The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

400
'J^HE BRITISH ISLES.
in the numerous factories, some of the principal amongst which we have men-
tioned, and in a variety of other occupations. English bricklayers, Scotch
masons, Welsh smiths, and Irish navvies are at work all over the country building
towns, factories, and railways. Mr. Fairbairn, in 1865, estimated the power
of the steam-engines employed throughout the country as equivalent to the
strength exercised by 3,GoO,000 horses or 76,000,000 labourers. At the pre-
sent day we may fairly assume that their power equals that of 100,000,000
human beings, and if these could be distributed in equal shares amongst the
inhabitants of the British Islands, every one of them would have three slaves
at his disposal, with muscles of steel that never tire, and requiring no other
food than coal. The annual produce of the British manufacturing industries
has been estimated at £500,000,000, and is sixfold what it was in 1815 ; whilst
the revenue derived from land and houses has, during the same epoch, only risen
from £36,000,000 to £180,000,000. The wages of English factory hands vary
considerably according to age, sex, skill, and the branches of industry, but upon
the whole they are about a fifth higher than those paid to Frenchmen under
similar conditions. They fluctuate, however, to a considerable extent, and there
occur periods of depression when they fail altogether, and reduce thousands of
families to the verge of starvation. Women and children are employed in large
numbers, more especially in the textile industries, and although the factory law^s
have limited the hours of labour during which they may be employed to fifty-
seven hours a week in the case of women and young persons between the ages of
fourteen and eighteen, and to thirty-eight hours in the case of children between
ten and fourteen, there can be no doubt that hard work exercises a baneful
influence upon the physique of the factory population. Nearly all medical men
are of opinion that the population of Lancashire and Yorkshire exhibits signs of
phj'sical degeneration.
The number of children physically unfit for work on the completion of the
thirteenth year appears to be increasing.
Commerce.
Foremost amongst the nations as a manufacturing country, England holds a
similar position with reference to its foreign and inland commerce. Its exports
and imports are equal in amount to those of France and Germany combined, and
since 1866 they have never been less than £500,000,000 a year.* Between 1865
and 1879 the imports per head of the population have varied between £9 Is. 5d.
and £11 15s. lOd. ;
the exports of British produce between £5 lis. Id. and £8 Is.
These are very large amounts when compared with those of other countries.