What renders our present social condition so alarming and depressing to the contemplative mind is, that the evils which are so widespread through society have only increased with the advance of the nation in general industry, accumulated capital, and mechanical power; and at a time when universal and unprecedented exertions have been made both for the religious and moral education of the working-classes, the improvement of their habits, and the extension of their information. The most superficial observer must be aware what astonishing progress we have made since 1815. Our exports and imports have tripled--our shipping doubled[2]--our population advanced fully 50 per cent. Our agriculture has kept pace with this astonishing increase, insomuch that, down to the commencement of five bad years in succession, in 1836, followed by Free Trade in 1842 and 1846, our imports of wheat and flour had sunk to a _hundredth-part_ of the food of our people. At no former period, in England's or the world's history, were such efforts made by energetic and philanthropic individuals to stem the progress of public and private disaster, or such noble and even heroic sacrifices made by the State to assuage, where it was most aggravated, the intensity of private suffering. At one period Government gave £20,000,000 to compensate the planters in the West Indies for Negro Emancipation; at another £10,000,000, to relieve the effects of famine and Irish improvidence. The efforts made in the cause of education, religious instruction, church accommodation, the relief of pauperism, the elevation of the standard of comfort, and the improvement of the habits of the poor, have been innumerable, systematic, and unwearied. [2] | | EXPORTS. | IMPORTS. | SHIPPING. | |Years.| Official Value. | Official Value.| Tons inwards.| |------| | | | | 1822 | 42,236,533 | 29,432,376 | 2,519,044 | | 1823 | 43,803,472 | 34,591,260 | 2,506,760 | | 1824 | 48,785,551 | 36,056,551 | 2,559,587 | | | | | | | 1836 | 65,926,702 | 44,586,741 | 3,002,875 | | 1837 | 69,939,389 | 45,952,551 | 3,149,152 | | 1838 | 73,831,550 | 49,362,811 | 3,149,168 | | | | | | | 1846 | 132,286,345 | 75,953,875 | 6,091,052 | | 1847 | 126,157,919 | 90,921,866 | 7,196,033 | | 1848 | 132,904,407 | 93,547,134 | 5,579,461 | | 1849 | 164,539,504 | 105,874,607 | 6,071,269 | --_Parliamentary Tables._