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1835, with an annexed column of corrections to | which may still be regarded as the annual average.

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600,000

70,000

600,000

80,000

280,000

225,000 [200,000] 160,000

[150,000]

135,000

130,000

80,000

[10,000]

75,000
30,000

Hartz mountains,

Belgium,

Elba and Italy,.

Sardinia,
Piedmont,

Spain.

Norway,

Denmark,

Bavaria,.

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28,000
22,000

18,000

13,000 15,000 10,000

8,000
4,000

13,433,000 2,850,000
2,672,000 tons.

The tin exported from the United kingdom in 1830, amounted to 30,425 cwt. British tin, and 10,426 cwt. foreign tin. The tin imported during the same year amounted to 15,539 cwt., of which 10,217 cwt. was from Singapore alone. In 1843, the importation was 1,559 tons; the exportation, 1,819 tons. The imports of tin in 1848 amounted to 298 tons; the exports to 1,797 tons British, and 417 tons foreign tin.

Coal.] It is estimated that a capital of £10,000,000 is employed within Great B. in the working of coalmines and exportation of coals. The declared value of the exports of coals during the year 1848 amounted to £1,096,356, being an increase of upwards of 13 per cent. upon the exports of 1847. The declared values of coal-exports for 1834 were £220,746; 1835, £244,898; 1836, £332,861; 1837, £431,555; 1838, £485,950; 1839, £542,699; 1840, £576,519; 1841, £675,287; 1842, £734,000; 1843, £690,424; 1844, £672,056; 1845, £973,635; 1846, £971,174; 1847, £968,502; 1848, £1,096,356. The ad valorem duty Thus Great B. produces above one-half the whole of 10s. per cent. on the export of coals was repealed quantity, France about a fifth, Russia, Sweden, Aus- in 1842, and the duty of 2s. per ton by British and tria, and Prussia, each about a twentieth. The total reciprocity-qualified vessels, and 4s. per ton by unproduce must be about 3,000,000 tons. The follow-qualified vessels, was abrogated in 1845. ing is a comparison of the produce of some of the European, English, and French iron-districts. It may be premised that South Wales alone produces about as much as all France put together; and Staffordshire, Scotland, and Shropshire, each surpasses any other European country ::

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Tons.

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EUROPE.

Tons.
France, 600,000
Russia, 150,000
Sweden, 120,000

Austria, 100,000

Prussia, 100,000

South Wales, 550,000
Staffordshire, 400,000
Scotland, 200,000
Shropshire, 150,000
York, &c.,
86,000
Total tons, 1,386,000
383,000
1,070,000
The exports of the different sorts of iron amounted,
in 1839, to about 120,000 tons, which, at £10 a-ton,
would be worth £1,200,000. In 1844 we exported
458,745 tons of iron and steel wrought and un-
wrought, of which the declared value was £3,193,363.
In 1846, the export of iron and steel, wrought and
unwrought, amounted to 433,325 tons, of the de-
clared value of £4,178,026. In 1767, the export of
iron amounted to only 11,000 tons. The increase of
our own iron-manufacture has kept our imports of
foreign iron nearly stationary, being about 34,000
tons in 1805; 24,483 tons in 1844; and 34,633 tons
in 1846.

According to the census of 1841, the number of persons then employed in mines of all descriptions in Great Britain was 193,825, of which 118,233 were in coal, and 10,449 in iron mines. But as the miners of iron and coal easily exchange occupations, and in 1841 the iron trade was much depressed, and the coal trade in full activity, perhaps the number in the latter rather exceeded the average. They might now, however, safely be taken at 130,000, and as representing a population of half a million.

The value of hardware and cutlery exported from Great Britain, was, in the year 1819, £1,316,703; in 1822, £1,334,895; in 1829, £1,389,514; in 1836, £2,271,313, of which the United States took £1,318,411; in 1844, £2,179,087; in 1846, £2,180,587. The East and West Indies, the North American colonies, and the United States, are our principal markets for iron and steel.

Tin.] The tin-mines of Cornwall and Devon, from 1720 to 1740, produced about 2,100 tons annually. In 1822, their produce was 18,732 blocks, or 3,137 tous; in 1826, 4,406 tons; and in 1829, 4,290 tons,

Fisheries.] Our fisheries have always been considered of great national importance. Barrow estimated the entire annual produce of the foreign and domestic fisheries of Great Britain at £8,300,000. This is perhaps an over-estimate. Macculloch doubts whether it can be reckoned so high as even £4,000,000. The coast and river fisheries yield a profit, after deducting all expenses, of at least £1,500,000.

