tal at 5 per cent., 81,034,3257.; share capital at 4 per cent., 1,286,5967.; share capital at 43 per cent., 500,000l.; debentures at 5 per cent., 1,592,7901.; debentures at 4 per cent., 1,707,450l. ; debentures at 4 per cent., 1,292,5507.; debentures at 4 per cent., 2,031,3507.; debenture stock 4 per cent., 1,925,000l.; debenture stock 4 per cent., 3,204,8787.; capital not bearing interest, 544,1107.; total, 95,119,119/. The proprietors of Indian railway securities numbered 62,318 on January 1, 1875. Of these, 56,597 were shareholders registered in England, and 4,821 were holders of debenture bonds or stock. Only 900 shareholders resided in India, of whom 421, or 67 per cent. of the whole were natives.

The construction of railways, besides fostering trade and commerce, has produced social and moral effects indicated, to some extent, by a vastly increased postal intercourse. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 1874, the number of letters which passed through the Post Office of British India was 98,531,628; of newspapers 8762,200; of parcels 605,312, and of books and patterns 1,336,363, being a total of 109,235,303. The following table gives the number of letters, newspapers, etc., carried, and the number of offices and receiving houses, together with the total revenue and expenditure of the post-office in each of the ten fiscal years 1865 to 1874:

In the fiscal year 1860–61, the mails travelled over 43,570 miles, of which total 36,784 miles was done by boats and 'runners;' 5,740 miles by carts and on horseback; and only 1,046 miles by railways. Thirteen years after, in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1874 the mails travelled over 54,617 miles, of which total 44,857 miles was done by boats and runners;' 4,003 miles by carts and on horseback, and 5,739 miles by railways.

The following table gives the number of miles of lines, the total receipts, and the working expenditure of all the telegraphs in India, in each of the ten fiscal years from 1865 to 1874 :

The total number of messages despatched on the telegraph lines of India in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1874, was 788,048. Of these, 678,926 were private messages; 66,542 on the public service; and 42,580 on the news and telegraph service. There were 225 telegraph offices on March 31, 1874.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

The money, weights, and measures of India, and the British equivalents, are :—

MONEY.

Star Pagoda of Madras

Madras or Company's Rupee of 16 Annas or 192 Pice
Sicca Rupee: 16-15ths of Company's Rupee

1 13 63

1 10

1 9 24

1 9 2 0 7 43

0 1 112

In 1835 the Government remodelled the currency of India, establishing a more uniform system, in conformity with which accounts are mostly kept at present in Rupees, reckoned of the value of 2 shillings, subdivided into Annas, worth 1 pence, of Pice, of of a penny. Silver is the only legal tender and standard of value.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

The Maund of Bengal, of 40 seers

Bombay

=

2.054 lbs. avoirdupois.

An Act to provide for the ultimate adoption of an uniform system of weights and measures of capacity throughout British India' was passed by the Governor-General. of India in Council in 1871, receiving the assent of the Governor-General on October 31, 1871. The Act orders: Art. 2. The primary standard of weight shall be

called a ser, and shall be a weight of metal in the possession of the Government of India, equal, when weighed in a vacuum, to the weight known in France as the kilogramme.' Art. 3. 'The units of weight and measures of capacity shall be, for weights, the said ser; for measures of capacity, a measure containing one such ser of water at its maximum density, weighed in a vacuum.' Art. 4. The Governor-General in Council may, from time to time, by notification in the "Gazette of India," declare the magnitude and denominations of the weights and measures of capacity, other than the said units, to be authorised under this Act: provided that every such weight or measure of capacity shall be an integral multiple or integral submultiple of one of the units aforesaid. The Governor-General in Council may, in like manner, revoke such notification. Unless it be otherwise ordered in any such notification, the sub-divisions of all such weights and measures of capacity shall be expressed in decimal parts.'

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning India.

1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of British India with Foreign Countries, and of the Coasting Trade between the several Presidencies in the year ending 31st March, 1872, together with Miscellaneous Statistics relating to the Foreign Trade of British India, from various periods to 1872-73. Imp. 4. Calcutta, 1874.

Finance and Revenue Accounts; and Miscellaneous Statistics relating to the Finances of British India. Part I. Revenues, Charges, and other Cash Transactions of British India from 1st May, 1864, to 31st March, 1872. Fol. Calcutta, 1873.

Finance and Revenue Accounts: Part II. Revenues and Charges of each Presidency and Province, from 1st May, 1864, to 31st March, 1872. Fol. Calcutta, 1873.

Finance and Revenue Accounts: Part III. Revenues and Charges, Statistics for the Administration of Revenue, and Miscellaneous Statistics. Fol. Calcutta, 1873.

Indian Army and Civil Service List. Issued by permission of the Secretary of State for India in Council. 8. London, 1874. Memorandum on the Census of British India of 1871-72. Fol. London,

1875.

Report to the Secretary of State for India in Council on the Railways in India for the year 1874-75. By Julian Danvers, Government Director of Indian Railway Companies. Fol. London, 1875.

Statement of the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during the year 1873-74. Fol. London, 1875.

Statistical Abstract for the several Colonial and other Possessions of the United Kingdom in each year from 1858 to 1872. No. XI. 8. London,

1875.

