WHAT THE NATIONS OWE.

The aggregate of all national debts is not far from $23,750,000,000. Of this aggregate, between 96 and 97 per cent. is owed by twenty countries, and more than one-half by tour countries, namely, France, England. United States, and Italy. The following table will exhibit the debts and asnual interest charge in millions of dollars, and the rate per cent. paid of the twenty countries owing the largest debts:

Adding around $800,000,000 for the smaller debts, gives the grand total of $23.750,000,000 as above stated. It will be seen that the annual interest charges upon the twenty countries enumerated is $912,750,000. To this should be added about $57,250,000 for unenumerated debts, making a total annual charge of a round thousand million dollars on the taxpayers of the world on account of interest on public indebtedness.

THE RATES AT WHICH SOME LEADING COUNTRIES ARE ABLE TO BORROW MONEY.

"England, 3 per cent.; India, 4 per cent.; Holland, 4 per cent.; Canada, 41⁄2 per cent.; Australasia, 4 per cent.; United States, 5 per cent.; Russia, 5 per cent.; Brazil, 5 per cent.; Italy, 6 per cent.; Portugal, 6 per cent; Hungary, 7% per cent.; Egypt 8 per cent.; Turkey 10 per cent.; Peru, 10 per cent; Spain, 15 per cent.; Mexico, 18 per cent.'

This country, it will be seen, stands the same as France, Russia, and Brazil, and better than Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Spain, and Turkey, in Europe, and still further above Peru and Mexico.

During the past two years Great Britain has reduced her debt $50,000,000; Russia, $75,000,000; Germany, $40,000,000; and this country about $30,000,000. Italy has increased hers by $150,000,000; Spain by $570,000,000; Austria by $220.000,000; Turkey by $55,000,000; and India by $110,000,000.

Some small portion of the grand aggregate of national debts has been incurred for the purpose of more or less productive investment in the construction of railroads, canals and other public works. But by far the greater part has been incurred for the purpose of carrying on war, or meeting deficits in ordinary budgets. It is within bounds to say that national securities to the amount of twenty thousand millions-an amount equal to more than two-thirds of the value of all the property in the United States-represents wealth that has been utterly destroyed in the prosecution of wars of ambition, conquest, or revenge, or in the maintenance of vast military and naval establishments, or in the support of splendid and useless courts.

THE GREATNESS OF LONDON.

In few cities are there more than half a dozen railway stations. In London there are at least one hundred and fifty. Some of the railways never pass beyond its limits, and of one, the Tottenham & Hampstead, Punch says: "No one ever travels by it, as no one knows where it begins or where it ends.' The Metropolitan and other intramural railways run trains every three or five minutes, and convey from twenty to fifty millions of passengers annually. Clapham is the great south-western junction, and through it seven hundred trains pass every day. Its platforms are so numerous, and its underground passages and overground bridges so perplexing, that to find the right train on changing, is one of those things "that no fellow can understand." As a proof of the expansive nature of London traffic, it was supposed that when the Metropolitan Railway was opened, all the city to Paddington omnibusses would be run off the ground; but, although it carried forty-three millions of passengers last year, it has been found necessary to increase the number of omnibusses on the southern route, and they yield one per cent. more revenue than before the opening of the railway.

Besides the railways, there are some fourteen or fifteen thousand tramcars, omnibusses and cabs traversing the streets. There are lines of omnibusses known only to the inhabitants of their own localities, such as those across the Isle of Dogs from Poplar to Milwall; from London bridge, along Tooley street, to Dockhead, &c. The London Omnibus Company have five hundred and sixty-three omnibusses, which carry fifty millions of passengers annually.

It is more dangerous to walk the streets of London than to travel by railway or to cross the Atlantic. Last year one hundred and twenty-five persons were killed, and two thousand five hundred and thirteen injured by vehicles in the streets. Supposing every individual man, woman and child made one journey on foot per diem, which is considerably above the average, the deaths would be one in eleven millions, while the railways only killed about one in fifty millions of passengers, and the Cunard Company of Atlantic steamers boasts of having never lost a passenger.

