r 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE; 
 
 CAN IT BE LONG MAINTAINED 
 
 IN ALL ITS INTEGEITY, 
 
 UNDER THE UNRESTRICTED AND UNRECIPROCATED 
 
 FREE-TRADE (RATHER, FREE IMPORTS) 
 POIjIOYP 
 
 BY 
 
 SENEX. 
 M 
 
 A TRUE CONSERVATIVE. 
 
 " In reckoning up the significance of this grand aggregate of 
 machinery, it is impossible not to feel that an important change is 
 approaching. A century ago no conditions existed which could have 
 enabled Adam Smith to am>ticvpate a time when the producing'* (it would 
 be more correct to say transforming) " power of Automatic Machinery- 
 would exceed the requirements of the human race. That state of things 
 is rapidly approaching, and it is for the ' Philosopher and Political Eco- 
 nomist to consider carefully beforehand the impending revolution, so that 
 it may all work for good to the family of mankind." — Conclusion of the 
 last communication from Philadelphia respecting the late International 
 Exhibition, by the " Times' " Special Correspondent " Mechanician."— 
 Times, 1 8th November, 1876, see p. 77. 
 
 Solus jpojpuli siiprema lex. 
 
 ^: . /^i LONDON: 
 
 WILLIAM KIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1878. 
 
^f^o^^ 
 
 s> 
 
 A 
 
 " A State is equally desperate wlien there are no remedies 
 to be found that are equal to the distempers of it, and when 
 there are such to he founds but neither hands to administer 
 them, nor, perhaps, strength of Constitution sufficient to bear 
 them." — Bolinghrohe. 
 
 " Good Government is a machine for developing the resources 
 of a country in such a manner as shall advance the best inte- 
 rests of the peopled — Burhe. 
 
 *' Nations are not made by alliances, nor will anything 
 except actual and intrinsic strength he recognized as constituting 
 a first-rate power" — The Leader in the '"'■Times^^ 24th August, 
 
 1864. // ^' -^/^^ -i ^ 
 
 " The false man sees false shows, plausibilities, expediences ; 
 the true man is needed to discern even practical truth." — 
 Carlyle's Lectures on Heroes, 
 
 " In the youth of a State, arms do flourish ; in the middle 
 age of a State, learning ; and then both of them together for 
 a time ; in the declining age of a State, mechanical arts and 
 merchandize." — Bacon^s Essays, " Of Vicissitude of Things." 
 
NOTICE. 
 
 Many will no doubt remember that a few years 
 after " the great experiment " of the late Sir Eobert 
 Peel— the Free Imports' Policy of 1846 — had been 
 in operation, national prosperity was trumpeted 
 forth as the result of that measure ; whereas Sir 
 Eobert himself had said that, for any beneficial 
 results, lie relied upon Foreign nations soon follow- 
 ing the example he had set. In fact, upon Free 
 Trade becoming then soon established. In this, 
 however, he was mistaken, and no doubt greatly 
 disappointed. 
 
 Hence it was that the author of the present 
 volume, perceiving many painfal signs in the 
 country — amongst them the rapid increase of 
 Strikes, and the still more rapid increase oiinsanity 
 amongst the labouring classes — soon became con-- 
 vinced that the prosperity resulting from the Free 
 Imports measure was not at all general, but con- 
 fined to a few of the largest capitalists and 
 manufacturers^ and could not rightly be termed 
 National Prosperity ; and not being promotive of 
 sober steady native industry, but founded and rely- 
 ing on the quicksand, excess, instead of on the 
 rock, moderation, it seemed to the writer of tliis 
 
volume (" Senex ") that such prosperity must in- 
 evitably be short-lived. 
 
 In the course of 1854-5, he, therefore, sent a few 
 letters to that constitutional journal, John Bull^ 
 under the heading : " Is Free Trade " (rather the 
 Free Imports) '' Prosperity a National Blessing"?" 
 and though a perfect stranger to the editor, both 
 then and up to the present time, he most willingly 
 and courteously afforded them space in his Journal. 
 
 These letters, with a few of later date, were to 
 have been included in the present volume, but the 
 Publisher thinking, and no doubt rightly, that such 
 an addition would make it rather too thick, the 
 letters with some Miscellanies calculated to interest 
 all anxious to promote the Commonweal, will form 
 a supplemental volume, to be published as quickly 
 as possible. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Robert South, the eminent Divine^ who was 
 born in 1633, and died in 1716, is said to have 
 been a great wit, and his sermons possess the 
 merit of great earnestness and originality. In one 
 of them, on the text, St. Luke xi. 34, 35, '' The 
 light of the body is the eye ; therefore, when thine 
 eye is single, thy Avhole body also is full of light ; 
 but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of 
 darkness. 
 
 '' Take heed, therefore, that the light which is 
 in thee be not darkness." He says, 
 
 " The three grand disturbers of the ' singleness^ 
 of the eye are covetousness, sensuality^ and ambi- 
 tion. These are the three passions which most 
 perniciously darhen the conscience and judgment ^ 
 And a later Divine, Charles Webb Le Bas, A.M., 
 who was Professor in the East India College, 
 Herts, and Rector of St. Paul's, Shadwell, and 
 died so lately as 1861 (in a Sermon preached in 
 the Chapel of the East India College in 1825, on 
 
 A 
 
11 PKEFACE. 
 
 St. Matt. VI. 22, 23,* says, " Time would fail, if we 
 were to trace out all the fatal influences of ill- 
 governed emotion upon tlie mental discernment^ 
 and to describe all the halting and ohUqultij of 
 movement which follow from such a distemper of 
 the faculties. There are, however, three grand 
 distm-bers of 'the singleness of the eye' (or con- 
 science); which seem to demand a more attentive 
 notice, viz., pride, sensuality, and avarice: of 
 which in their excess it is scarcely too much to 
 affirm, that they envelope the whole man in the 
 shadows of night; that they crowd his path with 
 phantoms ichkh lure him to perdition ; that they 
 blot out, as it were, the very sun from heaven, and 
 w^rap the firmament in one deadly mist." 
 
 In the short Dedication of the first volume of 
 his Sermons to the Honourable Court of Directors 
 of the East India Company, Mr. Le Bas says, 
 " The Discourses, with few exceptions, have been 
 selected from a number delivered within the last 
 eight years (his dedication is dated 1st of March, 
 1822) in the Chapel of the East India College. 
 They were addressed to young men destined hy you 
 for a service, the importance of which none hut a 
 thoroughly loell-informed judgment can duly esti- 
 mate. It is true they were not written originally 
 
 * " The light of the body is the eye ; if therefore thine 
 eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Bnt if 
 thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. 
 If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how greed is 
 that darkness.*'' 
 
PREFACE. Ill 
 
 With a View to publication. They were, however, 
 composed under a deep and constant sense of the 
 solemn responsibility attached to this office of 
 training men to fulfil a momentous destination in 
 this life^ and to stand before the ])resence of their 
 God in that lohich is to come!'' 
 
 One of the old Lecturers on Theology '' to the 
 King's Scholars of St. Peter's College, Westmin- 
 ster," in \\\'^ first Lecture delivered in Westminster 
 Abbey, on " Justice, or Righteousness," says, — 
 
 '' I add Righteousness^ because in the originals, 
 as well Hebrew as Greek, there is but one loordfor 
 hoth^ and therefore we should have one and the 
 same notion of both. It is peculiar to our English 
 translators of the Bible, that they render the single 
 term by two words, sometimes Righteousness, 
 sometimes Justice ; both which were, I suppose, 
 quite synonymous (as we may collect from that part 
 of the Litany, where we deprecate those evils 
 which we most righteously have deserved)." 
 
 " Justice is the compendious name for all duty^ 
 because to give to each thing its due, and treat it 
 according to its desert, which is the office of 
 justice^ comprehends the lohole of religion and 
 morality. Righteousness does indeed imply the 
 same notion ; but I shall always keep to the word 
 justice in my interpretation, because the terms 
 which relate to it, viz., the Just,, to Justify,^ and 
 Justification^ being of the same derivation, the 
 sense of the many passages wherein they occur 
 will be more obvious. And besides, to some ears 
 
 a2 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 at least J cant and fanaticism liave tarnislied and 
 debased tlie words righteous and rigliteousness ; 
 whereas as long as any sparh of conscience remains^ 
 Justice will be a venerable, an awful name. The 
 oblio;ations of Justice are the most sensible and 
 pressing to the human mind."* 
 
 Imbued no doubt with the spirit of patriotism 
 and justice.^ the late Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton 
 (afterwards created Lord Lytton), father of the 
 present Governor-General of India, in his un- 
 answered and unanswerable *' Letters to John 
 Bull, Esquire, on Affairs connected with his 
 Landed Property^ and the Persons iclio live 
 thereon^'' '\ says, — 
 
 '• Our foreign trade, the exports of our cotton 
 
 * The following appeared in the Times of the 28th August : 
 — " Midhat Pasha. (By Telegraph.) (From our own Cor- 
 respondent.) Paris, August 27, 1877. A deputation of the 
 Society of Positivists waited yesterday on Midhat Pasha, to 
 express to him their sympathy with the cause of Turkey and 
 with his own efforts. Midhat Pasha, in his reply, complained 
 of the prejudice in Europe against the spirit of the Mussulman 
 religion, which he assured them was, at least, as much adapted 
 as Christianity to the spirit of civilization and modern insti- 
 tutions He complained especially of those 
 
 European statesmen whose religious sentiments had over- 
 balanced their reason, and who, despite all that Russia had 
 been doing for two years, heaped only on Turkey their in- 
 dignant rebukes : ' What,' he ashed, ' ivas the use of religion, if 
 it did not make people just ?'' " The writer of these pages, 
 however, wishes not to be understood, in giving this note, to 
 offer any opinion, direct or indirect, relative to the merits or 
 demerits of either Russia or Turkey, in relation to the 
 miserable war still going on. 
 
 t Tenth edition. Chapman and Hall, Piccadilly, 1^.51. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 manufacture, are worthy objects of attention ; but 
 they are not the sole ones. The icealth of the State 
 itself cannot so ahsoi^h the attention of a thoughtful 
 legislatoi'^ but what he will also regard the moral 
 and social circumstances hy which alone that icealth 
 can he "permanently secured.^ Let me care ever 
 so much for money, it is not only to make money 
 that / must care; I must also look to the safe- 
 guards that are to prevent me from losing it!' 
 
 " Defence," says Adam Smith, '^ is of much 
 more importance than opulence." 
 
 '' Our debt — the fundholder — the safety of the 
 Empire in its actual and necessary defences — all 
 these I must look to as a Citizen.^ as well as the 
 quantity of cotton I can sell to the foreigner." 
 (See Letter iii., p. 98, 10th ed.) 
 
 In his first Letter, p. 28, he had said — 
 
 " Whether or not Political Economy be a science 
 based upon induction, rather than logic, is it a 
 study affording the most valuable suggestions. 
 But I must be permitted to observe, that it is a 
 common mistake with the ordinary run of students 
 
 * The late Prince Metternicli, wlio for more than a qnarter 
 of a century conducted the affairs of the Austrian Empire, 
 
 once said to Count Z j : — " My dear Count, you wish to 
 
 do good to your country, but you go the ivrong ivay about it. 
 The material advantages you procure it turn to its moral 
 f/isadvantage, and when the moral evil shall be accom- 
 plished IT will remain, but the material good will disappear 
 in the terrible convulsions of civil war. The credit you 
 obtain by flattering the passions you will lose when you 
 endeavour to restrain them." 
 
 hi^'( T V 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 at leastj cant ami fanaticism liave tarnished and 
 debased tlie words righteous and rigliteousness ; 
 whereas as long as any sparh of conscience remains^ 
 Justice will be a venerable, an awful name. The 
 oblio-ations of Justice are the most sensible and 
 pressing to the human mind."* 
 
 Imbued no doubt with the spirit of patriotism 
 and justice.^ the late Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton 
 (afterwards created Lord Lytton), father of the 
 present Governor-General of India, in his un- 
 answered and unanswerable *' Letters to John 
 Bull, Esquire, on Affairs connected with his 
 Landed Property^ and the Persons iclio live 
 thereon^^^'\ says, — 
 
 '* Our foreign trade, the exports of our cotton 
 
 * The following appeared in the Times of the 28th August : 
 — " Midhat Pasha. (By Telegraph.) (From our own Cor- 
 respondent.) Paris, August 27, 1877. A deputation of the 
 Society of Positivists waited yesterday on Midhat Pasha, to 
 express to him their sympathy with the cause of Turkey and 
 with his own efforts. Midhat Pasha, in his reply, complained 
 of the prejudice in Europe against the spirit of the Mussulman 
 religion, which he assured them was, at least, as much adapted 
 as Christianity to the spirit of civilization and modern insti- 
 tutions He complained especially of those 
 
 European statesmen whose religious sentiments had over- 
 balanced their reason, and who, despite all that Russia had 
 been doing for two years, heaped only on Turkey their in- 
 dignant rebukes : ' What,' he ashed, ' ivas the use of religion, ij 
 it did not make people just ?' " The writer of these pages, 
 however, wishes not to be understood, in giving this note, to 
 offer any opinion, direct or indirect, relative to the merits or 
 demerits of either Russia or Turkey, in relation to the 
 miserable war still going on. 
 
 t Tenth edition. Cliapman and Hall, Piccadilly, l^fjl. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 manufacture, are worthy objects of attention ; but 
 they are not the sole ones. The loealth of the State 
 itself cannot so ahsorh the attention of a tJioiightful 
 legislatoi'^ but what he will also regard the moral 
 and social circumstances hy which alone that wealth 
 can he permanently secured.^ Let me care ever 
 so much for money, it is not only to make money 
 that / must care; I must also look to the safe- 
 guards that are to prevent me from losing it!' 
 
