TABLE I.

Statement showing the Average of Receipts, reduced to Dollars, and the Average of Messages.

Date.	Gross Receipts.		Number of Messages.				Number of Inhabitants averaging to each Station.
	Average per Mile of Line, in Gold.	Average per Station, in Gold.	Average per Station.		Average for each 1,000 inhabitants.
	Average per Mile of Line, in Gold.	Average per Station, in Gold.	Inland.	Total.	Inland.	Total.
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858					11	24
1859					15	34
1860					18	40
1861					22	48
1862	$103.08	$616.37	537	1,488	23	52	23,980
1863	74.50	586.00	749	1,651	41	78	17,857
1864	85.06	563.85	901	1,951	56	100	16,071
1865	86.56	563.94	1,084	2,195	74	130	14,658
1866	87.89	540.00	1,945	3,168	150	217	12,690
1867	91.70	666.40	2,191	3,450

The telegrams of Belgium are of three distinct sorts,—internal, international, and transit. The system differs essentially from that of the United States, inasmuch as the principal business of the Belgian telegraph is to transmit messages from one country to another, whilst the principal business of the American telegraph is the conveyance of internal messages. The only international messages transmitted on the lines in the United States are those sent to Europe by the Atlantic cable, to Cuba by the Cuban cable, and to the various stations in the Dominion of Canada.

One of the arguments used in favor of the assumption of telegraphs by government is, that in its hands the telegraph is more largely accessible to the people, and more freely used. The facts are as follows, giving Belgium the benefit of the increase of messages shown by the last reduction of her tariff.