Spirits.] In the year ended on the 5th of January 1846, the proof spirits distilled in the United kingdom amounted to 23,682,715 gallons; of which 5,866,593 gallons were distilled in England, 9,418,663 gallons in Scotland, and 8,397,459 gallons in Ireland. Of the total quantity distilled in the United kingdom, 6,781,346 gallons were distilled from malt only, and 16,901,369 gallons from a mixture of malt with unmalted grain. The quantities on which the duty was paid in the same year for home-consumption were respectively, England, 9,076,381 gallons, the duty on which was 7s. 10d., amounting to £3,554,915 17s. 10d.; Scotland, 6,441,011 gallons, the duty on which was 3s. 8d. per gallon, amounting to £1,180,852 0s. 4d.; Ireland, 7,605,196 gallons, the duty on which was 2s. 8d., amounting to £1,014,026 2s. 8d.,-making 23,122,588 gallons, and the total amount of duty in the year, £5,749,794 Os. 10d. In the same year, 2,106,842 gallons were imported into England from Scotland, and 1,102,946 gallons from Ireland into England; the duty paid on the former was £825,179 15s. 8d., and on the latter £431,987 3s. 8d. From Scotland into Ireland the importation amounted to 7,637,480 gallons, and 136,243 gallons from Ireland into Scotland; the duty on the former was £101,838 17s. 8d., and on the latter £24,977 17s. 8d. In 1801, when the pop. of the United kingdom was 15,506,794, the quantity of spirits consumed was 8,800,840 gallons: this, however, was much under the average annual consumption of the time. In 1800 it had been 11,991,501; and in 1802 it was 15,596,370 gallons. In 1841, when the pop. was 26,715,920, the annual consumption of spirits had risen to 24,106,407 gallons. In 1845 it was 26,672,477. In England, with a pop. of 15,911,725, the consumption of 1841 was 11,511,907 gallons. In Scotland, with a pop. of 2,628,957, it was 6,078,719 gallons. In Ireland, with a pop. of 8,175,238, it was 6,515,781 gallons. In 1845, the proportional quantities of the three classes of spirits consumed in the United kingdom were-British, 23,122,588; Colonial.

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2,469,135; Foreign, 1,080,754 gallons. In 1800, the proportions were British, 6,960,984; Colonial, 3,049,590; Foreign, 1,980,927 gallons. The total amount of malt on which duty was paid in the United kingdom, in 1826, was 32,468,778 bushels; of which 27,335,971 in England; 2,726,555 in Scotland; and 2,446,252 in Ireland. In 1846, the total was 41,979,000 bushels of which 35,653,000 in England; 4,586,000 in Scotland; and 1,740,000 in Ireland. The total amount of duty in 1826 was £4,177,277; in 1846 it was £5,665,200.

Comparative view of the Manufacturing and the Agricultural interest.] The following calculations, showing the relative importance, in a national point of view, of the manufacturing and agricultural population of Great B., are founded upon data supplied by the income-tax returns. The total estimated value of all kinds of property upon which the tax was levied, in 1843, amounted to £190,606,353; and the amount of the tax at 7d. in the pound returned upon this capital was £5,384,124. The items composing the returns are as follows:-Schedule A, land in England and Wales, £32,655,137: amount of tax received from this source, £975,002. Houses, wharfs, factories, docks, shipping. &c., £41,063,292: produced £1,175,412. Schedule B, tenant farmers, £28,486,606; upon which the tax returned was £298,763. Schedule C, public-funds, £27,873,691£812,983. Schedule D, trade-profits, £50,296,645— £1,466,985. Schedule E, public-offices, £8,936,831 -£260,657. Scotland, in all its schedules, £9,284,383 -£394,324. Now, if the three items, land in EngLand and Wales, land in Scotland, and tenant-farmers, be added together, the total assessed property under these heads will be £57,728,270; and the total amount of the tax derived from land on the agricultural interest will be £1,511,632: thus leaving the total income-tax derived from property not connected with agriculture £3,873,092, or considerably more than double the revenue contributed by the landed interest, the total value of whose assessed property, if the two items of land and tenant-farmers are added together, will be £53,141,743. Now, the total value of the manufactures exported in 1843 was £52,279,709, or very nearly equal (in the proportion of 524 to 534) to the whole value of land. But the value of B. manufactures exported is but small when compared with that of the home-consumption, which, according to Sir Robert Peel, it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible, even to approximate. A guess, however, may be hazarded: estimating the pop. of Great B. at 20,000,000, and supposing that each individual lays out in the course of the year only £3 upon clothes and other manufactured articles, the amount of capital thus advanced would be £60,000,000. The return of the profits in trade is believed by the income-tax collectors generally to be very much under the true amount; many of them think that, taking the average of the whole, only one-fifth part is returned; but taking the amount of the return at what the majority of these officials would consider a fair average, namely, one-third of the whole, we may set down the profits in trade at the sum of £150,889,935, and this exclusive of profits under £150 per annum. And setting down the value of the property in schedule A, namely, houses, wharfs, docks, shipping, &c., as also very much below the truth, say one-half that item, would amount to £82,126,594. The other items, namely, public-funds and public-offices, are capable of being correctly ascertained. The total estimated value of the capital invested in agriculture in Great Britain upon these data is, as was before stated, £53,141,743; while the total value of the capital in the possession of the manufacturing and commercial portion of the com

