Tower Hamlets in 1861 had 723,971 inhabitants, and in 1864 they had 55,357 electors, or 7.6 per cent. In 1871 they had 834,884 population, and in 1868 64,308 electors, or 77 per cent. Leeds and Sheffield, on the other hand, had in 1861 a population of 392,337, and in 1864 16,726 electors. In 1871 they had 499,148 inhabitants, and in 1868 they had 65,514 electors, an increase of the latter from just over 4 to 13 per cent. of the population. In Cockermouth, where the number of the inhabitants remained unchanged, the voters increased from 398 in 1864 to 1095 in 1868, or from 5.7 to 15.5 per cent. of the population. It would seem from these examples as if the great increase in borough populations had been chiefly in the class of non-electors, and would tend to neutralize the recent enlargement of the franchise.

Among the odd coincidences which always come to the surface in a Census, it may be noticed how much certain initial letters prevailed among the boroughs that had lost population, although these letters did not preponderate in the whole number. There were 21 boroughs whose name commenced with W, and seven of these showed a diminution in the numbers of their inhabitants; while out of 25 commencing with B, only 4 had lost in numbers. Out of the 26 commencing with the letters A, F, G, I, N, O, and Y, none showed any diminution, and only 3 were diminished out of 21 commencing with S. These seem to be mere coincidences, unconnected with any tendency to the use of certain initials in particular districts of the kingdom.

The principal fluctuations in the Money-Market during 1870 had been directly caused by the war between France and Germany, the occurrence of which disturbed the most careful reckonings, while its successive incidents one after another falsified the most confident forecasts. The part which war played in 1870 fell in the next year to the share of peace, the arrangement of all matters of dispute between the two contending Powers having produced an effect scarcely less decided than that which had followed the first indication of an open rupture. This result is to be explained, partly by the terms of the Treaty of Peace, and partly by the internal convulsions which throughout France at once succeeded to the settlement with the foreign enemy. By the Treaty of Versailles a sum of money, unexampled in amount, was made payable to the victorious Power, and the attempts of France to raise that indemnity affected every European money-market. The revolt of the Commune, with the second siege of Paris, had also the effect of prolonging the era of distrust which had commenced with the war, and hence a large amount of French capital, which had been transmitted to England for safety in the summer of 1870, remained here for months after peace was nominally restored. These circumstances together explain the anomalous state of the Money-Market within the latter months of the closing year, and help to reconcile the widely various conjectures that were hazarded. The unprecedented movements of specie and securities that occurred after the clauses of the Treaty came into

operation had less effect here than was expected, because the influx of foreign capital provided us with exceptional means to meet our share of the liabilities involved, while, for the same reason, no sooner had the first payments been completed than our Money-Market began again to display an abundance of unemployed capital, beyond even the requirements of the very active trade then in progress. Whatever sums we wanted to advance on French account we had no difficulty in supplying, because the French themselves had deposited with us a very considerable sum, which, under more favourable political conditions, would have gone to develope business in France itself. But, even with this assistance, the first transfers of money rendered necessary by drafts in favour of Germany were heavy enough to throw the London market into temporary confusion, and to bring about a panic on the Stock Exchange. The great French Loan of 80,000,0007. was brought out on the 26th of June, and a number of payments, representing, it was believed, a total of about 10,000,000l., fell due here in the following month. The proceeds of the drafts on London were taken by Germany in gold, and the consequence was, that, in addition to large purchases in the open market, fully 5,000,0007. in sovereigns left the Bank of England, in sums varying from a quarter of a million to almost a million sterling at a time. The Bank Directors took prompt steps to meet the emergency. From 2 per cent.-the figure to which previous inactivity and the accumulation of imported capital had reduced the official minimum-the rate of discount was advanced by rapid movements to 5 per cent.; the first change, from 2 to 3 per cent., being on the 21st September; and the last, from 4 to 5 per cent., being on Saturday, the 7th of October. But it was not till the last balance of the indemnity drafts had been sent off, and the enhanced rates had been some weeks in operation, that the bullion tide began to turn. On the 11th of October the stock in the Bank vaults had fallen to 19,172,8987. After that date the recovery was decided, and it was largely aided by the policy of the Directors, who, prudently regulating their conduct by the actual situation rather than by precedents which had no relevancy, maintained the rate of discount at a high figure some time after, to superficial observers, the necessity had ceased. The wisdom of this conduct was amply justified by the event: the resources of the establishment were swollen from week to week until the previous drain had been replaced. Then, when gold to the value of five millions sterling had been attracted from the Continent, the rate was promptly reduced in three different movements, until the minimum was 3 per cent., at which it stood when the year closed. The Bank was then in a very strong position; its reserve of notes being 14,681,2257., its total bullion 24,914,8227., and its proportion of reserve to liabilities exactly 50 per cent.

