terion of the consumption of the principal towns, has augmented a fourth; that the produce of the customs has increased a fifth; that of the ports a sixth; and that in 1826, the revenue of the state exceeded the expenditure by about 2,000,000 of francs. Yet, on a comparison of this progressive improvement of French industry with that of Great Britain, the advantage is still found to be on the side of the latter.

The entire produce of British agriculture, valued according to French prices, exceeds the entire produce of French agriculture by 947,000,000 of francs, that is to say, nearly a sixth part; and this notwithstanding the difference of a half in favour of France in respect to extent of territory. Again, the produce of British manufactures exceeds that of the French manufactures 1,500,000,000 of francs, that is to say, nearly one-half.

In 1810, Great Britain paid 6,000,000l. sterling to the foreigner for her supply of grain; in 1814 she paid no more than 2,000,000.; and in 1827 the produce of her own territory was nearly sufficient for her consumption, notwithstanding a considerable increase in her population.

In 1814, the British manufactures worked up 60,060,239 lbs. of cotton, 15,490,154 lbs. of wool, and 2,280,223 lbs. of silk; and there was not exported more than to the value of 24,300,000l. sterling (official value) of the merchandise so manufactured. In 1825, Great Britain consumed in manufactures 215,000,000 lbs. of cotton, 38,700,000 lbs. of wool, and 4,200,000 lbs. of silk, and exported to the value of 38,300,000l. sterling of her manufactured articles.

According to the calculations of M. Heron de Villefosse, in the beginning of the year 1826 there were in activity in France 379 furnaces, yielding 1,614,402 metrical quintals of smelted metal; of these 375 were heated by charcoal, and 4 by coke. There were, besides, in a state of construction, or already constructed, 28 new furnaces, of which 15 were destined for the use of coke, and 12 for that of charcoal.

In 1788 there existed in England 26 furnaces heated by wood, and 60 heated by coke; which together produced annually 70,000 tons of smelted iron. In 1806 there were reckoned 227 coke furnaces and 2 charcoal furnaces. Of this number 161 were in operation, and yielded 245,000 tons of iron. In 1826, however, the number of furnaces in Great Britain was 305, all served by coke. Of these 280 were in activity, each producing at the rate of 50 tons a week, and the whole giving the enormous annual aggregate of 7,395,000 metrical quintals; a manufacture exceeding four times that of the French furnaces, and which exhibits the immense advantage still possessed by this country over France in this important branch of public wealth.

These data show the immense difference existing between the industry, agricultural and manufacturing, of Great Britain, and that of France; and what immense strides the latter country has still to make, before she can hope to rival the greatest manufacturing and commercial country of the world.

We have proved by the most incontrovertible of all tests, that of figures, the superiority of Great Britain in agriculture and manufac tures; we now proceed to produce evidence that this superiority is in

perfect correspondence with the more considerable amount of force, animate and inanimate, which she has set to work.

According to the calculations of M. Dupin the 31,800,000 inhabitants which now constitute the population of France, are equivalent to a power of 12,609,057 individuals of the male sex, at the age of full vigour. It is a position generally admitted in France, that two-thirds of the population are employed in agriculture; and that a third only is occupied in manufacturing and commercial pursuits. Hence it results that France possesses

A human agricultural power equivalent to that of And a power of industry, manufacturing and commercial, equal to

8,406,038 labouring men,

and 4,203,019

Total 12,609,057

Were it not that the industry of man had found the means of calling extraneous force to its aid, its means would be confined to the amount of power above enumerated; but man employs other forces than his own in agricultural labours, and principally that of the horse, of the ass, of the mule, the ox, and the cow,t and with the help of these, the animate agricultural force of France has increased to the following sum:

On making similar calculations of the agricultural force of Great Britain, and stating at 15,000,000, the number of inhabitants of England and Scotland, of whom a third only are employed in agriculture, and the other two-thirds in commerce and manufactures, we shall have,

If we proceed in the same way with regard to Great Britain, as we have done with respect to France, and make a comparative calculation of the power in men, and the power in other animals, engaged in agriculture, we shall find,

*M. Dupin calculates the power of women applied to the arts, as equal to the half of that of the population of the other sex.

The average power of the horse is calculated at that of seven men; that of the ox at four.

Taking the proportion of this total force of 24,632,446 to the human force applicable to agriculture, we find it to be as 12. Whence it appears that the agriculturists of England and Scotland have discovered the means of creating a force, twelve times the amount of their personal corporal force, by the use they make of domestic animals; while the additional force obtained through similar means by the French agriculturists, does not amount to five times their own. It is calculated that in France there are 46,000,000 hectares of land made to yield produce; so that there is an animate power equal to that of 810 labourers, for the cultivation of every thousand hectares. The total number of hectares of productive land in Great Britain is 21,643,000; so that there is an animate power equal to that of 1138 working men for every thousand hectares. Thus then the produce of the land, in the respective countries, is in proportion to the power employed respectively in its cultivation. The case is the same in regard to manufactures.

The human force in France employed in commercial and manufacturing industry, is equivalent, according to the calculations already stated, to 4,203,019 effective working men; to this power must be added that supplied by the use of horses, the number of which is computed at 300,000 employed in transport, for the saddle, in draught, &c. whereby the animate force of France is raised to 6,303,019 power of

men.

The human force of Great Britain employed in commerce and manufactures, is equivalent to 4,264,893 effective men; to this power then must also be added the power of 250,000 animals, employed in divers works of industry. These will raise the animate force of England and Scotland to 6,014,893; to which there must be superadded the approximating value of 1,260,604 effective men for Ireland: so that the commercial and manufacturing animate power of the United Kingdom, must be computed at 7,275,497 labouring men.

