own in some parts of our dominion may be measured by
Australasia, which in 1837 had 134,059, and in 1885, 3,278,934, or
twenty-three times as many more. When we turn from these figures to
consider other fields of progress, we are still more amazed. It goes
without saying that these last fifty years have seen the growth of
railways and steamships from their infancy to their present
world-embracing influence. The mileage of railways open in the
United Kingdom in 1837 was about 294 miles, but a great proportion
was worked by horses. In 1885 the mileage was 19,169, the gross
receipts, L69,555,774; they carried about 1,275,000,000 passengers,
and employed 367,793 men. Not a steamer had crossed the Atlantic by
steam alone when the queen came to the throne, and her accession was
in the year previous to that during which Wheatstone in this
country, and Morse in America, introduced electric telegraphy. We,
who enjoy express trains, six-penny telegrams, half-penny
post-cards, and the parcel post, can scarcely realize that we are so
near the time when mail-coaches and sailing-packets were almost the
only means of conveyance, and when postage was a serious burden. The
greatness of the changes in social life may be realized when we
remember that, so recently as 1844, duelling was banished from the
code of honor; that crime has diminished seventy-one per cent. since
1837; and that while fifty years ago Government did nothing for
education, there are now 30,000 public schools under the Privy
Council. These facts are suggestive of the extent of the advance. Or
if, without touching on the marvellous victories of science, we try
to form an estimate of religious progress, and take the tables for
Protestant missions as giving a fair indication of the zeal and
self-sacrifice of the churches, we find that while British
contributions in 1837 amounted to L316,610, in 1885 they reached
L1,222,261.

It may be said with truth that the progress thus indicated must have
gone on, no matter who sat on the throne; but it would be unjust not
to recognize the close influence which the Crown has directly and
indirectly exercised on its advance. There has been no movement
tending to the development of the arts and the industries of the
country which has not enlisted the active sympathy of the royal
family. From the first the Prince Consort recognized the important
part which the sovereign could fulfil in reference to the peaceful
victories of science an