 " Defence," says Adam Smith, '-'' is of much 
 more importance than opulence." 
 
 " Our debt — the fundholder — the safety of the 
 Empire in its actual and necessary defences — all 
 these I must look to as a Citizen.^ as well as the 
 quantity of cotton I can sell to the foreigner." 
 (See Letter iii., p. 98, 10th ed.) 
 
 In his first Letter, p. 28, he had said — 
 
 " Whether or not Political Economy be a science 
 based upon induction, rather than logic, is it a 
 study affording the most valuable suggestions. 
 But I must be permitted to observe, that it is a 
 common mistake with the ordinary run of students 
 
 * The late Prince Metternicli, who for more than a quarter 
 of a century conducted the affairs of the Austrian Empire, 
 
 once said to Count Z j : — " My dear Count, you wish to 
 
 do good to your country, but you go the wrong way about it. 
 The material advantages you procure it turn to its moral 
 f/isadvantage, and when the moral evil shall be accom- 
 plished IT will remain, but the material good will disappear 
 in the terrible convulsions of civil war. The credit you 
 obtain by flattering the passions you will lose when you 
 endeavour to restrain them." 
 
 rn^f TV 
 
Tl PREFACE. 
 
 in Political Economy, to mistake altogether the 
 nature of that science^ and the reservation imposed 
 upon the practical adoption of its principles. 
 Political Economy deals with hut one element in a 
 State, viz., its wealth ; and the soundest political 
 economists will be found cautiously stopping short 
 of what would seem the goal o/an argument, with 
 some such expression as ' But this belongs to 
 National Policy.^ Political Economy goes strictly 
 and sternly^ as it were, towards the investigation of 
 the rigid principle it is pursuing ; it has only inci- 
 dentally to do with the modifications which it 
 would be wise to adopt when you apply the prin- 
 ciple to living men. Of living men,^ their passions^ 
 and habits y2C[idi prejudices^ it often thinks no more 
 than Euclid does when he is demonstrating the 
 properties of a triangle. All this is out of the 
 province of the Political Economist^ and within 
 that of the Statesman^ 
 
 And a writer of more recent date — the author of 
 " Physical Science compared with the Second Beast 
 or False Prophet of the Revelation,'^ (Rivingtons, 
 Waterloo Place, 1865), says — 
 
 " It may be quite true that acting upon the 
 principles of Political Economy may bring tcealth 
 to a man or to a nation ; but whether it be right 
 to act on them for this purpose is the really impor- 
 tant question, 
 
 " I think 1 am justified in saying that Political 
 Economy has too much of temptation mixed up 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 with it, for it to he right ; since not even its greatest 
 admirer loill^ 1 helieve^ declai^e that it would he right 
 to follow it to its last conseqiienees. Now, a system 
 wliicli will produce certain apparently desirable 
 results if followed out^ hut which cannot he fully 
 followed out^ unless a man loere to get rid of his 
 feelings and his conscience^ seems to me to 
 be a system of temptation^ and, therefore, anti- 
 Christian. 
 
 " For Political Economy teaches a man, that by 
 working in obedience to certain general laws^ and 
 for his oion interest solely^ he will really in the end 
 be doing more good to the whole community^ than 
 he would be doing if he allowed present^ and 
 perhaps loccd^ distress to turn him from following 
 those principles^ and to lead him to sacrifice himself 
 for others. And that, therefore, true wisdom and 
 true charity are to be found in obeying those 
 natural laws, by which we shall he led in the end to 
 the greatest material prosperity , 
 
 " If this theory can be reconciled with the 
 doctrine of the Bihle about wealth and men's duty, 
 then Political Economy is not that mark which the 
 Beast causeth all, both small and great, rich and 
 poor, free and bond, to receive. 
 
 "• But, contrast with this ' true wisdom,' as it 
 is often called, which springs from the hrain of 
 7nan* and is not revealed from Heaven, the words 
 
 * A note, by the Author of Physical Science, &c., says * 
 " Dr. Adam Smith, the father of the Modern Science of 
 
yill PREFACE. 
 
 of Him who is the wisdom and the power of 
 God." 
 
 The author then gives several verses from St. 
 Matt. vi. 28-34 ; Luke xii. 33, 34 ; and amongst 
 them, ''Ye cannot serve God and Mammon^' ''For 
 where your treasure is, there will your heart be 
 also," and thus concludes the Chapter (X.) 
 
 " This is true wisdom, for it is God's, and it 
 seems to me contrary to that human wisdom called 
 ' Political Economy,' for I cannot understand how 
 that desire for wealth, which has worked out a 
 science of getting it, can be reconciled with such 
 a sacrifice of the world as that described in what 
 J have quoted. 
 
 " I think then that ' Political Economy ' may be 
 ' the buying and selling mark.' Now it is said, 
 that the Beast ' causeth all, both small and great, 
 rich and poor, free and bond,' to receive the mark. 
 The ' small ' may be those of small account, yet 
 there is another way in which (in this case at 
 least) the 'small' may be understood. In Eng- 
 land, Political Economy is taught in Schools."* I 
 mention this because, though all hiioio liow it is 
 forced upon 'rich and poor, free and bond/ all 
 may not know how some of the ' small ' have it 
 stamped upon their helpless little foreheads. '^'\ 
 
 Political Economy, was an avowed infidel. Whose is this 
 image and superscription ?" 
 
 * See Appendix, No. 1. 
 
 t Political Economists. — Of seven prizes given this year 
 by the Cobden Club to the most successful students in Politi- 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 In Mr. J. A. Froude's still more recent volume 
 of Short Studies on Great Subjects as reviewed 
 in tlie Times of the 15tli August, 1877, it is 
 said : — 
 
 "- The State has lost its legitimate influence, the 
 nation is a mere sum of atoms^ without coherence 
 or real dependence ; authority is a vain shadow^ 
 and loholesome order has ceased to exist ; and the 
 great body of the people is a brainless multitude, 
 weltering loosely about in wild confusion, fierce 
 with angry jealousies^ and filled with discontent and 
 destructive longings. We have broken down the 
 bonds that upheld the Commonwealth ; we have 
 sawed through the bulk-head that kept the ship 
 together ; and society with us is an aggregate of 
 dust^ or a universal scramble of selfishness^ nur&Qd in 
 Apolitical economy ^^ the most barefaced attempt 
 that has yet been openly made on this earth to 
 regulate human society loithout God or recognition 
 of the moral laio^ 
 
 In order to enlighten any whose politics are in- 
 fluenced by the impression that the " Unrestricted 
 Competition Policy" of 1846 was instigated 
 
 cal Economy in connection witli the Cambridge University 
 Extension Syndicate for conducting Local Lectures, five liave 
 been awarded to female competitors. The winners are Ger- 
 trude Gregson, of Highbury-Bowdon ; Sarah Smithson, York ; 
 Hannah Cheetham, Southport; Annie Hankinson, Altrin- 
 cham ; Elizabeth H. Sturge, Cheltenham ; H. R. Kriiger, 
 Hull; and Alfred W. Tarbotton, Hull.— Tmes, 11th Dec, 
 1877. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 and carried by the aid of tlie labouring classes ^ it 
 is well that such persons should be undeceived and 
 learn the truth from the Kight Hon. Eobert Lowe. 
 In addressing the constituency of Kidderminster 
 in 1858 when he was standing for re-election, 
 in the Times of the 10th December, 1858, Mr. 
 Lowe is reported to have said, " I have told you 
 very plainly that I think the Reform Bill (1832) 
 has fully and satisfactorily answered the purj)ose 
 of those who framed it, and I have told you that 
 in my opinion the present state of the question of 
 Eeform does not arise from any feeling on the 
 part of the people that the Eeform Bill has not 
 worked well for them {some disapprobation from a 
 part of the audience) : of this I am certain that if 
 the working -classes had had their destinies in their 
 own hands some years ago, they would not have 
 been in as good a position as now they are. 
 (Oh ! Oh !) Look at the abolition of the tax upon 
 corn, which was perhaps the greatest blessing that 
 any government could offer to a people, but that 
 was accomplished for the people and 7iot by them* 
 In fact so far as their organization enabled them to 
 do so, they offered the greatest opposition to that 
 measure (Cheers). Now what are the people of 
 America — where every one has a vote — ahout to do ? 
 
 * The right hon. gentleman said what was no doubt true, 
 for in America and other countries, where the voice of the 
 people prevails, there is no reciprocity with England in her 
 Free Imports System. 
 
PREFACE. ' XI 
 
 To restore and to strencjtlien the system of Frotectlon^^ 
 
 This was in 1858, and tlie Americans have con- 
 tinued and will continue to do so, and whoever 
 has read the great work of their countryman 
 " Carey," — the eminent statistician, — entitled, 
 " The Harmony of Interests — agricultural, manu- 
 facturing, and commercial," wherein he has 
 so clearly shown the danger of the Free Imports 
 policy, will know how small a chance there is of 
 their ever adopting it. The work was published 
 in 1851, at Philadelphia (J. S. Skinner, 79, Wal- 
 nut Street). For the aid of those who are seeking 
 for trittJi^ extracts from the two first pages are 
 given^* and all who wish to investigate the 
 causes of the progress and decline of industrial 
 communities will do well to procure, if possible, 
 a copy of this work, and ponder over it. 
 
 The President of America in 1869 (General 
 Grant, the writer believes, who has lately visited 
 this country and been deservedly honoured) in his 
 Address to Congress, in a spirit of true patriotism, 
 said in relation to Canada. 
 
 ^'The reciprocal trade with Canada has not 
 been favourably considered by the Administration 
 as the advantages of such Treaty would be wholly 
 in favour of Canada, Except possibly a few en- 
 gaged in trade between the two countries, no 
 citizen in the United States would be benefited by 
 
 * See Appendix, No. 2. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 reciprocity^ as our inland taxes would give the 
 British producer a protection almost equal to the 
 protection given to domestic manufactures by 
 Tariff, .... American manufactures are 
 now increasing with great rapidity under the 
 encouragement they receive^ and this will probably 
 cause imports to fall off in 2ifeio years. Manufac- 
 tures are becoming diffused over all sections of the 
 country. The extension of railways in Europe, 
 and in the East is bringing into competition with 
 our agricultural products, like products of other 
 countries; and therefore self-preservation dictates 
 caution and the necessity for other markets for 
 the sale of our supplies."* The Message concluded 
 by an expression of belief that '^ the patriotism 
 and statesmanship of Congress will suggest topics 
 for legislation most conducive to the interests of the 
 ^cliole peopled 
 
 May similar patriotism and statesmanship be 
 found to suggest topics for legislation conducive 
 to the same end in England! 
 
 Happily the path of duty is ever the safest 
 course to enter on, and if, as Adam Smitli said — 
 " Defence is of much more importance than 
 opulence " — 
 
 We must above all things strive to improve and 
 preserve the health and vigour of the labouring 
 population of the kingdom. 
 
 The writer of the following pages has imposed 
 * See Appendix, No. 3. 
 
on liimself a by-no-means pleasing task. He lias 
 felt liimself bound to point out unpleasant truths, 
 for the smoothness of flattery will not avail us. 
 
 Conscience, as well as judgment^ teaches him 
 that however duty and interest may at any time 
 seem to clash, yet, that, whether in public or pri- 
 vate, or national concerns, integrity, and a love of 
 justice is the true and only path to safety, honour, 
 and success. A time Conservatwe knows his duty 
 as a subject and performs it cheerfully. He re- 
 gards the poor and helpless, not as burdens upon 
 his land, wdio have scarcely a right to live, except 
 as they minister to the pride and convenience of 
 the rich, but as a sacred charge to be especially 
 protected and cherished.* 
 
 He has no idea of politics apart from morals: 
 of morals not founded on religion ; of religion 
 not derived from Revelation. He holds conserva- 
 tive principles as comprehending our duty to our 
 neighbour, our country, and our Queen, all with 
 reference to God as our supreme ruler and judge. 
 
 During each session of Parliament, may all 
 sincerely pray that God 'Svill be pleased to direct 
 and prosper all their consultations to the advance- 
 ment of His glory, the good of His Church, the 
 safety, honour and welfare of our sovereign and 
 her dominions." Let all remember what is re- 
 corded of a nation of old and was " written for 
 our learning." In addressing the Israelites God 
 * See Appendix, i*To. 4. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 said — " Hear^ my people^ and I will assure tliee, 
 O Israel; if thou wilt hearken unto me. There 
 shall no strange god be in thee ; neither shalt thou 
 worship any other God. / am the Lord thy God, 
 who brought thee out of the land of Egypt 5 open 
 thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people 
 would not hear my voice, and Israel would not 
 obey me. So I gave them up unto their own 
 hearts' lusts ; and let them follow their own ima- 
 ginations."* (Ps. Ixxxi.) 
 
 In order that any reader of the first part of this 
 volume may be able to judge how far the antici- 
 pations of the writer as to the ultimate effect of 
 the Free Imports policy of 1840 (without recipro- 
 city by other nations) have been realized, a few 
 letters which appeared in 1854-5^ in a weekly 
 journal of sound constitutional principles, and 
 conducted with great ability, are herewith re- 
 published. 
 