The Loans raised within the year were nominally of considerable magnitude. The French Loan was for 80,000,0007., and it was largely subscribed here, though much of the amount must afterwards

have passed from English into French hands. The other principal issues were a Russian Loan for 12,000,000l. early in the year; one for 3,000,000l. to Brazil; an Argentine Loan for 6,000,000Z.; two for Spain, one on the security of the Public Lands for 2,620,0007., and a Three per Cent. issue for 6,375,000l. effective; one for Turkey to the amount of 5,700,000l.; and various smaller issues for the South American Republics and for our own Colonies.

Trade was extremely animated during the latter half of the year, and the profits thus acquired, in conjunction with an easy money-market, stimulated the growth of joint-stock speculation. Its development was most marked in the mining world. Mining companies to work properties in all parts of the world, and with many millions of capital, started up with bewildering rapidity. Cornwall was famous for its tin before Cæsar conquered Britain, and it maintains its ancient reputation to-day. Thus we find the West Polbreen Tin Mining Company having its property in the parish of St. Agnes; capital 75007., in shares of 31. each. The Gobbett Tin Mining Company in Dartmoor had a capital of 15,000l., in 3000 shares. On the last undertaking it was stated that a profit of 48007. per annum might be looked for. But it was not at home that mining speculators found their most congenial field. The Pinto Silver Mining Company, Limited, with a capital of 130,0007. in 57. shares, had for its object to work the Maryland, Top, Delaware, and Tunnell Mines, in the Pinto district of Nevada, the purchase price being 100,0007., of which 40,000l. was in deferred shares. The East Sheboyan Silver Mining Company, capital 75,000%., in 37,500 shares, of which only 50007. bearing 20 per cent. interest were put in the market, the balance being taken by the vendors; this mine also belongs to Nevada, and is indeed close to Eberhard South Aurora Mines-the success of which might well form a tempting bait. Near this same Eldorado stands the property of the Great Western Silver Mining Company, with a capital of 30,0007., out of which 20,000l. was to be paid for the mine, leaving only 10,0007. for working. Belonging to the same region were the Colorado United Gold and Silver Mining Company, Limited, the Peltsbury Gold Mining Company, the Toiyabe Silver Mining Company and the Mineral Silver Mining Company.

At Scar

Railways were scarcely behind mines in activity, while of miscellaneous companies the most remarkable form of speculation was in tramways, now making their way, in spite of opposition, in every part of the kingdom. The London Tramways Company declared, early in the year, a maximum dividend of 6 per cent. borough we find the Scarborough Sub-Tramway Aquarium and Improvement Company for constructing a tramway between North and South Bay, running in a tunnel of 660 yards through the height by which these frequented localities are now separated. We have the Argentine Tramways Company, with a capital of 250,000., for buying up certain tramways in Buenos Ayres; and side by side with it the Buenos Ayres National Tramways Company, Limited,

address, in which he lamented that " so great a Christian army as the Church of England should stop on the march against the enemy to fight about their uniforms." But with the Purchas and Voysey judgments fresh in men's minds, and a third great ecclesiastical judgment, in the case of Sheppard v. Bennett, impending as we write, for the result of which we defer any more minute inquiry into this grave subject, the clouds that lowered over the Establishment looked dark and threatening.

