The Express.
London, England, 1860-01-09 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JAN. 9.

Tut railway traffic returns furnish an excellent
criterion of the general movement of trade. To be
prosperous, the country most be busy ; and if it be
busy, the fact most be shown in the statistics of loco-
motion. The higher the amount of railway traffic, the
keener is the race for business. Commercial men mast
rash to and fro to get orders and inspect goods; and the
goods themselves are always on the move. The raw
asaterial—cottoe, wool, flex—is incessantly flowing
into the manufacturing districts, and manufsetured
articles are inamsautly tieing out again. In return
for the one or two articles which a district pro-
daces and distributes in mares, it wants, in
smaller propertioas, a thousand articles only to be
procured elsewhere. We cannot take oar breakfast
without consuming the produce of half-a-dosen dis-
tant clime.. W. cannot walk in the open air with-,
oat being &prudent in some degree upon the labmir
of the Australian sheep-shearer. And this same
sheep-shearer, located at the opposite extremity of
the globe, may ►ave upon his own beck a portion of
the fleece whisk leas paired through his bands, and
which has feud its way back to him, by a very cir-
cuitous route, vie Lancashire or Yorkshire. The
Hindu settee cultivator, too, his hie own produce
passed back to him in a form in which he knows it
not, Manchester having put her mark and levied her
toll wpm it. The semi system holde pm within
the cestines of oar own country. Mars is a!
eseselem interchange of commodities. Ask le
exeheoged for iron and tin ware ; real for
wheat ; ease and sugar for come grads ; stone for
malt liquors. The process is as diner, Wash not
/pits so rude, as if done by primitive barter. Beak
member of the community i. indebted to tie atm-
nous of a thousand of his fellows, who are ewer
catering for him. Such is trade. There is scarcely
a production too valueless for it to grasp, whilst its
essiceptione, and the general remits of its operations.
rse freqseatly of the grandest and most beneficent
mem

The railway traffic return', then, form an excel-
lent criterion of the extent of trade, especially
of oar internal trade. A g:ance at them be-
mese the more interesting now that another twelve-
monthly period is completed, because they effect the
position of mon than three hundred millions of
invested capital. From the Weekly Lilt published
" under the authority of the Committee of the Stock
" Exchange" we have compiled the following state-
scot, showingthe aggregate receipts of the priocipsi
railway ccenpaaiss for the second six months of 1859,
compared with the corresponding period of 1858:
Trak. Ms Trak. Ufl

Igworn .......—... iii 1.913 MO CU% WA
Umbersik . 00 717 la 131.114 147
()Wow .ds liiii::.: 777:111 1711 111 417 174
Wires Swims . lie. 1i...... WAS 14 IMAM SU
1i5di11we5=...........m. ..... MINS 1114 171.e3.1 MI
apes • • ......... 55,..7 40 .
11,..10 4•1
Mitt ligkieffs...::. WOO 11114 IN 1.4 UN
= 1ia11ma..... trrt 1314, 1113 II
UNA= .... , ~. WAS MI 4112.104 104
it=........ ............ "s 4 Ig' 111
110PO4:•• •• •

0;214111.6"1161.k_ MINIM

n,.31 ah rsist
mt. 132..31 141
112 144 114 Or
1.3,2111 777 122/473

1E1.311

Pow/a-
faith
Soul ........ ........... ,

110 )01 •p MOO 04
FF7.•4 114 *KIM SIN
'n11.2.13 In, 17017 1711

MITI 1,3111 li.Thlal URI

The total lamas. is 696,4361., or upwards el 7
per cent. The total inertias in the number of miles
012 which the Wylie is publishid ice% sr only mem"
sae-third per mat. The total return per mat is sew
eequsatly 1,63.51. 17.. Id., naiad 1,6471. Se. Id. is
1658, a difference of FN. 13e. 7d. per mile. This ie
a eery fair and satisfactory comparison. It will set
mope atlantic. that the Imams et Klee lbw