branch in France, considered to be the first agricultural country in Europe. The value of the produce of Mines and Minerals, in the United Kingdom, is 21,400,000l. The produce and profits of the numerous classes engaged in Inland Trade, amount to the large sum of 48,425,000l. And of those important branches to all maritime nations, the Coasting Trade and the Fisheries, the former yields. 3,550,000l., and the latter 3,400,000l. The annual gains of all those engaged in Shipping and Foreign Trade, amount to 34,398,0591. The profits of Bankers may be stated at 4,500,000l.; and the income derived from property invested in foreign securities, including the sum annually remitted from India, is estimated at 4,500,000l. Lastly, the capital, labour, and machinery employed in all the numerous and extensive branches of Manufactures, annually raise produce valued at the enormous sum of 148,050,000%.!

Thus, the grand result of the combination of the prodigious capital above stated, with all animate and inanimate power, is the annual creation of produce and property to the amount of 514,823,0597.!!

Such are the astonishing effects of the wealth, talent, industry, and intelligence concentrated in this extraordinary country: such is the immense capital, and such are the amazing productive powers of this little isle--this "precious stone set in the silver sea", as the poet calls it. But even his portentous imagination was far from conceiving the power which "that little world"-" that fortress built by nature' -would one day reach: he could not even have fancied that thousands of tons of goods would be conveyed with a speed greater than that of the messenger pigeons of Aleppo and Antwerp: he could not have imagined, that, by the combined aid of steam and capital, the productive powers of each of that " happy breed of men" would be rendered equal to the simple exertions of several hundred individuals!

From all this may be easily concluded how imperfect have been the statements of those who have calculated the productive powers of Great Britain, and compared them with those of France and other countries: this important inquiry and comparison is reserved for another opportunity; while sufficient facts and data are here stated to give the mind of the reader more just and correct ideas of the real productive powers and capital of this country; a country, however, only to be considered as the mighty heart, which diffuses strength and vigour throughout all the limbs of that gigantic body, the British Empire; while they, by a strong and reciprocal motion, return and increase its vitality, action, and power.

In the parts more immediately connected with England, and in all her dependencies in Europe, there is supposed to exist a capital of 27,115,0947.; and the produce annually raised, is valued at 2,146,1987. 'The seven important North American possessions, as may be seen by the Table, have a capital of 62,100,4667.; and raise annually produce and property worth 17,620,6291.

The West India Colonies, with a capital of 131,052,4247., raise every year produce valued at 22,496,6721.

The whole British capital in Africa amounts to only 6,444,3987.; and these settlements, unproductive like the country itself, yield an annual produce of only 1,066,0651.

To compensate for this, there is in the two fertile islands in the Indian Ocean, a capital of 27,509,7817.; and the value of the produce annually raised is 4,291,3327.

While the new, but rapidly improving settlements in Australia already possess a capital of 2,685,000l.; and raise produce amounting to 520,000l.

It is almost impossible to obtain sufficient data and facts, on which to make a sound calculation of the immense and diversified productions raised in the vast territories of British India; peopled by such numerous races, all differing from ourselves in habits, religion, customs, and manner of living. However, by the help of a multitude of official documents, and such statistical information as could be collected from the numerous works relating to that region, the total capital of the British Empire in India has been estimated at 1,611,077,354l. ; and the produce and property annually raised, at 313,200,000l.

Thus, the total aggregate capital existing in all the extent of the British Empire in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia, will amount to 5,547,484,5171.; and the aggregate value of all produce and property annually raised and created by the combination of that capital, with all animate and inanimate power, to 876,175,7551.; the total population to 116,969,978; and the total extent of territory to 4,457,598 square miles; with a superior navy of 27,000 men, and a regular standing army of 96,419 men in Europe, and 223,461 men in India.' pp. 472–476.

A Statistical Table is annexed, from which we take the following calculations.

In the above enumeration, neither the kingdom of Hanover nor the Ionian Republic is included. The latter is, to all intents

* These are distinguished in the Table.

and purposes, a dependency of Great Britain, although it is in form an independent State, under the protection of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, his heirs and successors.' The population is estimated at 208,100 inhabitants. That of the Kingdom of Hanover is about a million and a half. The population of the West Indies is underrated, as is that of the North American Colonies and Australia. India also, including the dependent and tributary States, contains more nearly 120 than 90 millions. We have elsewhere set down the total aggregate in round numbers at 150,000,000, which we believe to be within the truth. The estimate of the superficial extent of the British empire, which is the same as Balbi's, makes it considerably larger than the Chinese empire, two thirds the extent of the Russian, and almost three times as vast as that of Imperial Rome, which it very far exceeds in populousness. In point of substantial wealth and moral supremacy, the British dominion leaves the boasted empires of antiquity immeasureably behind.

One of the most striking features of the general Statistical Table, is the comparative view it exhibits of the imports and exports, and of the estimated value of the produce annually raised. in Great Britain and her respective colonies. We shall merely give those of the East and West Indies.

Thus, it would seem, that while the annual produce of the East Indies is fourteen times that of the West Indies, this country imports only two thirds as much in value from her Indian possessions, that she does from her sugar colonies in the Western hemisphere. If this circumstance may be thought, on the one hand, to prove the importance of the West India trade, it shews at the same time, how much the prosperity of India has been sacrificed to it. Upon the subject of opening the trade to India entirely, Mr. Pebrer has the following remarks.

