The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

[From the Edinburgh Observer.]

ENGLAND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

In seventy years the people of Great-Britain have advanced full eight millions. In twenty-five years, the number of houses in England and Wales alone have advanced one half.

Fifty years ago, the very existence of canals was a matter of incredulity. Fifteen millions of public wealth have now been profitably absorbed by those mighty drains, and at least half as much more is at this hour destined for their formation. Fifty years ago there was hardly a steam-engine in the Kingdom. There cannot now be less than twelve thousand; a creation of power equal to at least a quarter of a million of horses; an energy which, in a single day, would have raised up the great Pyramid of Egypt. Fifty years ago our annual export of manufactured cotton did not amount to a quarter of a million in value. It has now swollen to nearly thirty millions. In the same period, our exported woollens, in defiance of Saxon, Prussian, Spanish, and American competition, have advanced more than two millions. Fifty years ago, our imports of raw silk were only three hundred thousand pounds in weight. They are now nearly thirty millions. Fifty years ago, our exports of linens were about forty millions. Fifty years ago, the whole value of our exported produce, both native and foreign, was just fifteen millions of money; the value of British produce exported, alone, is now more than fifty millions. A hundred and fifty years ago, there were only two or three vessels in Scotland above two hundred tons; our whole tonnage is now more than a quarter of a million, employing twenty thousand souls. A hundred and fifty years ago, says Chalmers, the whole navy of Britain did not amount to 100,000 tons; it is now at least three millions of tons, employing about two hundred thousand souls.