In respect to separate trains, it is found that each locomotive, while at work, earns, on an average, about 7s. per mile, on all the rincipal railways taken collectively. It has been found, on a careful analysis of the working of the principal railways for a long series of years, that for every 1007. working expenses the distribution is on an average nearly as follows: : Two of these items, the locomotive and carrying departments, are much influenced by the relation existing between the dead load and the available load of passenger traffic. It is calculated that a four-horse stage coach, with coachman, guard, and seventeen passengers, exhibit 53 cwts. employed in drawing 21 cwts. A wellfilled train of nine carriages on a narrow-gauge railway, with 190 passengers, gives about 1,440 cwts. employed in drawing 288 cwts. AGreat Western express train, with 128 passengers, gives about the same force (1,440 cwts.) employed in drawing 182 cwts. The subject is now, and has for some time, been occupying the attention of engineers, what size and form of carriage and of locomotive will exhibit the smallest dead load in respect to the available load. The wear and tear of the permanent way are concerned in these results. So great is the strength now found to be requisite, that the rails and their supports on one mile of the Great Western railway comprise about 400 loads of timber and 5,000 cwts. of iron. It does not fall within the scope of our present article to treat of the electric telegraph; but a line may be given to say that a new telegraphic wire-rope has been lately sunk beneath and across the English Channel, from the North Foreland to Sangatte (a small sea-side village between Calais and Boulogne), preparatory to the establishment of electro-telegraphic communication between England and the Continent. A new Electric Telegraph Company has been established in England, which will generate a little wholesome competition. A knotty question has arisen during the eventful excursion year 1851. Without reckoning the absurd Yorkshire fare of 5s. for a visit to London and back, the excursion fares have generally been a small fraction of a penny per mile. On such fares the directors of the various lines consider that they ought not to pay the government duty; but the officials of the Stamp Office are debating this question. In the report of the Commissioners of Railways for 1850 allusion is made to excursion trains, and the Commissioners state that they had allowed to the railway companies running such trains the same exemption from the passenger tax as is granted in the case of parliamentary trains'; but that this exemption had been carefully restricted to the case of third-class passengers in such excursion trains. In 1850 the difficulty of settling this matter was not great; but in 1851 it became complicated with many additional circumstances. Many of the "Exhibition trains" were first and second class only in name; but the fares were so low that the companies object to pay a five per cent. tax on them. On the other hand, the authorities of the Stamp Office contend that it is only the penny-a-mile passengers by the parliamentary trains the "poorer classes" mentioned in the Act of Parliament-in respect to whom exemption can be claimed; and that the excursionists do not come within this category. This curious question is, we believe, now in the hands of the law authorities for settlement. The year 1851 has not witnessed any especial novelties of railway construction in England. The atmospheric system is dead, except on the Kingstown and Dalkey line. The tubular bridge remains the grandest of all railway enterprises, but no others have yet been constructed on the same principle. The Chepstow Bridge, supported on hollow piles which were sunk by atmospheric exhaustion, is not yet finished. The Birkenhead engineers talk of a tubular tunnel under the Mersey from Birkenhead to Liverpool-an idea of sufficient boldness, it must be owned. The railway insurance principle was briefly noticed in the 'Companion? for 1851. It has steadily advanced during the past twelve months, in respect both to the periodical tickets and to the single-journey tickets. The total sum received by the company in premiums, during an existence of about two years and a quarter, amounts, it is true, to only a few thousand pounds; but as the payments are within the receipts, and as the system is becoming more generally understood, it may be considered as now established. In the first twenty months of the company's operations, they paid two sums of 5001. each in respect to fatal accidents, and gave compensation, in sums varying from 17. to 4257., to fifty-five persons who received personal injury while travelling by railway. All the claims are promptly met, in a liberal spirit; and this tends to win the good opinion of the public. Nearly all the railway companies now afford facilities for carrying out this insurance principle. VI. THE PUBLIC DEBTS AND STANDING ARMIES OF THE EUROPEAN STATES. (From the Kölner Zeitung.) [This curious paper is not given as minutely accurate, but as a tolerably correct approximation to the truth, affording a view of the relative proportions of the European Powers to each other in regard to their debts and forces. In the original the sums are stated in thalers, which we have turned into pounds (in round numbers) at the rate of six thalers to one pound sterling.] Public Debts and Standing Armies of European States. 