 * Bishop Home, in his well-known and valuable Com- 
 mentary on the Booh of Psalms, says: — "When we see men 
 enabled, by wealth and power, to accomplish the inordinate 
 desire of their hearts, and carry their worldly schemes into 
 execution, without meeting any obstructions in their way, we 
 are apt to envy their felicity ; whereas such prosperity in 
 wickedness is the surest mark of divine displeasure, the 
 heaviest punishment of disobedience, both in individuals and 
 communities." — " My people would not hearken to my voice, 
 and Israel ivouJcl none of me : so I gave them up unto their 
 oicii hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels. — 
 {Bible Translation). 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 Shakspeare tells us : — 
 
 Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
 
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
 
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 
 
 As You Like It, ii. 1. 
 
 It was after experiencing "Adversity/' — after 
 Ms Fall^ — that Wolsey gave that advice to his 
 Secretary, Thomas Cromwell, by heeding which 
 we should all be, and cZo, the better, perhaps: — 
 
 ** Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition ; 
 By that sin fell the angels ; how can man then, 
 The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't ? 
 Love thyself last ; cherish those hearts that hate thee ; 
 Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
 Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace. 
 To silence envious tongues. Be just and fear not. 
 Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
 Thy God's and Truth's ; then if thou fall'st, Cromwell, 
 Thou fall'st a blessed martyr." 
 
 Henry VIII. ^ Act iii., Scene 2. 
 
 God save the Queen. 
 
Thou, by whose almighty nod the scale 
 
 Of Emjpire rises, or alternate falls ; 
 
 Send forth the saving virtues round the land, 
 
 In bright patrol ; white Peace, and social Love ; 
 
 The tender-looking Charity, intent 
 
 On greater deeds, and shedding tears through smiles. 
 
 JJndamited Truth, and Dignity of Mind : 
 
 Courage compos'd, and keen sound Temperance 
 
 Healthful in heart and look ; clear Chastity 
 
 With blushes reddening as she moves along, 
 
 Disordered at the deep regard she draws ; 
 
 Bough Industry ; Activity untired, 
 
 With copious life informed, and all awake; 
 
 While, in the radiant front, superior shines 
 
 Thsii first paternal virtue — Pullic Zeal ; 
 
 Which throws on all an equal wide survey ; 
 
 And, ever-musing on the Common Weal, 
 
 Still labours gloriously with some great design. 
 
Z€^ 0? THE 
 
 Y 
 
 THE TENDENCIES OF THE POLICY OF 1846 AEE 
 TO DENATIONALIZE AND DECOLONIZE. 
 
 It is not unnatural that it sliould take a long 
 time to convince a man, born with a good consti- 
 tution, and who from his youth up to manhood 
 has enjoyed robust health, that he has, with 
 advancing age^ contracted, and is suffering from, 
 some INTERNAL disease inducing weakness. Eather 
 than become convinced of this, he will have re- 
 course to a variety of physicians, and change them 
 frequently. Either, however, for lack of true 
 wisdom, or courage, on the part of the patient 
 to make known fairly and fully to his medical 
 advisers all his sensations, or candidly to confess 
 some act to which the origin of the derangement 
 of his system, and consequent failing health might 
 be surely traced, or from the medical men think- 
 ing' that the only means that would eradicate the 
 disease would operate too slowly to satisfy the 
 patient^ or to increase, or even uphold their own 
 fame and interest, the remedies from time to time 
 administered are found not really to invigorate the 
 patient's health and constitution, though perhaps 
 just as a cosmetic might do, if used; as a cure for 
 
 1 
 
jaundice, it may afford occasionally, for a short 
 time, a fallacious external appearance, while, all 
 the time^ the disease is becoming more complicated 
 and general, and undermining more and more the 
 patient's constitutional power. Unfavourable 
 symptoms return, therefore, quicker and quicker, 
 and with hicreased severity ; and if the patient's 
 originally good constitution has become too ex- 
 hausted (by the delay of the only sure, tliough, 
 perhaps, slow remedy) to bear the process abso- 
 lutely 7iecessary for restoration to a healthy condi- 
 tion, the patient may linger on for a time in a 
 diseased condition, but with very little enjoyment, 
 and he finds himself unable to occupy the position 
 he once did in the world's eye. 
 
 Let us then, for our present purpose, assume 
 that, in the case put, the nation is the patient. 
 True it is, all empires have been subject to decay ; 
 but the domination of the mighty nations of anti- 
 quity was prolonged or shortened as their inherent 
 capacity for maintaining power was more or less 
 active, or as the races around them w^ere more or 
 less feeble. Therefore, though constrained per- 
 haps to admit the principle that every empire 
 must eventually yield the sceptre to a younger 
 and more impetuous rival, it may be laid down as 
 an axiom that it is in the power of the people of a 
 dominant nation to lengthen the period of its supre- 
 macy to an extent not calculable by them.^ The 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
3 
 
 whole end of statesmanship and politics* is in 
 the prolongation of the national status ; or, it may 
 be, supremacy; consequently if we can arrive 
 at the TRUE causes of the symptoms of decay, we 
 may^ by removing them, tend to preserve our 
 progress in the proper patli^ if not by positively 
 indicating whither it lies, which may be not pos- 
 sible, at any rate indicating what course it is 
 dangerous to pursue. 
 
 It is now two-and-thirty years since our present 
 Premier (then Mr. Disraeli, now Earl of Beacons- 
 field) wrote of England : — 
 
 " The disease we labour under is social disor- 
 ganization,'' The grand and all-important ques- 
 tion then is, What has induced this disease? 
 Nothing could be gained by finding fault with any 
 particular Ministry or parties in the State conscien- 
 tiously labouring to discharge their duties. The 
 difiiculties aiiy Ministry, in these our days, has to 
 
 * The sphere of the Civil Government may be briefly de- 
 fined to be the maintenance of peace and good order, and the 
 careful attention to everything that tends to promote the 
 highest temporal well-being of all. Wise legislation, equal 
 administration of law and justice, security to life, health, and 
 property, development of material resources, promotion of 
 education, are all means towards the great object of securing 
 for all the most favourable opportunity possible in this present 
 world for living that life, and attaining that growth and de- 
 velopment in all the elements of our human nature, in body 
 and mind, in heart and soul, and spirit, for which our Creator 
 sent us into the world. St. Paul says in his Epistle to the 
 Romans, ch. xiii., " Let every soul be subject unto the higher 
 powers ;" and also, '" Render unto all their due." 
 
 1 * 
 
contend with, are great indeed ; and every lover 
 of his country ought to do his best in endeavour- 
 ing to aid, not embarrass, their endeavours to 
 advance the national interest." 
 
 Whether this has been or can be the result of the 
 policy of 1846, it is the object of the writer of 
 these pages to enable readers to form an opinion 
 from the facts disclosed. When commenting on 
 these, he has always been influenced by the 
 maxim, " Nothing extenuate, or set dow^n aught in 
 malice.'' 
 
 The present Dean of Westminster, writing of 
 the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, says, " His 
 Tahle-Talh marks him, in my judgment^ as a very 
 great man indeed, ichose equal I know not where 
 to find in England." (See Stanley's Life of Arnold^ 
 vol. ii., p. 432.) It must be admitted then that 
 Coleridge is no mean authority in what he said in 
 relation to Corn Laws and modern Political Eco- 
 nomy. In his Tahle-Talk we find that in 1834^ 
 not long before his death, he said — 
 
 " In the argument of the Corn Laws there is a 
 H^TataaiQ uq aXXo yivoq. It may be admitted that 
 the great principles of commerce require the inter- 
 change of commodities to be free ; but commerce, 
 which is barter^ has no proper range beyond luxu- 
 ries or conveniences ; — it is properly the complement 
 to the full existence and development of a State. 
 But how can it he shoion that the yrinciples appli- 
 cable to an interchange of conveniences or luxuries 
 
apply also to an interchange of necessaries 9* No 
 State can be such properly which is not self-substs- 
 tent at least ; for no State that is not so^ is essentially 
 independent. The nation that cannot even exist 
 
 * Since these pages were sent for publication, the Times of 
 the 12th January, 1878, had a leader, of which the following 
 is the commencement. The writer of that leader will perhaps 
 now not feel inclined to differ with the sentiments of Coleridge, 
 expressed in 1834, for mark, reader, in rather (and rightly) a 
 tone of regret, he says, " the case may be stated by saying 
 that our foreign custom has declined," (he might have added, 
 and our Home-trade also), " but that our population never- 
 theless increasing, we have not been relieved from the neces- 
 sity of seeking our food from abroad," &c. 
 
 We lately had occasion to refer to the alarm which has been 
 produced in certain quarters by the discovery that the imports 
 of this country have for some years past been exceeding the 
 exports to a constantly increasing extent ; and we published 
 on Wednesday the official returns, which show the amount of 
 the difference for the year which has just been brought to a 
 conclusion. It appears, from these returns, that the balance 
 of international trade was against us during 1877 to the 
 extent of about 145 millions, and that this amount exceeds by 
 no less than 30 millions the similar difference of the preceding 
 year. When we look into the particulars of the account, and 
 ask what are the articles of foreign production which we have 
 required in such excess of our power to send goods in ex- 
 change for them, it appears that the explanation of our trans- 
 actions lies within a very narrow compass. Our imports of 
 food grains and flour exceeded those of 1876 by about 12 
 millions, and the increased value of such articles as cheese, 
 coffee, fresh and preserved meats, currants, hops, potatoes and 
 suD-ar, represent another sura of the same amount. The value 
 of our sugar import exceeds that of 1876 by more than 6 
 millions, but this represents a larger quantity, as well as a 
 larger value, and partly, at least, depends upon a great in- 
 crease in the amount of English-made preserves, which have 
 
without the commodity of another nation^ is in effect 
 the slave of that other nation. In common times^ 
 indiQQdi^ pecuniary interest will ^revail^ and prevent 
 a ruinous exercise of the power which the nation 
 supplying the necessary must have over the nation 
 which has only the convenience or luxury to return ; 
 but such interest, both in individuals and nations^ 
 will yield to many stronger passions. Is Holland 
 any authority to the contrary ? If so, Tyre and 
 Sidon and Carthage were so! Would you put 
 England on a footing with a country which can 
 be overrun in a campaign^ and starved in a year T 
 
 And of "the modern Political Economy" he 
 adds — " The entire tendency of the modern or 
 Malthusian political economy is to denationalize. 
 
 to a considerable extent superseded those imported from 
 foreign countries. However certain details of tlie account 
 may be explained, it is manifest, upon the whole, that the 
 larger balance against us depends entirely upon the importa- 
 tion of articles of necessity ; and hence that the case may be 
 stated by saying that our foreign custom has declined, but 
 that, our population nevertheless increasing, we have not been 
 relieved from the necessity of seeking our food from abroad. 
 Our expenditure, within certain limits, cannot be curtailed in 
 consequence of a decreasing income, and the slackness of our 
 trade has not reached a degree which has compelled us to 
 deny ourselves enjoyments which habit has rendered necessary 
 to our comfort. We have, doubtless, drawn upon our foreign 
 investments to pay for the luxuries to which we have become 
 accustomed, but we have done so in the full expectation that 
 a short period of time would see the commencement of a 
 beneficial change in our affairs. It is of the first importance 
 to consider whether such an expectation is well-founded. 
 
It would dig up the charcoal foundations of the 
 temple of Ephesus to bum as fuel for a steam- 
 engine."* 
 
 In 1851, five letters "addressed to the Public 
 on Free Trade, by Agricola," were published (by 
 Seeleys, Fleet Street), and at the present time, 
 when the minds of so many who, when the late 
 Sir Robert Peel introduced his " great experiment" 
 in 1816, thought favourably of it, are, after thirty- 
 two years' experience of its results, beginning to 
 doubt the wisdom of free imports without recipro- 
 city on the part of other nations, and to think that 
 the "great experiment" has been tried as long as 
 it can be with a due regard to national interests, 
 the following extracts from " Agricola's" letters 
 
 * See pp. 303-4, in Specimens of tie Tahle Talk of Samuel 
 Taylor Coleridge, 2nd Ed., London. John Murray, Albemarle 
 Street, 1836. 
 
 Of "Machinery" he says, "The wonderful powers of Machinery 
 can, by multiplying production, render the mere arte facta of 
 life actually cheaper ; thus, money and all other things being 
 supposed the same in value, a silk gown is five times cheaper 
 now than it was in Queen Elizabeth's time ; but machinery 
 cannot cheapen, in anything like an equal degree, the imme- 
 diate growths of nature or the immediate necessaries of man. 
 Now, the arte facta are sought by the higher classes of society 
 in a proportion incalculably beyond that in which they are 
 sought by the lower classes ; and therefore it is that the vast 
 increase of mechanical powers has not cheapened life and 
 pleasure to the poor as it has done to the rich. In some re- 
 spects, no doubt, it has done so, as in giving cotton dresses to 
 maid-servants, and penny gin to all. A pretty benefit 
 truly ;" Page 224. See Extract from M'Culloch in Letter II., 
 2')ost. 
 
