THE BRITISH COLONIES. 213 



West Indies, Ceylon and Malta. There are militia corps 

 in several of our settlements ; those of our North Ameri- 

 can colonies compose 339,139 men. * * * 



* * * The shipping registered as sailing vessels in the 

 British colonies in North America, Australia, Africa and 

 the West Indies, amounts to half a million tons, and the 

 steam vessels to sixteen thousand tons. The British ship- 

 ping cleared out of the ports of the United Kingdom, for 

 the British possessions alone, in 1847, amounted to more 

 than 2,000,000 tons. 



* * * Of 7,000,000 cwt. of sugar imported, our colonies 

 furnish 5,500,000. They send us also 35,000,000 lbs. of 

 coffee, 4,000,000 lbs. of cocoa, 7,000 gallons of rum, 

 1,000,000 lbs. of cinnamon, 13,000,000 lbs. pepper, 

 2,000,000 galls, of vegetable oils, 8,000,000 lbs. of indi- 

 go, 40,000,000 lbs. of wool, (sheep) 100,000,000 lbs. of 

 cotton wool, 1,000,000 lbs. of silk, 1,000,000 cwt. of rice, 

 1,000,000 loads of timber, also corn, provisions, flax, hemp, 

 hides, skins, saltpetre, gums, drugs, dyes, metals, &c, all 

 capable of indefinite increase. In fish alone, Newfound- 

 land has contributed to the empire to the value of about 

 £200,000,000, a richer wealth than the South American 

 mines yielded to Spain. 



The exports of manufactured articles from the United 

 Kingdom, to the colonies, nearly equals our whole exports 

 of similar articles to every part of the globe. Mr. D'Israeli 



