TERRITORY. The territorial acquisitions since 1800 have been as follows: Area, sq. miles. 100,058 201,000 228,700 Population. 350,000 130,000 300,000 300,000 100,000,000 In India, besides the Punjaub and Scinde, Hong Kong, in China, has been annexed to British dominion by the sword; a new Gibraltar has been found and fortified in Aden; Rajah Brooke is displaying his adventurous spirit in the new settlement of Sarawak; the vast continent of Australia is fast peopling by the Anglo-Saxon race; and New Zealand, the future Great Britain of the Pacific, is the theatre of experiments in colonization of the greatest interest and promise. Take one fact in proof of the energy which the Australian colonies are displaying; that in 1819 the exports of wool from thence were only 74,284 pounds; whilst in 1849 they had increased to the vast amount of 35,879,000 pounds. SHIPS AND COMMERCE. The following facts are gleaned from official statements : British and Irish produce and manufactures exported for nine months in 1850, amounted to £50,286,402. Foreign and Colonial merchandise, to £13,309,623. Of these, there were exported to the CANALS, RAILROADS AND STEAMERS. In 1800, the length of navigable canals in England and Wales, was 1700 miles. In 1849, it was 2200 miles. Macadamized roads were introduced in 1820, and the first act of Parliament for the construction of a railroad was passed in 1800. Since that time, there have been constructed 6000 miles of railroad, by an expenditure of at least 250 millions sterling, raising an annual income of nearly twelve millions sterling, carrying annually upwards of 60,000,000 passengers, and employing a staff of more than 50,000 well paid officials. Steam navigation is also the work of the present age. The "Comet" first plied on the Clyde in 1811, and in 1848, Great Britain-possessed 1253 steam vessels, of 168,078 tons burthen. The London and West India Docks, the Breakwater at Plymouth, the Thames Tunnel, the Menai suspension bridge, and the two tubular bridges, have also been constructed during the half century. ACCUMULATION OF PROPERTY. The value of real property in Great Britain, according to the Income Tax of 1803, was £967,284,000; in 1842 it was £1,820,000,000. The total amount of incomes derived from trades and professions, deducting in both cases those under £150, was in 1812 £21,247,600; in 1848 £56,990,000. The amount of capital subject to legacy duty was in 1800 £4,122,000; in 1848 £44,348,000. The sums insured against fire in Great Britain were, in 1801, £232,240,000; in 1845 £722,000,000. This increase of property has been shared by all classes. BANKS. The first Savings Bank was established at Tottenham, in Middlesex, by Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, in 1804. The deposits in these institutions in 1848 amounted to no less than £31,743,250, standing in the names of more than a million depositors; and this amount must be regarded as an accumulation of property since 1804, by the humbler classes of the community. A tendency towards an increase of the number of moderate and a comparative diminution in the number of colossal incomes is brought to light by a comparison of the income tax returns of 1812 with those of 1848, thus: The following summary, which has been compiled with great care by a London correspondent of the National Intelligencer, shows the stock of bullion and the circulation of the principal banks in Western Europe, and is interesting at this moment: A very conclusive argument in respect to the improvement of the general social condition of the people of England may be deduced from the increase in the consumption of those articles of necessity or luxury which are used indiscriminately among all classes. We have arranged the principal of the articles in the following table: Let us now compare the prices of a few articles at the beginning and at the end of the last half century: in Nor must the subject of taxation be overlooked in this comparative estimate. In 1800 a population of 15,000,000 paid taxes to the amount of £63,000,000, or £4 4s. per head; 1850 a population of nearly 30,000,000 paid £50,000,000, or £1 13s. 4d. per head. PUBLIC CHARITIES. The past half century is particularly distinguished from its predecessors in the share of public attention and sympathy which the condition of the poorer classes has obtained. The number of metropolitan charities established during the last fifty years is 294; those established between 1700 and 1800 were 109. The grand total of metropolitan charities is 491, exclusive of those in the gift of the several city companies, of Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals, of parochial schools, and Government grants. These 491 charities have an annual income of £1,022,864, exclusive of £741,869, derived from funded property, land, or other permanent securities; making a total income of £1,764,733. In addition to this, the annual subscriptions to Bible and missionary societies amount to very nearly half a million sterling; and between 1800 and 1850, no less than £11,000,000 have been expended by missionary societies alone. Another striking characteristic of the last fifty years, is the inquiries which have been made into the real condition of the people. Wherever there was a rumor of an abuse, a tyranny, or an injustice, a representation was made in Parliament, and an investigation immediately took place. The management of lunatic asylums, the factory system, the employment of children in manufactories, the condition of persons employed in mines, and that of the agricultural laborers, have all been inquired into, and great abuses corrected. There is also much room for congratulation in the improved arrangement of the prisons and workhouses; and it can truly be said that neither crime nor pauperism have increased during the last fifty years, in proportion to the increase of population. The expenditure for the poor of England and Wales in 1801, when the population was below 9,000,000, was £4,017,000, or about 9s. a head; that of 1848, with a population of nearly 17,000,000, was £6,180,000, or 7s. 3d. a head. BILLS OF MORTALITY. The value of life, according to the tables of mortality, has increased during the past fifty years. According to the old registers the annual mortality was, in 1800, one in forty-eight, and in 1830 it was one in fifty-one. Mr. Finlayson makes the mortality in 1805 to have been one in 41.9, in 1840 one in 44.5. The registered deaths show a mortality in 1844 of one in forty-six. In London, according to Mr. Macaulay, the mortality in 1685 was one in twenty-three; it is now one in forty. According to Mr. Farr, the expectation of life in a male, aged twenty, was In 1695 In 1844 Years. 29.34 39.65 40.81 Much, however, remains to be done in London with relation to sanitary matters, particularly as regards sewerage, a plentiful supply of good water, a due ventilation of crowded locations, and regulations against too many persons inhabiting the same apartments. This latter item is evidently in a state of progress. In 1801 the number of individuals to a house was 5.67, in 1841 it had fallen to 5.44; and the census which will be taken this year will, we have no doubt, show a further diminution. ART AND SCIENCE. Previous to the eighteenth century there was only one learned society in London-the Royal Society-chartered in 1662. During the eighteenth century four others were established— the Society of Antiquaries, the Society of Arts, the Medical Society, and the Linnean Society. Between 1800 and 1851 thirty societies for the promotion of different subjects connected with literature, science, and the fine arts, have been incorporated |