8 
 
 will be read with gi'eater interest, and, perhaps, 
 advantage, than when the letters were first 
 published: — 
 
 Letter I. 
 " The Tendency of Free Trade to impoverish all 
 Classes. 
 *' Fellow-Countrymen, 
 
 ^' There is one simple view of the question 
 of Free Trade which, it has always appeared to 
 myself, ought to carry with it more than ordinary 
 weight. It is the tendencies of a system which 
 stamp its character, and its ulterior results which 
 claim attention in a higher degree than any present 
 indications. The immediate results are temporary ; 
 the ultimate^ permanent. Now, it must be admitted 
 by every advocate of Free Trade, that one inevi- 
 table tendency of that system is the following : — 
 to reduce the prices of all production^ the profits of 
 every business^ and the loages of every description of 
 labour, to the lowest "point. Mr. Cobden certainly 
 did maintain, if my recollection be correct, that 
 Free Trade would have the effect of raising wages ; 
 but such an assertion is not deserving of notice. 
 It is, I think, perfectly evident, and will be 
 admitted upon tl^ slightest reflection by every 
 candid mind, tha^ the effect stated above is 
 inevitable, ^^^^ 
 
 '' Where unlimited competition is the accepted 
 principle of traffic, prices mustfall^ and fall to the 
 
lowest extreme ; profits must fall with them, and 
 loages too. Custom, it is true, has some share in 
 the regulation of wages ; and on tliat account em- 
 ployers may for a time continue to maintain a scale 
 of wages which is not proportionate to the rate of 
 profit : but eventually a low rate of profit must pro- 
 duce a corresponding loio scale oficages. But is it 
 desirable that the prices of all production, the 
 profits of every business, and the wages of every 
 description of labour^ should he reduced to the lowest 
 points Is not this subject deserving of very 
 serious consideration ? One which ought not to 
 be lightly dismissed by the politician, or by any 
 private individual personally interested in the 
 matter, as indeed all are? Is it not a strange 
 plan for advancing the prosperity of the country, 
 and promoting the comfort of its different classes f 
 "Will any advocate of Free Trade confidently 
 maintain that such means are well adapted to their 
 endr 
 
 In his fifth (last) letter, " Agricola " wrote, 
 '• Next to the ruin that is gradually over- 
 taking the agricultural population, the principal 
 danger to the country is the loss of its Colonies 
 — Colonies, whose interests and welfare are 
 placed upon a par with those of foreign States^ 
 cannot retain their allegiance to the i/o^Aer-Country 
 — a Mother-Country, which adopts and carries out 
 in practice cosmopolitan theories^ cannot recognize 
 the use of Colonies. And, accordingly, the more 
 
10 
 
 advanced disciples of Free-trade are prej^ared at 
 once to cast off the Colonies as useless incum- 
 brances. Government, following at humble dis- 
 tance, are gradually opening tlieir eyes to the same 
 enlightened views. Useless incumbrances the 
 Colonies may be under the rule of Free- trade : but 
 when the folly of Free-trade has passed away, 
 more just opinions will prevail upon this subject. 
 To think that there are men, men high in political 
 influence, calling themselves, and reputed to be 
 Statesmen (a name how little deserved !), who, in 
 order to carry out their fantastic schemes, can, 
 knowingly and deliberately, incur the risk of 
 losing the British Colonies, nay, can seriously 
 entertain the question whether Colonial connection 
 shall not be voluntarily abandoned, would be 
 incredible, if it were not fact. Under a icise 
 system of rule the value of the Colonies to the 
 Mother- Country is incalculable ; and so is that of 
 the Mother- Country to them. England, with her 
 circumscribed insular limits, finds in Colonies a 
 substitute for a wider home- domain. In some 
 respects, from their more varied capabilities, she 
 derives from them advantages superior to those of 
 a more compact territory. Surrounded by great 
 and flourisliing Colonies, accessories to her power^ 
 and her magnificence, she sits in queenly dignity, 
 pre-eminent among the nations. Deprived of 
 those colonies, her sceptre droits from her hands; 
 her majesty is made to stoop ; her power passes 
 
11 
 
 away; slie ceases to he the most favoured instrument 
 in fulfilling the highest purposes of Providence,* 
 and Jier very existence is endangered. Instead of 
 severing the connection between herself and them, 
 let every means be adopted to cement a closer 
 union. Admit representatives from the Colonies 
 into the British Parliament^ thus converting the 
 Colonies from dependencies into equal and integral 
 portions of the Empire — an Empire then of which 
 the loorld might he proud. It is generally sup- 
 posed that^ as the Colonies grow into importance, 
 that is to say, as they become an ornament and 
 advantage to the Mother-Country, separation is 
 inevitable. It might he so upon the present plan ; 
 it would not upon the one named. Let the Colo- 
 nies go. What then ? The reality of its situation 
 would burst upon the country with the force and 
 the terror of a thunderclap. The country w^ould 
 instantly attain sufficient perception of the truth to 
 recognize and deplore its loss. Then behold 
 Britain, no longer Great^ seated in the midst of the 
 ocean, not now its Queen, but a forlorn and deso- 
 late widow. Foreign competition groios upon her : 
 in all the markets of the loorld she is successfully 
 
 * May 4, 1833. — " Colonization is not only a manifest ex- 
 pedient for, bat an imperative duty on, Great Britain. God 
 seems to hold out His finger to us over the sea. But it must 
 be a National colonization, such as was that of the Scotch to 
 America ; a colonization of hope, and not such as we have 
 alone encouraged and effected for the last fifty years, a coloni- 
 zation of despair.''— C'o?ertVZ;/e's Tahh Talk, p. 223, 2nd Ed. 
 
12 
 
 met ; prices come doion^ profits are reduced^ ivages 
 are lowered, wide-spread destitution prevails; and 
 that destitution^ be it observed, is permanent. 
 Foreign countries, by a change of their tariffs — a 
 stroke of the pen — torture her at pleasure. She is 
 bound hand and foot in the fetters of a grinding 
 commercial slavei'y. 
 
 Suppose a war breaks out. She has been sacri- 
 ficing her own maritime resources; she has been 
 fostering those of her opponents; she is beaten at sea. 
 Foreign navies ride triumphant on that ocean, of 
 which she formerly was mistress ; her shores are 
 blockaded: her people cry for bread; and cry in 
 vain; for America grows it, not England. Her 
 insular position, once her pride and strength, is now 
 weakness and death to her. The horrors of starva- 
 tion set in, and she is glad to make an exchange of 
 liberty for life.^ 
 
 * Perliaps some will recollect tliat a letter, bearing the sig- 
 nature, " John Michel Tmtz-Baumwoll " appeared in the 
 Times and other journals in 1871, said to be a translation of a 
 German letter, suggesting " Invasion of England by the Ger- 
 mans." This letter was published as a pamphlet by Houlston 
 and Sons, G5, Paternoster Row, 1871. 
 
 " Forewarned, Forearmed !" 
 
 A copy of the 4th edition is now before the writer, and at 
 p. 9 is the following : — 
 
 " Why should England not become a part and a member of 
 the country which rejoices in the possession of such a ruler as 
 the great and humane victor of France ?" 
 
 Whoever was the author, he was one who know^s English 
 habits well, and says, too truly (p. 3), "N'othing remains of 
 the subordination of the different classes which was once so 
 
Or, suppose a commercial crisis arrives, such as 
 is constantly recurring in the course of every few- 
 years in this commercial country ! but then possi- 
 bly and probably " (it would be more correct to 
 say, certainly) " on a scale of much greats?' magni- 
 tude. Formerly, on an occasion of this descrip- 
 tion, she has fallen back for support upon her 
 agriculture : that has upheld and carried her safely 
 through the difficulty; in a little time trade has 
 resumed its accustomed channels, and the stream 
 of prosperity once more flowed in full tide. But 
 noio the case is altered ; her agriculture is not so 
 productive ; while the solid rock lay at hand^ she has 
 selected in preference the foundation of a quick- 
 sand: she has built upon one huge manufacturing 
 interest, without a counterpoise ; there is no sustain- 
 ing principle left^ and she sinks, overwhelmed^ into 
 ruin. 
 
 These are no images of fanciful impossibility \ 
 but descriptions consistent with sober practical 
 truth. But to enumerate all the dangers to the 
 country which this insane system is gathering round 
 it^ would be an endless task. At present^ however, 
 all is still. For some time longer we may be amused 
 
 remarkable a feature in English society. There is no longer 
 that mutual confidence and dependence of one class upon an- 
 other which formerly softened the differences of birth and 
 wealth." 
 
 In fact, as Burke said in his Reflections on the French Bevo- 
 lution, " the unbought grace of life" no longer exists in Eng- 
 land. 
 
14 
 
 hy assurances^ on the part of Her Majesty' s Ministers^ 
 of unhounded 'prosperity^ coupled with the expres- 
 sion of a hope that^ as regards one exception, that 
 of the agricultural hody^ the satisfactory state of 
 trade, combined with the impetus of the new system^ 
 will soon react upon it with the most beneficial 
 results. Ridiculous hope ! The agriculturists are 
 suffering from the want of remunerative prices^ and 
 Free-Trade comes to their assistance with a further 
 reduction. At present, all is still, except the 
 slighted murmurs of the agricultural and shipping 
 interests — the first spatterings of the coming storm. 
 Meanwhile the sun is seen shining, red and lurid, 
 in the cloudy horizon, and it is proclaimed hj false 
 prophets that its appearance indicates fine weather. 
 But come that storm will^ and with a fury sufficient 
 to rend up hy its roots the venerahle British Oak, 
 England is playing a desperate game. She is 
 gamhling with her destiny^ while the odds are a 
 thousand to one against her^ and, if she escape ruin, 
 it must be by the intervention of a miracle. If 
 she persist in her present policy a train of causes 
 must come into gradual operation which will exert 
 over her a more and more fatal influence,, and, at 
 length, seal her destruction, 
 
 Eno^ishmen ! awake from your stupor, and shake 
 off these fatal delusions. Abandon your blind 
 attachment to this misnamed theory^ this struggle 
 of misery^ this impoverishing starving competition j 
 Provide for your comfort, maintain your indepen- 
 
15 
 
 dence, secure your safety^ retain your Colonies^ look 
 to your Home and Colonial trades^ and adopt means 
 for their adequate development : examine also into 
 the state of your domestic affairs, and set about the 
 reduction of your deht^ that heavy mortgage upon 
 your property. Estimate too the Foreign trade at 
 its proper value : hut do not struggle for it at a cost 
 which may render even its acquisition a curse : do 
 not sacrifice for it everything you possess ; greatness^ 
 comfort^ independence^ existence* Thus acting, and 
 relying upon the blessing of Him^ toho raises and 
 destroys Empires at pleasure^ you will long retain 
 your place at the head of the nations of the world, 
 present an impregnable front to the assaults of all 
 your foes, enjoy the largest measure of national 
 and individual prosperity, and reach, hereafter, a 
 position to which your present, exalted though it 
 be, is but an infancy preparatory to manhood. 
 
 This was addressed to his fellow-countrymen by 
 "Agricola" in 1851, but, alas! his warning 
 remains unheeded to the present time, and 
 " dangers to the country, it is to be feared, have 
 been gathering round it by continuing the insane 
 system." 
 
 About the same time, or a little earlier than 
 tliese letters were published, a very clever and 
 amusing work appeared, intitled, Sam Slich^ the 
 Clock-maker^ by the late Colonial Judge, Mr. 
 Halliburton, and, it will doubtless be remembered, 
 created no slight sensation. 
 
16 
 
 And when, some years later, Nature and 
 Human Nature^ by the same Author, was pub- 
 lished (1855), it was found that years had not 
 impaired, but improved and matured his powers of 
 mind. There were in the later volumes the same 
 keen insiglit into life — the same appreciation of men 
 and things, not according to a conventional and 
 merely nominal jpr ice ^ but according to their real and 
 intrinsic value — the same practical wisdom^ the fruit 
 of much deep and grave meditation. Both works 
 abound in graphic and racy sketches of Transat- 
 lantic life^ in laughable anecdotes and amusing 
 tales, hut also in instructive discussions on public 
 questions^ affecting the social and political condition 
 both of the Mother- Country^ and of her still faithful 
 as well as of her emancipated Colonies. One of the 
 most important of these questions, and one on 
 which Mr. Halliburton is no mean authority, is 
 the question, " what is the destiny of British North 
 America f and the question might well be extended 
 to others, if not to all, of our Colonies. The able 
 Article, " Greater or Lesser Britain " (in the 
 July number of the Nineteenth Century) .^ by Sir 
 Julius Vogelj and the object he has in view, gives 
 at this time a peculiar interest to the facetious 
 reply made to the foregoing question. 
 
 "Oh," says I, ''I could tell you if I was 
 Colonial Minister, because, I should then have the 
 power to guide that destiny, I know full loell what 
 ought to be done^ and the importance of doing it 
 
17 
 
 .sor»^, but I am not in the position to tjive tlierii the 
 right direction : no English statesmen have the infor- 
 mation, the time, or the inclination to meddle loith the 
 suhject. To get rid of the bother of them, they 
 have given np all control and said to them ' there 
 is responsible government for you, now toddle off 
 home, and manage your own affairs.' Yes, yes, so 
 far, so good — they can manage their own domestic 
 matters, but who is to manage \h^\v foreign affairs^ 
 as I said once to a Member of Parliament. They 
 have outgrown Colonial dependence, their minority 
 is ended ; the clerkship is out ; they are of age 
 now ; they never did well in your house ; they 
 were put out to nurse at a distance; they had 
 their schooling ; they learnt figures easily ; they 
 can add and multiply faster than you can to save 
 your soul ; and now they are uneasy. They have 
 your name, for tliey are your children, but they are 
 younger sons. The estates and all the honours go to 
 the ELDEST, who resides at home. They know but 
 little about their parents, further than their bills 
 have been liberally paid, but they have no per- 
 sonal acquaintance loith you. You are tired of 
 maintaining them, and they hav3 too much energy 
 to continue to be a burden to you. They can and 
 they WILL do for themselves. 
 