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munity, it may be inferred, amounts to the comparatively enormous sum of £245,296,238!

Statistics of Agriculture.]-Next in importance to our commerce and manufactures, in the economical history of the British empire, and in one sense the foundation of both these branches of national wealth, must be ranked the resources developed by the cultivation of the soil. In the respective articles appropriated in our pages to ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, and IRELAND, pretty full accounts will be found of the agricultural industry of each country: in this place we shall attempt to exhibit in a very condensed form the general statistics of agriculture within the geographical boundaries of Great B. and Ireland. Macculloch estimates the total annual value of crops raised in England and Wales at £72,900,000; and the total annual value of the pasture-land and stock at £59,500,000: making a total for England and Wales of £132,400,000, exclusive of the annual produce of timber. The total value of the produce of the land in Scotland, the same authority estimates at £20,455,375; and that of Ireland at £44,500,000: making the aggregate annual value of the agricultural produce of the United kingdom, £197,455,375, exclusive of wood. This is greatly below the estimate of Macqueen, whose details we subjoin :—

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purpose of demonstrating the superior importance of the agricultural over the manufacturing interests of the kingdom. It is sufficiently obvious that, on like principles of computation, the amount of capital invested in the commerce and manufactures of the United kingdom might be carried to an enormous amount beyond the ordinary approximations to their aggregate value.

Means of internal communication] The extraordinary development of trade and commerce in Great Britain has been at once fostered by and has led to the construction of a system of internal communication by roads, canals, and railroads, superior to any yet existing in other parts of the world.

Roads.] The roads or track-ways of the ancient Britons were a single line of stones laid down from one town to another; and, although our ancestors used war-chariots and other wheeled carriages, yet they did not level the soil or cut out the earth, but contented themselves with a single line of stones, more as an indication of the route than as a channel upon which their chariots might be driven. These ancient British track-ways are yet very perfect upon Dartmoor, and in many parts of the kingdom: they have been confounded with the Roman road, but their origin is more ancient. The Roman roads ran nearly in direct lines, and were made as level as this direction would permit; they were formed high in the centre and sloping to the sides; the bed was composed of layers of sand, gravel, and cement, and the crest was paved with large stones 40 Roman feet wide, with paths on each side. They ran in grand trunklines from E to W, and from N to S, with branches to the principal stations. The Watling-street ran from Dover through London to Chester; the Ernin-street from London through York to Edinburgh, with a branch-line passing the wall of Severus to Carlisle; the Foss-way commencing at Camelodunum, on the N coast of Devon, through Bath, to the Ermin-street near Lincoln; and the Iknield-way from the S coast of Dorsetshire to Norwich. Thus the island was intersected with trunk-lines of road. These roads were used by the Saxons, Danes, and Normans; and little improvement was made by them on the public highways of the country. In the reign of Philip and Mary, a statute was passed, the preamble of which states "that the roads are tedious and noisome to travel upon," and enacts that the inhabitants of the parishes should each work four days during the year upon the public highways. This act originated the "statute labour." James I. and Charles I. issued proclamations for the regulation of the roads; but it was not until the restoration of Charles II. that any improvement took place. Before this time, passengers and goods were conveyed upon the backs of horses; but the rapid increase of wheeled carriages compelled an amendment of the old system. By the 16th of Charles II., cap. 11, passed in the year 1683, the system of turnpike-trusts was introduced, and a money-payment upon the principal roads substituted for the yearly contribution of labour and horses. Very little advance, however, was made on our turnpike system until after the defeat of the Pretender; when the great difficulty Government found in the transportation of men and stores to Scotland, induced them, in 1748, to improve the roads. Since that time the system has been gradually extended, so that from the year 1750 to 1839, nearly 4,200 turnpike-acts had been passed: and 23,787 m. of road made, divided into 1,231 trusts, having upon them 4,900 toll-gates; while the revenue derived for keeping the roads in repair amounted to £1,500,000.

