that the insurance companies would reduce the premiums for the shorter passage at least by half per cent, looks erroneous; and I should not wonder if, on the contrary, they would charge more, on account of the greater risks in the narrow Arabian Gulf and in the Mediterranean, than in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Calculating freight at $15 per ton for the 112 days' passage from Singapore to Havre, this will bring $12 50 for the 94 days' passage from Singapore to Marseilles, leaving $2 50 per ton apparent economy in favor of the latter passage. Now, M. Lesseps intends to charge for passage through the canal, $2 per ton; and for anchorage and transit duty of the Egyptian government, 50 cents more must be calculated, which would absorb, to a fraction, the apparent economy of $2 50, as above stated. Also, there is no economy of time or expenses sufficient to induce foreign shipping from outside the Mediterranean, i. e., sailing vessels, to patronize the new water communication-nay, it remains even to be proved practically that the merchants of Trieste, Genoa, or Marseilles will be able to draw Indian goods, by way of the Red Sea, as cheap as their rivals in the North, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. At all events, they will never be able to compete with them north of the Alps and in western Europe. This would reduce the participation of the Suez Canal shareholders in the Indo-Chinese trade to "half of the half" of M. Lesseps' estimate, to use an Oriental mode of expression adapted to the circum stance. The shorter passage may be compared to an Oriental highroad-interesting, romantic, and all that, but carriages are not expected to pass; the longer way round the Cape of Good Hope, on the contrary, may be compared to a prosaic railway, where distance is of but little consideration. The "Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez offers 75 per cent of the profits to the shareholders, who will lose their titles in 99 years. 15 per cent to the Egyptian government, which has to furnish, gratis, the land and the stones; and 10 per cent to the directors of the enterprise, who hatched the scheme, and will lose nothing. M. Lesseps estimates the cost of the canal, in round numbers, at forty millions of dollars, or two hundred millions of francs, and the shipping expected to pass through it, at three millions of tons, for which he charges $2 per ton Making .... Ten cents for anchorage, makes For passage of river boats on the branch canal from the Nile, say $6,000,000 800,000 300,000 1,839,200 Total of the gross proceeds of the canal...... $7,989,200 The projector avoids in his last figures the round numbers, probably to make their accuracy more plausible to the multitude; but the few acquainted with the real state of matters in Egypt, know that there are not hands enough for the cultivation of the arable lands, and that such an income, from a tract of desert land in Egypt, is consequeutly but moonshine. M. Lesseps has a great propensity for rounding off numbers, which proves that with him all is but guess-work, so he augments the gross proceeds to $8,000,000, and divides this amount according to the agreement, as follows: $2,000,000, i. e., 5 per cent interest on the capital, forming three-fourths of the profits belonging to the shareholders. 4,000,000, 1,200,000, 800,000, 10 per cent dividend. 3 per cent to the Egyptian government. 2 per cent to himself and his associates. The projector forgets here to deduct first, the expenses of administration and of maintenance in navigable state both the canal and its approaches from the sea-an item of considerable importance, as will be seen afterwards. To judge from the precedents of the hydraulic engineer employed in this work, neither the estimate of the time nor of the cost he gives can be relied on; still I will give to him the benefit of his own estimate, viz., six years' time and $40,000,000 cost, and will turn my attention now to the rentability of the enterprise-a chapter which the mercantile reader more readily will appreciate. As the Mediterranean markets offer no chance for the greater part of the staple products of India and China-say for tea, silk, rice, and linseed, and a very limited chance only for cotton, indigo, sugar, and spicesfurther, as they have neither coal, iron, lumber, naval stores, provisions, nor manufactures, in return, one-eighth of the tonnage at present employed in the Indo-Chinese trade, according to M. Lesseps' statement, would be fully enough. But, nevertheless, I will go to one-fifth of the 6,000,000 of tons-say To tons, 1,200,000, at $2. For anchorage, as before, at 10 per cent, say Nothing the first six years for the tract of land to be ceded by the gov ernment Thus, the annual gross proceeds of the canal will be reduced to... Which leaves for net proceeds the sum of....... $2,400,000 120,000 80,000 $2,600,000 260,000 $2,340,000 This amonnt, divided in the same ratio as before, shows the following profits: $1,755,000 i. e., 43 per cent for interest and dividends to the shareholders. per cent, rent to the Egyptian government; and per cent, plenty still to the directors. 