 " Have you ever thought of setting them up in 
 business on their oicn account, or of tahing them 
 into ixirtnershii? with yourself'] In the course (f 
 nature they must form some coxxexion soon. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Shall they seek it with you or the States^ or inter- 
 marry among themselves and begin the world on their 
 own hooh ^ These are imijortant qiiestions and they 
 must he answered soon. Have you acquired their 
 confidence and affection '? What has been your 
 manner to them? Do you treat them like your 
 other younger children that remain at home ^ Them 
 you put with your army and navy, place a sword 
 in their hand and say, distinguish yourselves and 
 the highest rewards are open to you^ or you send 
 them to the Church or the Bar^ and say a mitre or 
 a coronet shall be the prize to contend for. If you 
 prefer diplomacy, you shall be attache to your 
 elder brother. I will place the ladder before you; 
 ascend it. If you like politics, I will place you in 
 Parliament, and if you have no talents sufficient 
 for the House of Commons, you shall go out as 
 Governor of one of our colonies. Those appoint- 
 ments helong of right to them; hut they can't lielp 
 themselves at present (sic). Get one while you 
 can. 
 
 " Have you done this, or anything like it for 
 your children ahroad? If you have, perhaps you 
 will be good enough to furnish me with some 
 names that I may mention them when I hear you 
 accused of neglect. You are very hospitable and 
 considerate to strangers. The representative of 
 any little insignificant German state^ of the size of 
 a Canadian toicnsMp^ has a place assigned him on 
 State occasions. Do vou ever show the same ^ii(Si\- 
 
19 
 
 tlon to tlie delegate of a coJowj of infinitely more 
 extent and value than even Ireland? There can't 
 be a douht you have^ though / have never heard of 
 it. Such little trifles are matters of course, but 
 still as great interests are at stake^ perhaps it would 
 he as tvell to notice such things occasionally in the 
 Gazette,, for distant and humble relations are 
 always trusting, 
 
 ''Ah, Doctor," says I, ^'things can't and 
 won't remain long as they are, (in original 
 sic) England has three things among which to 
 choose for her North American Colonies : — First ; 
 incorporation tcith herself^ and representation in 
 Parliament.* Secondly : independence. Thirdly : 
 
 * Since these pages were sent to the publisher, a most inte- 
 resting letter, full of sound advice, and proving the great 
 advantage to us of the " incorporation of our Colonies with 
 the Mother- Country," appeared in the Times of the lOfch of 
 January, 1878 ; and the writer of these pages hopes our states- 
 men and legislators will ponder over the advice given. 
 
 The Canadian Militia. 
 To the Editor of the Times. 
 
 Sir, — During my service in India I was greatly impressed 
 with the fact that the large force of British troops we main- 
 tain there is to a certain extent locked up, the effect of which 
 would eventually show itself in crippling the movements of 
 the English Army, and also in giving weight to the arguments 
 of other Powers who, being aware of the situation, may differ 
 from us on points seriously affecting the interests of England 
 and her Colonial Empire. 
 
 That the situation is known may be seen in the friendly 
 criticisms of intelligent foreigners. Herr Wickede wrote 
 freely about our Army some months since to the C<do(jue 
 
20 
 
 annexation iinfli the States. Instead of deliberating 
 and selecting what will be most conducive to the 
 interest of herself and her dependencies she is 
 allowing things to take their chance. Now, this is 
 
 Gazette, and last month a friendly critic in a leading New York 
 newspaper, pointed out that the days of foreign legions are 
 past. " Austrians and Hessians," he remarks, " do not want 
 to be hired, they have their own lighting to do ; and if Eng- 
 land has any fear for her Empire, she must do as the Germans 
 and Americans did — fight for it." I am no advocate for fight- 
 ing ; my object in writing is merely to hint that some steps 
 might be considered by which it could be made plain to all 
 interested that the whole of our English Army in India could 
 be set free, not so much for the object of fighting, as for 
 giving reasonable weight to the counsels of England in 
 troublesome times. 
 
 Although we can no longer count on foreign legions, I be- 
 lieve the time is approaching when our colonies will be able 
 to afford us unlimited help. I have just returned from a tour 
 in Canada, and through the kindness of Lieutenant-General 
 Sir Selby Smyth, K.C.M.G., commanding Militia, I have his 
 reports of 1875 and 1876 before me. Before reading his re- 
 ports I w\as struck with the military spirit of the Canadians 
 and the conflict in consequence with their Government, which 
 has little money to spare for the Militia, from the cost of con- 
 tinually extending its possessions in the magnificent western 
 territory of the Dominion. Sir Selby Smyth says in his 
 report of 1876 : — 
 
 " There is a great military spirit among all classes of the 
 population of Canada, which would insure immense eiforts 
 and sacrifices in the event of alarm or apprehension of 
 danger. It has been frequently exhibited and it is hardly 
 necessary for me to bring it again to notice so prominently 
 except with the view of adding that, given that valuable 
 element of zealous patriotism, it should be cultivated and 
 encouraged in every possible way to serve the country 
 efficiently, if ever suddenly required to be called into action," 
 
21 
 
 all very well in matters over wliicli Ave have no 
 control, because Providence directs tilings better 
 than we can; but if one of these three alter- 
 natives is iiifinitehj better titan the other ^ and it is in 
 
 The active Militia of 10 out of 12 districts were called out 
 in 1876 for training. This force consisted of five regiments 
 of Cavalry, 15 field batteries, 40 garrison batteries, and 90 
 battalions of Infantry. Sir Selby Smyth remarks, " It must 
 be borne in mind that the active Militia is but the advance 
 guard of the army of Canada, in case a general call to arms 
 should occur. The real force of the country should then be 
 represented by the Reserve Militia, amounting to some 
 600,000 men." 
 
 This prodigious force actually exists and is enrolled ! Sir 
 Selby Smyth recommended that a reliable officer in each 
 division should assure himself every year and report that all 
 the men on the rolls were effective. The country, however, 
 is poor, and in consequence of want of funds the active 
 Militia were of necessity much below their strength when 
 called out. The Artillery, however, under the careful inspec- 
 tion of Lieutenant- Colonel T. Bland Strange, R.A., Dominion 
 Inspector of Artillery, is in fine condition, and the field guns 
 are of the latest and most approved pattern. All that is 
 wanted is a little more money expended in arms and in the 
 training of complete regiments to fully develope and satisfy 
 the military spirit of the Canadian officers. I cannot help 
 thinking this is the moment for the English Government to 
 step in and invite, say, 30 battalions to volunteer and place 
 themselves on the list for two years' garrison duty in 
 England. It would be no great tax on the Mot her- Country 
 to pay for their yearly training compared with so great a step 
 towards the consolidation of our Empire. During the Crimean 
 War the English Militia volunteered readily for garrison duty 
 in Malta and Gibraltar ; and as I have some knowledge of the 
 Militia service, my father having commanded his county 
 regiment for 50 years, and having myself served as a Captain, 
 I feel that an application to the Militia of Great Britain and 
 
22 
 
 our power to adopt it, It is the hekjht of folly not to 
 do so. I know it is said, for I have often heard it 
 myself, why we can hut lose the Colonies at last. 
 Pardon me, yon can do more than that^ for you can 
 lose their affections also.* If the partnership is to 
 
 Ireland for 30 regiments to place themselves on the list for 
 two years' garrison duty in India for a moderate bounty and 
 a year's pension on return home would be attended with 
 success. The innate love of an outing alone would bring it 
 about, together with the knowledge every Militiaman has that 
 India is popular with the British soldier, and that he volun- 
 teers from regiment to regiment to remain there. As the 
 English regiments embarked for India, the Canadian regi- 
 ments could come to England to take their place. It may be 
 urged that the readiest plan w^ould be to increase our Militia 
 at home, but it is well-known that already their enlisting 
 clashes with that of the Line. 
 
 It is to be hoped that it may be long before our Militia have 
 to go to India, but the knowledge throughout the world that 
 they are ready to embark, and that our right arm is no longer 
 tied up in that country, would give greater w^eight to the 
 advice or remonstrances which our Government may be called 
 on to make in future. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Observer. 
 
 * " If there is any lesson which we should draw from the loss 
 of the United States, it is the misfortune of parting from those 
 Colonies in ill-will and irritation. We parted with those great 
 Colonies because we attempted to coerce them ; and if we now 
 part with our present Colonies it will be because we expel 
 them from our dominion. The circumstances are different, 
 but the result will be the same, and that result must be the 
 bitter alienation and undying enmity of those great countries. 
 For my own part I see with dismay the course which is now 
 being taken, a part at once cheese-paring in point of economy, 
 and spendthrift in point of national character. I will be no 
 
23 
 
 be dissolved, it had better be done by mutual 
 consent^ and it would be for the interest of both that 
 you should jpart friends. You didnt shake hands 
 loith^ but fists AT us, when loe separated. We had 
 a stand-up fight and you got licked, and wounds 
 were given, that the best part of a century hasn't 
 healed, and wounds that will leave tender spots 
 for ever, so don't talk nonsense. 
 
 ''^ow. Doctor, mark my words, I say again, 
 things iconH remain long as tliey are^ 
 
 Connected with this topic Mr. Halliburton has 
 some stringent remarks on the management of 
 colonial affairs in general, and of those in Canada 
 in particular : — 
 
 *' Well, there is one thing you can boast, 
 Canada is tlie most valuable and beautiful appen-- 
 dage of the Britisli Croion. 
 
 " England may boast of it as such " he said, 
 "' but / have no right to do so. I prefer being 
 one of the pariahs of the Empire, a mere colonist.^ 
 having neither grade nor caste, ivitliout a country 
 
 party to it, and I beg to enter my humble and earnest protest 
 against a course which I conceive to be ruinous to the honour 
 and fatal to the best interests of the Empire." — Lord Car^ 
 narvon in the Hotise of Lords, Feb. 1870. 
 
 When are we likely to have a Ministry more able than the 
 present, and with the Premier and Colonial Secretary pos- 
 sessing such strong feelings as to the importance of the 
 consolidation of our Colonies with the Mother- Country ? If 
 the present Ministry could carry out this most desirable policy 
 their names would indeed shine brightly in a future History 
 of Eno-land. 
 
24 
 
 of mij oiou^ and without national itij, I am an 
 humble man, and when I am asked where I come 
 from, readily answer the Chaudiere river. AVhere 
 is that ? Out of the world ? Extra fiammantm 
 limina mundi. What is the name of your country ^ 
 It is not a country^ it is only a place. It is better 
 to have no flag than a borrowed one. If 1 had 
 one^ I should have to defend it. If it were wrested 
 from me I should be disgraced, while my victorious 
 enemy would be thanked by the Impericd Legis- 
 lature., and rewarded by his sovereign. If I toere 
 triumphant., the affau' icould be deemed too small to 
 merit a notice in the Gazette, He who called out 
 the Militia and quelled amid a shower of halls^ the 
 late rebellion, was hmghted. He who assented 
 amid a shower of eggs to a Bill to indemnify the 
 rebels, was created an earl. Now, to pelt a 
 Governor- General with eggs, is an overt act of 
 treason, for it is an attempt to throw off the yoke. 
 If therefore, he was advanced in the peerage for 
 remunerating traitors for their losses, he ought 
 now to assent to another Act for reimbursino- the 
 expenses of the exhausted stores of the poultry 
 yards, and be made a marquess, unless the British 
 see a difference between a rebel mob and an in- 
 dignant crowd, between those whose life has been 
 spent in hatching mischief, and those who desired 
 to scare the foul birds from their nests. 
 
 '"' If that man had been a colonist, the despatch 
 marked ' private ' would have said ' it served you 
 
25 
 
 right' whereas it auiioimeed to him '' ijoa are one of 
 us^' and to mark our approbation of your conduct, 
 you may add one of those savoury missiles to your 
 coat of arms, that others may be egged on to do 
 their duty. Indeed we couldnt loell have a flag of 
 our own. The Americans have a very appropriate 
 and elegant one, containing stripes emblematical 
 of their slaves, and stars to represent their free 
 states, while a Connecticut goose typifies the good 
 cheer of thanksgiving day. It is true we have 
 the honour of fighting under that of England f 
 but there is, as we have seen, this hard condition 
 
 * Anotlier letter from "Observer," in the Times of the 
 12th January, 1878 is interesting : — 
 
 The Canadian Militia. 
 
 To the Editor of the Times. 
 
