ANNALS OF BRITISH LEGISLATION: BEING A CLASSIFIED AND ANALYSED SUMMARY OF PUBLIC BILLS, STATUTES, PAPERS GENERALLY, OF THE HOUSES OF LORDS AND COMMONS. EDITED BY LEONE LEVI, F.S.A., F.S.S., &c. &c., OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, PROFESSOR OF THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF COMMERCE AT KING'S COLLEGE, "LONDON ; Dedicated by special permission to H. B. H. the Prince Consort. SMITH, ELDER & CO., 65, CORNHILL. PREFACE. THE rapid progress of Britain in her internal resources and external relations is clearly exhibited in the documents inserted under each Series of the present volume of the ANNALS. Wherever we turn our attention, there we find marks of advance and improvement. The commerce of the United Kingdom, as detailed in the "Annual Statement," now amounts to the goodly sum of 300,000,000l. per annum, being double the amount of the trade of France, and three times as much as the commerce of the United States of America. The "Statistical Abstract" is itself a miniature exhibition of the unparalleled increase of the country in population, agriculture, finance, &c.; and it is in the Reports of the Commissioners of Customs and of Inland Revenue that we find the best evidences of the economical condition of the people, by the productiveness of the taxes, and by the ease with which such taxes are collected. Much as has been written on the National Debt, the document inserted, containing the most authentic facts relating to the early formation of this enormous burden, and the exact sums the National Debt has attained at the commencement and end of the great European wars, cannot fail to be valued. Under this first Series, "Finance, Commerce, and Agriculture," there will be found also the Report of the Decimal Coinage Commissioners, remarkable for the elaborate draft report prepared by Lord Overstone, with a review of all the arguments in favour |