It is significant of American enterprise that continental Europe, with a population of 260,000,000, possesses but one hundred and seventy-three more telegraph offices than the United States, with her 31,000,000 of widely scattered people. While in the United States there is a telegraph office to every 7,549 of its inhabitants, in continental Europe there is only one to every 60,249! The following table will serve to show the proportion of telegraph offices to population in the principal countries of Europe and of the United States, the number of miles of line, and amount of telegraph business of each. TABLE A. _Statistics of the Telegraph in Europe and America for the year 1866, from official reports._ ┌───────────┬─────────┬──────┬───────┬────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┐ │ │ │Miles │ Miles │Total Number│ │Proportion │ │COUNTRIES. │Number of│ of │ of │of Messages │Population.[1]│of Offices │ │ │Stations.│Line. │ Wire. │Transmitted.│ │ to │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Population.│ ├───────────┼─────────┼──────┼───────┼────────────┼──────────────┼───────────┤ │Austria │ 856│24,618│ 73,854│ 2,507,472│ 39,411,309│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 46,311│ │Belgium │ 356│ 2,187│ 6,146│ 1,128,005│ 4,530,228│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 12,416│ │Bavaria │ │ 2,115│ 4,945│ │ │ │ │Denmark │ 89│ │ 2,515│ 308,150│ 1,684,004│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 18,921│ │France │ 1,209│20,628│ 68,687│ 2,842,554│ 38,302,625│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 31,681│ │Great │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Britain │ 2,151│16,588│ 80,466│ 5,781,189│ 29,591,009│ 1 to│ │ and │ │ │ │ │ │ 13,750│ │ Ireland │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Italy │ 529│ 8,200│ 20,120│ 1,760,889│ 24,550,845│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 49,000│ │Norway │ 73│ │ │ 269,375│ 1,433,488│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 19,773│ │Prussia │ 538│18,386│ 55,149│ 1,964,003│ 17,739,913│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 32,955│ │Russia │ 308│12,013│ 22,214│ 838,653│ 68,224,832│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 221,508│