 Sir, — During a profound peace with a friendly neighbour, 
 whose standing army is less than 25,000 men, it would be 
 most uncalled for the Canadian Government, even if it had 
 the means, to call out, arm, and equip its reserve Militia of 
 600,000 men. I repeat, however, that this enormous force is 
 enrolled, and every man must turn out when called on or take 
 the consequences. No such law, I believe, exists in any other 
 part of the empire, and the Canadians deserve credit for it. 
 With regard to the active Militia, it is seven years since the 
 Fenian raid mentioned by your correspondent " Linesman," 
 during which time there has been a great improvement. I 
 saw very fine regiments last September in Canada, and from 
 that time have been impressed with the source of strength 
 stored up in such young and loyal nations as Canada and 
 Australia on the flanks of our empire. Their hearty co- 
 operation, which is to be had for the asking, alone is wanted 
 to enable us to gEirrison India in case of war, and set our army 
 
26 
 
 annexed to it^ we must consent to be taxed, to re- 
 imburse tlie losses of those whom by our gallantry 
 we subdue. If we take Sebastopol, we must pay 
 for the damage we have done. We are not 
 entitled to a separate flag, and 1 am afraid if Ave 
 had one we should be subject to ridicule. A pure 
 white ground would prefigure our snow-drifts ; 
 a gull with outspread wings, our credulous quali- 
 ties ; and a few discoloured eggs, portray our 
 celebrated missiles. But what sort of a flag 
 would that be ? No, sir, tliese provinces should be 
 united^ and they woidd^ from their territorial extent^ 
 their commercial enterprise^ their mineral icealth^ 
 their loonderfid agricidtarcd productions^ and ahove 
 all^ their intelligent, industrious^ and still lay cd popu- 
 lation^ in time forma nation second to none on earth; 
 until then I prefer to be a citizen of the Avorkl. 
 
 '' I once asked an Indian ichere he lived ; I 
 meant of course where his camp was, but the 
 question was too broad and puzzled him. Stretch- 
 in a' out his arm and describino; a circle with his 
 ]ieel, he said, ' I live in all these woods ! ' Like 
 him, I live in cdl this icorld. Those who, like the 
 English and Americans, have appropriated so large 
 a portion of it to themselves^ may severally boast if 
 they think proper of their respective governments 
 
 tliere free to support tlie interests of England where it may 
 be most required. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Observer. 
 
^n 
 
 and territories. ]\[y boast sir, is a peculiar one, 
 tliat I have notlvhuj to hoast of, 
 
 '' If such are your views," I said, '^ I must say 
 1 do not understand that absurd act of firing from 
 Parliament House. It is, I assure you, reprobated 
 everywhere. Our folks say your party com- 
 menced as old Imnhers and ended as ham-burners. 
 "• That remark threw him off his guard ; he rose 
 up greatly agitated ; his eyes flashed fire, and he 
 extended out his arm as if he intended by gesticu- 
 lation to give full force to what he was about to 
 say. He stood in this attitude for a moment 
 without uttering a word, when, by a sudden effort, 
 he mastered himself, and took up his hat to walk 
 on the terrace and recover his composure. 
 
 '' As he reached the door he turned, and said ; 
 ' The assenting to that infamous Indemnity Acf^ 
 Mr. Slick, and the still more disreputable manner 
 in which it received the gubernatorial function^ has 
 produced an impression iix Canada that no loyal 
 
 man^ but he again checked himself and left 
 
 the sentence unfinished. 
 
 " I was sorry I had pushed him so hard, but 
 the way he tried to evade the subject at first, the 
 bitterness of his tone, and the excitement into 
 which the allusion threw him, convinced me that 
 the English neither knew loho their real friends in 
 Canada are^ nor how to retain their affections, 
 
 '' When he returned, I said to him, ' I was only 
 jesting about your having no grievances in Canada,^ 
 
28 
 
 and I regret having agitated jou. I agree with 
 you, however, that it is of no use to remonstrate 
 loith the English Public. If you icant to he lieard^ 
 attract tJieir attention in tlie first instance hy talking 
 of their own immediate concerns ; and, while they are 
 regarding you tcith intense interest and anxiety., hy a 
 sleight-of-hand shift the dissolving view^ and sid)- 
 stitute a sketch of your own. For instance, says 
 you, How is it the army in the Crimea had no 
 tents in the autumn and no huts in the wintei' — 
 the hospitals no fittings, and the doctors no nurses 
 or medicines? How is it disease and neglect have 
 killed more than the enemy ? Why is England 
 the laughing-stock of Russia^ and the butt of 
 French and Yankee ridicule ? And how does it 
 liappen this country is filled with grief and humi- 
 liation from one end of it to the other ?' I will 
 tell you. These affairs were managed hy a hranch 
 of the Colonial Office. Tlie Minister for that 
 department said to the Army^ as he did to the 
 distant provinces, ^ Manage your oicn affairs., and 
 dortt hotlier usJ Then pause and say slowly and 
 emphatically ., ''You ham now a taste of what toe have 
 endured in the Colonies. The same incompetency has 
 rided over hoth^ " &c. 
 
 This, be it remembered, was written in 1855 by 
 one peculiarly well acquainted with the feelings 
 entertained by our colonists, and possessing a large 
 share of practical wisdom — the fruit of much deep 
 and grave meditation. 
 
29 
 
 And what says the lYincs' correspondent ihnu 
 Australia, dating from Sydney, 4th August hist, 
 whose very intelligent letter appears in the Tinier 
 of the 16th October, 1877, under the head of 
 " Australian Defences ?" 
 
 Writing in relation to Sir William Jervoise's 
 recommendation, that ''''the Mother- Country sliouhl 
 provide an ironclad ship of rear for the defence cf 
 the colony^ the colony paying all expenses for 
 keeping it," the correspondent says : — 
 
 " It is to be hoped that the proposal will receive 
 very serious consideration. The arrangement would 
 be to some extent novel, and the study of its 
 details opens up a great many considerations 
 touching the financial relations of the Mother- 
 Country to the colony. The scheme, too, might 
 furnish a precedent, but it seems to many who 
 look at the matter from a colonial point of vieu\ thai 
 it would he a good precedent in more respects than 
 one. Of course we can understand that the 
 Admiralty would prefer to keep clear of all incon- 
 venient complications with Colonial Governments, 
 which are apt to be touchy and exacting. There 
 is a beautiful simplicity in the Admiralty minding its 
 oion business., and leaving the Colonial Govern- 
 ment to contract for the building and equipment 
 of its own ironclad and the management of it 
 according to its own fancy. But in managing the 
 affairs of a great empire.^ something else has to be 
 considered than avoiding difficulties, TJie maffcr is 
 
P>0 
 
 not merely a Cohmieil^ it is em Imperial one. It is 
 of real importance to the Admiralty that the defence 
 of the Port of Sydney shoidd he thorough and 
 effective,'' My Lords cannot wash their hands of 
 us and say, '' There ! do as you like. You spend 
 your own money. Please yourselves." If ice do 
 badly for ourselves^ tee do badly for the British 
 Navy, If from blundering incapacity, or from not 
 being properly helped and advised^ ice let Part Jaclc- 
 son fall into the hands of an enemy^ it is not we 
 merely that looidd suffer,, hut away will go the depot 
 of the Imperial Nary in these seas. Even apart 
 irom that consideration, the Empire is interested in 
 having its (Monies secure^ and in having the money 
 they spend in their defence wisely and efficiently 
 spent. It may, perhaps, be argued by those who 
 are strongly influenced by precedent that it is 
 unusual to put an Imperial ship or Imperial officers 
 in any way at the disposal or under the control of 
 a Colonial Government. This objection, however, 
 is rather apparent than real, for the vessel in 
 question would be detailed specially for Colonial 
 service, and would not be at liberty to leave 
 C^olonial waters without the leave of the local 
 Government*, it icoidd., so far as discipline teas 
 concerned, remain an integral part of the Imperial 
 Navy^ and the Governor of the Colony, as the 
 representative of Her Majesty, would be the 
 nominal head of our local navy, just as he is of 
 our local armv. It is obvious, also, that if the 
 
31 
 
 ships of war to be inainiaincd hj the several Colonies 
 all belonged to IL r Afajestys Navy^ co-operation 
 hetiveen them^ if at any time it should he demrable 
 suddenly to concentrate our one force, tcould he miiclf 
 more easy^ and likely to he mucli more efficient titan 
 if each Colony iiad its sejKirate siiip^ loitli its separate 
 service^ and loitii no supreme officer in any quarter. 
 A spasmodic alliance of Colonial Navies, each 
 navy consisting of one ship, each commander 
 equal in rank to the others, and each Colony jealous; 
 of the rest^ would not be a very formidable combi- 
 nation for a boldj decisive, and dashing enemy to 
 contend with. It would cost the Colonies no more 
 to have their naval defence under Imperial than 
 under local control, while they would get much 
 for their money in the shape of security ; and if 
 sucii an arrangement would he really tiie best in tlie 
 interest of Colonial defence^ looidd it not also he hest 
 in tJie interest of the Empire^ wiiicii is not unconcerned 
 in liaving its Colonies well defended^ 
 
 The question is deserving of very serious con- 
 sideration^ because beiiind it lies the application of 
 the same principle to our land forces. What is true 
 of ships is true of forts ; what is true of bluejackets 
 is true of red jackets. The point has already been 
 mooted in the Colony whether it would not be 
 better to have the whole of our land-force a ])art 
 of Her Majesty's army, the entire cost of arrange- 
 ment, of course, to be borne by the Colonial 
 revenues. The men could he raised and drilled in 
 
flie Colomj ; the officers would be imported and 
 frequently cli an ged . ' ' 
 
 Few will be disposed to doubt the great good 
 sense and political wisdom that dictated wliat the 
 Times' correspondent has here said. But what 
 says the Times itself, in its leader on the subject. 
 It begins : — " The question of Colonial Defence is 
 a very important one. It has its Imperial as well 
 as its local aspects, and, as might naturally be 
 supposed, the two are not always identical. 
 England is viilnerahle at many points far away from 
 her oion shores^ and were she at war with an active 
 and enterprising foe, he would not be slow to find 
 out the points at which she would be most readily 
 and fatally assailed. It is England's plain duiy^ 
 therefore^ no less than her paramount interest^ to 
 have as feio weak points in her armour as possihle, 
 
 . . . We quite admit the force of our cor- 
 respondent's remark, that in managing the affairs 
 of a great empire sometliing else has to be con- 
 sidered than avoiding difficulties. But the worst 
 way of dealing with difficulties is to be blind to 
 their prospect and to be confounded with them 
 when they actually arise. They must be faced , 
 not avoided''' 
 
 Yet, strange to say, the article thus concludes : 
 
 '-'- All we can say at present is, the question is 
 
 not at present ripe for solution. We doubt if the 
 Colonies have as yet fully realized the obstacles 
 and difficulties inseparable from their scheme. 
 
When they have done so, and show themselves 
 ready to take the consequences, it will he time to 
 discuss it more in detaih" 
 
 Whoever {pace Lord Blachford) has read with 
 attention, and in the spirit suggesting non sihi^ sed 
 jpatrice^ Sir Julius YogeFs able and interesting 
 article " Greater or Lesser Britain," in the July 
 number of the Nineteenth Century^ will probably 
 arrive at the conclusion that the proposition of 
 Sir Wm. Jervoise affords a most favourable oppor- 
 tunity, which should not be put aside on account 
 of any difficulties in detail which may exist for 
 carrying it out, but that such difficulties should be 
 at once faced, " alike for the interest of the Colonies 
 and the Mother-Country." Delays in legislation 
 have proved dangerous to England on many occa- 
 sionS; and when at last the measures^ too long 
 delayed, have been brought forward and carried^ 
 much of the good that might have resulted 
 from them, if carried at an earlier period, has 
 been lost. 
 
 The following passages in Sir Julius Yogel's 
 article are peculiarly deserving of attention : — 
 " Recent developments, which point to the per- 
 manent loss of foreign markets for many different 
 articles of British manufacture^ have increased the 
 hardships of the crowded state of the country, and 
 much enlarged the desire to seek new homes in the 
 Colonies. .... 
 
 "The dread of the producing power, and the 
 
34 
 
 population of the Mother-Country being reduced, 
 is unreasonable, if the suhjeds of the nation^ their 
 wealthy industries^ and resources are merely trans- 
 ferred from one part of the Empire to another. 
 It is otherwise if the Mother- Countnj has no external 
 possessions^ and the wealth and population that she 
 loses pass to other countries^ making them pro- 
 portionally more^ and her less^ powerful^ 
 
 And let all landed proprietors take especial note 
 of the following: — 
 
 " The landed proprietors are generally supposed 
 to feel little interest in the Colonies, and to be 
 opposed to emigration to them. At first sight 
 such a feeling seems natural, hut on reflection its 
 short-sightedness is apparent. The emigration of 
 agricultural labourers may, it is true, raise the rate 
 of agricultural labour, or, perhaps it is more cor- 
 rect to say, prevent it fj'om falling. The landed 
 proprietors, again, are not likely to be swayed by 
 those sentiments of personal liking for the Colonies 
 so deeply sunk in the minds of the working-classes. 
 A colony may become the home of a working-man 
 and his family. The landed proprietor does not 
 look forward to anything of the kind. Even if 
 some junior members of his family go to the 
 Colonies, their ambition in commencing is to make 
 enough money to be able to live at home, although 
 frequently, as has been said, a residence in the 
 Colonies changes this feeling to one of preference 
 for the new home. But if the landed proprietors 
 
35 
 
 have not the same personal interest in tlie Colonies 
 as that possessed by the working-classes, they have 
 indirectly a very deep interest^ and one with which 
 the coming y^ars are likely to vividly impress them. 
 The maintenance of those institutions they most 
 prize, the safety of their order^ of their lands and 
 their family possessions depend upon the Colonies 
 remaining as outlets for surplus home population. 
 If England is to he kept loithin herself it cannot he 
 long hefore the conditions of land tenure are rigidly 
 scrutinized^ and the question ashed if the nation 
 has not the right to huy up the land for re-division 
 into smaller holdings. But revolutionists would 
 vainly raise such questions whilst the means to 
 become possessors of estates in the Empire is more 
 open to the poorer classes of to-day than it was 
 to those who in times past, from the humblest 
 beginning, founded some of the greatest families 
 in the country. The landed proprietor should see 
 in the Colonial outlet his hest guarantee of safety^ 
 and^ with the humhlest classes^ should sturdily resist 
 the decolonizing policy of the international school. 
 Lord Beaconsfield has at various times vigorously 
 asserted the common interests that hind together the 
 extreme classes — the landed and the lahouring classes. 
 Probably in no sense is this more remarkably true 
 than in that great interest which the labouring 
 and landed classes jointly have in upholding the 
 Colonies against the machinations of the politicians 
 loho reduce everything to a pounds-shillings -and- 
 
 8 * 
 
36 
 
 'pence denomination^ and whose chief notion of the 
 future is compound interest." 
 
