September 5, 1884.] 



SCIENCE 



215 



at home and abroad, the militia, and volunteers in 

 the United Kingdom, and in the colonies, the British 

 native forces in India, and other countries. This 

 includes 10,000 Egyptian troops under a British gen- 

 eral, but excludes the forces of the native states of 

 India, and of the other countries politically connected 

 with the empire. If, however, the forces of the na- 

 tive states of India were to be added (and they are 

 generally available for imperial purposes), then the 

 total of 850,000 would be raised to nearly 1,000,000. 

 Thus the men under arms, or effectively trained to 

 arms, are in number more than 750,000, and, under 

 the last-named computation, would amount to nearly 

 1,000,000. The defensive armaments of the empire, 

 by sea and land, cost £41,000,000 sterling annually, 

 or twenty per cent of the total of revenue and re- 

 ceipts. The police for the empire numbers 560,000. 

 Thus we have, for the whole empire, an average of 

 one policeman to every 571 of the people, and to 

 every sixteen square miles. 



It is never to be forgotten, that one of the main 

 reasons why the British empire is able to keep its 

 land-forces at a comparatively low scale is its prepon- 

 derance at sea. The predominance which we hope 

 to find in the British navy will hardly be shown by 

 the enumeration of ships. With this caution, how- 

 ever, it may be stated that there are 246 British 

 war-vessels afloat, or in commission; of which 72 are 

 sailing-ships, and 174 have steam-power. There 

 are now 63 iron-clads, either complete or nearly com- 

 plete. The number of officers and men amounts to 

 57,000. The number of iron-clads ready for action 

 at the shortest notice is now 44, of which 25 are at 

 sea. 



The mercantile marine has nearly half of the steam 

 tonnage, of the carrying power of the port of entries, 

 and of the freight earnings of all the nations togeth- 

 er, and two-thirds of the ship-building. The total 

 trade of the British empire cannot be easily exhib- 

 ited statistically. However, if the aliquot parts of 

 the trade of the principal nations be computed, then 

 34 per cent, or one- third of the world's commerce, 

 pertains to the British empire. 



The manufactures of the United kingdom are 

 valued at £818,000,000 sterling annually. In general 

 terms, it may be stated, that British manufactures 

 form one-third of those for all Europe put together. 

 The great competitor is of course the United States, 

 where the value appears to exceed that of the United 

 Kingdom. The American manufactures are indeed 

 wonderful, not only in their present magnitude, but 

 in the rapidity of their progress, and in the prospect 

 of their extension. 



It follows from these facts, that the wealth of the 

 United Kingdom in land, cattle, railways and public 

 works, houses and furniture, merchandise, bullion, 

 shipping, and sundries, valued at £8,720,000,000 ster- 

 ling, exceeds that of any European state, and is just 

 double that of Russia. But it is exceeded by the cor- 

 responding figure for the United States, namely, 

 £9,495,000,000 sterling. The £8,720,000,000 of Brit- 

 ish wealth represent a sum seven times the annual 

 income, namely, £1,247,000,000, which seems to be a 



f£ ; r calculation. According to this, the British people 

 earn 14 per cent on their capital, which rate is about 

 the same as that of the United States. It exceeds 

 the corresponding ratio on the continent of Europe. 

 But it is considerably surpassed by the ratios in Can- 

 ada and Australia, — 18 and 22 per cent respectively. 



The construction of public works is a test of na- 

 tional progress. Those works which may here be 

 selected for mention are railways, electric telegraphs, 

 and canals. It is calculated that 46 per cent of the 

 railway traffic of the world is done by the railways of 

 the British Empire: the distances run, however, are 

 less than on the continent of Europe or in the United 

 States. The electric telegraph does six times as much 

 in the old country as in the new. 



The total public debt, governmental and munici- 

 pal, for the British Empire, reaches a total of £1,312,- 

 000,000 sterling. 



He concluded this statistical summary by adverting 

 to a group of subjects into which moral considerations 

 largely enter; namely, thrift and education. 



The decrease of crime and pauperism is satisfactory 

 in the United Kingdom; while pauperism hardly ex- 

 ists in the other dominions of the empire, and the 

 charitable funds raised in the United Kingdom are 

 enormous. The number of patients in the hospitals, 

 though large, is not remarkable relatively to the size 

 of the empire. 



Respecting education, there are 5,250,000 pupils at 

 schools in the United Kingdom, 860,000 in Canada, 

 611,000 in Australia, and 2,200,000 in India, making 

 up a total of 8,921,000 pupils in the British Empire. 

 The fact is, that in India, although education has 

 made a remarkable progress within the last genera- 

 tion, yet the lee-way to be made up was enormous, 

 owing to the neglect of many centuries; and many 

 children of a school-going age still remain out of 

 school. But the comparison attains special interest 

 when made with the United States, where a truly 

 noble progress is exhibited, and where the number of 

 pupils reaches to 10,000,000, the annual expenditure 

 being £17,000,000 sterling. Thus the extraordinary 

 fact remains, that in respect of educational statistics 

 the United States are numerically in advance of even, 

 the British Empire. 



The religious missions to non-Christian nationali- 

 ties constitute a bright feature in the British Empire. 

 The statistics of the Roman Catholic missions are 

 not fully known, but their operations are very con- 

 siderable. The income of the various Protestant 

 missionary societies is hardly less than £750,000 ster- 

 ling annually, and the number of European ordained 

 missionaries maintained by them is about 900. 



ON THE RELATION OF MECHANICAL 

 SCIENCE TO OTHER SCIENCES. 1 



There are those who object that section G- deals 

 too little with pure science, too much with its applica- 



1 Abstract of an address to the mechanical science section of 

 the British association at Montreal, Aug. 28, 1S84, by Sir F. J. 

 Bramwell, F.R.S., V.P.Inst.C.E., president of the section. 