The marriage of the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lornethe promise and brightness of which enabled us to close with a sense of relief the gloomy record of last year-was the great domestic topic of the early months of the present, and our Chronicle contains a full account of the wedding festivities, which called out general interest and pleasure. Later in the year, a "sensation" which had long been gathering to a head took precedence of every thing else in the public mind, in the shape of the famous "Tichborne Trial." Whether a certain stout gentleman was or was not the man he professed to be-a baronet lost at sea some years before—was the momentous issue which required a trial of seventy days before the close of the Plaintiff's case, which, with the intervention of the "Long Vacation," and other minor law's delays, lasted from the end of June to the end of the year. The Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas devoted himself exclusively to it; and the Solicitor-General, who became Attorney-General in the interim, gave services scarcely less exclusive, somewhat to the wonder of the ignorant laity, who found themselves speculating on the nature of the public duties of the law officers of the Crown, which they had always heard were so heavy, and which they knew were paid so high. It was perhaps as well that so great and grave a scandal to law and lawyers as this interminable and weary trial should attract public attention at a time when the cry for Legal Reform was on all sides becoming so great, and assuming at last something like shape and consistency. The social interest in the Tichborne Case was as natural as it was amusing. From time immemorial, a mystery of personal identity has been always to the human mind the most attractive and interesting of mysteries. The authorship of " Junius" has remained (and in spite of Mr. Twisleton and Mr. Chabot will still remain) a ceaseless subject of discussion among the curious, many of whom, probably, neither know nor care to know any thing of the historical bearing of the letters themselves. And unless the truth about the "claimant " in the Tichborne Case should be placed beyond a doubt in some unexpected way, and perhaps not even then,we know as we write that no jury's verdict will ever set the vexed question at rest. The world was divided this year into the believers and the unbelievers. It was the first and absorbing topic at every dinner-table, and the advocates of either side could scarcely look with patience upon those who disagreed with them. The betting on the case was as regularly quoted as that on the Derby or the Boat Race, and the odds varied day by day according to the superior prowess of the claimant or Sir John Coleridge in the day's tourney. Every

particular answer seemed to every partisan confirmatory of his particular conclusion upon the case, usually "foregone" to an incredible extent. The individual-and there were few such-who ventured to form no strong opinion till he had heard something of both sides, was generally regarded as an imbecile, though it must be confessed that towards the close of the year the public interest began somewhat to decline, and to lose something of its absorbing power. The drama had been allowed to "run" too long. But the flagging excitement only required a spur, and as the new year opened with the "Defendant's Case," that spur was found. Delightful was the excitement with which the claimant's enemies dwelt upon his approaching demolition; keen was the zest with which his friends anticipated the shrivelling up of hostile witnesses under the crossexamination of the terrible Serjeant Ballantine. All the world was agreed upon but one point-commiseration for the unlucky special jurymen, whom our system carefully selects for the most part from that class of occupied men to whom time is of especial value.

The last political event of the year was a change in the honourable office of Speaker of the House of Commons, from which after long service Mr. Denison retired, to be succeeded in the post, it was soon understood, by the Right Hon. H. B. W. Brand, M.P. for Cambridgeshire, formerly Lord Palmerston's and then Lord Russell's "Whip" in the Lower House. Mr. Brand's appointment could not be considered a happy one, for a parallel reason to that which made the nomination of Sir Robert Collier to the Privy Council objectionable. Like the latter, it was an admirable appointment in itself, nor could perhaps a fitter man have been found for the place of Speaker than so clear-headed, sober, and impartial a man, and so general a favourite, as Mr. Brand. But, as in the other case, the appointment was objectionable as a precedent. The tradition of selecting a man of antecedents which had never identified him closely with the leaders on either side, it was felt by others than Mr. Gladstone's opponents, should have been jealously preserved in the appointment of a new Speaker, and above all at this particular time, when special watch seems needed over the dignity and decorum of the House of Commons. On the other hand, both in the case of Sir Robert Collier and of Mr. Brand, the Government had strong ground to stand upon in the general feeling that, other considerations apart, they had found the right man for the right place. There were not a few, too, who in spite of previous difficulties and shortcomings would on personal grounds have welcomed the return of Mr. Childers to his old post at the Admiralty, and it was at all events the subject of general congratulation that by the end of the year his shattered health was sufficiently restored to enable him to meet his constituents at Pontefract. He entered into a careful explanation of the Dockyard question, and vindicated the Admiralty policy generally. His opening words are worth quoting as a good specimen of the stuff of which the best men in England, of whatever party, are still made, and of those qualities which must

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