 This passage, from the very able article of Sir 
 Julius Vogel's " Greater or Lesser Britain," is well 
 worthy of the gravest consideration of all — and 
 more especially of the landed proprietors, and 
 members of the aristocracy — who value the present 
 Constitution of England. 
 
 At a dinner given so lately as the end of 
 October last, at the Albion Hotel, by the directors 
 of the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, to a few 
 colonial and other friends, Sir Julius Yogel, in 
 responding to the toast " The Colony of New 
 Zealand," coupled with his name, said^ in the 
 course of his address : — 
 
 . . . " After all what are the Colonies but 
 colonies of people from this country, persons who 
 have gone out there imbued icith the spirit of enter- 
 prise^ and who are on the icliole more educated than 
 those loho remain behind ^ If you come to look at 
 the thing from a philosophical point of view^ you 
 will arrive at this conclusion, that the community 
 of New Zealand are simply engaged upon one great 
 task — that is, of obtaining from the land its pro- 
 ducts, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. All 
 other employments in the Colony are subsidiary to 
 thaty ... I have been amazed to see public 
 statistics, which have been issued not from New 
 Zealand^ but from other Colonies, from which it 
 appears that the other six Colonies of Australasia 
 
37 
 
 —that Is to say, Western Australia, Victoria, New- 
 South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania, have 
 under cultivation, including the laying down of 
 land for artificial grass, an extent of 3,480,000 
 acres ; while New Zealand, this small Colony, has 
 2,377,000 acres. It has been found that in New 
 Zealand you can lay down artificial grasses with 
 the greatest advantage, while in very few parts of 
 the large neighbouring Colonies can this be done. 
 As regards mineral wealth, also, there are few of 
 you who are not aware how much gold the Colony 
 has produced ; but you may not all be aware of 
 the great field that has been opened in its coal mines. 
 There are very feio parts of Neio Zealand ichere 
 coal is not to he obtained^ and in some parts it is 
 of the best possible quality. It has been part of the 
 system of railway construction within the Colony 
 to provide means of bringing more of the produce 
 of these valuable coal-mines to market,^ and there 
 is scarcely a question that in the next two or three 
 years the production of coal within the Colony 
 will be so large as to reduce, if not altogether 
 dispense with, the large quantity of coal hitherto 
 imported.'' 
 
 The nation may well feel indebted to Mr. George 
 Baden Powell for his letter which appeared in 
 the Times of the 20th October, 1877, under the 
 head of " The British Empire." What he has there 
 said is worthy indeed of the consideration of all 
 parties in the State, of whatever political party, and 
 
38 
 
 the present writer ventures to predict that whatever 
 Ministry shall first jpromote and carry out such a 
 jpolicy as will tend to Imperial consolidation., will 
 occupy and justly deserve the Irightest page in the 
 future history of this country. 
 
 It must be acknowledged, not without a sense 
 of regret, that many of our important legislative 
 measures have been deferred too long for the 
 nation to derive that full measure of good results 
 which might have followed from them had such 
 measures not been so long postponed, until the 
 people have inferred that the measures introduced 
 have been passed, not from any wisdom or fore- 
 sight, but rather from a sense of fear than from a 
 sense of simple justice. 
 
 In a leading article in the Times of the 24th 
 September last, in reference to Mr. Brassey's 
 Address to the Trades' Union Congress, the 10th 
 meeting of which took place at Leicester, on 
 Friday, the 21st September, it is said : — 
 
 " Trades- Unionism is note a recognized institution 
 of modern industrial society. Whether we like it 
 or not., we must acknowledge its existence and its 
 right to exist. Its operation may be, as we think 
 it is, often blind, often mischievous; its policy may 
 sometimes be, as it certainly has been, rapacious, 
 sometimes even vindictive ; but that is only what 
 may be said of many human institutions older and 
 better established than Trades'-Unions. After all 
 Trades^ -Uiiionism springs from the same motives as 
 
39 
 
 those wJdeli have made human society lohat it is^ 
 and the tendency to combine for' common purposes 
 is genei^ally^ and rightly^ regarded as the first step 
 ivhich mankind takes towards civilization* . 
 It is mere waste of energy to retaliate by blind 
 denunciation of all Trades'-Unions. Certainly, 
 such combinations have not shown themselves 
 commonly to employers in a very amiable light, 
 but, it may he allowed^ have heen in most cases a 
 symptom of intellectual activity.* 
 
 At the 10th Annual Trades'- Union Congress, 
 held the day before at the Temperance Hall, 
 Leicester, it is reported in the Times of the 10th 
 September : — 
 
 " Mr. Broadhurst, Secretary to the Parliamentary 
 Committee (i.e.^ of the Trades' Union Congress), 
 read the report for the past year — a valuable 
 
 * Whilst the nation is so anxious for such " intellectual 
 activity," both in the young as well as adults, let it be remem- 
 bered — how very important healthy and decent homes are to 
 give such intellectual activity a right direction and a moral 
 tone. 
 
 The greatness of our great men even is quite as much a 
 bodily affair as a mental one. It is in the physical man that 
 the moral as well as the intellectual man lies hid ; and it is 
 through the bodily organs that the soul itself works. The 
 body, as old Burton says, " is domicilum animce, her home, 
 her abode, and stay ; and, as a torch gives a better light, a 
 sweeter smell, according to the matter it is made of, so doth 
 our soul perform all her actions better or worse, as her organs 
 are disposed ; or as wine savours of the cask wherein it is 
 kept, the soul receives a tincture from the body, through 
 which it works." 
 
40 
 
 document, which entered with great minuteness of 
 detail into various positions, most of which were 
 to form subjects of discussion during the week.'^ 
 Then are given " extracts which/' says the Times ^ 
 " will be read with some interest at the present 
 time." 
 
 Now the last of these extracts is the one the 
 most important to which here to direct attention, 
 as tending to show what is the ultimate object of 
 the " Trades'' Union Congress:'" — ^' Your Committee 
 are fully aware that the first duty of a Trade-Union 
 is the protection and advancement of trade interests^ 
 but it hopes to see the day when our might shall 
 be utilized on broader lines^ when the influence so 
 beneficially used to amend and adjust the laws by 
 which we are governed shall also be brought to 
 bear on other imperial matters which intimately 
 affect our every-day Ufe, We confidently look for- 
 ward to ' the good time coming,' when our 
 taxation will be more equitably adjusted, our 
 present enormous expenditure in national affairs 
 greatly curtailed^ and when the land shall be more 
 extensively used for the purpose of providing em- 
 ployment^ food^ and shelter for the people. When 
 we can tliinh out these questions^ and discover that 
 reforms of this nature will greatly increase the 
 'purchasing poicer of our wages, we shall earnestly 
 set to work to accomplish them. 
 
 >>* 
 
 * Why should not Parliament take it in hand at once, or as 
 
41 
 
 There was then much wisdom and foresight 
 evmced by Sh' Julius Vogel, when he wrote : — 
 '' If England is to be kept within herself^ it cannot 
 be long before the conditions of land-tenure are 
 
 rigidly scrutinized The landed proprietor 
 
 should see in the Colonial outlets his best guarantee 
 of safetij^ and, with the humblest classes, should 
 sturdily resist the decolonizing policy of the interna- 
 tional schooir 
 
 In the year 1870, a thin octavo volume. The 
 State, the Poor^ and the Country^ including Sug- 
 gestions on the Irish Question, by E. H. Patterson, 
 Author of the Science of Finance, &c , was pub- 
 lished by William Blackwood & Sons, and it would 
 be well if our legislators and rulers would bear in 
 mind what the author says in the conclusion of his 
 Preface : — 
 
 '' Doubtless the recent Eeform Act, by which all 
 classes alike have been made partakers in the work 
 and duties of Government, is calculated to give 
 special force to some of the views advocated in 
 this, and also in my larger work. The masses, on 
 the whole^ know best where the shoe pinches ; and, 
 very properly, they will loudly call the attention of 
 Parliament to the matter. But it is to the elite of 
 the nation, the natural leaders of the people, that I 
 look for the initiation and wise framing of the re- 
 medial measures. I have firm faith in the wisdom 
 
 early as possible ? Delays are ever dangerous. " Fiat justitia, 
 ruat ccelum." 
 
42 
 
 and virtue of the people ; but the people which I 
 mean is not the masses alone, but the complete 
 nation — the whole hody -'politic — in ichich the general 
 wants are loudly expressed by the masses^ and en- 
 forced by their preponderance of votes^ but the reme- 
 dies for tvhich 2vants must ever come — if they come 
 wisely and tvell—from the upper and middle classes 
 — the elite of which constitute the head and heart 
 of the body 'politic J ^ 
 
 And here, at the present time, it may not be un- 
 interesting or altogether unprofitable to remember 
 what was said by the present Emperor Alexander 
 of Eussia to his Nobles, when he had resolved 
 upon the emancipation of the Serfs in 1858. 
 
 The following is taken from a Eeport in the 
 Timesj of the 9th October, 1858 : — 
 
 " The Czar and the Nobles of Russia. 
 
 " The Emperor Alexander, on his journey to 
 Warsaw, had to pass through the governments of 
 Tver, Kostroma, Jaroslav, Nijnii-Novogorod, Vla- 
 dimir, and Moscow. In most of these his Majesty 
 addressed the representatives of the Nobility, 
 speaking chiefly of the topic of the day. the situation 
 of the Peasant Class. The Moscow correspondent 
 of the Nord^ transmits some of the Emperor's 
 addresses, which we translate. To the Nobles of 
 the government of Tver the Emperor said : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, .... 
 
 " I am happy to embrace the opportunity 
 
43 
 
 of expressing to the Nobility of Tver my gratitude 
 for its devoteclness and zealous readiness to contri- 
 bute, like all my other governments, as far as pos- 
 sible, to THE PUBLIC WEAL. This you proved to 
 me during the late war, when you formed your 
 Militia, I have now confided to you a work— one 
 of the most important for you and myself— the 
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE PEASANTS.* 
 
 I hope that you will justify my confidence. It is 
 for your delegates to occupy themselves with this 
 important affair. Weigh the matter tvelL . . . You 
 know how much I have your welfare at heart ; 
 but I hope also that the interest of your peasants 
 is dear to you. I have therefore the conviction 
 that you will strive to have everything regulated 
 in a manner useful to the common interests of all.'' 
 
 To the Nobility of Nijnii-Novogorod, the Em- 
 peror spoke as follows : — 
 
 " I rejoice, gentlemen, at being able to thank 
 you for your Patriotism ; and I have also again to 
 
 * Who knows but that the success of the Czar in the later 
 battle with the Turks, notwithstanding serious failures at the 
 commencement of hostilities, may be owing to his noble act of 
 emancipating his serfs, and encouraging his nobles by his own 
 example, to enter upon " improvement of the condition of the 
 peasants, and confiding the work to them as one of the most 
 important ?" It is now nearly twenty years since the emanci- 
 pation took place, and during that interval the peasantry have 
 had time to gain that energy of mind, spirit, and body, which 
 a sense of freedom alone can encourage. They felt more like 
 men fighting pro aris et focis. Let not " too late" be ever the 
 bane of our actions. 
 
44 
 
 thank you for having been the first to respond to my 
 expectation in the grave question touching the im- 
 provement of the lot of the peasantry As for 
 
 me, my object, you know, is the puhlic good. 
 Your task in the grave question now pending, is 
 to balance private interests with the loelfare of alL^ 
 Yet I hear, with regret, that egotistic opinions are 
 springing up in your midst. I regret this, gentle- 
 men, SELFISH VIEWS SPOIL EVERYTHING THAT IS 
 
 GOOD. Abandon them. I depend upon you. I 
 hope they will no longer make their appearance, 
 for then only will the common cause make pro- 
 gress." 
 
 At Moscow^ where the measures proposed by the 
 Emperor had not been very favourably received, 
 his Majesty said : — 
 
 '' Gentlemen^ — I am always happy at being able 
 to address thanks to the nobility, but it is not in 
 my nature to speah against my conscience. I always 
 speak the truth, and, to my great regret, I cannot 
 thank you. You may remember, two years ago, in 
 this Hall, I spoke to you of the necessity of pro- 
 ceeding, sooner or later, to the reform of those laws 
 
 * It is due here to insert a letter which appeared in the 
 Times of November 10, 1869, from one of our English no- 
 bility, and which doubtless expresses the sentiments enter- 
 tained by our nobility generally : — 
 
 " I shall allow no consideration of personal or class interest 
 to stand between me and a satisfactory settlement of the Land 
 Question — feeling, as I do, that my interests must be best 
 secured by the general welfare of the country. 
 