Canals.] While the outline of the coasts of the United kingdom, and the number and variety of bays and arms of the sea which they present, are admirably adapted to develop the naval power, and foster the commercial enterprise of the country, its great internal water-courses were insufficient for the wants of an active internal trade and convenience of transit; but the idea of forming canals to the various centres of manufacture was not broached until 1720, when an act was obtained which proved the commencement of the great Leeds and Liverpool canal. Between 1737 and 1761 the great Bridgewater canal was executed at an expense of £220,000, which was wholly defrayed by the duke whose name it bears, and now yields a revenue, it is supposed, of £150,000 to his successors. The Louth canal, between the Humber and the Ludd, was the next enterprise of this class. The magnificent Trent and Mersey canal, 93 m. in length, was planned by the duke of Bridgewater's great engineer, Brindley. It cost £334,000. The Forth and Clyde canal, 35 m. in length, and by which craft drawing 10 ft. water can navigate from the German ocean to the Irish sea, was first suggested in the reign of Charles II.; but was not completed till 1790, at a cost of £519,840. The Coventry canal, finished in 1790, forms with the Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Oxford canals, a canal line of 170 m. in length, exclusive of branches. The Oxford canal, extending from the Coventry canal at Longford to the Thames at Oxford, and 80 m. in length, was begun in 1769; and in the same year the Chesterfield canal, 46 m. in length, was projected by Brindley, who also designed and executed the Ellesmere and Chester canal, 61 m. in length, and the Thames and Severn canal, 30 m. in length. These works were followed by the execution of the Basingstoke canal, 40 m. in length; the Erewash, 12 m.; the Cromford, 18 m.; the Bradford, 3 m.; the Dudley, 13 m.; the Market-Weighton, 11 m.; and the Andover, 22 m. Between 1790 and 1795, no less than 43 canals were planned,

amongst which were the Grand Junction canal, 90 m. in length, extending from Braunston on the Oxford canal, to the Thames at Brentford; and the Kennet and Avon canal, which runs from the Avon at Bath, to the Kennet at Newburn, and is 57 m. in length. The Grand Western canal, 35 m. in length, running from the Exe at Taunton; the Aberdeenshire canal; the Caledonian canal; the Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Grand Surrey, the Macclesfield, and the Grand Union canals, were among the enter prises of the present century.-In Ireland, the Grand canal, which with its branches has an aggregate extent of 654 m., passes from Dublin to the river Shannon at Shannon harbour, 794 m. from Dublin; and the Royal canal runs near the Grand canal to Mullingar, and thence NW to the Shannon at Richmond harbour, 92 m. from Dublin. The navigation of the Barrow and the Boyne have been greatly aided by artificial works; and the Newry navigation, 21 m. in length, the Lagan navigation, 61 m., and the Ulster canal, are all important works in the system of internal communication, which have been developed under government-auspices in the sister-island.

Railways] It does not appear that any satisfactory notice of what may fairly be considered a railway is to be found before the 17th cent., in the early half of which, wooden rail, tram, or waggon ways were introduced in the collieries of the north of England. They were adopted in order to reduce the labour of drawing coals from the pits to the places of shipment in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and they consisted simply of pieces of wood imbedded in the ordinary road, in such a manner as to form wheel-tracks for the carts or waggons. The vehicles used were generally waggons, carrying from two to three tons of coal, and mounted upon small wheels. It became usual, at least as early as 1716, to nail thin pieces of malleable iron upon the surface of the wooden rails, wherever a steep ascent or a sharp curve rendered the draught harder than usual. The wooden railway continued in use for a century and a half without any important step being taken for the introduction of a more durable material: some stone-ways were constructed for similar purposes, but, though possessing many advantages, they are not so smooth as those of wood. The next material improvement was the use of cast-iron plates upon the wooden rails. The first edge-railway of any considerable extent was completed in 1801, for the conveyance of slate from the quarries of Lord Penrhyn; a few years afterwards this form of railway was extensively adopted by the coal-owners of Northumberland and Durham. The introduction of malleable iron as a material for rails may perhaps be considered to have done more than any other improvement in preparing railroads for becoming the principal highways of a commercial country; for much inconvenience was caused by the frequent breakage of the rails, especially those of the tram-plate forin. Bars of maileable iron were laid down as rails, to a limited extent, in or before 1808; but no machinery was then used by which they could be economically made in any other than a square or flat form. These and all similar contrivances, however, were superseded, in 1820, by Mr. Birkenshaw's invention of an efficient and cheap method of rolling iron bars suitable for rails and other purposes.

