in Asia, in 1874, were about £70,000,000, and the expenditure £68,000,000. In 1876 the revenue was no more, but the ordinary expenditure had risen to £71,000,000. But,

1. Out of eighty-three provinces there are thirteen, including Turkestan, Trans-Caucasia, and Poland, in which the expenditure exceeds the receipts by about £6,500,000. These provinces have to this extent to be paid for by the wealthier provinces, and are a financial weakness.

2. About £12,000,000 are raised by direct taxes, principally by a tax on land, which is in addition to local taxation on land. In the present state of the land, burdened as it is with the expense of emancipation, it would probably be difficult or impossible to increase this item.

3. The Russian customs yield £7,000,000. This item, too, it would be difficult for Russia, especially in the case of a war with England, to raise. With peace, and a revision of her tariff in a freetrade sense, she might no doubt do so.

4. More than £25,000,000 are raised by a tax on alcoholic liquors. This looks as if, bad as we may be in the matter of drink, Russia were no better.

The national receipts of England in the present year are £79,000,000.

The expenditure is £79,000,000, including the terminable annuities and other means for repayment of debt. But,

1. This includes the United Kingdom only. If the national receipts and expenditures of the British colonies and dependencies were included, the above sums would have to be doubled. There is, however, this striking difference between the case of the British dependencies and those of Russia, viz. that generally speaking these dependencies (except mere garrisons, such as Malta and Gibraltar) are not a charge upon the mother country. They pay for themselves, and would probably, in case of war, be a financial help rather than a burden.

(c.) Potential Taxation of England. There is scarcely an item in the present list of British taxes which might not be indefinitely raised, except, perhaps, the tax on spirits and tobacco. An addition of a penny to the income tax produces £1,800,000, and that tax, now at 3d., was at 16d. during the Crimean war, and at 10d. so late as 1860.

The results of recent reductions of taxation are as follows:-
:-

Between 1840 and 1852, i.e. in the free-trade period preceding the Crimean war, the net reduction of taxation was £6,286,000. During the Crimean war period, 1853 to 1858, there was practically no permanent increase of taxation, as the war taxes had been got

In the account from which these and the following figures are taken, the rouble was converted at 2s. 6d.

rid of by 1858, and there was a net reduction of £730,000. Between 1853 and the present time, i.e. during the free-trade period subsequent to the Crimean war, the net reduction has been £25,010,000.

The total net reduction of taxation since 1840 is £32,026,000 per

annum.

In the same period the net revenue from taxes remaining unrepealed has increased from £51,082,000 in 1841, to £68,514,000 in 1877. Adding to the latter sum the reduced or repealed taxes, we have, supposing the repealed taxes to be now re-imposed, a total of potentially increased revenue from taxation amounting to £100,540,000, as compared with £51,082,000 in 1841, without allowing anything for increased productiveness in the repealed taxes.

(d.) Banking Capital. The banking capital of Russia is about £100,000,000. The banking capital of England is about £800,000,000. The so-called banking capital of Russia includes the capital of every species of credit society. In England we should add to the above banking capital the capital of building societies, friendly societies, and insurance companies, to give a proper idea of the loanable capital of this country as compared with that of Russia.

(e.) Borrowing Power. Russia borrows at 6 per cent., whilst England borrows at 31 per cent.

(f) Agricultural Wealth of Russia. The estimated average yield per acre of wheat in Russia is 5.5 bushels, the lowest yield of any country in Europe (see table p. 69 of Agricultural Returns for Great Britain for 1876). The yields of barley, oats, and rye in Russia are equally low. It is to be remembered, too, that agriculture is the chief source of wealth in Russia, whilst England has all sorts of other and more productive industries. In her commercial system, and in the encumbrances and difficulties arising out of serf emancipation, Russia has long and weary steps to take before she can make her agricultural production equal to that of more advanced

countries.

(g) Growth of Wealth in Great Britain during the Century, as shown by the Income Tax Assessments.

The figures for Ireland before 1853 cannot be given, and therefore the above comparison is confined to Great Britain. Some slight deduction has to be made from the above figures for 1875, because Schedules C and E can only be given for the United Kingdom, but the difference is not material.

The aggregate amount of income assessed for the United Kingdom

in 1875 was £571,056,167.

(h.) Savings of the Poor.

The amount of deposits in savings

banks, and average per head of population at the close of the years 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1876, are as follows:

III.-PAUPERISM IN ENGLAND FROM 1801 To 1876.

These figures show, in the first place, what a large increase in pauperism took place during the great French war. They also show clearly that even in total amount the cost of pauperism is now less than it was in 1813, and little more than it was between 1815 and 1833, while the cost per head of the population for the last thirty years has only been half what it was in the previous thirty years. At the same time the number of paupers has undergone considerable diminution since 1841, when we begin to have accurate returns, and probably since the earlier period. The percentage to the population is now 3 per cent. only, instead of 8 per cent. and upwards. The cost per head of the population has much diminished, and it would have no doubt diminished much more but for the greater humanity of the administration. We have far fewer paupers than we had, but we spend far more on each pauper.

IV. CRIME IN ENGLAND FROM 1817 TO 1876.

The following are the numbers of criminal offenders committed for trial and proportion to total population in England in each of the under-mentioned years, with numbers of acquittals and convic

In dealing with criminal statistics it has been usual to take as the best test the numbers of committals for trials for serious crimes. It is of course open to the observation that the definitions of offences and the vigilance of police vary from period to period, and also the legislation as to police offences, so that what were formerly serious offences may have come to be treated by police courts or in some other summary way. It is probable, however, that there have been no changes in the last forty years to alter the inference suggested by the above figures that serious crime is diminishing. We are better policed now than formerly, and it is probable that fewer grave offences escape detection.

The following are the numbers of the different descriptions of Offences for which Committals for Trial have taken place in England in the under-mentioned years:

The general inference from the table is that while all descriptions of serious crime have diminished since 1841, it is the class of offences against property which has diminished most, this class being always one which is greatest in times of adversity, so that its continued diminution seems a sign of the steady prosperity of the country as compared with former periods.

V.-TRADE OF UNITED KINGDOM.

(a.) Foreign Trade of United Kingdom at different dates:

(b.) The Internal Trade of the United Kingdom is very much larger, probably six times as large as the Foreign Exports. But of the internal trade we have no good general statistics. Some notion of its increase may, however, be formed from the growth of certain items.

For instance, in the chief Textile Manufactures of the United Kingdom-cotton, woollen, worsted, silk, flax, jute—the following are the numbers of factories and persons employed in different years:

1835.

1850.

1861.

1874.

No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of
Factories. Persons. Factories. Persons. Factories. Persons. Factories. Persons.

3,792 380,748 4,600 596,082 6,304 770,440 6,524 968,965

Besides an increase of persons employed, it is notorious that the work has become more efficient, of which the evidence is partly the number of spindles, where, however, we cannot go back before 1835, and partly the quantity of raw material consumed. Thus the quantity of raw cotton consumed was 116 millions of pounds in 1817, 333 millions in 1835, 657 millions in 1849, and 1,416 millions in 1871. The quantity of wool consumed was 103 millions of pounds in 1800, 210 millions in 1849, and 392 millions in 1876.

Again, the increase of Mineral Production has been as follows:

(1) The figures for the whole trade imports and exports cannot be given before 1854.