Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1879 — PACTS AND FIGURES. [ARTICLE]

PACTS AND FIGURES.

When the old ecclesiastical regime in France was brought to a close by the great Revolution, tne clergy owned a fifth of the soil. Their property, in 1791, was estimated at #830,000,000 money-value of that day. In 1877 the value of German commerce with this country amounted to more than twelve per cent, of the total exports and imports of the country. Of the imports into Mexico twenty-five per cent, were German, and fifteen French. Fob September, 1879, the total number of telegraphic messages, exclusive of those for the press, sent and received at the Boston office, was 264,428, while for the same month in 1878 the total was 204,382 —a gain of 60,946 for the month. The largest block of granite ever quarried in New England has been token out at Woodbury, Vt. It was 330 feet long, 13 to 18 feet deep, 15 feet wide, weighed 4,080 tons, and required 673 wedges, with 100 pounds of powder, to start it. ! The popular notion that the Russian deportations help to colonize Siberia is a fallacy. When Western Siberia was conquered by the Russians, at the end of the sixteenth century, it had, according to the historian Muller, upward of 5,000,000 inhabitants; now both Eastern and Western Siberia, covering an area of 190,000 square miles, in the temperate zone, have a population of only 4,000,000, although 79,000 to 120,000 persons are deported to Siberia yearly. Statistics of crime in Italy show a fearful state of affairs. The report of the Minister shows that during the past year more than 2,000 murders were committed, an average per million of the population nnequaled by any other country on the face of the globe. During the same time the number of ordinary robberies, burglaries, etc., is stated at 40,000, while there were 50,000 robberies accompanied with violence. In her long catalogue of crime Italy stands without a peer.

In 1789 the Royal Library of Paris contained 800,000 volumes and objects of every description. In 1859 the number was 1,200,000. During the last twenty years the increase has been more sensible, and the actual number is estimated at 2,000,000. The mean annual increase from legal deposits -alone is 20,000. Out of these 2,000,000 about 450,000 are devoted to French history, 200,000 to theology, 90,000 to science and philosophy, 60,000 to natural history, and 20,000 to English history.

E. H. Walker, statistician of the Produce Exchange, after a careful estimate from authoritative reports, places the wheat crop, of the United States for 1879 at about 425,000,000 bushels. The spring wheat crop will not be so large as was at first expected, that of Minnesota being no more than 28,000,000 bushels, instead of 40,000,000 as estimated early in the season. The amount consumed by 48,000,000 persons, plus the amount required for seed and other purposes, is placed at 250,000,000 bushels, leaving 175,000,000 bushels for export, 160,000,000 bushels for Europe and 15,000,000 for other ports.