produced £2,290 on a profit rental of £200 per annum.
The extensive estates of Mr. J. Colpoys Bloomfield,
lying in the county of Tipperary, were disposed of in
three lots, the gross annual value of which was estimated
at £904, and which sold together for £12,350. The
Galway estates of Mr. Blake Foster, valued by the
Court's own valuator at £960 per annum, £450 of which
was apportioned to jointures chargeable upon the
property, produced £6,130. A small estate in Donegal,
with a rental of £155, charged with two annuities of £30
each, brought the sum of £1350. The gross amount of
the day's sale was £26,495.

The following authentic Railway Statistics show
the progress of railway communication, the amount of
capital expended, and the rate of profits, for the last ten
years:—At the end of the year 1845, the length of railway
opened in the United Kingdom was 2023 miles.
The total expenditure on railways at that date was
£71,647,000—about £35,070 per mile; and the gross
traffic receipts from the railways for that year were
£6,669,230—about £3469 per mile per annum. At the
end of the year 1851, the length of railway opened in
the United Kingdom had increased to 6928 miles. The
total expenditure on railways had swelled to £236,841,420
—about £35,058 per mile; and the gross receipts of the
year were £14,987,310—not more than £2281 per mile
per annum. In 1842, the average cost per mile of the
railways in existence had been £34,690; in 1845 it had
been £35,070; in 1848 it had been £34,234; and in
1851 it was again £35,058. So that the practical cost
per mile had increased, instead of diminished with the
cost of material and the increase of skill. The gross
traffic receipts per mile since 1842 have been—In 1842,
£3113, or £8·29 per cent. on the capital then expended;
in '43, £3083, or £8·82 per cent. on the capital; in '44,
£3278, or £8·84 per cent.; in '45, £3469, or £9·30 per
cent.; in '46, £3305, or £9·25 per cent.; in '47, £2870,
or £8·20 per cent.; in '48, £2556, or £6·78 per cent.; in
'49, £2302, or £6·13 per cent.; in '50, £2227, or £5·80
per cent.; in '51, £2281, or £6·35 per cent. Therefore
the increased receipts fell behind their due proportion
to the increased length opened, every year since 1842
down to 1850; and only last year, when the increased
length opened fell below the increased length opened in
the preceding year by more than half (from about 590
additional miles to about 240 additional miles), showed
signs of a healthy reaction.

The numerous body of workmen, consisting of
mechanics, millwrights, and engineers, principally
employed in the construction of machinery, have entered
into an Extensive Combination, the objects of which
have been set forth in an address, purporting to be
from "the members of the Amalgamated society of
Engineers, Machinists, &c., to their Employers." In
that address, the workmen are represented as demanding
that, for the future, no men shall work overtime, except
in cases of accident, and then to be paid double wages;
and that piece-work shall be entirely discontinued. A
notice was also given to Messrs. Hibbert, Platt & Sons,
of Oldham, that the workmen in their large establishment
would leave their employment on the 31st of
December, unless certain demands were complied with.
In consequence of these proceedings, an announcement
appeared in the newspapers, signed by the partners in
thirty-four of the leading engineering and machine-
making firms of Manchester, stating that the Amalgamated
society of Engineers, Machinists, Millwrights,
Smiths, and Pattern-makers, had made demands upon
several firms in the Manchester district, which were
totally inconsistent with the rights of the employers of
labour, and that the same body had given further notice,
that unless their demands were at once conceded, the
workmen would strike on the 31st instant. Under
these circumstances, the advertisers gave notice, that if
the threatened turn-out should be made in any one of
their workshops on the 31st, or on any subsequent day,
the whole of them would close their establishments
altogether, as a purely defensive step against the
interference and dictation of a small but mischievous class of
agitators, who were trying to force the well-disposed
workmen into opposition with their employers. The
thirty-four firms signing the advertisement include all
the eminent firms in the Manchester district; they
employ directly in their own shops 10,000 hands; and
the multitude of small subsidiary firms who supply them
with particular portions of machinery exclusively, will
swell the number of hands who depend on them to
30,000. On the 24th of December a numerous meeting of
masters engaged in practical engineering, machine-
making, &c., was held at the London Coffee-house,
Mr. Field, of the firm of Maudslay & Co., being
in the chair. Resolutions were passed expressive
of the determination of the masters promptly and
peremptorily to resist the threats of dictation
conveyed in the manifesto of the Amalgamated society,
and the first steps were taken for forming a Central
Association of Employers of Operative Engineers,
for the purpose of carrying those resolutions into effect.
On Tuesday evening the 30th of December, the
"Amalgamated Society of Engineers," &c., held a crowded
meeting in the Hall of Commerce, Threadneedle Street,
called by public advertisement "to discuss the present
state of the iron-trades, and the position of the society
in relation thereto;" or, as was indicated in another
handbill, publicly to contradict certain assertions put
forward by the employers, and set the society right with
the public. Mr. Musto, chairman of the Executive
Committee, presided, and Mr. Newton gave explanations
respecting the society. He said that the society
had been represented as insisting—(1) upon the abolition
of systematic "overtime," and (2) the discontinuance
of "piece-work;" (3) with claiming that the
masters should discharge the class of persons engaged in,
and long trained to the working of self-acting machines,
and employ in their stead mechanics, members of the
union; and further (4) with advocating an equalisation of
the rate of wages. Now, the first two of these propositions
were the propositions of the society. The third
was never made by them, and the intention attributed
to them of equalising wages was as foreign to their
objects and general opinions as anything could be.
(Hear.) They disavowed all intention of removing any
persons at present in employment (hear, hear); there
was nothing in the present proceedings of the council
that expressed or implied any such intention; they had
never asked for the removal of a man from a machine,
who was working at it, who had earned a title to work
at it by the time he had been employed at it; and so
far from the opinions of their members being against
those men, they had fostered and encouraged them.
He further denied that the men contemplated any
strike on the 1st of January. The following resolutions
were then moved and adopted:—

"That having heard the statement made upon the part of the
council of the Amalgamated society, this meeting is perfectly
satisfied that the acts and intentions of the council have been
publicly misrepresented, and that it has never demanded of the
employers either discontinuance of the use of machinery of any
kind, or the discharge, of the workmen employed at machines."

"That this meeting is fully convinced that neither the
Executive Council nor the members of the Amalgamated society of
Engineers, &c., contemplated a strike on the 1st of January,
1852; and that the assertions put forward to that effect are
entirely untrue."

"The Executive Council have decided to advise the trade
generally to discontinue the practice of systematic overtime and
piece-work after the 31st December, 1851, and in those cases
where overtime is really necessary, in cases of break-downs or
other accidents, all time so worked over to be charged and paid
for at the rate of double time."

The Lancashire Employers of Operative Engineers,
&c., had a meeting at Manchester on the same day (the
30th of December), when they decided on joining and
becoming a portion of the Central Association in London.
The meeting was attended by the representatives of
more than fifty firms, and presided over by Mr. T. B.
Sharp, of the firm of Sharp Brothers and Co.,
Manchester. The meeting appeared to be unanimous in
their determination to resist every attempt at dictation
on the part of the men as alike injurious to employer
and employed.

At another meeting, held on the 2nd instant, the
Manchester employers resolved to give notice of closing
their workshops on Saturday, the 10th, unless in the
meantime the demands of the men were withdrawn.—
In consequence, accordingly, of the determinations
adopted by the employers, a number of the principal