Locomotives and Trains.] High-pressure engines were one of the earliest forms of the steam-engine. Newcomen, in 1705, applied the working-beam, cylinders, and piston, to the atmospheric engine; and Leopold, in 1721, combined the working-beam and cylinder with the high-pressure principle, and produced the earliest high-pressure engine worked by a cylinder and piston. James Watt reconstructed, and it may almost be said re-invented, the steam-engine. In 1803, Messrs. Trevethick and Vivian constructed the first non-condensing engine to be applied to a machine for moving carriages on railroads; and the experiment was successfully tried upon the Merthyr Tydvil tramroad in 1811. In 1814, Mr. Stephenson built an engine at Killingsworth, which was a great advance in the manufacture From that period until the year 1830-although the locomotive was much improved-yet the great object of the engineers was to construct their engines so as to draw heavy goods at the rate of four or five miles per hour; but the competition for a premium of £500 offered by the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester railroad, produced the Rocket of Mr. Robert Stevenson, which was propelled at the rate of 29 m. an hour; and from this time a new era in the construction of locomotive-engines has commenced. The engines generally are upon the high-pressure principle. They run upon four or six wheels, and weigh about 12 tons; and with a tender carrying fuel, and weighing about 5 tons, cost £1,700, and their annual repairs about £800. Their consumption of coke is 600 lbs. per hour; and they will carry upon a level line from 100 to 240 tons 12 m. per hour, with a steam pressure of 50 lbs. to the square inch. The use of stationary engines is generally confined to those parts of a railway which are too steep to be conveniently worked by locomotives; but even in such cases the use of powerful locomotives is becoming very general. The trains attached to locomotives or fixed engines, and drawn by them, generally consist of 1st, 2d, and 3d class coaches for passengers, wheeled pens for cattle, carriages, &c., and waggons for heavy goods. These are linked together either by jointed bars of iron, disunited when necessary by the removal of a pin, or by chains, occasionally united by a peculiar kind of screw which draws the carriages so close that contact is produced between their buffers, which are elastic spring fenders for preventing sudden shocks amongst them while they are liable to come into mutual contact. In some carriages the same springs serve both

Scottish lines.] The leading Scottish railway lines are the Caledonian, 104 m. in length to Glasgow, and 100 m. to Edinburgh; the Edinburgh and Glasgow line, 47 m. in length, and connected by the Scottish Central line, 45 m. long, with Perth; the Dundee, Perth, and Aberdeen line, 92 m. in length; the Glas gow and Ayr line, 40 m. in length, with a continuation of 21 m. to Muirkirk; and the North British line from Edinburgh to Berwick, 58 m. in length, with a branch to Hawick.

for traction and buffing; and spiral or heliacal springs are not unfrequently applied to the purpose. The ordinary first-class carriages are in general elegantly and luxuriously fitted up with cushions; and adapted for the conveyance of 18 passengers, in a treble carriage body, with six seats in each compartment. The secondclass carriages, of similar make, but inferior in elegance and comfort, carry 24 passengers. Those on the Great Western railway, which are mostly on six wheels, are much larger-some of the second-class vehicles seating 72 persons. The pens and waggons for goods and cattle, trucks for the conveyance of stage-coaches and private carriages, and horse-boxes, as well as the passenger-and Western line from Dublin to Limerick and Cork, 164 m. carriages, are all mounted on springs, but their buffing apparatus is often very simple and inelastic. The weight of the ordinary passenger-coach, when empty, is from 3 to 5 tons.

