net revenue to capital, from 3.91 to 4.52 per cent.; which is an improvement of the value of the property by 16 per cent. On the Midland the traffic revenue was increased, during the period in question, by nearly 13 per cent., or from 4,580l. to 5,1591. per mile. The large proportion which mineral traffic bore in this increase is shown by the fact that the proportion of mineral gross revenue was 23 24 per cent. of total gross revenue in 1871, and 27-75 per cent. in 1875; an increase of nearly 20 per cent. The capital account had been coincidently increased by nearly 12 per cent.; or from 42,1617. to 47,8041. per mile. The consequence was the reduction on the proportion borne by net traffic earnings to capital from 5.91 to 5:05 per cent., involving a deterioration of the property by more than 14 per cent., a depreciation which has to be contrasted with the increase of 16 per cent. in the value of the South Eastern line. There has thus been occasioned, within four years, a difference of proprietary value between the non-mineral and the mineral lines cited, amounting to more than 30 per cent. The statistical comparison of the number of train accidents with the proportion of mineral traffic has no less instructive results. Thus, on the Metropolitan and the Metropolitan District lines, where the mineral. traffic earns less than 3 per cent. of the gross revenue, and where the interference of mineral trains with passenger traffic is at a minimum, more than 3,000,000 of passengers per mile are conveyed in a year; and the ratio of train accidents has been only one to every 17,000,000 of passengers. On the South Eastern and Brighton lines the mineral traffic averages only 5 per cent. The passenger traffic amounts to upwards of 70,000 passengers per mile per annum. The train accidents have averaged one to 4.8 millions of passengers. On the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway the passenger traffic is about 79,000 passengers per mile per annum, or 12 per cent. more than on the last-named pair of lines. The mineral traffic, however, forms nearly 18 per cent. of the whole revenue, being thus three times as great in proportion as on the South Eastern and Brighton lines. The train accidents in 1875 (which was rather a favourable year than otherwise) were one to every 1.73 millions of passengers; thus increasing on the accident rate of the last quoted pair of lines at a rate slightly in excess of the increase of the proportion of mineral traffic. On the Midland and North Eastern lines, where the mineral traffic averages 32 per cent. of the gross revenue, the rate of accident expectation is slightly less than on the Lancashire and Yorkshire, being one in 1.82 million passengers carried. But this comparatively low rate is at once explained by observing the small number of passengers per mile actually carried by these lines, which only averages 22,500, or less than one-third of those carried by the Lancashire and Yorkshire. Thus, while the mineral traffic approached the double of that carried by the former line, there was only about one-third of the amount of passenger traffic with which it could interfere. The results were approximately much the same. It thus appears that while an enormous amount of passenger traffic, unmixed with any other, may be conveyed with a very high degree of safety, collision and fatal accident dog the wheels of the mineral trains with a certitude measured by the extent to which this unremunerative traffic interferes with the conduct of the passenger trains. Any words at our command would only impair the effect of the mute eloquence of these facts. NOTE to the Article on Brigandage in Sicily,' p. 505. On the eve of going to press we receive the annual report of Signor Mangano Pulvirenti, acting public prosecutor at Palermo, on the results of the administration of justice within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Palermo in 1876. The whole population of the island of Sicily is about two millions and a half: that of the province of Palermo about 600,000. In 1876, 17,042 persons were tried, 7,481 for crimes, and 9,561 for misdemeanours. The number of murders and murderous assaults followed by death was 662, of which 267 were assassinations, besides 666 murderous assaults not followed by death, 27 extortions by threats, 31 carrying off of persons. The whole number of convictions was 13 to death, penal servitude for life 61, penal servitude for a shorter term 290, imprisonment 415, besides some minor punishment. In 6,217 cases the prosecution was abandoned for want of proof to convict. The total number of accused persons who got off without punishment was 10,490. Meanwhile the regular bands of Leone, Nobile, Merlo, and Calabrese infest the island with the utmost audacity, and the number of accomplices who escape justice and are condemned in contumacy 'sono rappresentati da enorme cifre !' These official statements bear out every thing we have said in this article. We doubt if such a disgraceful record of unpunished crime was ever laid before the world. No. CCXCIX. will be published in July. INDEX. A Africa, South, Correspondence and Papers relating to the affairs of, 447 'Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus,' by Jebb, R. C., reviewed, C Caucasus, the Frosty, review of Mr. F. C. Grove's, and works by other Russia thereby, 45-especially as regards the Turkish provinces in E Eastern Question. See Turkey and Wellington. Ephesus, Discoveries at, by Mr. J. T. Wood, review of, 204-the F Fortescue, Sir John, Knight, Chief Justice of England and Lord |