105 The paper money now in actual circulation in Europe represents a value of £210,238,087. The total of the public debt is by far larger; it amounts to £1,899,512,666. Great Britain (without the Colonies) bears nearly one-half of this gigantic burden, viz. £834,000,000. The British army numbers 129,000 men; the fleet is composed of 678 vessels, with 18,000 guns. The detail of the debts and armies of the other European States is as follows: Spain.-Debt, £216,700,000; army, 160,000 men; fleet, 50 vessels, with 721 guns. Austria.-Debt, £183,400,000; fleet, 156 vessels (including gun-boats), with 600 guns. [The army is not given. In the 'Almanach de Gotha' for 1850 it is stated that the army on the peace footing numbered 405,000 soldiers, and that in June, 1848, it consisted of 626,000 men, and 80,000 horses.] Russia and Poland.-Debt, £122,170,000; army, 700,000 men ; fleet, 175 vessels and 440 gun-boats, with 7000 guns. The Netherlands.-Debt, £121,830,000; army, 50,000 men ; fleet, 125 vessels, with 2,500 guns. Prussia.-Debt, £30,000,000; army, 121,000 men (war footing: 492,000 men); fleet, 47 vessels and gun-boats, with 114 guns. France.-Debt, £221,740,000; army, 265,463 men; fleet, 328 vessels, with 8,000 guns. Belgium.-Debt, £27,500,000; army, 90,000 men; fleet, 5 vessels, with 36 guns. Portugal.-Debt, £26,700,000; army, 38,000 men; fleet, 36 vessels, with 700 guns. Papal States.-Debt, £20,000,000; army, 19,000 men; fleet, 5 vessels, with 24 guns. Sardinia.-Debt, £20,000,000; army, 38,000 men; fleet, 60 vessels, with 900 guns. Naples.-Debt, £16,667,000; army, 48,000 men; fleet, 15 vessels, with 484 guns. Bavaria.-Debt, £13,667,000; army, 57,000 men. Denmark.-Debt, £13,340; army, 20,000 men; fleet, 33 vessels, with 1,120 guns. Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.-Debt, £666,700; no army; no navy. Saxony.-Debt, £7,250,000; army, 25,000 men. Turkey.-Debt, £6,666,700; army, 220,000 men; fleet, 66 vessels, with 800 guns. City of Hamburg.-Debt, £5,666,700; army, 1,800 men. Grand Duchy of Baden.-Debt, £5,500,000; army, 18,000 men. Hanover.-Debt, £5,061,330; army, 21,000 men. Würtemberg.-Debt, £4,666,700; army, 19,000 men. Greece.-Debt, £4,176,700; army, 8,900 men; fleet, 34 vessels, with 131 guns. Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.-Debt, £1,666,700; army, 4,700 men. 106 Public Debts and Standing Armies of European States. Grand Duchy of Tuscany.-Debt, £1,666,700; army, 12,000 men; fleet, 10 vessels, with 15 guns. City of Frankfort.-Debt, £1,166,700; army, 1,300 men. Duchy of Brunswick.-Debt, £1,133,400; army, 3,000 men. Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.-Debt, £1,033,400; army, 42,000 men. Electoral Hesse.-Debt, £1,000,000; army, 11,000 men. Duchy of Saxe-Weimar.-Debt, £666,700; army, 2,000 men. Duchy of Anhalt Dessau and Köthen.-Debt, £583,340; army, 700 men. City of Bremen.-Debt, £500,000; army, 500 men. Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.-Debt, £422,670; army, 1,200 men. Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen.-Debt, £416,700; army, 2,400 men. Duchy of Nassau.-Debt, £333,400; army, 3,500 men. Duchy of Parma.-Debt, £300,000; army, 5,000 men. Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg.-Debt, £216,700; army, 300 men. Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg.-Debt, £216,700; army, 1,000 men. Sweden. No debt; army, 34,000; fleet, 340 vessels, with 2,400 guns. Norway.-Debt, £216,700; army, 23,000 men; fleet, 160 vessels, with 560 guns. Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.-Debt, £200,000; army 600 men. Landgravate of Hesse Homburg.-Debt, £143,340; army, 350 men. Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. - Debt, £12,000; army, 540 men. Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen.-Debt, £10,000; army, 450 men. Danubian Principalities.-No debt; annual tribute to Turkey, 3,000,000 piastres (£31,578); army, 6,800 men. Servia. No debt; tribute, 2,000,000 piastres (£21,050); army, 3,000 men. Duchy of Modena.-No debt; army, 3,500 men. Principality of Lippe-Detmold.-No debt; army, 820 men. Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.-No debt; army, 800 men. Principality of Reuss.-No debt; army, 745 men. Principality of Lippe-Schaumburg.-No debt; army, 430 men. Principality of Waldeck.-No debt; army, 520 men. Principality of Lichtenstein. -No debt; army, 60 men. Switzerland. No debt; army, 69,500 men, a small number of whom only is in actual service. Republic of San Marino.-No debt; no army. |