ED KINGDOM.

Ten Years' Work and Receipts.

-----------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
|1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895
-----------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Goods carried:-- | | | | | | | | | |
Million Tons | 255| 269| 282| 297| 303| 310| 309| 293| 324| 334
| | | | | | | | | |
Passengers carried: | | | | | | | | | |
Million persons | 726| 734| 742| 775| 818| 845| 864| 873| 911| 930
-----------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Goods receipts:-- | | | | | | | | | |
Million L's |36.4|37.3|38.7|41.1|42.2|43.2|42.9|41.0|43.4|44.0
| | | | | | | | | |
Passenger receipts: | | | | | | | | | |
Million L's |30.2|30.6|31.0|32.6|34.3|35.1|35.7|35.8|36.5|37.4
-----------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----

The figures may be illustrated diagrammatically as follows:--

[Illustration]

[Illustration: RAILWAY PASSENGERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM (exclusive of
season-ticket holders). 1870--337 Millions, 1895--930 Millions.]

These diagrams and the figures they illustrate hardly look as if the
nation were on the verge of decay, ruined by German cheap goods. If such
be the signs of national collapse, no country in the world can be called
prosperous. For there is this feature about our railway development
which entirely differentiates it from the railway expansion of newer
countries--that every pound of capital required has come out of our own
pockets: we have borrowed from no one. Instead, while planking down in
ten years 170 new millions to add to our own railways, we have been
lending with large hands to railway builders in every part of the globe.

LENGTHENING TRAM LINES.

From railways we pass to tramways. Here the figures are less
considerable in amount, but they are striking enough. In 1876 there were
only 158 miles of tramway open for public traffic; by 1885 that number
had risen to 811 miles, and by 1895 to 982 miles. In the same periods
the paid-up capital had increased from 2 millions sterling to 12, and
thence to 14 millions. Lastly, between 1885 and 1895 the number of
passengers carried upon tramways