Other instances of the immensity of the population of London are that three-quarters of a million of business men enter the city in the morning and leave it in the evening for their suburban residences. There are ten thousand policemen, as many cab-drivers, and the same number of persons connected with the post office, each of which classes, with their families, would make a large town. When London makes a holiday, there are several places of resort, such as the Crystal Palace, the Zoological Garden. Kew Garden, &c., which absorb from thirty to fifty thousand each. The cost of gas for lighting is two million five hundred thousand pounds annually; the water supply is one hundred millions of gallons per diem. In the year 1873 there were five hundred and seventy-three fires; and for the purpose of supplying informa tion on the passing events of the day, three hundred and fourteen daily and weekly newspapers are required

What London will eventually become it is idle to predict. It already stands in four counties, and is striding onward to a fifth (Herts). The probability is, that by the end of the century, the population will exceed five millions, and will thus have quintupled itself in the century. Should it progress at an equal rate in the next, it will in the year 2000 amount to the enormous aggregate of twenty-five millions; and the question that naturally arises is, how could such a multitude be supplied with food? But the fact is, that the more its population increases, the better they are fed. In the Plantagenet days, when the population was not a third of a million, famines were of frequent occurrence. But now, with the command of the pastures, the harvests and the fisheries of the world, starvation becomes impossible.

ENGLAND'S RULERS.

The following is a correct table of the reigning sovereigns of England, together with the date of the beginning of their reign :

We give the following table which embraces the statistics for ten years. The arrival of aliens were as follows:

1775.

....

...

........ .......

84,560.

Of the aliens who arrived here during the past year, Germany furnished 25,559, Ireland 19.924, England 10,793, Austria 4,970, Sweden 3.303, Scotland 3,070, Russia 3,123, Norway 2,602, Italy 2,575, France 2,376, Denmark 1,854, Switzerland 1,439, and twenty-six other countries the balance. Of the 84,560 aliens, arriving during the past year, 37,527 were male adults, 28,905 female adults, 18,128 children under 12 years of age.

IMPORTANT LAND DECISIONS.

Decisions of the Secretary of the Interior has established the following principles:

HOMESTEADS.

The possession of an executor or administrator is, under the Homestead law, the possession of the heirs or divisee, subject to the right of administration vested in the officer, and the time allowed by the Court for said settlement of the estate must be counted for the heir or devisee in making final proof. The provisions of Sec. 2,291 of the Revised Statutes are substantially complied with by continual cultivation for the period of five years by the heirs or devisee, personal residence not being required in their case. At a hearing to determine the abandonment in the case of the deceased homestead claimants, a certified copy of the will and and other matters connected therewith may be introduced.

PRE-EMPTION.

A mortgage unsatisfied at the date of proof and entry, defeats a pre-emption claim; also decisions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to the effect that soldiers now in the regular army, under Sec. 2,293 of the Revised Statutes, perform the preliminary acts relating to homestead entries therein mentioned.

TIMBER CULTURE.

The planting of seeds or cuttings is not a compliance with the Timber Culture act, but the General Land Office does not inquire how the required trees are produced. If seeds or cuttings produce healthy-growing trees, the law is complied with. A timber-culture settler may relinquish a portion of the land embraced in his entry, and hold the remainder.

MINERAL LANDS AND RAILROAD GRANTS.

"

The question, "Can lands containing valuable deposits of mica, inuring, if agricultural, to the Union Pacific Railroad, be patented under the mining laws? was answered: FirstLands containing valuable deposits of mica may be patented under the Mining law of May 10, 1872. Second-All minerals, except coal and iron, are excepted from the grants to railroads.

CONSUMPTION OF COTTON.