Irish lines.] The railway lines at present open in Ireland are the Dublin and Drogheda, 31 m. in length; the Great Southern

in length; the Belfast and Ballymena, 33 m.; and a section of the Midland Great Western line from Dublin to Mullingar, 50 m. By the opening of the Chester and Holyhead line, in connection with the Chester and Crewe branch of the London and NorthWestern railway systems, the mails are now conveyed between London and Dublin in about 12 hours.

Communication with the Continent.] The railway system in France having extended itself to the northern coast. a line of railway communication has been opened between Paris and London, which approximates these two great capitals to a journey of only 11 hours' duration in distance from each other. Arrangements are now [1849] making for securing the general acceleration of intercourse between London and the leading cities in Europe, by means of two daily express trains from London-bridge to Folkestone, where passengers, as is the case at Holyhead, almost without pausing, will step out of the train into the steamboat, cross the Channel in 1 hour, and then, by a convois à grande vitesse, or express, on the Great Northern of France, proceed from Calais on to Paris, Brussels, and other places by similarly corresponding expresses. The time occupied en route to the respective places will be nearly as follows, by express: From London to Folkestone, 83 m., 24 hours; from Folkestone to Boulogne, 26 m., 2 hours; from Boulogne to Paris, 170 m., 6 hours; or a total from London to Paris, 281 m, in 11 hours; from Paris to Brussels, 231 m., in 11 hours; from Paris to the Rhine, 529 m., in 43 hours; from Paris to Leipsic, 757 m., in 67 hours; from Paris to Warsaw, 1,263 m., in 114 hours. This vast commercial arrangement will work greater revolutions than forests of bristling steel, and will, as we lately heard the Belgian minister eloquently express it, carry upon wings of fire, peace and good will to all nations. [Railway Record.]

Eristing railways.] The railways actually completed from 1823, in which year the Stockton and Darlington was opened, to the end of 1844, comprised altogether sixty-four lines, of an aggregate length of 2,069 m.; and were constructed at an actual cost of £64,238,600, being an average of £31,048 per m. At the commencement of the year 1848, 3,816 m. of railway were open for traffic in the United kingdom. The total length of line opened up to the end of 1849 was 5,996 m.; viz. 4,656 m. in England, 846 m. in Scotland, and 494 m. in Ireland. "It appears that on the 80th of June, 1849, 1,504 m. of railway were in course of construction, and 5,132 m. of authorized line had not been commenced, since which time up to the end of the year 576 m. have been opened for public traffic. It also appears that the number of miles in course of construction on the 1st of May, 1848, was 2,958, as compared with 1,504 returned on the 30th of June, 1849, as being in progress, and since in the same period only about 1,100 m. were completed and opened for public traffic, it follows that, according to these returns, all work has ceased on about 350 m. of lines which were returned as being in progress in 1848, and which for the present may be considered as abandoned or postponed until more prosperous times. It is, therefore, to be inferred that no great length of new line has been commenced since last year, and that probably only about 1,000 m. out of the 6,030 m. which still remained to be opened at the end of 1849 were in progress of construction at that time." [Commissioners' report.] The capital expended on railways, the traffic returns of which are published every week, amounted in July, 1842, to £52,380,000; in 1843, to £57,635,000; in 1844, to £63,489,000; in 1845, to £71,648,000; in 1846, to £83,165,000; in 1847, to £109,528,000; in 1848, to £148,200,000; and in July, 1849, to £181,000,000. The gross traffic returns per cent. on the capital expended amounted, in 1842, to 8-29 per cent; in 1843, to 8 42; in 1844, to 8-84; in 1845, to 9-30; in 1846, to 9-25; in 1847, to 8:20; in 1848, to 6'78; and in 1849, to 6 13 per cent. The expenditure on the new and old lines, the traffic returns of which are not published weekly, amounts to about £16,000,000; that is, £9,000,000 on the former, and £7,000,000 on the latter, making, with the £181,000,000, a total of £197,000,000 expended on 5,950 m. of railway, being an average cost of £33,110 per m. The gross receipts from all the railways in 1849 amounted to £11,806,000, from which, if the working expenses be deducted at the rate of 43 per cent., there remains a net available profit of about £6,729,420 to remunerate the holders of property to the amount of £197,500,000, or at the rate of 3:40 per cent. In consequence of the larger rate of in-preme authority existed in England, different and terest, 44 per cent., borne by the sums raised on loans, this more than 3 per cent. on the aggregate of all the railways in the kingdom at the present rate of dividend. This, however, may be expected to improve from several causes; amongst others, improvements in machinery, and consequent reduction in working expenses, and the regular and gradual increase of

average rate of interest to shareholders cannot be stated at

traffic.

