ENGLAND'S PROGRESS IN TEN YEARS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 112, 12 May 1881, Page 4

ENGLAND'S PROGRESS IN TEN YEARS.

The following remarks, which appear in the Nottingham Journal of September 3, 1880, have a special interest et «be present time, when so many are loudly proc'aiming that the trade of England is rapidly diminishing : —

Nations . should not only take a decennial census of population, but also draw up a balauce-.-beet every fen years of what progress they may have made in industry, wealth, commerce, instruction, and morality. We bave ody to compare the returns, of the Board of Trade for 1879 80 with those of ten years ago to see the advancement of the Uoitfd Kingdom as follows : — Increase — population, 11 per cent ; revenue, 8 per cent ; public wealth, 30 per eeot ; commerce, 13 per cent ; shipping, 16 per cent ; textile manufacture, 29 ppr cent ; minerals, 45 per cen» ; "t-.ilway traffic, 45 per ceDt ; post oflloe, 45 per cent ; schools, 122 per cunt ; public morality, 13 per cent; welfare of poor, 19 per cent. Population has not grown so fast as in previous decade?, but the ratio of increase ie still much higher than the* European average. It was 13 per cent in England and 10 in Scotland, while Ireland showed a decline of 1 per cent., owin» to emigration The total number ol British emigrants was 1,654,000, from which, deducting those who returned, the balance or net loss would be 875,000, and if these were added to th* actual population the increase wouli reach 14 per cent. Revenue on taxation ia lighter now than it wss ten years ago, lha average for last year being 43s per inhabitant. In tbe same interval the national debt bas been reduced by £24 00O.OCO. Public wealth is pretty accurately measured by the ine.nmo tax valuation, which is now £134,000,000 higher than in 1869, an increase of £4 per inhabitant ; even in Ireland the » atio is higher by £2 per head. It greens that the average income varies in the three kingdoms as follows : — £l9 in England, £15 in Scotland, £7 in Ireland, acd £17 for the whole United Kingdom. The accumulation of wealth among the working classep, bb repreeene! by deposits in savings banks, has rioen from £51,000,000 to £76 000 000, being almost 50 per cent. Compared with population, the savings deposited sinoe 1869 have been 18s per inhabitant in England, the same in Scotland, end 4s in Ireland. It is, furthermore, -worthy of observation that tbe deposits in the Bank of England reached £37,500,000 in 1879, against £22.000,000 in 1869, tbe increase being relatively almost double as great as in the savings banke.

Commerce has likewise grown faster than population, showing last year a ration of £17 18s 3d per inhabitant against £17 4a 6J io 1869. MaDy people erroneously suppose thst it is only our imports that increase, while our exports decline. Suffice it to say tbat tfee exports of 1879 were £12,0C0, 000 over tboße of 1869, being an increase of 5 per cent. Our merchant shipping (not including colonial) has risen 860,000 tonp, but (he eff-ctive carrying power is almost doubled, owing to the enormous development of steam traflie. In 1869 steamers were 17 per cent of our shipping, (ha present ratio being 38 per cent ; and, if we count them 88 four times the power of sailing vessels, we find our carrying power is now 14,000,000 tons as against 8,500, 000 tons ten years ago. If we include colonial, the total British tonnage would be equivalent to 10,500,000 tons, the total for all netionß being a little over 40,000 000. Manufactures, minerale, and railway returns show at a glance the progress of internal industry. Our mills in 1879 consumed 1,615.000, 000 pounds of cotton and wool against 1,248,000,000 in 1869, an increase ot 29 per cent ; while our mining industry rose 45 per cent, the value cf coal, irou, etc., extracted last year amounting: to £64,000,000, againßt £44,000,C00 in 1869. By a remarkable coincidence our railway traffic has grown in the same ratio as minerals, the gross earnings having risen from £41,100,000 to £59,400.000. Another coincidence is the Post Office increase, also 45 per cent, viz., 847 000,000 le««fts in 1869, and 1,339,000,000 last

year. All the above ifems bliow material progresp, and if we turn to the indications of moral improvement we flnd the figures no lees satisfactory. Tbe number of criminals convicted in tbe three kingdoms has declined from 13,340 to 12,525— a fall of 13 per cent— and ii may therefore be said that public morality has advanced in the same degree. School statistics show that the average attendance in Great Britain hos risen from 1,333,000 to 2,980,000 children, the increaLe being eleven times greater than that of population. Finally, we tray gauge the condition of the poor by tbe number of paupers relieved; and as this has fallen from 1,281,000 to 1,037,000, it follows that there is an improvement equal to 19 per cent. Tbere is but one branch of national wealth or industry that shows a decline, namely, agriculture, tbe area under corn and green crops haviog fallen in ten yean from 17,096,000 to 15,650,000 •cres, a decline of 8 per cent for tbe United Kingdom, although the figures for Ireland show that tbe falling off in that country was as much ss 16 per cent. It may be questioned, however, whether tbe rural products of tbe United Kingdom have at all declined in the last ten years, seeing tbe increase in the number of cattle, viz., 8 per cent io cows, 12 per cent in horses, 5 per cent in pigs, the only set-off being a lois of 6 per cent in sheep. Even in Ireland (counting ten sheep for one bead of cattle) we find the farming Block increased 8 per cent. Thus tbe growth of pastoral interests has probably compensated the loss in tillage. Summing up the condition pf the United Kingdom at present, as compared with ten years ago, we have every reason to be proud of the pro. gress we have made. It we had only increaee in wealth, manufactures, commerce, and public instruction in tbe lame ratio as tbe number of inhabitants — ncmely, 11 per cent— we should prompt to the wprld a very favorable

balance bopp t of our effairu in the post decade. But it is manifest that we bave grown in ptosperity much more tban in population, and tbat tvery Bvreoediog decade, in spite of en occasional crisis or reverse, sees Great Britain richer, wiser, and happier, thanks to

the industry i?nd civio virtues of her people.