MISCELLANEOUS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3261, 30 December 1867, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Cost of a.k Armed Pbace. — The Economist takes note that in the middle of the nineteenth century, and at the height of modern civilisation, the military peace establishment of i'urope consists of 2 800 000 mcD, while the war establishment rises to the awful total of 5,000,000. The cost of the peace array of the European States does not fall far short of £80,000,000 annually— eight hundred millions (an English national debt) every ten years. Austria keeps on foot permanently 278, 137 men at % charge of £8,876,300 ; Spain expends £4,200,000 upon 264,426 men ; France maintains 404,000 men under arms, aud pays £14 000,000 for the luxury ; Italy, out of her well-drained Treasury, devotes £6,603.444 to an army 222,321 strong ; the peace establishment of North Germany csumnt noyr fall far ahort of 300.000. The huge Bussdan lory of 800, 000 men extracts from the national chest £13,250,000 j while our own regulars, militia, and volunteers are maintained for the trifling sum of £14,560,279. These are the principal itemß in the dread account, and smaller States complete the full tale. Eight nations SDend on their soldiers and establishments £72, 000, 000. These sums in gross and in detail — represent the annual rate at which we iusure an uncertain peace — a peace interrupted by three great wars in fifteen years, and now in extremeperil of a wholesale break* ing up. It is a charming monument of human «' wisdom," an excellent testimony to the good government of nation?, this expenditure upon non-pro-ductive employment. But this does not repr* sent the total cost of the warlike machinery. Fire -tates —Austria, Spain, France, England, and Jtaly— employ 213.587 men for sea service, and spend upwards of seventeen millions on their navies. Including Russia and the smaller States, the total expenditure for military and naval purposes is not less than £? 00, 000, 000 per annum. The worst of it is that, when this vast outlay has been made, Europe is not one whit more certain of tranquillity, nor is any one of the several States assured that it will not have to fight f ot its life. That constitutes the "irony of the situatioD." Even when we have sunjmed up the actual cost of this array by sea and land, tbe total falls short of the enormous penalty levied upon the nations. Who can estimate the additional loss arising from the forced abbtinence of two millions and a-half of men ia the prime and vigour of life from reproductive labour ? Suppose we estimate their probable earnings, if employed, at one shilling per diem, the total loss per week of six days is no less than £750.000, or £39,000,000. To this we should add the difference between their wages and the value of their productions, and if we only double it, the total exceeds tbe whole revenue of France. If we were to set down £200,000,000 a year as the total loss of Europe in hard cash, and as a consequence of compulsory abstinence from labour, we should not be far wrong, especially if we include the evil effect of insecurity upon enterprise. Odr Sandhills. —Sow and plant nettles, says M Xavier Garrene, a French sayan, and all the Can d or sands in the south and the wastes in other parts of France will be converted into green and profitable fields. Here is another wrinkle for sandhills. Mr. Morgan and other of our correspondents at various times have made suggestions with the view of binding together and makiDg verdant the sand by which we are surrounded seaward. None of them, however, seem 80 inexpensive as this nettle one. Bub who cares for nettles ? They would only be a nuisance as great as the present. Therein the objector differs from M. Garrene. He wonders that the world is so slow to learn the great economic value of this robust plant, which will grow everywhere. Raise nettles, he says, and in the young tops thereof you will have a delicious and early vegetable for your dinner-table, and abundance of early green food for your cattle. The milk of cows is improved by a diet of nettles, and the beef of cattle fed on nettles is superior to all other. Nettles, too, are of remarkable efficacy in restoring broken-down horses to vigour. And in commerce their value is great ; for they can be treated as hemp, and spun into lines and ropes, and woven into cloth. Who would have thought there was so much to be said in favour o the despised and maligned ortica ? The Mosqotto Quistion.— Josh Billings makes the following remarks appropriate to the season :— " We are told that thare want enne thing made ia vain. That is sum so, but I have thought the time spent in manufackturing musketoze must hey been wasted, if the musketoze want, flow they ware put together I never could tell, and thare is one commershall peculiarity about the muskeeter trade, and that if, the supply always exceeds the demand, and yet the producsion is not diminished ; I kant understand this no how. They are born of poor but industrious parents, and are brought up under the auspices of some of our best families. They have also consummate courage j I have known a single muskeeter tofite a man and his wife awl night long, and draw the first blood. It is very easy to kill muskeetoze — when you can ; but in striking them, you are very apt to hit the exact place where they wuz. They are cheerful little cusses, singing as they toil." Kjdx Premiums. — An Ohio Country Agricultural Society offers a premium of 10 dols. for the greatest number of rats' tails, not le*s than one thousand stroDg, on a string. The rats to be caught by one family between March 15, 1867, and the time of the fair. We like this idea, and commend it to the attention of our agricultural societies. The depredations of these animals are a heavy tax upon our farmers, amounting to millions every year. The premiums would stimulate the boys to great activity n destroying them. The Norway rat was a terrible present to this. coaniij.--AincrmnAgrkuUuris^