To these animate powers should be joined also, in the case of both the countries, the inanimate powers, or the force supplied by water, wind, and steam; and the whole productive and commercial manufacturing power of England and France will be ascertained.

The total number of mills in France has been computed by the French authors on statistics at 76,000, of which about 10,000 may be set down as windmills; the total force of hydraulic machines employed for forges, furnaces, and machinery of every kind, is equal to the third part of that of the 10,000 windmills; the wind as employed in navigation, is equivalent to the power of 3,000,000 of men; and lastly, the steam-engines in operation in France, exceed the power of 60,000 dynames,* equivalent to the power of 480,000 working men turning a winch.

It has been calculated also, by the same writers, that besides windmills, hydraulic machines, &c. Great Britain possesses in steam-engines alone, a moving power of at least 800,000 dynames, the effect of which is equal to the power of 6,400,000 men employed at the wind

A dyname is equal to a thousand kilograms raised to the height of 1000 metres, eight men employed at a winch can in one day raise a thousand kilograms to the height of a thousand metres, or in other words, can produce a dyname of labour,

Inanimate powers.

lass. The commercial and manufacturing power of France is, therefore, in proportion to that of Great Britain, as follows:

France.

Great Britain.

Thus, the total of the inanimate force applied to the arts of all descriptions in France, scarcely exceeds the fourth of the same power applied to the same purposes in Great Britain, and the whole animate and inanimate power of Great Britain, applied to manufactures and commerce, is nearly treble the amount of that so applied in France. So that in like manner, as we remarked it to be the case with regard to the agricultural power, the manufacturing and commercial power of the two countries likewise bears a corresponding proportion to the total of the given produce of the manufacturing arts, and their value in commerce.

It has appeared that the entire produce of English agriculture exceeded the value of the entire produce of French agriculture, to the amount of 947,000,000 of francs. If we follow up the comparison, we shall find that the net produce, or actual profit derived from industry applied to agriculture in England, is nearly one half of the rough produce; while in France, according to the estimate of M. Chaptal, as corrected by M. Dupin, the net produce from agricultural industry is 150,000,000 of francs below the third part of the rough produce of the land. Whence it follows that the profit on English agriculture is nearly 50 per cent. on the value of the entire produce, while French agriculture does not draw above 30 per cent. profit. Supposing, therefore, the Agrarian law to exist in each of the two countries, every individual of the agricultural class in France would receive 222 francs 83 cents a year on the rough produce; while every individual of the same class in England would receive 894 francs; a sum enormous in comparison, and which still presents a prodigious difference, even when the higher rate of taxes, and the greater price of seeds and of labour in our own country, are taken into consideration. "The causes of this immense superiority in English agriculture," says a French writer, (M. Moreau de Jonnes) are the drainages, the irrigations, the improvement of the soil by manure, the breeding of animals, the extent of artificial pasturage, the practice of preserving the hay in ricks, the more scientific application of instruments of husbandry, the much more extended use and the far more perfect. construction of machinery and farming buildings, and lastly, the advantages arising from enclosures, fences, and numberless details which belong to a state of industry brought to perfection, and which arise from the aid afforded by the use of a vast capital."

Compared with the number of canals in the British isles, those of France sink into insignificance, Whilst in fact Great Britain reckons

103, putting out of the account such as are not more than five miles in extent, France has scarcely 26, of which 20 are inconsiderable. The whole length of the canals in the three kingdoms is 2588 miles ; the total extent of those of France is 628 miles. Thus, in England the part of the country enjoying the advantage of canals is more than half the whole territory; while in France, the districts through which canals run, do not constitute a fifth of the territory. In those parts in which these canals exist, taking for each district an equal stretch of country, the quantity of canals is four times less in France than in England. So that comparing the whole of France with the whole of England, the former does not possess proportionably, to the extent of the two countries, a twentieth part of the canals which afford watercarriage to the latter.

The improvement of the general system of interior navigation in France offers one of the surest means of bettering her agricultural and commercial industry. To the six grand canals which already run through the country, namely that of Briare, finished in 1642; that of Languedoc, in 1680; those of Orleans and Loing, in 1753; the Canal du centre en 1791, and that of St. Quentin, in 1810; there might easily be added a greater number, which might effect the communication either of one with the other, or with French Flanders, the basins of the Loire, the Seine, and the Somme; and others might be added, which, with the aid of the basins of the Moselle, the Meuse, and the Rhine, of the Rhone, and of the Garonne, might communicate with Germany, Italy, and Spain.

At the same time that new canals are dug, the reparation of the great roads of France is indispensable. These, in their present state, ploughed up by watercourses, furrowed by wheel-ruts, are the subject of the complaints of travellers, and a most serious detriment to commerce and agriculture. "It is disgraceful," says M. Bayet, in his considerations on the public roads of France, "it is disgraceful to France that a road like that from Paris to the Havre, which conducts from the capital to its own maritime port, should be for two-thirds of its extent in such a state of neglect and decay as to threaten to become soon impassable. The same is the case with the road from Lyons to Marseilles, from Orleans to Tours, and of a hundred other of the one hundred and ninety-one principal roads which traverse France to an extent of 32,077 kilomètres. The carriages for the transport of goods, and the diligences, are under the necessity of doubling, of trebling, of even quadrupling their number of cattle over these ruined parts of the roads, on which, nevertheless, considerable sums are yearly expended, but which, from being still insufficient for the purpose required, are laid out at a pure loss."

The roads of England are the marvel of the world. The improvements which have been effected during a century would be almost miraculous, did we not consider that they had been produced by the spirit and intelligence of the people, and were in no degree dependant upon the apathy or caprice of the ruling power. The description which has just been given of the roads of France would apply to those of England of a century ago. The first turnpike road was established by an act of the 3d Charles II. The mob pulled down the gates ;-and the new