English lines.] The leading systems of railway communication which have been established in England are as follows:

L The Great North-Western artery, which extends for 308

m. in a direct line from London to Carlisle, and connects Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, and the manufacturing districts of Lancashire, with the metropolis; while it is carried northwards to Edinburgh and Glasgow by the Caledonian line,

which it joins at Carlisle.

II. The Great Midland and North-Eastern system, which commences at Berwick, passes Newcastle, York, and Derby, and

runs into the Great North-Western artery at Rugby, 220 m. from Berwick. This line is prolonged into Scotland, by the North British line.

IIL The Great Western system, from London to Bath, Bristol. Exeter, and Plymouth, 2464 m. in a continued line. IV. The great transverse system, formed by the Liverpool and Manchester, Manchester and Leeds, Leeds and Selby, and Hull and Selby railways, connecting the two leading ports of the E and W coast, by a line of communication 132 m. in length, and passing through the heart of the great manufacturing districts of V. The South-Western system, from London to Southampton and Dorchester, 141 m., with branches to Portsmouth and Salis

Lancashire and Yorkshire.

bary.

VI. The South-Eastern system, consisting of the Dover and Brighton railways, which diverge from a common trunk a little to the south of Croydon. The Dover line is 88 m. in length, and sends off a branch to Canterbury and Margate. The Brighton

line, with its continuation to Portsmouth, is 95 m. in length.

VII The Eastern counties system, connecting the metropolis with Cambridge, Norwich, and Yarmouth, 146 m. in length.

Constitution.] The present constitution of the British legislature is not older than the 13th cent. Before that time the supreme government both of England and Scotland was in an exceedingly unsettled state; and notwithstanding the frequent struggles between the king and the people, the prerogatives of the former have never been completely and precisely defined. The lords' committee, in their inquiry into the constitution of the supreme legislature of Great B., assert that at all times a su

distinct from prerogative. "Their view of the vari-
ous documents to which they have had recourse, has
tended to convince them, that, whatever may have
happened in practice, the prince on the throne was
at no time considered as constitutionally above the
law; and that, to use the language of an eminent
writer, Sir John Fortescue, chief justice of the king's
chancellor when an exile in France, the government
bench in the reign of Henry VI., and afterwards his
of the king of England was not simply regal but poli-
tical; and that the maxim, quod principi placeret,
legis habet vigorem, was never a general maxim of
the constitutional law of England. But though such
was probably in early, as well as in later times, the
theory of the constitution of the English govern-
ment, in practice," their lordships add, "the exer-
tions of power by the Crown often went beyond
their legal bounds; and there did not always exist
that ready and constant control which now keeps
the constitutional system in its true order. That
control has been principally produced, and made
effectual, by the necessary expenses of the State,
which gradually exceeded, and at length vastly ex-
ceeded, the hereditary revenue of the Crown; so
that the government of the country could not be
carried on by the king, without frequent, and, lat-
terly, without constant recourse to the authority of
the legislature to provide the necessary supply."

Crown are: to make war or peace; to conclude trea-
The constitutional prerogatives of the British

|

a-year, or oftener if need be." Henry VIII. and his successors prolonged their parliaments at pleasure. That monarch_had one that lasted nearly five years and a half; Edward VI. one of four years five months; Elizabeth one of nearly eight years; James I. one of nearly similar duration. The "Long parliament" commenced in the succeeding reign, viz., of Charles I., and dissolved by Cromwell, lasted upwards of twelve years; and one of the parliaments of Charles II. extended to the great length of nearly seventeen years. But in the same reign an act was passed "for the assembling and holding of parliaments once in three years at least." This was afterwards repealed, and again renewed; but in the 1st of George I. it was enacted that the existing parliaSince then the duration of parliament has been nominally septennial, but the practical duration has generally been much shorter, in consequence of changes of administration and the demise of the Crown. Upon the death of the reigning sovereign a new parliament must always be summoned after a prescribed time.

