28 Original Articles. [Jan., 



thousand tons. On the average throughout the year, nearly fifty 

 vessels left a British port every hour, each carrying one hundred and 

 forty-five tons. 



The total length of railway open for traffic in the United Kingdom 

 at the end of the year just mentioned, was upwards of eleven thousand 

 five hundred miles, at a cost of very nearly three hundred and eighty- 

 five and a quarter millions sterling. 



In the same year the post-offices of the United Kingdom delivered 

 six hundred and five millions four hundred and seventy-one thousand 

 letters, seventy-three million newspapers, and fourteen million book 

 parcels. Had the letters been placed in ordinary envelopes — about 

 four inches and three-quarters in length — these placed end to end, 

 would form a straight line nearly forty-five thousand four hundred 

 miles in length. Assuming each person on the post-office staff to be 

 an adult male and the head of a family of five persons, the entire esta- 

 blishment represents a population larger than that of Herefordshire, 

 larger than the joint population of Huntingdon and Westmoreland, 

 and nearly six times that of Rutland. 



The wealth which our manufacturing and commercial activity 

 brings us, is seen in the luxuries in which we indulge. 



If the tobacco consumed in the United Kingdom in 1862 had been 

 made into cigars and packed in one-pound boxes of the ordinary 

 dimensions, they would have formed a wall, one box thick, twenty-four 

 boxes or ten feet three inches high, and over two hundred and fifteen 

 miles long ; that is, more than the length of the railroad from Padding- 

 ton to Newton Bushel in Devonshire. It is frequently said, " that 

 few men smoke a dry pipe," and the following figures will show that 

 the saying appears to rest on a basis of fact. We paid duty for home 

 consumption in 1862, on upwards of three hundred and seventy-three 

 millions of gallons of wines, British and foreign spirits, and malt 

 liquors ; in other words, our alcoholic beverages for one year — exclu- 

 sive of cider, perry, home-brewed beer, British wines, and smuggled 

 goods — would fill a canal three feet deep, six feet wide, and six hun- 

 dred and forty miles long; that is, forty miles in excess of the 

 distance from the Land's End to John O'Groats ! 



The commercial activity, and the consequent wealth of Great 

 Britain are portions of history, and must be regarded as such, even if 

 they were isolated facts ; but it cannot be forgotten, that the occupa- 

 tions of a people affect their mental development, and, consequently, 

 their institutions ; the artisan is, without doubt, more intelligent than 

 the farm labourer ; whatever, therefore, stimulates the manufactures 

 of a nation tends to render the working classes more intellectual and 

 more important socially and politically, and thus to foster the growth 

 of popular institutions. 



Now, though it is certain that some of our waste lands may be 

 reclaimed, and possible, perhaps, that additions may be made in other 

 ways to our cultivated acreage, it is highly improbable that the growth 

 of area can keep pace with the growth of popidation ; there is a limit 

 perhaps to each, but that of the former will certainly be reached long 

 before we approximate that of the latter. The population of England 



