honour to represent on such subjects as I shall touch upon. It
is in my character as a colonial Scotsman that I desire to offer
those observations that I wish to address to you. In order to
save the necessity of troubling you with many figures, I have
prepared a summary of the "Area, Population, Finances,
Commerce, and Shipping " of the British Empire, which. I hope, is
in the hands of most of the gentlemen present. This summary
has been prepared from reliable statistical data. It follows very
closely a simple statement which appears in a very admirable
book that has been published under the auspices of the Cobden
Club, called the "Vade Mecum." I have somewhat departed
*from the figures in that statement, believing that those which
I1 have taken from the official records will be found to be
?rather more approximately accurate. The alterations have all
*been in the direction of reduction of the large figures, not
in the way of exaggeration. And, now, let us consider for
a moment what the composition of the British Empire is.
It eonsists of 8 millions of square miles of the earth's surface,
*yielding every production that is required for the use of
civilised man; inhabited by 241 millions of human beings,
governed by 35 millions in these islands, and by 10 millions
of the same race scattered wide-cast through the-possessions
-of the empire. This vast population contributes yearly for
its government, and the development of the material resources
of, the country, no less a revenue than 184 millions sterling.
.Of this, 84 millions represents the revenue of Great Britain,
*and 100 millions is the aggregate revenue of the possessions
:of which I shall have occasion .to speak. It would be hope-
;less to attempt to compute the internal traffic of this vast
-population a-nd this enormous country; it would be, quite
*hopeless to endeavour to measure the interchange of labour that
mtakes place. But we may get approximately some idea of, what
flhat g-eat industry is by looking at the sea-borne trade---the
exchattge that takes place between the mother comntry and
foreign countries, and between her colonies and foreign countries,;
and it will be found that that amounts in the aggregate to