Committee tell us, that were railroads constructed between the principal towns in the empire, a million of horses would be rendered superfluous. They further state, that each horse consumes as much food as eight men, and that, consequently, the formation of such railroads would, as a mere matter of course, provide means for supporting eight millions of additional inhabitants. This statement has, we understand, been pretty generally acquiesced in; and certainly, considering these supposed consequences, there is more reason to wonder at the slow than at the rapid progress of railroad projects. Unluckily, however, the statement referred to is in the last degree extravagant. It is, indeed, abundantly certain, that though all the stage and mailcoaches, and all the public vans, &c., in the empire were superseded by steam-coaches, 100,000 horses would not be rendered superfluous. The notion that one horse consumes as much as eight men, is almost too ridiculous to deserve notice. The information we possess respecting manufactures is equally defective. Raw cotton, and raw and thrown silk, being subjected to duties, their annual imports are known with very considerable exactness; but this, inconsiderable as it really is, is about the sum total of all the really accurate information we possess in relation to the manufactures of the British empire. Considering the numberless acts that have been passed in relation to the woollen manufacture, the committees that have repeatedly enquired into and reported on its condition, and the number of tracts and volumes that have been published respecting it, one might have supposed that every thing about it would have been well understood; and that there could not be any room for doubt either as to its value, or the number and condition of the persons engaged in it. But the reverse of all this is the case. We have nothing but vague estimates of the number of sheep in the island, and of the weight of their fleece; while the estimates of the value of the manufacture differ by several millions of pounds, and those of the number of persons dependent on it by hundreds of thousands. There are some circumstances, indeed, connected with the modern history of this manufacture that evince, more strikingly, perhaps, than any thing else, the extraordinary ignorance of statistics that has prevailed in this country, even among those who were otherwise extremely well-informed. In 1800, the woollen manufacturers strenuously objected to some of the provisions in the treaty of Union with Ireland, and were allowed to urge their objections at the bar of the House of Lords, and to produce evidence in their support. Mr Law (afterwards Lord Ellenborough), the Counsel employed by the manufacturers on this occasion, stated, in his address to their lordships, on information communicated to him by his clients, that 600,000 packs of wool were annually produced in England and Wales, worth, at L.11 per pack, L.6,600,000; that the value of the manufactured goods was three times as great, or L.19,800,000; that not less than 1,500,000 persons were directly engaged in the operative branches of the manufacture, and that it collaterally employed about the same number of hands, or three millions in all !* It is astonishing that reasonable men conversant with the manufacture should have put forth such statements, and still more so that they should have got any one to listen to them. There seems, from the elaborate enquiries of Mr Luccock, Mr Hubbard, and others, no reason to conclude that the produce of wool in England and Wales, in 1800, exceeded 400,000 packs; and the notion that three out of the nine millions of people that England then contained were directly and indirectly employed in and dependent on the manufacture, is altogether ridiculous. But the House of Lords saw nothing absurd in the statement, and it was generally acquiesced in.f From 1725 down to 1818, the officers appointed under the stamping acts kept an account of the quantity of broad and narrow cloths stamped in the West Riding of Yorkshire. But the officers were not supposed to have been either very strict or careful in the performance of their duty. Neither do we learn any thing whatever from this account of the real or estimated value of the cloth stamped, or of the numbers or condition of the manufacturers; and even this record, imperfect and almost useless as it is, ceased seventeen years since. Notwithstanding that the supply of the raw material of the cotton manufacture is derived wholly from abroad, and that its quantity is very exactly known, we are quite as much in the dark as to the value of this great branch of manufacturing industry, and the number and state of those dependent on it, as we are with respect to the woollen manufacture. In the second edition of his Commercial Dictionary, Mr M'Culloch gives the following estimate of the value of the cotton manufacture, and of the number of persons and amount of capital employed in it. * Account of the proceedings of the Merchants, Manufacturers, &c. p. 34. † See Middleton's Survey of Middlesex. Second Edition, p. 664. Adolphus' British Empire, vol. iii. 236. Total value of every description of cotton annually manufactured in Great Britain, 18,000,000 Raw material, 240,000,000 lbs. at 7d. .