The foregoing figures furnish matter for much consideration. They show, incontestably, how unceasingly the railway system of the United Kingdom, taken as a whole, continues its development. As new miles of railway are opened, and notwithstanding that they are situated principally in districts where both population and traffic are light, as compared with the population and traffic of the districts in which railways were first constructed, the total average of receipts throughout the United Kingdom, only receded three times. Thus, the average receipts per mile in 1852 were £2,141. In 1853, £2,346. In 1854, £2,510. In 1855, £2,597. In 1856, £2,659. In 1857, £2,660. There was a considerable fall in 1858 to £2,516. In 1859, they advanced to £2,574. In 1860, they were £2,661. In 1861, £2,628. In 1862, they fell to £2,523. They increased slightly in 1863, to £2,528. In 1864, they rose to £2,651; and, in 1865, they were the highest during the fifteen years, £2,691, or £550 a mile higher than in 1852. Although the number of passengers has increased very greatly in the seven years, the principal increase has been, as will be seen presently, in those of the third class. As the average distance which each third-class passenger travels is much less than the average of one of the second class, and still less comparatively than one of the first class, it cannot be a matter of surprise, that the average money value of each railway passenger should have fallen from 1s. 6d. in 1859, to 1s. 2d. in 1865, and that of the total increase of receipts between 1859 and 1865 (£10,146,611), the receipts from passengers _only_ has not increased more than £3,606,223, whilst the increase from goods, minerals, and cattle, has been £6,111,466. Minerals come in for the larger share of this augmentation. In the shape of quantity, the advance has been 26,049,004 tons, or 50 per cent. In cash earned the advance has also been about 50 per cent. The amount in 1859, was £4,223,002; in 1865, £6,496,402. No doubt conveyance of coals by railway is gaining rapidly upon conveyance by water. This is every day becoming more evident, especially as regards London. In fact, we have by us a return showing that during the first six months of the present year, the sea-borne coal to the Metropolis has decreased 32,480 tons, as compared with the same period of 1866; whilst coal carried by railway has increased 154,453 tons. In the last few years the quantity of coal carried by railway to London, has been gradually creeping up. Last year it was equal to that borne by water, at present it exceeds it; and henceforward, a large increase may be looked for, as the Midland Railway being now completed to London, that Company will be able to carry very fine qualities of coal from collieries which are at the shortest distance from the Metropolis of all the coal-fields of England. This will, no doubt, diminish to some considerable extent the metropolitan coal traffic of the London and North-Western Company.