The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-04 00:00:00

THE REPRESENTATION OP COUNTIES.

Among a batch of blue books and papers issued
this morning for the information of parliament, is a
summary of 90 pages, furnishing, in respect of the several
counties in England and Wales, information analogous to
that contained in the borough summary of the electoral re-
turns which were published in March last. This docu-
ment has been prepared under the superintendence of
Mr. J. Lambert, poor-law inspector. Amcngst other in-
formation given is the amount of election expenses, the
number of electors whose qualifying property is within a
parliamentary borough, the number of unrepresented
towns and the population of each, Ike. At the close of the
book is a list of the principal parliamentary returns and
papers relating to the electoral franchise which were
issued last session. These are so numerous as to occupy
five pages.
The expenses of contested elections for counties at the
last general election, 26 in number, amounted to 291,8361. ;
the non-contested, 52 in number, to 315,6661. The popu-
lation in the counties, exclusive of represented boroughs,
increased between 1831 and 1861 by 2,738,378, and the
number of electors by 76,697. The unrepresented towns
and metropolitan parishes in the counties are 135 in num-
ber, having a population of 1,495,079.

The Commissioners of the Inland Revenue, in a
report issued to-day, express some surprise at the great
increase of the consumption of spirits in Ireland as com-
pared with the quantities consumed in England and
Scotland. The proportionate increase in England is .544
per cent. ; in Scotland, 3.44 per cent. ; and in Ireland,
8.68 per cent. The export of spirits from England has sud-
denly been diminished by nearly 2,000,000 of gallons. The
distillers attribute the fact to the very low prices of
Prussian spirits made from potatoes and roots, " and
which," says the commissioners, "though extremely
coarse, and in every respect inferior to the productions
of this country, are taken in large quantities for fortify-
ing wines, and for mixing with such spirits and liqueurs
as have sufficient flavour to disguise the unpleasant taste
of the adulterating material. They are much used in
this country for fortifying wines in bond." The
commissioners come to the conclusion that in Eng-
land there are consumed two bushels of malt per head,
and about half a gallon of spirits ; in Scotland, seven-
tenths of a bushel of malt per head, and more than a gal-
lon and a half of spirits ; and in Ireland, four-tenths of a
bushel of malt, and eight-tenths of a gallon of spirits.
It appears that during last year there was a
payment of legacy and succession under one will of the
sum of 150,260/. The same estate contributed 42,000/. to
the probate duty, the property being valued at 2,800,000/.
The Inland Revenue Commissioners assume in
their report, just published, that our four•whecled cabs
are a disgrace to the metropolis, but the only suggestion
they can tire in the way of a remedy is an extension of the
powers given to the police, or the more active exercise of
their present power for prohibiting the use of " objection-
able carriages and horses." They also call the attention of
the government to the fact that the cheap railway trains,
which were originally exempted from duty in compensation
for compelled lowness of fares, are now most remunerative,
and they snore than hint that the exemption should not
continue.

Among the samples of adulterated tobacco
examined lately at the Inland Revenue Laboratory were
several containing liquorice, others fermentable sugar, and
some tannic acid, sulphate of iron, and logwood,wbilst one
sample of " roll" sent from Scotland actually consisted of
oakum, covered with a thin wrapper of leaf tobacco, and
was, from its outward appearance, Indistinguishable from
genuine tobacco. The principal of the laboratory gives
the weight of tobacco yearly consumed per head of the
population at one pound four and three-quarter ounces,
which shows a continuous increase during the List '2O
years.

AGRICULTURAL RETURNS.—From a variety of
returns issued this morning relating to the acreage of
land in the United Kingdom during last year the following
particulars are gleaned:—England has a total area
of :12,590,397 statute acres. Of these 7,400,170 arc
under corn crops, 2,750,008 under green crepe,
760,979 under bare fallow, 2,238,087 under clover
and at tificial and other grasses under rotation
and 8,998,027 of permanent pasture exclusive of hill
pastures. The total of estimated ordinary stock of
cattle was 3,420,044, and of sheep 15,124,541. The total
area in Ireland in statute acres is '20,3'22,641. Of these
2,173,433 are under corn crops, 1,482,091 under green
crops, 28,060 under bare fallow, 1,600,495 under clover and
artificial grass, and 10,002,058 under permanent pasture.
In the latter item, however, lull pastures are included.
The cattle were estimated at :1,742,932, and the sheep at
4,270,427.
DEATH OF MR. W. LON(I.—We have to record
the death of Mr. Walter Long, for many years M.P. for
North Wilts—namely, from 1835 up to the last dissolution
of parliament—who died on the 31st ult. at Torquay,
somewhat suddenly, after a short illness. The late Mr.
Long, of Wraxall and Rood Ashton, Wilts, belonged to au
old county family, several members of which had for a
long series of years been knights of the shire, ar.d all in
the conservative interest. He was the eldest eon of Mr.
Richard Godolphin Long, formerly a member for the
county, by Florentine, daughter of Sir Bourchier ‘Prey,
Part., and married, in 1819, Mary Anne, daughter of the
late Right Hon. Archibald Colquhoun, Lord Register of
Scotland, which lady died in 1836 ; and secondly, in 1837,
Lady Bisshopp, widow of Sir Cecil Bisshopp, Bart., and
daughter of the late Admiral Sir James llillyar, K.C.B.
THE AUTHOR'S DEN.—Mr. Beau .. nt had a theory
that a man should have a Den, somewhere in the world.
And he had always in bachelor days contrived to have one,
in which disorder, as it seemed, was supreme. His wife
haul fitted up and decorated the nicest little room for him,
on the ground floor of the villa, and used to pet flowers
then. every day, and constantly adorn it with some fend-
nine fancy. And, during the first months after their mar-
riage, Mr. Beaumont consented to sit, arrayed in velvet
and conjugal red slippers, a model of an elegant author-
craftsman. During this time, chile his chief business
was to be ready with a smiling answer when a pretty face
looked in and asked him how he was getting on, and
whether he wanted anything, and whether he should soon
have done, and while his attempts at work were some-
what interrupted by the great pains bestowed upon his
whiskers by his admiring wife, the elegant little room
answered its purpose very well. But later, when the young
wife acquired more repose:and the young husband had to
work harder, Mr. Beaumont suddenly moved himself up•
stairs into a garret, ou which he had been casting a secret
and resolute eye. Availing himself of a couple of days
when his wife was visiting her parents, he basely brought
to the refined villa a cart full of his old furniture from his
bachelor chambers—a terribly stout, but hideously ugly
table, a battered old desk which had borne up his manu-
script from the time when he was struggling into maga.
tines to the time when magazines were struggling for him,
a vast oak chest, filled with the meworials of years of an
odd life, three or four prints in the wormiest of frames, and
a huge arm -chair which had once belonged to a monthly nurse.
This pleasing assortment of goods Mr. Beaumont conveyed
up into his garret, and dire was the astonishment of the
little matron when on her return, she found the graceful
nest deserted, and tie beloved bird perched in this strange
most. But she was too good a wife not to understand the
fitness of things, sad the Den became an institution.—
Sooner or Laity, by Shirley Brooks, No. 4.