Show THE BRITISH EMPIRE 0 I TInt It Buys nun Sells IVImt It Owes ami What It Pays With The national debt of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is a subject of perennial interest both to the taxpayers on whom it rests and to the financiers of the world The following exhibit shows how the debt grew in various ware and how it shrunk n very little in hence 1GS8 1210SPCS 1714 3Ci5 CO 1727 5S < 00707 1743 7SS12I32 17C3 182710019 178J 2HWU5 1802 M7C3008 1813 SGlOSJlHO 1857 60811 723 1SS5 7403JOGjO The pounds sterling may ho reduced to dol lars multiplying 484 or approximate ly 5 to the pound The dates to 1S15 are at the close of each protracted war showing that the Napoleonic wars increased the debt more than threefold in twenty years As i the total population is 37000003 > it is plain i that the debt both absolutely and per capita larger than was that of the United States ho close of the civil war Yet the total mileage of railways in the United Kingdom was in 18S4 but 188 < H and in the whole empire not quite 50000 The debts of the colonies vary greatly but that of Canada is but little less in proportion to population than that of the mother country The total foreign trade of the United Kingdom for 18S5 was 044769249 about 32 0000000 and the excess of imports over exports was 160602907 or in round num bers 800000000 This is by an awkward phrase called the adverse balance of trade but in Englands case it is simply the interest on what the world owes ler the profits of the ocean freighting done for other nations and the dividends of British investments in other lands The British army for the last year returned numbered 142194 of all ranks and its cost that year lSS was 17750700 The Mn rr cost I > 1O QCt ftVl Tnfnl tviilltn expense that year u 30137200 or 151000 I 000 The revenue that year was 88043110 which paid the military expenses the interest inter-est on the debt 28853673 and left for all other purposes but 29022237 or near 145 000000 Of the total revenue 20321000 was derived from the tariff and 20000000 from liquors leaving nearly 42000000 to be derived de-rived from incomes and specific taxes by stamp and license The national taxation therefore is not far from 12 for each person in the kingdom It is estimated that taxa tion for local purposes averages 8 per capita a total of nearly 20 for each Briton The taxes for the support of paupers have been slowly decreasing for many years and those for education increasing wjth these happy I results The per cent of males over 21 who could not write was in 1843 327 in 1853 304 in 1863 238 in 1873 188 in 1883 12G Intemperance and crimes of violence have decreased nearly as fast as illiteracy No census is given of women who cannot write but the number is known to be much greater than of men The kingdom contains 800000 m more women than men I |