Commerce. The imports in 1893 were of the total value of £405,067,690; the exports of British produce, £218,496,246; exports of foreign and colonial produce, £58,935,595. The total volume of trade was £682,499,531, against £715,434.048 in 1892, when the imports amounted to £423,892,178, the domestic exports to £227,077,053, and the foreign and colonial exports to £64,563,113. The imports of gold bullion and specie in 1893 were £24,232,086; exports, £19,571,373; imports of silver, £11,913,395; exports, £13,459,645. The imports of the various classes of merchandise in 1892 and 1893 were of the following values: IMPORTS. Animals, living, for food though in France, Italy, Russia, Germany, and Railroads. The length of railroads open to traffic at the end of 1892 was 20.325 miles, showing an increase of 126 miles during the year. There were 14,242 miles in England and Wales, 3,188 miles in Scotland, and 2,895 miles in Ireland. The paid-up capital was £944,357,320; receipts in 1892, £82,092.040, of which £42,866,498 was from goods and £35.662,816 from passengers; working expenses, £45,717.965, being 56 per cent. of the gross receipts. The number of passengers, exclusive of holders of season tickets, was 864.435.388. Of the total capital investment, £777.138.895 was in English, £128,716,165 in Scotch, and £38,502,260 in Irish railways. There were 960 miles of street and road tramways in 1893, with a paid-up capital of £13,708,349. Posts and Telegraphs.-The post office in 1893 delivered 1,790.250,000 letters, 244.400.000 post cards, 535,200,000 book packets, 162,100,000 newspapers, and 52,300,000 parcels. The number of inland money orders was 8,963,032, of the amount of £24,618,809; total money orders, 10,442,918, of the amount of £28,683,951; total postal orders, 56,590,668, of the amount of £21,345,153. On March 31, 1893, there were 34,056 miles of telegraphs, with 209,046 miles of wire. The number of dispatches sent during the year was 69.907.848; receipts, £2,487,000; expenses, £2,568,000. Metals. Chemicals, dyes, and tarning sub stances Oils Textile materials Manufactured articles.. Miscellaneous articles Miscellaneous, by parcel post..... Total 14,972,175 15,834,940 535,243 619,118 £423,793,882 £405,067,690 The values of the classified exports of British products for 1893, compared with the preceding year, are given in the following table: EXPORTS. Animals living. Textile fabrics and yarns. Articles of food and drink. Apparel, etc..... Chemicals and medicines Total. £227,077,058 £218,496,246 The imports of wheat in 1893 were 13,083,462 quarters (1 quarter = 8 bushels), of which 6,452,570 quarters came from the United States, 2,012,400 from Russia, 1,549,120 from the Argentine Republic, 1,236,720 from India, 631.471 from Canada, 531,040 from Australasia, 516,030 from Chili, and 72,420 from Germany. The quantity of flour imported, not included in the above, was equivalent to 4,081,650 quarters, and of this 3,599,120 quarters came from the United States. The imports of tea were 249,917,381 pounds; of raw sugar, 16,036,935 hundredweight of refined sugar, 11,569,739 hundredweight; of cheese, 2,077,482 hundredweight; of beef, 2,008,566 hundredweight of bacon and hams, 4,187,298 hundredweight; of fresh mutton, 1.971,500 hundred weight; of spirits, 10.966,988 gallons; of wine, 14.680.939 gallons; the number of live cattle, 340.045. The values of some of the principal imports were: Grain and flour, £51.299.802; raw cotton, £30.684.942; wool, £24,437,178; meat, £22.331,503: sugar, raw and refined, £22,085,241; butter and margarine, £16,410,457; timber and wood, £15,390,894; silk manufactures, £11,607,391; tea. £10,217,071; woolen manufactures, £9,875,181; flax, hemp, and jute, £8,294,553; leather, £6,580,222; fruits, £6,035,042; wine, £5,303,294; cheese, £5,160,918; coffee, £4,001,280; tobacco. £3,566,061. The values of some of the chief articles of domestic produce or manufacture exported were: Cotton goods, £54,717,196; cotton yarn, £9,059,984; woolens, £16,428,407; woolen and worsted yarn, £4,533,474; linen goods, £4,778,996; linen yarn, £1,005,155; jute manufactures, £2,391,363; apparel and haberdashery, £5,759,913; tin plates, £3,265,663; hoops, sheets, and plates, £3,265,663; railroad iron, £2,512,964; cast and wrought iron, £3,768,902; steel, £2,183,482; copper, £3,022,651; coal, £14,488.154; hardware and cutlery, £2,048,042. The following table gives the values of the imports in 1892 from some of the principal countries and of the exports to them of British produce: Exports. 26,547.234 8,192,592 5,051,605 1,706.111 2,973,794 1,382,590 306 steam vessels, of 206,660 tons, engaged partly in the foreign and partly in the home trade. In the home trade, which embraces the Continental coast from the Elbe to Brest as well as British ports, there were 8,478 sailing vessels, of 535,326 tons, and 2,344 steam vessels, of 26,611 tons. The total number of British vessels in the home and foreign trades at the end of 1892 was 17,020, of 8,449,512 tons, employing 241,735 men, of whom 30,899 were foreigners. The number of vessels registered as belonging to the United Kingdom was 21,528, of 8.644,574 tons, of which 13,578, of 3,080,272 tons, were sailing vessels, and 7.950, of 5,564,482 tons. were steamers. The number of vessels built and registered during 1892 was 843, of 692,791 tons, of which 322, of 258,700 tons, were sailing vessels, and 521, of 434,091 tons, were steam vessels. The Winter Session.