Would these beneficial results' (those which have followed the partial opening of the trade to British subjects in 1813) continue their progress, if the trade was quite opened to the British nation? -Ought the British to be allowed to settle, buy lands, employ their capital, and act as the subjects of other nations do, in India? Upon the decision of these questions depends the happiness or misfortune, the prosperity or distress, of millions of British European and Indian subjects. It cannot be denied, even by the party who think "that

this measure would be productive of more mischief than good," that the application of British capital, activity, and industry, to Indian agriculture, deficient as it is in every respect, but especially in means, would produce the most wonderful results. The cultivation of sugar, coffee, tobacco, and above all, cotton, might be increased ad infinitum. All men conversant with the manners and feelings of the natives of India agree as to their willing disposition, and the absence of all jealousy towards the Europeans, on these points: all parties allow, that the soil of India, its extent, variety of climate, and fertility, are eminently adapted to the cultivation of these productions. Now, after reflecting how often the production and supply of particular articles has, in a short period, passed from one nation to another, after remembering how the present of a few Merino sheep, injudiciously made by the King of Spain to the King of Saxony, threw Spanish wool out of the English market,—and considering how the cultivation of cotton passed from the Spanish colonies to the North Americans, and how the Spanish American indigo was superseded by its immense production in India, and this by a very limited number of industrious British individuals, and in a very short space of time,-one is really at a loss to see why the same results should not ensue with regard to sugar and coffee, and particularly, why tobacco and cotton, which are of easier cultivation, and require less skill than indigo, could not be brought to supersede the two staple exports of North America ; thereby saving five millions a year, which we now pay for the last article alone, and imposing, at the same time, a good check upon American tariffs. One cannot but think, that England would derive great advantages by opening her trade to India, and encouraging the investment of capital there; besides increasing the agriculture, industry, commerce, and above all, the shipping, of her own subjects.'

pp. 443, 444.

After exposing the mistaken and narrow policy, as well as gross mismanagement of the fiscal administration, which have prevented the greater advancement of India in wealth and prosperity, by impairing the very sources of production, the Author concludes the Section with expressing his regret, that, for the 'sake of the general commerce and intercourse of nations, and 'the happiness of mankind, England does not direct a part of 'her force, a part of her immense power in India, towards China.'

For the first mercantile nation to suffer one of the best parts of the world, with a territory of 1,372,410 square miles, and a population of 155,000,000, to be almost hermetically closed against the rest; to endure daily insults from an infamous despotical government, one of whose maxims is to despise foreigners and trade, and which does not possess a shade of power capable of facing the mighty combined naval and military superiority of the British, is certainly quite unpardonable and unwarrantable, and utterly unworthy of the British nation.' p. 453.

But let us now look back to the origin and progress of this immense commercial empire. In the reign of William the Conqueror, the public revenue of England was about 400,000. In the reigns of his successors, it sank as low as 100,000. Henry VII. raised it again to 400,000l.; and his son, by means sufficiently notorious, doubled it. In the reign of Charles I., it had risen to nearly 900,000l. In that of James II., it was upwards of two millions. At the accession of George I., it was 6,762,6437. In 1760, when George III., acceded to the throne, it was 15,372,9717. During his reign, it was raised by the extreme pressure of taxation as high as 77 millions; and the total expenditure in the same year (1816), including the sinking fund of 13,500,000l., reached the enormous amount of 130,305,9581. In 1794, the total expenditure was under 23,000,000l. In some recent years, the excise has produced more than all the revenue of France; the customs, in the last year, yielded more than the united revenues of Russia and Holland; the stamps, only a million less than all the public income of Prussia; and the land and assessed taxes, a sum equal to the income of Spain! From such humble beginnings has the public revenue of this country been augmented to its present oppressive magnitude. The first 'grant in money, amounting to 50,000l., was voted by Parliament for the expedition of Poictiers; while for those (contests) which ' ended at Waterloo, above 700 millions were granted!" And how granted? By drafts upon Posterity and Co., to that amount; in other words, by the creation of the National Debt.

The amount of a public revenue derived from taxation, is a criterion of national wealth, so far as that taxation indicates the extent of its foreign commerce and the consumption of articles of luxury, and provided that it does not press upon the springs of industry. But, pushed to excess, it obviously becomes a symptom of distress, instead of a sign of wealth. No other country in the world could have sustained the burdens which the lavish expenditure occasioned by impolitic and destructive wars have entailed upon Great Britain; and the amount of taxation indicates, therefore, the extraordinary resources of the nation, and the astonishing elasticity of public credit. But, although its Government's being able to raise so much larger a revenue than that of any other country, is a proof of the national wealth, that wealth would obviously be greater, if the taxation were reduced, and the public revenue lessened by one half.

The average revenue produced by taxation in the three years ending in 1832, was about 54 millions; of which 28 millions (nearly one half) are applied to the interest of the debt. The expenditure required by the standing military and naval force, ist about 15 millions; for courts of justice, &c., less than one million; civil government and diplomacy, under 2 millions; bounties,