Statistical Abstract relating to British India from 1864 to 1873. No. IX. 8. London, 1875.

Trade of India with Great Britain; in 'Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions in the year 1874.' Imp. 4. London, 1875.

2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Blair (Charles) Indian Famines; their historical, financial, and other aspects. 12. London, 1874.

Braddon (Edw.), Life in India.

8. London, 1872.

Carnegy (P.) Notes on the Land Tenures and Revenue Assessments of Upper India. 8. London, 1874.

Chesney (George), Indian Polity: a view of the system of Administration in India. 8. London, 1868.

Dilke (Sir Charles Wentworth), Greater Britain: a record of travel in English-speaking countries in 1866 and 1867. 3rd ed. 8. London, 1869.

Elliot (Sir H. M.), Memoirs of the North-Western Provinces of India. 2 vols, 8. London, 1869,

Fitzgerald (W. F. Vesey), Egypt, India, and the Colonies. 8. London, 1870. Garnier (Lieut. Fr.), Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine, effectué pendant les années 1866, 1867, et 1868. 2 vols. 4. Paris, 1873.

Gleig (Rev. G. R.), History of British India. 4 vols. 16. London, 1830. Griffin (Lepel H.), The Rajas of the Punjab, being the history of the principal states in the Punjab, and their political relations with the British Government. 2d edit. 8. London, 1872.

Hunter (Dr. W. W.), The Annals of Rural Bengal. 5th ed. 8. London, 1870. Hunter (Dr. W. W.), The Indian Musulmans. 2nd ed. 8. London, 1871. Kaye (John William), The Administration of the East India Company: a history of Indian progress. 8. London, 1853.

Kaye (John William), The Sepoy War in India. 2 vols. 8. 1869-70. Knight (Robert), The Indian Empire and our financial relations therewith. 8. London, 1866.

Latham (R. G.), Ethnology of India. 8. London, 1859.

Mahon (Lord), Rise of our Indian Empire. 8. London, 1858.

Marshman (John Clark), The History of India, from the earliest period to the close of Lord Dalhousie's administration. 3 vols. 8. London, 1867-70. Martin (R. Montgomery), The Progress and Present State of British India. 8. London, 1862.

Martineau (Rev. A.), British Rule in India. 12. London, 1857. Morley (W. H.), Administration of Justice in India. 8. London, 1858. Owen (Sidney), The Mussulman, the Maratha, and the European. London, 1870.

8.

Prichard (J. T.), The Administration of India from 1859 to 1868. 2 vols. 8. London, 1869.

Raikes (C.), The Englishman in India. 8. London, 1867.

St. John (Horace), History of the British Conquests in India. 8. London, 1858.

Sherring (Rev. M. A.), History of Protestant Missions in India. 8. Benares, 1875.

Thornton (W. T.), Indian Public Works and cognate Indian Topics. 8. London, 1875.

Thurlow (Hon. T. J.), The Company and the Crown. 8. London, 1866. Torrens (Wm. T. M'Cullagh), Empire in Asia: How we came by it. 8. London, 1872.

Tyrrell (Lieut.-Col. F.), Waterways or Railways, or the Future of India. 8. London, 1874.

Watson (J. Forbes), and Kaye (Jn. Wm.), The People of India: a Series of Photographic Illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan. 4 vols. Imp. 4. London, 1866-70.

JAPAN.

(SHO KOKU. NIPPON.)

Constitution and Government.

THE system of government of the Japanese empire is that of an absolute monarchy. It was adopted in the year 1869, when the now ruling soverign overthrew, after a short war, the power of the formerly independent Daimios, or feudal nobles, reducing them to the position of simple tenants of the vast estates in their hereditary possessions. The sovereign bears the name of Supreme Lord, or Emperor; but the appellation by which he is generally known in foreign countries is the ancient title of Mikado, or 'The Venerable.' Mikado of Japan.-Mutsu Hito, born at Yedo, Sept. 22, 1852; succeeded his father, Komei Tenno, 1867; married, Dec. 28, 1868, to Princess Haru-ko, born April 17, 1850, daughter of Prince Itchidgo.

The power of the Mikado is absolute and unlimited, in temporal as well as spiritual affairs. He acts through an executive ministry, divided, in imitation of that of France under Napoléon III., into eight departments, of the Imperial House, of Foreign Affairs, War, Navy, Finances and the Interior, Justice, Public Instruction, and Ecclesiastical Affairs. At the side of the Ministry stands the 'Sain,’ or Senate, composed of thirty members, and the Shoïn,' or Council of State, of an unlimited number of members, both nominated by the Mikado, and consulted by him at his pleasure.

There exists no regular law of succession to the throne, but in case of the death or abdication of the Mikado, the crown devolves generally, not on his son, but on either the eldest or the most distinguished member of his house. It is not uncommon that palace intrigues settle the choice, the only condition of legality of which is that the elect should be member of the Shi Shinnô, the 'Four Imperial Relatives,' or Royal Families of Japan. The throne can be, and has frequently been, occupied by a female, who, however, is not allowed to remain single, but must seek a consort within the limits of the Shi Shinnô.

The government is at present organised on a basis which is partly European. The Mikado is, theoretically, an absolute Sove