Apart from every consideration purely political, the railways of India have been the means of rendering the greatest service to England, at a moment of greatest peril. Through them she has received supplies of cotton that otherwise could never have got even as far as a port of shipment. There are seven districts from which these supplies come. By far the largest and most important is the Oomrawattee Cotton District, which both the main line of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, and its Nagpoor Extension pass through. When the extension line of this company to Jubbulpore is completed, it will, jointly with the East Indian Railway, open up the Sassegur District, and, on the opening of the Madras Connection, it will touch upon a fourth. The Bombay and Baroda goes into the midst of the great Guzzerat Cotton Fields; the Madras Line through that of Combatore. There is a comparatively small one at nearly the extreme south of the continent; and the smallest of all is in the Punjaub, between, and to the northward both of Delhi and Lahore. Of the production of these cotton districts, we shall speak presently. If England have found almost exclusively the capital for the construction of Indian railways, she has not only made a safe—or, it might rather be said, a first class—investment, but she has also benefited largely in her manufactures and commerce through their construction. The amount of capital expended in the United Kingdom in consequence of Indian railways between 1851 and 1866 has been as follows:—In 1851 it was £154,212; in 1852 it was £174,920; in 1853, £252,484; 1854, £960,878; 1855, £1,939,101; 1856, £1,752,813; 1857, £1,324,873; 1858, £1,940,052; 1859, £2,507,949; 1860, £2,396,924; 1861, £1,596,010; 1862, £1,854,289; 1863, £1,411,661; 1864, £1,387,699; 1865, £2,192,090; 1866, £3,942,598. It is expected that the amount expended in England during 1867 will be about £2,457,250. The industry of the mother country has thus been greatly assisted by the valuable orders represented by these figures. If all these amounts be added together, it will be found that they are nearly £26,500,000, or between a third and a half of the £67,932,550 that have been expended up to April last on account of Indian railways. The tons weight of goods despatched have been 3,195,862; and as the number of ships they were conveyed in was 4,827, it followed that the average load which each carried was 662 tons.