ties of commerce, and even of subsidy; to levy soldiers in times of urgency; to impress seamen; and, on extraordinary occasions, to command all subjects to arm themselves for the general defence. He has the entire command of the fleets and armies, and the uncontrolled management of all forts and places of strength, magazines, harbours, and ammunition; he can assemble, adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve the parliament, and can cause its meetings to be held whenever he sees proper; no act of parliament is valid till it has received the royal assent; the Crown has the nomination of all the superior, and of many of the inferior clergy; appoints all magistrates, counsellors, officers of state, and officers of the fleet and army; is supreme in matters of religion, as well as in civil matters; and by the same fiction of lawment should continue for seven years and no longer. which invests him with the supreme legislative and judicial authority, the king is the supreme executive magistrate. To use a common phrase, the king cannot do wrong, the law taking cognizance of his deeds only in the persons of his ministers. The power of peace and war indeed would make him master of the prosperity or misfortune of his country, were not this branch of the prerogative rather imaginary than real: for although the king may declare war, yet money is necessary to conduct it with success; and the granting supplies rests entirely with the house-of-commons, which thus exerts an effective control over every department of the gov

ernment.

The succession is hereditary, but limited to Protestant princes of the royal family; or, in other words, "the Crown, by common law and constitutional custom, is hereditary, and this in a manner peculiar to itself: but the right of inheritance may, from time to time, be changed or limited by parliament: under which limitations the Crown still continues hereditary." Females may succeed as well as males.

House of Peers. The house-of-peers consists of
the peers of England, 16 representatives of the peers
of Scotland, and 32 representatives of the peers of
Ireland. The peers cannot be arrested, except for
crimes of the highest kind, such as treason, felony,
and some others. They can be tried only by their
peers, who return their verdict, not upon their oath,
but upon their honour. A peer may vote in parlia-
ment by a proxy, a privilege denied to the commons;
and may enter a protest against any measure with
which he is dissatisfied. The present constitution of
the house-of-peers is as follows:
Princes of the blood royal,
Dukes,
Marquesses,
Earls,
Viscounts,
Barons,

Peers of Scotland (elected each parliament),
Peers of Ireland (elected for life),
English archbishops and bishops,

Irish representative archbishops and bishops,

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20

21

115

22

199

16

28

26

454 members.

Parliament.] The antiquity of parliaments is great; but their precise origin in different countries-and among others in England-has been much debated, owing perhaps to the different acceptations in which the word parliament has been taken. Almost no European kingdom has ever been governed without the aid of a council to direct the sovereign: if, therefore, this supreme council be called a parliament, whatever may have been its form, most nations have had parliaments. If, on the other hand, by parlia-knights chosen by the counties, citizens chosen by

ment is understood a supreme council in every respect resembling that of Great B., as it is at present constituted, it may safely be asserted that few nations have long enjoyed parliaments. Restricting the meaning of the word parliament to the latter sense, antiquarians have not been able to agree concerning the period when parliaments were first introduced into B.; some arguing that the commons formed part of the national council under the free Saxon institutions; others affirming that the first direct evidence of commoners having formed part of the national council occurs during the reign of Henry III. Parliament is the great council of the British monarch, and grand inquest of the nation. It can be summoned by the king only, by writs issued out of chancery, by the advice of the privy council; and must be summoned at least 40 days before it is to meet. The duration of parliament was formerly three years; but, professedly to prevent the ill consequences of frequent elections, its duration has been extended to seven years. It does not exactly appear whether, in the original constitution of parliament, any definite period was fixed for its duration. It seems to have been left entirely to the will of the Crown until the 4th of Edward III., when it was enacted that "parliament should be holden once

House-of-Commons.] The reformed house-of-commons consists of 500 members for England and Wales, 53 for Scotland, and 105 for Ireland, being in all 658 members. These members consist of

cities, and burgesses by boroughs. It is not exactly
known, at this distance of time, who had originally
the right of voting for knights of the shire; but by
the reform act the elective franchise in counties is
extended to leaseholders, and copyholders, in addi-
tion to forty-shilling freeholders. The total number
of registered electors, in 1846, was as follows:
Counties. Cities and boroughs.
475,036

England,

Wales,
Scotland,

Totals,

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37,340

48,953

561,329

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The appellation of freeholder is restricted to tenants in chief of the Crown. The commons as well as the lords possess peculiar privileges. They enjoy freedom of speech, and cannot be questioned out of the house for anything said within it. Not only their own persons, but those of their servants, are exempted from arrest in civil causes, while on their journey to parliament, during their attendance there, and on their return from it. The house-ofcommons has the power of impeaching any of the king's ministers, and of directing them to be tried by the peers. It also claims the sole privilege of granting money; and consequently every money-bill

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