PROGRESS OF THE PROPERTY INTERESTS.

FOR some years the country has been moving, in railway phrase, on the incline ; and as the present is the winding-up season, the juncture seems favourable for inquiring into the changes produced, or likely to be, by this upward. tendency. Avoiding, however, aggregate results, which may be presumed already familiar by re- turns of trade and public revenue, we will limit our survey to new dispositions or prospects in the more buoyant interests, which ordi- narily rise or fall, sink or swim, with the industrial flood.

Of these interests, the most remarkable for hardihood of adven- ture, novelty of existence, and extraordinary vicissitudes, is that whose language we have borrowed. But of the future of railways it is impossible to help thinking there is solid ground of hope ; just as much as there is for the future of the 'United Kingdom, of whose material structure they form an inseparable part, and must assuredly rise or decline with it. What the future will be„ may be imagined from the course of a similar but Jess gigantic work of utility. Sir Hugh Middleton's great scheme for supplying London with water, presented long after it was completed far more disheartening aspects: his own large fortune had been expended in the enterprise ; the returns were all but nil ; the old modes of obtaining water by buckets, cisterns, water-carts,-and.Peter ifeeeice's water-wheel, were not at once superseded : but a lien had been established, which, from the

natural increase of the city, could not fail to be ultimately remu- nerative. The New River dompany hada monopoly ; and their di- vidends augmented with the citizens, trade, and civic opulence, till from M. they rose to their existing price of 617/. per share. May not similar good fortune await the railway shareholders ? Their lien is on the whole community ; and with every progressive in- crease in national wealth, population, and traffic, their interests are identified, apart from all prospective savings that may accrue from more experienced management and effective distributive ap- plication of their net-work in the mining and agricultural districts.

Meanwhile let us indicate progress to the present. If the great work were to be done a second time, it would doubtless be done better, and the computed waste of a hundred millions by im- provident construction be avoided. In August 1845 the railway fer- ment was at the highest, and in October 1848 nearly at the lowest depression. In the three years of this trying interval the average fall in the price of shares of the twelve principal companies was sixty-four per cent. The depreciation was still greater in the les- ser companies in some, shares were unsaleable at any price— would not be taken as a gift, liable to the contingency of " calls." Prices fell somewhat lower in 1849, and the summer dividends of ten of the large companies on the regular non-guaranteed shareswere on the average at the rate of between three and four per cent per annum. A lower rate than this was paid by the sixty remaining companies, exclusively of the London and North-western. But the worst had been past ; more favourable signs appeared next year, and in 1830 the ebb had not only ceased but became slightly re- fluent.

In spite of this severe ordeal, there has been constant, if more cautious progress : in 1845 the miles of railway open were 2343; in 1846, 2765; in 1847, 3603; iii 1848, 4478; and in December 1849, 6031: considerably above a twofold extension of available lines. In 1849 the receipts from passengers amounted to 6,277,9311., from goods 5,528,606, total 11,806,537!.; nearly one million per month- from railway traffic. In the first half year of 1850 the proceeds from the traffic of passengers and goods were 6,130,0001.; which, after deducting expenses, left for interest of debentures and dividends, 3,268,960/.

A net annual revenue of six and a half millions, to meet the present outlay of two hundred and twenty millions on railways open or in progress, is not a monetary presentment for gratulation, but, for the reasons of hope adduced, not one for despondency.

Other moveable interests than those of railways we shall only allude to : except the Public Funds, indeed, many of them can hardly be reokoned among the fluctuating elements of society.. Some even of the great mercantile interests grow as naturally and inseparably with the growth of the kingdom as the bark of a tree or the veins and arteries of the human body. Of this description are several of the old banking firms, old merchant and agency houses, old breweries, old building, bookselling, and newspaper proprietaries. By the help of the rule-of-three with certain given data, it would not be difficult to calculate the future status of any of these in respect of amount of business, circulation, consumption, or profit, ten or twenty years hence, in 1860 or 1870, by the probable prospective rate of increase of the country in resources and people.

Apart from these individualities, there are certain authentic though not very recent returns for determining the onward pro- gress and future relation of the leading iocial subdivisions of the community. A paper with this scope was drawn up by the pre- sent Chancellor of the Exchequer, and laid before Lord Monteagle's Committee of Inquiry on the Peculiar Burdens on Land. It does not come down to the present, but is valuable in affording the pro- portionate rate of proprietary movement for a determinate pe- riod. In that document the subjoined estimate was given of the relative progress of income during the first twenty-eight years of peace, of the three great classes oeOwners, Occupiers, and Traders.

Years, Ownership. Occupations. Profits or 1814-15

60,130,330

38,396,143 35,886,439 1842-43 94,810,599 43,145,786 64,344,835

Increase ....

34,680,269 4,749,643 28,458,396

Profits or gains from trade exhibit, as might be expected, the largest proportionate increase. The real property of landlords appears to have augmented in annual value by '34,680,269/., and of tenants or occupiers by 4,749,643/. In a considerable degree the aggregate incomes of landlords had increased from the increase of house property, the number of inhabited houses having in- creased between 1801 and 1841 from 1,870,476 to 3,444,042, and the value of the new houses being generally above that of the old ones. But the testimony of land-valuers and agents showed that the augmented rental of the kingdom had not arisen solely from the conversion of land into valuable building-sites, but also from the increase of the soil applied to agricultural purposes.

The Income-tax being partly of the nature of a self-imposed as- sessment, dependent on the consciences of individuals, returns under it are more valuable as a guide than as infallible criteria df the relative developments of society. We subjoin, however, some comparative returns, obtained by Mr. Moffat, of a few years' later date, showing. the produce of the Income-tax assessment on the above classes in 1843 and 1846.

Years.

1843 1846 Owners.

t

2,528,721 Occupiers.

323,481 324,393 Profits.

£1,625,344 14678 595

The assessment, it will be borne in-mind, is only 31d. per powad on the annual value returned of occupiers, and 7d. per pound ,an owners and traders.