has risen from 365 millions to 662
millions. These figures are principally interesting because the tramcar
is essentially a popular means of conveyance. If the working-classes of
this country are being reduced to starvation, as the Protectionists say,
by the invading Teuton, it is astounding that they should be able to
afford so many pennies to pay for tram fares.

POST OFFICE EXPANSION.

From this last comparatively limited but not unimportant test of the
general prosperity of the country, we pass to the Post Office returns.
Next to the test of railway traffic, already dealt with, no better
evidence of the prosperity and commercial activity of a country can be
found than is furnished by the growth of post office business. A nation
whose trade is being filched from it by foreigners, whose blast furnaces
are cold, and whose looms are silent, as Mr. Williams would have us
believe, does not add every year forty million letters to the amount of
its correspondence. Yet this is what we have been doing in the United
Kingdom for a good many years past. Starting from the year ending March
31st, 1878, when a slight alteration was made in the method of
presenting the statistics, we find that in the nineteen years that have
since elapsed the number of letters delivered annually has increased
from 1,058 millions to 1,834 millions. In the same period postcards have
increased from 102 millions to 315 millions; newspapers and book
packets, from 318 to 821 millions. Moreover, the increase has been
steady, with one significant exception. In the year 1894-95, which was
notoriously a year of bad trade, there was a drop in the number of
letters delivered. The drop was more than made good in 1895-96. Turning
to telegrams, we find a similar story. Here we are compelled to start
with the year 1886-87, the first complete year after the introduction of
sixpenny telegrams. In the ten years that have since elapsed the number
of telegrams delivered has steadily increased from 50 millions to 79
millions.

EVER-GROWING INCOMES.

Another test of our national prosperity is furnished by the income tax
returns. When the annual value of the property and profits assessed for
income tax exhibits a steady increase, it is hard to believe that our
manufacturers, and all the classes that depend upon them for support,
are being ruined by Germans or by anybody else. Here are the figures:--

INCOME TAX ASSESSMENTS.

In Millions Sterling.

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