umes annually, as they did in the last century. The United States turns out 2,000 and Great Britain 4,000 new books every year, and the other Euraryan nations probably bring the total figure up to 15,000; whereas, before the middle of the last century, the number was probably not more than 1,500. Besides the books, we have now 7,000 newspapers which are new, and in the aggregate furnish as much material for reading, and contribute nearly as much to education, as the books.
The commerce of the world has been revolutionized in the age of steam. Many obstacles which stood in the way of its development in 1770 have now been removed. National animosities, sectarian passions, popular ignorance, despotic governments, the division of one nationality into numerous independent states, and the established policies of conquest, balance of power, sectarian intolerance, and trade-restriction bred frequent wars, and destroyed confidence in the duration of any peace. Hostilities were waged with little regard for the property or persons of non-combatants; and plunder and devastation were among the common accompaniments of invasion, and were recognized as customary rights of the invaders. The uncertainty of enjoying accumulated wealth deprived the people of zeal for labor or economy. But now there has been a vast change for the better, and commerce and finance have made wonderful advances. International and national traffic have risen to proportions which far surpass the wildest visions of past ages.
In the middle of the last century a turnpike, covered with gravel or broken stone, was a rarity even in the neighborhood of the great capitals; and for every mile of such road, and for every stage running regularly to carry passengers then, there are now a thousand. Travelers were few, and usually went on horseback. Not a hundred years have elapsed since the owners of riding-horses petitioned the English Parliament to forbid the establishment of a stage-line which had lately been started, and was ruining their business. In 1763 one stage left London for Edinburgh each month, taking nearly two weeks to make the trip each way; and in 1810 only two hundred and twenty travelers entered Paris by stage in an average day. The increase has exceeded a thousand-fold. England did not commence building canals till 1760, and in the mean time not less than 6,000 miles have been built by the Euraryans, at a cost of not less than $500,000,000. The shipping of Christendom has risen from 1,500,000 to 15,000,000 tons, and a third of the increase is in steamers, which make three trips for one by a sailing-vessel. They not only carry three times as much freight per ton as the sailers, but they take many perishable articles which could not go by the slower navigation, and were therefore not produced, or were wasted. There has been a vast increase in the construction and in the number of freight-wagons for common roads; and the railroads, with an aggregate length of 140,000 miles, and a cost of $2,000,000,000, are new. The freight which cost thirty cents a
