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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 44, 1 May 1862, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Unproductive Labor of Europe. —Some concct statistics have been collected respecting the number of men employed in the armies ofEurope and it is really almost enough to make one despair of the progress of mankind to find that something like 4,000,000 of men, at the very lowest computation, are under arms, either for the protection or the cutting of throats, as the case may bo. Here is a list:—Array of Austria, 738,314; Prussia, 719,092; Russia, 850,000; France, 626,000 ; Great Britain and India, 533,827; Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, 303,497; total, 3,771,760. The cost of maintaining, clothing, and paying these men, at the low cssimate of £4O per head, is £150,000,000 per annum ; but the loss is not to be measured by this sura, enormous as it is, for wo must also reckon what would be gained were this mass of labor productive, instead of unproductive. The labor of 3,771,760 able-bodied men cannot be calculated as producing less than £120,000,000 per annum, so that virtually, between the cost of their maintenance and what they ought to produce were their labor utilized, there is a difference of something like £300,000,000 a year! We arc quite sure this sum is rather over than under the mark. The worst feature of all this is that we can see no termination to this expenditure. Since the break-down of popular institutions in America, and the out-break of the savage war which the Republicans and Democrats of that dountry arc waging against each other, we may turn in vain for consolation from the old to the New World. —Money Market Heview. A Reverse of Fortune. —During the confinement of the last Earl of Cromartic in the Tower, his nephew, although taking no part in the rebellion, was imprisoned with him, and on his uncle's discharge was permitted to leave with him the Earl and Countess (Earl and Countess no longer now) resolved to reside in London, at least for some t ime, and, as simple Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie, fought earnestly against their misfortunes. Their nephew and his two daughters had also to struggle bravely for daily bread. In the end George 111. restored some portion of the attainted property to the Earl’s daughter, on whose neck was plainly visible the mark of a blood-red axe, ami admitted his nephew into the Charter House; but the Earl’s two great-nieces had to fight the battle of life alone, and obtained a precarious living by making shirts and mending linen for their friends, and taking care of sets of chambers for gentlemen of the law. In Cannon-street there is a bouse that looks out upon a little railcdin graveyard, and there these patient, suffering ladies resided for some time, nobly fulfilling the duties of their fallen station, and dying at length honored and lamented by all who knew them.— Once a Week.