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service, by night as well as day, in checking fires, saving life, and various services on the occasion of calamities, does not exceed the cost of the unpaid parish constables. Next would follow a chapter by the chief engineer on the expenditure for the maintenance of the roads, bridges, and highways. As to the roads under scientific management, Sir John Burgoyne, referring to the roads in Ireland, stated to me that by an alteration, which would hardly be recognised by a common eye, a saving of one horse out of five would be effected, and this would obtain a saving of seven million pounds in the cost of transit. Another chapter would be on the cost of supplies of provisions and materials, which it is of the highest importance to have consolidated for the whole of a county under a competent intendence. There would be room also for a report on education, including physical training on the half-time principle, by which enormous economies and improvements in the manners, intelligence, and earnings of the future wage-classes might be effected. The whole course of local administration, based on the opinion of highly qualified and competent paid officers, may be a means of the greatest public economy, whilst otherwise it may aggravate enormously the wastefulness of ignorance.
The Address was, on the motion of Earl Fortescue, unanimously adopted, and it was resolved to draw the attention of the Government to the consideration of an Annual Census.