-The session that opened on Jan. 31, 1893, instead of terminating in August, as formerly, or being prolonged till £74,680,169 late autumn, as of late, extended over the year, 14,686,894 and did not come to an end till March 5, 1894. 17,588,412 Although Mr. Gladstone's Irish Home-rule bill 8,836,020 was the chief cause of its unprecedented length, 6,942,667 other highly contentious measures forming part 5,857,081 4,672,938 of the Newcastle programme put forth by the Liberal party in 1892 were introduced in accord6,190,114 ance with the promises contained in the address. 2.861,952 The principal measures promised were bills to 2.622,435 change the method of registering voters, to carry 5,776,055 out the principle of "one man one vote," and to 5,564,487 shorten Parliaments, labor legislation fixing 3,734,697 shorter hours for railway servants, amending the law of conspiracy, and making employers responsible for accidents to workmen, the parish councils and London County Council bills, a Welsh Church suspensory bill, a similar one for Scotland, a local veto bill. The promised bill to disestablish the Scottish Kirk was not brought in, nor were those for making Parliaments shorter, for abolishing plural voting, and for modifying the constitution of the London County Council. The registration bills for England and Wales and for Scotland were withdrawn, as were the conspiracy-law amendment bill, the bill for the disestablishment of the Welsh Church, and the temperance bill introducing local option. The railway-servants bill was passed, and so were bills authorizing an Indian loan, and one correcting the Scotch fishery act. A bill to reinstate Irish evicted tenants, introduced by a Nationalist member, was accepted in principle by the Government, and facilities were offered for a miners' eight-hour bill, proposed by a Labor member. The Home-rule bill, carried through the House of Commons by the free use of the closure rule, was rejected by the House of Lords on Sept. 8, 1893. Navigation. The number of merchant vessels entered from foreign ports during 1892 was 61,647, of 37,673,000 tons, of which 24,682, of 10,633.000 tons, were foreign. The number cleared was 61,881, of 38,194,000 tons, of which 24.954, of 10,862,000 tons, were foreign. The tonnage of vessels with cargoes entered was 29,530,000, of which 21.356,000 tons were British and 8.174,000 tons foreign shipping; the tonnage of vessels cleared with cargoes was 33,944,000, of which 25,064,000 tons were British and 8,880,000 tons foreign. The total tonnage of sailing and steam vessels in the foreign trade entered and cleared with cargoes and in ballast was 75.868,000 tons, of which 54.373,000 tons were British. 5,351,000 Norwegian, 4,045,000 German, 2,144.000 Dutch, 1.951,000 Danish, 1,939,000 French, 1,936,000 Swedish, 1,163,000 Spanish, 953.000 Belgian, 627,000 Russian, 590,000 Italian, 223,000 American, and 175,000 Austrian. The tonnage entered and cleared at the port of London was 13,916,000 tons; at Liverpool, 11,120,000; at Cardiff, 9,779,000; at Newcastle, 4,206,000 at Hull, 3,801,000; at Shields, 3,291,000 at Glasgow, 2,941,000. The total number of vessels entered coastwise was 314,860, of 49.415,000 tons; cleared, 281,629, of 43,682,000 tons. The total number of vessels entered at British ports was 376,507, of 87,087,970 tons; cleared. 343,510. of 81,876,330 tons. In 1892 there were engaged in the foreign trade 2,082 British sailing vessels, of 2.388,800 tons, and 3,577 steam vessels, of 4,905,996 tons, besides 238 sailing vessels, of 37,200 tons, and The parish councils bill and the employers' liability bill were reserved for discussion in the winter session. rendered necessary by the fact that the budget had not yet been voted. All the other Government measures were abandoned or postponed. Parliament adjourned for forty days, and met again on Nov. 2. The parish councils bill, which finally became law, puts an end to the control of the squire and the parson over rural local government. Every man or woman after twelve months' residence is qualified to vote for the parish council or to be elected a member, and also to sit in the district council, which is elected by the parish council. Leaders of the labor movement, already active in the town councils and the school boards, have plunged into this new field of activity. Whoever is elected chairman of a district council is ex officio a county magistrate under the new law, which thus changes radically the character of the county bench. The parson has no official connection with the local government, and the squire, though he pay half or more of the poor rate, has but a single vote, like every one of his tenants, and has no more to say about the poorlaw administration, which, however, is still under the oversight of the local government board, whereas formerly ratepayers only had the right to vote, each having one vote for every £50 that he was rated, up to the limit of 6 votes. All qualifications for membership of the poorlaw boards are also swept away except residence, and the persons who are elected to the district councils serve as poor-law guardians. The bill contained provisions permitting parish councils to condemn and acquire land