351,000 234,000 Should the giant moles and artificial ports of the Suez-Pelasium Canal cost $100,000,000, instead of $40,000,000, as estimated by M. Lesseps, then the 43 per cent of the shareholders will dwindle down to 12 per cent; and if the keeping in repair of these stupendous works arrives to anything like a proportionate figure, then the shareholders' pittance will shrink in altogether. By private letters of the 19th of April last from Alexandria, I am informed that Sayd Pacha has become a subscriber to this canal stock for the sum of $400,000, and his courtiers and contractors in Alexandria and Cairo, for $7,600,000 more. The principal object of the branch canal from the Nile, is to provide Suez with fresh water; but it seems, it is sought to make Suez also a grain market. Mecca and Medina, the holy cities, receive annually large supplies of grain from the Nile valley, by way of Kossier, the port of Esneh, and Kenneh. These markets are out of reach of the influence of European markets; grain is therefore always 40 to 50 per cent cheaper there than in the Delta; also, transport on camels' backs is very cheap in Upper Egypt; it amounts to but $2 per ton between Kenneh and Kossier -probably less than the transport, say from Mansoora to Suez, canal charges included, would cost. It is therefore quite preposterous to believe that Suez, under such circumstances, will become the grain market for the holy cities. Sayd Pacha, to humor the fanaticism of the Egyptians, restored the old Turkish dress in his army-an act which has been objected to formally by the Sultan, but as yet without effect. Sayd Pacha is decided to have his own will; he shows resistance to the Sultan's command, also, by augmenting his army, and especially by collecting an army of 80,000 men round Alexandria. E. W. Art. IV. DEDUCTIONS FROM PRUSSIAN VITAL STATISTICS. THE following deductions have been calculated from official documents furnished by the Prussian government to the English Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Those documents were published in the Sixth Report of the Registrar-General in England, a copy of which Report was obtained from the valuable statistical and mathematical library belonging to the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, Massachusetts:— Population of Prussia at the end of the year 1840. Increase of population during the three years 1838-39-40. Excess of births over deaths during the three years 1838-39-40 14,928,501 830,376 486,937 Leaving, of increase of population unaccounted for by excess of births over deaths, 343,439, which is 41.36 per cent of the total increase. The published Abstracts give no immigration nor emigration statistics. Annual rate of increase of population deduced from the numbers liv- ...per cent Proportion of annual marriages during the two years 1840-41 Average annual number of births, still-born included, of the two VOL. XXXV.—NO. I. 1 in 56 1 in 25 1 in 111 .... 1 in 26 Average annual number of births, still-born excluded, of the same Average annual number of deaths, still-born excluded, 2.64 per Average annual number of deaths among those over 5 years of age, of the same period, 1.73 per cent of the population over 5 years of age, or There died under one year of age, of legitimate births, still born There died under one year of age, of total births, 18.5 per cent, or 66 66 46 3.3 per cent female births, 3.3 per cent, or... total births, 3.8 per cent, or.. legitimate births, 4 per cent, (3.6,) or .. illegitimate births, 54 per cent, or....... male illegitimate births, 61 per cent, or... 3 female illegitimate births, 47 per cent, or. There were illegitimate of births, still-born included still-born excluded.. The ratio of male to female births, still-born included, for the twenty-six Male to female births, still born included, for the three years, 1839-41. Legitimate still-born males to females. Illegitimate still-born males to females.. Of total deaths during the three years, still-born excluded, there attained the natural term of life, and died of the debility of old age.. There died by suicide .... 7 per cent 106 to 100 106 to 100 105 to 100 136 to 100 138 to 100 117 to 100 12 per cent .4 per cent 1.5 per cent 2.4 per cent There died by accidents of all kinds Of female deaths, there were in child-bed.. The number of deaths of women in child-bed to the total number of births, still-born included, was Hence, about 8 of every 1,000 births resulted in the death of the mother. Of total deaths, still-born excluded, there occurred during AVERAGE DURATION (OR EXPECTATION) OF LIFE IN PRUSSIA, COMPUTED FROM THE AGES OF THOSE DYING DURING THE THREE YEARS 1839-40-41; AND FROM THE AGES OF THE LIVING, COMPUTED WITH REFERENCE TO THE MIDDLE OF THE YEAR 1840:- B 0 10 36.75 45.43 PRESENT VALUE, after arriving at cerTAIN AGES, OF ONE DOLLAR PAYABLE AT THE END OF EACH YEAR DURING LIFE, ACCORDING TO THE PRUSSIAN LIFE TABLE:- NUMBERS LIVING AT CERTAIN AGES OUT OF 100,000 BORN ALIVE, ACCORDING TO THE NEW PRUSSIAN LIFE TABLE: In the official abstracts from Prussian returns, the population above 45 was divided, with reference to age, into only two classes-from 45 to 60, and from 60 upwards. In constructing the life table, a distribution of the numbers in each of these classes into quinquennial groups was made, according to the mean of the corresponding distributions of equal numbers of the populations of England in 1841, and of Belgium in 1846. A. RATIO OF THE AVERAGE ANNUAL NUMBER OF MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND DEATHS IN PRUSSIA, DURING SEVERAL BIENNIAL PERIODS, TO THE POPULATION AT THE MIDDLE OF THE RESPECTIVE PERIODS. A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE AVERAGE DURATION (OR EXPECTATion) of life, after arRIVING AT CERTAIN AGES, ACCORDING TO THE PRUSSIAN AND SOME OTHER LIFE TABLES. 0 10 Ages. 20 30 Manchester (Eng.) 7 y'rs, 1838-44, Males. Farr. 24.2 40.6 33.3 26.6 ... ..... 40 50 15.2 17.76 .... 20.6 34.95 29.71 23.36 36.4 24.0 36.75 45.43 37.74 80.86 24.07 17.35 34.42 45.07 38.02 31.21 24.66 18.46 39.39 47.63 89.98 32.68 25.50 18.65 37.57 47.57 39.93 32.59 25.49 18.76 47.43 40.17 33.29 26.39 19.58 41.16 47.44 40.34 33.68 27.14 20.55 38.72 48.82 41.46 34.34 27.61 21.11 Austria,3 y'rs, 1834, 7, 9.—Farr. (Approximate.) 29.1 • Middle of. ... + Triennial period. The Life and Mortality Table adopted by the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, from which the above average duration of life is deduced, was formed in 1844, by a Committee of the Directors, from a comparison of the Equitable Experience, the Amicable Experience, the Carlisle, Sweden and Finland 1801-05, De Parcieux's French Tontines, Kersseboom's Dutch Annuitants, and Finlaison's Government Annuitants, and verified by such imperfect American statistics as were then procurable. |