* L.7,000,000 L.34,000,000 3,000,000 of su 6,000,000 34,000,000 The capital may be estimated as follows: L.4,000,000 10,000,000 20,000,000 L.34,000,000 This estimate, which corresponds pretty closely as to the total value of the manufacture with that of Mr Huskisson, seems to have been drawn up with care and attention. It differs, however, very materially from an estimate of the value of the manufacture recently put forth by Mr Kennedy of Manchester, one of the most intelligent and extensive cotton spinners in the empire, and other practical authorities, who state that the entire value of the manufacture does not exceed L.24,760,000. Mr Baines, in his recent and very valuable work on the Cotton Manufacture, after examining and comparing these estimates, adopts that of Mr M'Culloch. (History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 413). We do not pretend to form any very decided opinion as to which of these statements comes nearest the truth. But the fact of such wide discrepancies existing in the conclusions come to by those who have carefully enquired into the subject, shows how very defective the materials must be from which they deduced their results; and how little we really know of the magnitude and value of this great branch of national industry. The accounts of the magnitude and value of the manufac *The cotton manufacture is at present in a state of almost unexampled developement. This is evinced by the following official state ment: tures of silk, linen, &c., are, if possible, still less to be depended on. It is not easy, indeed, to imagine how utterly destitute we are of all trustworthy information on such points. The accounts respecting the foreign trade of the country are less defective; but they leave much to be desired. The rates according to which the official values of our imports and exports are now estimated, were fixed so far back as 1692; but the alteration in the value of almost all articles in the interim has been so very great, that these accounts are good for nothing as an evidence of the value of the imports and exports,-serving merely to indicate their quantities. To supply this deficiency, an account of the real value of the exports, or their value as deduced from the declarations of the exporters, is annually prepared and laid before Parliament; and though it is not altogether to be trusted to, it may notwithstanding be looked upon as sufficiently correct for practical purposes. But the great defect in our commercial returns is the want of any accounts on which dependence may be placed, of the amount of the cross-channel trade between Great Britain and Ireland. The trade between these two grand divisions of the empire was placed in 1825 on the footing of a coasting trade; and corn is now the only article of traffic between the two countries of the import and export of which an account is kept. We are very far, indeed, from impeaching the expediency of the abolition of the vexatious restraints formerly imposed on the intercourse between the two countries, which has certainly been most advantageous to both. Still, however, the want of any accounts of the articles they reciprocally import and export, has been, in a statistical point of view, very pernicious; and has led to many unfounded inferences and conclusions. The condition FOREIGN TRADE of the UNITED KINGDOM in 1832, 1833, and 1834British Produce and Manufactures exported. Year 1832. Year 1833. Year 1834. Year 1832. Year 1833. Year 1834. 37,206 480, 10,133,312 11,266,901 12,675,622 13,782,384 15,302,570 6,726,561 6.279,075 6.802,237 4,722,759 4,701,024 5,111,014 2,785,519 3.589,538 3,850,763 1,774,926 2,167,022 2,443,341 475,165 69 323 553,682 6,556,294 7,788 811 6,511,702 529,990 737,403 637,197 5,211,558 6,294,432 5,736,870 122,121 113,191 90,932 235,307 246,201 238,541 11,151,529 11,390,029 11,763,333 11,261,561 11,315,878 12,079,655 65,026,702 €9,980,339 73,831,550 36,411,521 39,667 317 11,619,191 and circumstances of Ireland are, in very many respects, altogether different from those of Great Britain; and, however it may be explained, the fact is certain, that the one part of the empire has rapidly advanced, while the other has remained stationary, or nearly so. But at present, owing to our want of all accurate knowledge of the quantity or value of the articles passing between them, we are deprived of many of the best and most unerring tests by which to measure the progress and to appreciate the state of each. We know the quantity of tea, sugar, wine, or any other taxed article entered for home consumption in Great Britain; but if we take any two periods, such, for example, as 1830 and 1835, and compare the quantity so entered with the population, to learn whether the consumption be really increasing, we do not get conclusions on which we can rely; because we do not know what may have been the changes in the quantity of such articles exported to Ireland at these different epochs. If we had an account of the cross-channel trade, this source of error would disappear; and we should then be able accurately to measure the variations in the power enjoyed by the people of the two countries to command some of the principal necessaries and enjoyments of life. But so long as the present system continues, there must be more or less of inaccuracy in all our conclusions on this subject; and the degree of weight to which they are entitled must depend on the sagacity with which the influence of this source of error has been appreciated. We incline to think, from statements we have heard made by intelligent customs-officers, that means might be devised for obviating this source of error without any material inconvenience to commerce; and if so, it should certainly be done. But, however defective the public accounts may at present be, we have to congratulate our readers on their not being a great deal worse. The accounts inform us of the respective amounts of the customs, excise, and other duties paid in England, in Scotland, and in Ireland; the value of the trade of each with foreign countries; the ships and their tonnage from foreign parts entering the ports of each, with a variety of other interesting and instructive details. But the government of 1830, in a miserable attempt to save the salaries of some four or five clerks, superseded all those distinctions; and instead of giving us separate accounts for each part of the empire, with a general average for the whole, gave us nothing but the average. Nothing so absurd was ever imagined. It not only, by mixing such discordant elements together in one mass, rendered the accounts unworthy of attention, but it rendered it impossible to compare the revenue, foreign trade, shipping, &c. of England, Scotland, or Ireland, at any time posterior to 1830, |