for small holdings without parliamentary sanction, to hire as well as to purchase land, to dispossess the Church from the control of charities and trusts other than ecclesiastical and of over forty years' standing, which the House of Lords, on the motion of Lord Salisbury, struck out. He also proposed to set a higher minimum limit of population below which parishes should not be required to elect councils. When the bill was sent up again in its original form the Liberal Unionists, after the Government had offered to permit an appeal to the county council in regard to the compulsory purchase or hiring of land, induced Lord Salisbury to yield some concessions to the Radicals on the other two points. Mr. Gladstone accepted the bill as finally amended by the Lords, reserving the right to alter the amendments by subsequent legislation, saying that the time had ended for passing bills back and forth from one house to the other; "to continue the process would be a loss of dignity for both houses"; but that the action of the House of Lords regarding the bills had raised "a question of the gravest character": whether the judgment of the House of Lords "is not only to modify but to annihilate the whole work of the House of Commons," a controversy which "once raised must go forward to its issue." The budget, owing to commercial and agricultural depression, and the consequent falling revenue, while adding a penny to the income tax, was characterized by economy in all the spending departments, especially in the Admiralty. Lord George Hamilton stirred up the question of naval construction, and although Mr. Gladstone obtained a majority of 36 on a vote of confidence, Sir William Harcourt was compelled to alter his tone and to arrange for a much larger naval expenditure in the future than he had been prepared to make. The employers' liability bill had already been killed by the action of the House of Lords. When this bill came up in the House of Commons, Walter McLaren moved that workmen who had subscribed to existing insurance funds, to which some of the railroad companies had contributed with their men, should be allowed to contract themselves out of the act. His amendment was supported by some Gladstonian members, and on the division the ministerial majority was only 19. When the bill went up to the Lords a clause was inserted, on Lord Dudley's motion, permitting a body of employees by a two-third vote to contract themselves out of the act when they are members of any existing or any new insurance society with the approval of the Board of Trade. This amendment was stricken out by the House of Commons, and when the bill went up to the House of Lords it was reinserted. Mr. Asquith accepted the amendment of Mr. Cobb, allowing members of existing societies to contract out during the first three years, and it was voted by a majority of 2 only. When the bill went back to the Lords again this compromise was refused, and it was returned with Lord Dudley's proposal restored. Mr. Gladstone moved that the amendments of the Lords be laid aside, and when this course was declared to be irregular he announced the abandonment of the measure. The Rosebery Cabinet.-Mr. Gladstone's eyesight was failing rapidly under the strain of his labors, and he suffered from impaired hearing and the infirmities of age, and was obliged frequently to absent himself from the sittings of the House, particularly in the night sessions, leaving the leadership to Sir William Harcourt. He had therefore resolved to resign at the close of the session, and on March 3 he carried out his purpose. Sir William Harcourt, according to usage, and especially in view of the late conflict between the houses, was his natural successor; but in the party, in the Cabinet, and in the country, as far as its sentiment was manifested by the press, there was a strong preference for Lord Rosebery, whose proved military and foreign policy and more complaisant address and accommodating spirit commended him to the old Liberals and insured the respect of the Conservatives, while, owing to his known social views and his achievements as president of the County Council, he was more trusted even by the Labor men than his brilliant and impetuous rival. One section of the Radicals, that led by Henry Labouchere, opposed him bitterly because he was the chief upholder among the Liberals of the imperial policy in Egypt, in Matabeleland, in East Africa and Uganda, and everywhere, and because, furthermore, he was a peer, whereas now, they thought, was the time to "mend or end" the House of Peers. Passing over both Sir William Harcourt and Lord Kimberley, the Liberal leader in the House of Lords, the Queen sent for Lord Rosebery, who reconstructed the Cabinet, which was announced on March 8 as follows: First Lord of the Treasury and Lord President of the Council, the Earl of Rosebery; Lord High Chancellor, Lord Herschell; Lord Privy Seal, Lord Tweedmouth; Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House, Sir W. Harcourt; Secretary of State for Home Affairs, Herbert Asquith; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Earl of Kimberlev; Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, the Marquis of Ripon; Secretary of State for War, H. Campbell-Bannerman; Secretary of State for Indian Affairs, Harry H. Fowler; Chancellor of |