Revenue and Expenditure.—The following table shows the total amounts of the actual-revenue and expenditure for the seventeen years from 1860 to 1875, along with the proportion of receipts and of expenditure for each person in the United Kingdom: The income of the United Kingdom is derived from the various sources of customs, excise, stamps, taxes, property and income tax, post-office, etc. The following are the sums received by the exchequer from these sources during the financial year 1876-77: Customs, £20,410,420; excise, stamps, taxes and income-tax, £47,794,840 (of which the net receipts from customs were £19,922,000; from excise, £27,736,000; from stamps, £10,890,000; from land-tax, £2,532,000; from income-tax, £5,280,000); post office, £7,314,750; telegraph service, £1,305,000; crown-lands, £539,411; miscellaneous, £4,572,321. Total, £81445,535. The following are the principal items of expenditure in the.same year: Interest and management of debt, £27,992,813; army„.£16,814,716; navy, £11,364,383; miscellaneous civil services, £13,338.851; charges for collecting customs and inland revenue, £2,766,279; post-office, £3,159,218; telegraph, service, 11,141,000.
_National Debt.—At the end of the financial year 1877, the national debt of Great Britain and Ireland amounted to £775,873,713, of which £712,621,355 was funded, and £13,943,800 was unfunded. See DEBT, NATIONAL.
Army and .iVary.—See BRITISH ARMY; and NAVY. BRITISH.
Form, of Goternvient.—The goVerument of Great Britain is of the kind known as a "constitutional monarchy," in which the sovereign accepts of his dignity under an express agreement to abide by certain prescribed conditions. See CORONATION OATH. The sovereignty is hereditary in the family of Brunswick, now on the throne, and in the person of either a male or a female. The sovereign (king or queen) is the directing power in the executive of government; while the legislative function is exercised by parliament. Further information regarding the British constitution and laws will be found tinder the heads PARLIAXENT; MINISTRY; u,roN LAW, COURTS OF; JundEs,'etc.
Jfoney, Weights, and Measures,—See POUND; MINT; WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
Religion.—The United Kingdom is a Protestant state, but all religions—not offensive to public or private morals—may be professed, and their different forms of worship practiced, without interference from any quarter whatever. There are two churches " established " by special acts of the legislature. In England the established church is Episcopal in its government. In Scotland, on the other hand, the established church is Presbyterian. See SCOTLAND, Cuuncn OF. According to the census returns of 1851 (in the returns of 1861 and 1871, religious statistics were not included, as the goverffnieut shrank from re-opening a subject which had formerly given rise to much controversy), the number of places of worship, together with the sittings provided, in- England and Wales, and the estimated number of attendants on a particular day, were as in the tables below.
England, the chief institutions for education are the ancient national universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the more recent institutions of London, Dur ham, and Lam'npeter in Wales; the classical schools of Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Harrow, Charter-house, and Rugby; Owens college, Manchester, and other colleges and' schools chiefly for physical science; the various military schools; the colleges of the dissenting denominations; the middle-class schools, either started by individual teachers, and hence called "adventure" schools, or by associated bodies acting as directors, to whom the teachers are responsible; and the schools of design.
For primary education, a national system has now been established. Under the elementary education act for England, 1870, a popularly elected school-board is estab lished in imy district where the existing schools arc deficient. Schools under the act are-supported by school-rates and fees, and by parliamentary grants, varying according to the number of pupils, and their proficiency as tested by different standards of tion. They are to be open at all times to government inspection. It is left to the eretion of school-boards to make education compulsory: Scotland possesses four universities for the higher branches of education—viz., those of Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Aberdeen, besides a. variety of minor colleges connected with the Episcopalian, free church, and other non-established churches. The Scotch education act, 1872, is modeled after the English act, but differs from it, by enacting that a school-board is to be elected in crow parish and burgh: by it illegal for,. parents to omit educating their children, between and 13, in reading, meriting, and arithmetic; and by comprehending higher-class schools. The number of day-schools to which annual grants are made in England and Wales, inspected in 1874, was 12,167; the daily average attendance throughout theyear was 1,678,759; 2,034,007 scholars were present at inspection; 857,611 were examined; and 503,232 passed the prescribed tests. 1432 night schools were examined, with an average attendance of 48,690 scholars above 12 years of age. On the registers of the inspected schools were 2,497,602 children of whom 617,910 were under 6 years of age, 1,630,033 were between 6 and 12, and 229.039 were above 12. In Dec., 1874, there were 20,162 certificated teachers, 1999 assistant teachers, and 27,321 pupil-teachers.