It is quite true, as Mr Laing tells us, that there exists a very large reserve of available land in Great Britain--a reserve quite sufficient, under proper management, to maintain our population for centuries to come, even at its present large ratio of increase. But that there is no similar reserve on the Continent, we beg leave to doubt. The statement may be true as regards those districts to whose condition Mr Laing has paid most attention. It may be true of France, and the peasant-cultivated parts of West Prussia, and the North of Germany; but can we say that the countries watered by the Vistula, the Bug, the Dniester--can we say that Livonia, Volhynia, Podolia--that those vast districts whose produce reaches us through Odessa, (whence it was shipped to England last winter, at a freight of 6s. a-quarter,) are already cultivated up to the full measure of their capabilities? The following comparative statement of the proportion which the cultivated land bears to the superficial extent of the different countries of Europe, is taken from the _Annuaire Statistique_ for 1850:-- England, 55 hectares in 100[38] France, 54 " " Belgium, 43 " " Prussia and } Denmark, } 40 " " Italy and } Portugal, } 30 " " Germany and } Spain, } 25 " " Holland and } Austria, } 20 " " Russia and } Poland, } 18 " " Sweden and } Norway, } 14 " "