The number of cotton mills in operation in the United States is 2875, of which 181 are in the southern, and 694 in the northern states. Massachusetts has the largest number in the north, and Georgia in the south. The former has 206 and the latter 47. In 1875 the north used 1,097,000 bales against 1,094,387 bales in 1874. The southern mills during 1875 used 145,079 bales against 128,526 bales in 1874. The kinds of good manufactured are given in round figures, as follows:

In comparing the cost of production between the American and English manuacturers, it is stated that the American cotton costs the Manchester spinners one cent per pound more than the Lowell, which is more than the difference in the cost of wages, and therefore we can -compete with England in markets where the cost of transportation is the same.

OCEAN TELEGRAPH CABLES.

Up to 1847, no substance suitable for the insulation of a submarine wire was known. In 1846, Mr. James Reynolds, of New York, invented a machine for covering wire with India rubber, and during the year 1847 covered a large amount of wire with this substance; but in consequence of drying it (vulcanization of rubber being then unknown), it proved a failure. Early in the spring of 1848. Mr. Craven brought a piece of wire covered with

Mr. Reynolds, and asked if he could cover wire with gutta percha with his macha percha to

Mr. Rey

nolds undertook to do so, and immediately poceeded to manufacture gutta percha covered wire. He covered the cable which was laid across the Hudson river between New York and Jersey City, which was the first gutta percha cable ever made and the first submarine wire ever constructed and successfully operated for the transmission of intelligence over a distance of half a mile. The first submarine cable ever laid in the sea, was laid between Dover and Calais, in 1850. It was a single strand of gutta percha, unprotected by any outside coating, and worked only one day. The next cable was also laid between Dover and Calais, in 1851. This cable contained four conducting wires, was twenty-seven miles in length, and weighed six tons per mile. This cable is still working, after having been down twenty-three years. The next long cable was laid in 1853, between Dover and Ostend, a distance of eighty miles, and contained six conducting wires, and weighed 5% tons per mile. It is still in working order. In 1853 a cable of one conducting wire was laid between England and Holland, 120 miles, weighing 1 tons per mile. This cable worked for twelve years. From 1853 to 1858 thirty-seven cables were laid down, having a total length of 3,700 miles, of which sixteen are still working. Thirteen worked for periods varying from a week to five years, and the remaining eight were total failures.

On the 6th of August, 1858. the first Atlantic cable was laid between Ireland and Newfoundland. The weight of this cable was one ton per mile, and its cost was as follows: Price of deep sea wire per mile, $200; price of spun yarn and iron wire per mile, $265; price of outside tar per mile, $20; total cost per mile, $485. Price, as above, for 2,500 miles, $1,212,500; price of twenty-five miles shore end at $1,450 per mile, $36,250; total cost, 1,249,235. This cable worked from August 10 to September 1, during which time 129 messages were sent from Valentia to Newfoundland, and 271 from Newfoundland to Valentia.

The next long cable which was laid, was from Suez to India, a distance of 3,500 miles, in 1859, This cable was laid in five sections, which worked from six to nine months each, but was never in working order from end to end.

The total length of all the cables which have been laid is about $70,000 miles, of which over 50,000 miles are now in successful operation. The 20,000 miles of cables which has thus far failed, represent fifty-eight in number.

Including the original 1858 cable, five cables have been laid down between Ireland and Newfoundland, of which only three are now in working order. These three were laid in .866,

1873, and 1874. The cable of 1865, of a similar type as the above, has not been working for ver two years.

The maximum speed of signaling through 2000 miles of the Atlantic telegraph of 1858 was two and a half words a minute. The conductor of the Atlantic cable of 1858 consisted of a strand of seven copper wires of No. 22% guage, weighing 93 pounds per mile, while those of 1865, 1866, 1873, and 1874, have each 300 pounds per mile. The highest rate of speed obtained through the 1858 cable was 21⁄2 words per minute, while through the 1865, 1866, 1873 and 1874 cables, they have obtained a speed of 17 words per minute in regular working, and 24 words per minute upon an experimental test.