element of great importance. It is only after the lapse of years, when the influences which may affect any description of value can be safely said to be exhausted, that it is possible to determine whether or not any one extraneous cause has produced the rise or fall of prices and wages generally. The transient panic ended in 1836, matters improved somewhat in 1837, but another crisis in the United States in 1839 reacted powerfully on this country and the decennium closed with trade languid and depressed. The population of the United Kingdom in the ten years from 1831 to 1841 increased as follows: Within the ten years the population of London and eleven other principal towns increased as follows: The revenue from 1831 to 1840 was moderate, ranging from 54,518,000l. maximum in 1831 to 50,492,000l. minimum in 1836. And the expenditure was rather below the revenue except in 1836, when 16,721,000l. was paid in compensation to slave-owners. The sum expended for relief of the poor was greatly reduced. by the operation of the act of 1834 for the amendment and better administration of the laws relating to the poor. In 1832 the amount so expended was 7,037,000l. In 1837 the amount was reduced to 4,044,841. And the number of depositors and amount of deposits at the savings banks in the United Kingdom increased from 429,503 depositors, having together 13,719,4951. of deposits, in 1831, to 798,055 depositors, having together 23,471,050l., in 1840. With the introduction of the London Joint Stock Banks another datum was furnished for estimating the accumulation of capital in the United Kingdom. The amount of their deposits increased as follows: Treaties of commerce and navigation were concluded during this period with Frankfort on May 13, 1832; Venezuela on October 29, 1834; Peru, Bolivia, on June 5, 1837; Greece on October 4, 1837; Austria on July 3, 1838; Turkey on August 16, 1838; Bolivia on September 29, 1840. An important consequence of the war with China was the passing of an act in 1833 authorising the establishment in China of superintendents of the trade of British subjects to and from that country, for the purpose of protecting and promoting the same, with power to make and issue directions and regulations touching the said trade, and for the government of British subjects, and also to create a court of justice, with criminal and admiralty jurisdiction, for the trial of offences committed by British subjects within the dominion of China and the ports and havens thereof. The period under consideration is remarkable for the introduction of the electric telegraph patented by Cooke and Wheatstone in 1837, and in the same year by Professor Morse, of the United States of America. In 1831 the British Association for the Advancement of Science was formed, and the Statistical Society in 1834. The Entomological Society was formed in 1833, the Royal Botanical Society in 1836, the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1834, and the Royal Geographical Society in 1831. In 1832 Mr. Brindley, of Birmingham, obtained a patent for producing papier-mâché articles by pressure between dies, either in wet sheets or in the form of pulp. In the same year cylinder or sheet glass was first introduced by Messrs. Chance and Hartley. And in 1839 the penny postage was introduced by Sir Rowland Hill, which did so much to expand commerce and industry, and to foster sentiments of affection between distant members of the human family. Germany, Holland, and Belgium. 1 Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Heligoland. • United States of America. British North America. "British West Indies, with British Guiana and Honduras. • British India, Ceylon, and Singapore. Australian colonies and New Zealand. Decrease |