roads, 25,000,000 of passengers were 

 conveyed in 1843, at an average expense of 

 about one penny and three-quarters — not 

 quite four cents — per mile, and with only 

 one fatal accident to a passenger. These 

 railroads pay on an average five per cent, 

 interest on the capital employed ; the aver- 

 age cost of construction has been about £34, 

 360 per mile. During the present session 

 of Parliament, sixty-six additional rail-roads 

 have been petitioned for, of which about forty, 

 it is thought, will pass. There are in Great 

 Britain, one hundred and eighty navigable 

 canals, the aggregate length of which is 

 2,682 miles, which have cost upwards of 

 £30,000,000. The London and Birmingham 

 Rail-way gives constant employment to near 

 two thousand persons. It is not generally 

 known that the first rail-way for the con- 

 veyance of passengers, was opened in 1821, 

 between Badweis and Linz, in Bohemia. 

 Notwithstanding the immense traffic on rail- 

 ways m Great Britain, the revenue on the 

 turnpike road trusts increased from £1,431, 

 609 in 1834, when, excepting the Liverpool 

 and Manchester, there was scarcely a pas- 

 senger line in operation, to $1,532,956 in 

 1839, when most of the principal rail-ways 

 had been opened, being an increase of about 

 seven per cent. ; and what is more remark- 

 able is, that the greatest increase was in the 

 counties most intersected by rail-ways. 



The number of inhabited houses in Great 

 Britain in 1841, was 3,464,007, nearly dou- 

 ble what it was in 1801, and tliere were in 

 1841, more than 30,000 additional houses 

 building. The increase of houses was, from 

 1831 to 1841, two per cent, greater than the 



increase of population, and this not only 

 through tlie country generally, but also in 

 large manufacturing towns, such as Leeds 

 and Manchester ; Liverpool was one of the 

 few exceptions to this gratifying result. 



The amount of British products and manu- 

 factures annually exported was, in 1830, 

 £35,000,000; in" 1844, £50,000,000. 



In 1843, there were consumed 35,127,000 

 pounds of tea; 22,779,000 pounds of tobacco; 

 3,825,000 cwts. of sugar; and 39,614,000 

 bushels of malt. 



Mr. Laing states the quantity of British 

 spirits which was consumed in 1843, to have 

 been 3-5,190,000 gallons; but this must be 

 an error, for the entire am.ount of British 

 spirits that paid duty for home consumption 

 in 1841, was, according to the Parliamentary 

 papers, only 14,268,453 gallons ; this could 

 not have increased one hundred and fifty , 

 per cent, in two years. There is also an 

 error with respect to the wine consumed, 

 which Mr. Laing states at 7,000,000 of gal- 

 lons. In 1841, it w^as 5,-582,385 gallons, 

 and Mr, Porter states that the consumption 

 of wine does not increase with the popula- 

 tion, and the quantity of port wine consumed 

 in England in 1842, was 324,660 gallons less 

 than in 1841, or about forty per cent. The 

 Sherry and Spanish wines fell off 64,000 

 gallons, and the Colonial and Cape wines 

 about nine per cent. The total decrease in 

 all imported wines was 42-5,812 gallons. 

 Supposing the stock on hand to have been 

 the same in 1841 and 1842, it would make 

 the consumption of 1842 to have been 5,1-56, 

 573 gallons. This could not have increased 

 to 7,000,000 in 1843. 



The consumption of malt liquors of all 

 kinils in 1841, was, in the United Kingdom, 

 665,750,000 gallons, or about 25J gallons 

 per head. But although the British are 

 called, and undoubtedly are, " a beer-loving 

 people," they are outdone in this respect by 

 the Belgians, who are represented by one 

 account as consuming 37^ gallons per head 

 annually, and by Mr. McGregor, whose sta- 

 tistical returns may be relied upon, the 

 quantity consumed by each person in Bel- 

 gium, is stated at 511 gallons. 



The quantity of soap consumed in Great 

 Britain in 1841, was 170,280,641 pounds. 

 Tiiere..were 344 licenced makers of soap, 

 and more than one million cwts. of tallow 

 were imported into England for its manufac- 

 ture and that of candles. 



In 1841, the coffee imported into Great 

 Britain was 70,250,000 pounds, being nearly 

 double what it was in 1838; of this amount 

 there was 27,298,322 pounds consumed in 

 Great Britain, or nearly one and a half 

 pounds by each individual. Here again the 



