National Progress (continued) page 4

The proofs of this prosperity have been exhibited in various other ways. In 1815 the yearly value of dwelling-houses in England and Wales was £14,000,000 for nearly 10,000,000 of people; in 1841 the yearly rental was £23,000,000 for under 16,000,000 of people; which, reckoning the rental at twenty years' purchase, shows an investment in houses of capital amounting to £180,000,000 in twenty-six years. Counting since the peace in 1815, it has been estimated that the real property of England and Wales in the form of additional dwellings must have absorbed £240,000,000 of capital. Sir Robert Peel, in bringing forward his proposal for an income tax in 1842, assumed the value of real property in Great Britain to be as follows: - Rent of land, £39,400,000; rent of houses, £25,000,000; tithes, mines, &c., £8,400,000: total, £72,800,000, which, at twenty-five years' purchase, would be equal to a capital of £1,820,000,000. The annual value of real property actually assessed to the property and income tax in 1843, turned out to be much more than Sir Robert Peel estimated, amounting to more than £95,000,000 a year.

Savings-banks afford a very good index to the improved condition of the working classes. In 1830 the total number of depositors in the United Kingdom was 412,000; and the amount deposited, £13,500,000. In 1840 the number of depositors had increased to nearly 800,000, and the amount to £23,500,000. The total number of depositors in 1845 was 1,000,000, and the amount of investments nearly £33,000,000. Of this sum, domestic servants, nearly all females, deposited £80,000.