Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1885-04-18 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

RUSSIA'S RESOURCES.  In looking to the possibility of a struggle with an empire like Russia, it may be useful to give a short ' abstract of some of the controlling facts which should decide the issue of the quarrel. Ttuasia in Europe, including Poland and Finland, contained in 1880 a population of 83,660,000. Russia in Asia, containing Caucasia, Siberia, and Central Asia (exclusive of the later advances), covers an area of 6,297,000 square miles, containing 14,700,000 persons. As to agriculture, the existing returns only extend partially for ten or twelve years back, and apply to European Russia alone. They are enough, however, to show a rapid and serious decline in this source of national wealth. The total acreage under corn crops, which rose from 155,000,000 acres in 1872 to 167,000,000 acres in 1879, fell in 1881 to 138,000,000 acres, and the yield of corn, which in 1875 amounted to 1,281,000,000 bushels, and which rose to 1,498,000,000 bushels in 1879, fell to 701,000,000 bushels in 1883. The only other food crop in Russia of which particulars are given is the potato, which shows a slight decline in 1883. The figures cited allow of but a comparatively small margin for exportation; which, however, amounted to 229,000,000 bushels in 1883, or almost exactly the same quantity as was exported in 1879, when the produce of the soil was nearly double; a fact which indicates the prevalence of great distress among the poorer classes. The revenue of Russia in 1882 is returned at £111,000,000, or £1 13s. per head of the whole population. Fifty-two per cent, of this revenue is derived front customs and excise, the spirit duties alone forming 36 per cent, of the total national revenues. The severity with which such an amount of taxation presses on so sparse a population is excessive, and strikingly contrasts with the incidence of 508. per head on the dense and busy population of the United Kingdom. The receipts from the Caucasian provinces form a separate item in the Budget. They amount to about 1* roubles (4s. 3d. if silver roubles, 2s. 41. if paper roubles) per head of the population of Cau-1 casia ; and come to less, by more than 10 per cent., than the cost of the civil administration of the Caucasus; leaving nothing for military expenditure or as a contribution to the national wealth. This fact may give some idea of the strain which Asiatic extension must throw on the resources of Russia. Of the national expenditure, also returned at about £111,000,000, 35 per cent, is paid as interest on the public tebt, the interest on which has nearly doubled in six years. The increase of the public debt (exclusive of the railway debt) from 1870 to 1880 is almost exactly equal to the aggregate payments of interest on the same from 1875 to 1882. So that, in plain terms, Russia has borrowed in 10 years as much money as she has paid in interest in seven years. This fact, patent on the face of the official returns, is of cardinal importance as regards the provision of the sinews of war. The total length of railways open in Russia at the end of 1882 was 14,226 miles. The receipts in 1882 were £2353 per mile, being £147 per mile less than in 1878. Mr. Marvin says that "the total of the deficits of the railways of Russia for 1882 exceeded £15,000,000." No authority is given for that statement, but it can be shown that it is by no means improbable. The value of imports into Russia (70 per cent, of which are seaborne) has risen from £65,000,000 in 1872 to £82,000,000 in 1882, or by 25 per cent. in 10 years. The value of exports has risen from £49,000,000 in 1872 to £93,000,000 in 1882, or by 90 per cent. in 10 years, 74 percent. of the same being sea-borne. The corresponding cargo tonnages were 299 million tons entered and 4.0 million tons cleared; resulting in the fact that Russia is now paying £l9 2s. per ton for her imports and receiving £l7 3s. per ton for her exports. Thus, whether we regard population, incidence of taxation, amount and sources of revenue, condition of agriculture, railway traffic, or external trade, it is evident that the means of maintaining a long and vigorous struggle with a powerful and resolute foe are wanting to the Russian Empire. The facts cited as to the public debt and the income of the railways (of which the debt amounts to £91,500,000) are such as to preclude any hope of borrowing in the European market. The drain of a large military conscription on a population of 12 persons per square mile is destructive of the very basis of national welfare. The agricultural statistics show the effect that this drain is already producing. To seize fertile and populous India might make amends for the cost at which the Caucasus, and probably the Central Asian possessions of Russia, have been attained and kept. And it is always possible to feed a war by means of suspending payments to foreign creditors.—St. James's Gazette.  MARY ANN GILES was charged at the Leicester Quarter Sessions with burglary and stealing goods value £7. The prisoner while in prison made a desperate attempt to commit suicide by setting herself on fire by which she was so terribly injured that her trial had to be postponed and her life was at one time despaired of. She was found guilty, and having had along criminal career, was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude:  OFFICIAL notification is made that, in the Royal dockyards and private shipbuilding yards, 19 vessels for her Majesty's navy are at present being built. These represent a total of 155,675 tons and 70,550 horse power. •  To