 " FlNGALL." 
 
45 
 
 which regulate servitude — a reform that must come 
 from above that it may not come from helow.^ My 
 words have been ill-unclerstood. Since then this 
 reform has been the object of my constant solici- 
 tude, and having invoked the Divine Messing on my 
 undertaking^ I have commenced the icorhr 
 
 * In the year 1853 a new edition of Smith's Wealth of 
 Nations was published by Charles Knight & Co., 22, Ludgate 
 Street ; and James Cornish, 1, Middle Row, Holborn. Edited 
 by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Esq., and in the latter part of 
 his Preface, he enunciates a great truth well worth steadily 
 bearing in mind, so as to influence Statesmen, and more par- 
 ticularly, as nearly a quarter of a century has passed since it 
 was written, and the produce of the country instead of in- 
 creasing is declining. 
 
 '* Wliile mere politicians wonder at the rapid progress which 
 democratic opinions have lately made in this country, the 
 economist may account for it by referring to the general dis- 
 content which is necessarily produced by low wages and low 
 profits." (Let it be remembered that the Free-Imports 
 Policy had, in 1853, been in operation for seven years.) " A 
 desire of political change is the inevitable result of economical 
 suffering. Urged by the belief that economical suffering has 
 been caused by misgovernment, we are proceeding to establish 
 a virtual democracy. It is a grand but also a fearful experi- 
 ment. Hitherto there has been but one democracy in the 
 world : and the people of the United States have never 
 suffered the economical evils of low profits and low wages. 
 What will happen here, if popular power should be established 
 with popular discontent? This question alarms rich men, 
 who hate democracy, and some who are not rich, but who 
 love democracy, and wish that it should last, instead of being 
 succeeded, first by Anarchy, and then by a military des- 
 potism. There are no means now for stopping the demo- 
 cratic movement. After a halt it only proceeds more rapidly. 
 But the popular discontent ma}^ perhaps be removed." 
 
46 
 
 Here the Emperor explained the fundamental 
 principle of the abolition of serfdom, as contained 
 in his rescripts, and continued as follows : — 
 
 '' I love the Nobilit}^; I regard it as the first 
 support of the Throne. I desire the welfare of the 
 people, hut have no intention that it should he effected 
 to your detriment ; hut you yourselves in your own 
 interest ought to endeavour to improve the condition 
 of the Peas ANTS.'' 
 
 These are sentiments truly worthy of an Em- 
 peror, and may with equal propriety be addressed 
 to all landed proprietors, and happy will it be if 
 they are duly heeded. And the following, which 
 appeared in the Times of 10th February, 1858, is 
 of no less interest, nor likely to prove of less value 
 than the extract just given. It shows at least 
 what Russian Political Economists think essential 
 for the best interests of a country. 
 
 '' Russia. 
 
 '^A very remarkable banquet was held at 
 Moscow on the 9th of January last. The gentle- 
 men who sat down to dinner numbered 180. The 
 present Emperor has commenced a new chapter in 
 the social history of Russia, by taking the initia- 
 tive in the emancipation of the serfs. A few 
 quotations from the speeches made on this occasion 
 will illustrate the importance of this event, for 
 such it is, better than any comments. 
 
47 
 
 " The first toast was proposed by M. Katkoff — 
 ' The health of the Emperor.' 
 
 " After a few words from M Stankevitch^ M. 
 Pauloff made the following remarkable speech : — 
 
 " Gentlemen^ — A new spirit animates us, a new 
 era has commenced — Heaven has allowed us to 
 live long enough to witness the second regeneration 
 of Russia. Gentlemen, we may congratulate our- 
 selves, for this movement is one of great impor- 
 tance. We breathe more like Christians^ our hearts 
 beat more nobly, and ice may look at the light of 
 Heaven with a clearer eye. We have met to-day 
 to express oar deep 'and sincere sympathy for a holy 
 and 'praiseworthy loork., and we meet without any 
 nervousness to mar our rejoicing. Yes, gentle- 
 men, I repeat it, a new spirit animates us — a new 
 era has commenced. One of our social conditions 
 is on the eve of a change. If we consider it in a 
 past light, we may perhaps admit that it was 
 necessary that it should have been allowed to be 
 as it was from the want of a better administrative 
 organization, and of the concentration in the hands 
 of the Government of the means lohich have since 
 given so great a development to the power of Russia. 
 But what was momentarily given to the State was 
 lost to mankind. The advantage cost an enormous 
 price. Order without— anarchy within — and the 
 condition of the individual cast its shadow over 
 society at large. The Emperor has struck at the 
 root of this evil. The glory and prosperity of 
 
48 
 
 Russia cannot rest upon institutions based on in- 
 justice and falsehood. No ! these blessings are 
 henceforth to be found in the path thrown open 
 by him whose name Bussia ]pronounces with respect 
 and pride. The Emperor has ceded this great 
 reform,^ which he might have accomplished by his 
 own powerful will, by asking the nobles to take 
 THE initiative. Let us then hail this noble idea, 
 inspired hy the sole loish for the loelfare of his 
 people^ with that enlightened heartiness which may 
 now be expected from Russia. Let us not^ how- 
 ever, suppose that the path traced hy history is an 
 avenue of roses loithout thorns. This would be 
 sheer ignorance. When a 7iew^ a more moral state 
 of things is about to be established^ the obstacles that 
 will have to be encountered must not be taken into 
 consideration^ except with the hope that the torrent 
 of the new life will sweep them aioay. The change 
 in the economical condition of our national existence 
 will arouse our individual energies,^ the loant of 
 which is one of our greatest evils. Let us wish, 
 then, gentlemen, from our innermost heart a long 
 life to him who has marshalled his faithful Russia 
 to the conquest of Truth and Justice, Let us 
 hope that this great idea will comprise the 
 generous sentiments of the Man and the Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 *' M. Babst, Professor of Politiccd Economy at 
 the University of Moscow, then spoke as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
49 
 
 '^Gentlemen, — After the eloquent speeches 
 which have been made in honour of our meeting 
 to celebrate a great event in our economical exis- 
 tence, I hope you will allow me to say a few 
 words as an expression of my deep gratitude for 
 him whose thoughts and acts, during the few 
 years we have passed under his reign, liave always 
 responded to the real wants of the people. We have 
 met here to celebrate an event which will be an 
 epoch in the annals of our history, and upon ivltieh 
 future historians icill dwell with pleasure. Already 
 at the commencenient of this century, one of our 
 first manufacturers said to Itrich that trade could 
 never flourish under our system of compulsory 
 labour, or, in other words, of serfage ; already^ in 
 1819^ the Free Economical Society proved by 
 facts the inconveniences of serfage as regards 
 agriculture. The development of national wealth 
 has ever gone hand-in-hand with the regular or- 
 ganization of popular labour.^ which as it gradually 
 emancipates itself from stringent conditions becomes 
 more active, more progressive, and consequently 
 more productive. In proportion, as national labour 
 gradually issues forth free from such disadvan- 
 tageous conditions, the love of work increases 
 among the people. Emulation and competition 
 arouse the sleeping energies of the nation ; they 
 will not allow them to rust, and excite them to 
 healthy activity and continual progress. The day 
 of the piimitive forms of the economical condition 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 of tlie people has now left us for ever. The imnts 
 of a great nation increase daily and cannot be 
 satisfied with the worse conditions, contrary to all 
 progress, of primitive economy founded on com- 
 pulsory labour — a labour the limits of which are as 
 restricted as its nature is unproductive. Our task 
 is not to double, but to increase tenfold, ourpro- 
 diictive power, our labour, our wealth, unless we 
 wish to see taken away from us by nations more 
 advanced than ourselves the markets which are 
 
 OURS BY TRADITION AND BY OUR GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 POSITION. And we cannot increase our productive 
 power except by a regular organization of national 
 labour^ which w^ill then boldly take in hand and 
 work the treasures note hidden in our land^ 
 
 '•'- The learned Professor concluded with an 
 appeal to all honest men to support the Emperor 
 in this great social reform." 
 
 We know that it was ultimately carried, and 
 that since that time Russia has, by " working the 
 TREASURES HIDDEN in her land" increased in 
 wealthy and not only s/^e, but other nations, acting 
 on the instinct of self preservation^ have continued 
 
 TO EXCLUDE MORE AND MORE BY FIXED DUTIES OUPw 
 
 STAPLE MANUFACTURES, whilst their oicn have 
 heen groiving up to become the rivals of ours, and 
 hence at last our exports have seriously declined, 
 as our profits long have done. 
 
 Happily one of our own patres patrice — tlie 
 Eio'ht Hon. Lord Bateman-all honour to him ! — 
 
51 
 
 has, after well considering these dangers, been in- 
 duced to publish a letter* (and a very able one it 
 is), which, he tells us, in the first sentence of his 
 Preface, " is not the result of any sudden impulse, 
 induced by the pressure of the present growing 
 commercial crisis^ but is based on an earnest and 
 long considered conviction of the truth or the rea- 
 soning there attempted to be enunciated." The 
 Noble Lord very modestly says ''attempted," but 
 his reasoning is most lucid and sound, and with 
 the facts he gives, must convince every thoughtful 
 and impartial leader that some change in the 
 policy of 1846 is absolutely necessary, for, to sup- 
 pose that foreign nations will ever give us Free 
 Trade, i.e. reciprocity — is only deluding ourselves 
 whilst our own losses go on increasing. 
 
 Lord Bateman's letter was first published in the 
 Times of the lOtli November last, but in rather an 
 obscure position and in small type, and hence 
 probably it was, by the advice of friends, that the 
 author was induced to have his letter printed in a 
 cheap form (6^/), though in an excellent type. 
 All w^ill do well to procure a copy of it. His 
 Lordship has truly said — " Li any scheme of com- 
 
 * Lord Bateman's Flea for Limited Protection, or for Eeci- 
 jwocity in Free Trade. William Ridgway, 169, Piccadilly, 
 London. 1877. About the same time a Second Edition of a 
 clever and useful pamphlet {(jd], The Effects of Free Trade 
 ■without Recii^rocity , by Captain Halford Thompson, late 
 Royal Artillery, was published by Henry S. Eland, ^ijl, High 
 Street, Exeter. 
 
 4 * 
 
52 
 
 mercial policy due consideration sliould always be 
 given to the capabilities of 'production of the conn- 
 try^ on tlie one hand, and to its absolute necessities 
 on the other. . . . We have to deal with 
 many more interests than those exclusively con- 
 nected with the food supply of the people. We 
 have to deal with our own various home manufac- 
 tures, and with our own skilled (and daily more 
 expensive) general labour question. These latter, 
 quite as important to the well-being of the com- 
 munity, require to be as jealously guarded and 
 protected, exercising, as they undoubtedly do, an 
 equally preponderating influence on the prosperity 
 or otherwise of all classes in the kingdom. It 
 behoves us, therefore, while securing for them the 
 best available market, to be at the same time cau- 
 tious how we allow them to deteriorate, or permit 
 rival countries unduly to compete with our native 
 industries to our own loss and detriment."* His 
 
 * The writer of these pages, though perfectly ready to join 
 in " a tribute to the memory of the late Mr. Cobden, Sir George 
 Cornewall Lewis, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Chas. Villiers," for 
 their ability, earnestness, and sincerity of purpose, in bringing 
 about the Free Imports' Policy (for be it ever remembered wo 
 have not Free Trade) of 1846, regrets that he cannot think 
 with Lord Bateman that that policy, even as regards a supply 
 of food, " has conferred on the masses a lasting benefit," and 
 this, because it has operated to lessen the home produce, and 
 consequently the power of consumption. 
 
 It will no doubt be in the recollection of many that the 
 Right Hon. George Goschen, one of the members for the City 
 of London, has, during the two or three last Sessions, drawn 
 
53 
 
 Lordship also says — " In the case of Great Bri- 
 tain^ owing to our area heing so much restricted and 
 to the continual increase in our population, an 
 increase out of proportion to the size and acreage 
 of the kingdom as compared with the relative 
 proportion to the area and extent of foreign coun- 
 tries, it has become virtually imperative upon us 
 to obtain from all nations of the earth the requisite 
 food supply." 
 
 It is very possible, as the Times has shown, to 
 raise, even in this country, food sufficient for the 
 present amount of our population, by cultivating 
 our waste lands, and by a better management of 
 that already under cultivation. But if, in using 
 the term Great Britain, we treat our Colonies as 
 an integral part of the Empire of Great Britain, 
 our area for the production of food is far from 
 restricted, and by so cherishing our Colonies as to 
 be able to obtain a sufficient supply from them 
 they would be able to become better customers for 
 our manufactures, we should encourage emigration, 
 and become less dependent upon foreign countries 
 for our food supply. That we have become so 
 dependent on foreign nations for so large supply 
 of the first necessary of life must be a matter of 
 deep concern to every statesman — indeed, to all of 
 us. It was when we were indebted to foreign 
 countries for little more than a third of what we 
 
 the attention of Parliament to the " declining power of con- 
 ?sumption." 
 
54 
 
 now are of the main source of our supply of food 
 that the late Sir EoLert Peel, in 1842 (impressed 
 at that time evidently with the sentiments enter- 
 tained by Coleridge as to the danger to the country 
 of being dependent upon foreign countries for 
 necessaries^^ gave the following patriotic reasons 
 
 * Those who argue that England may safely depend upon a 
 supply of foreign corn, if it grow none or an insufficient 
 quantity of its own, forget that they are subjugating the 
 necessaries of life itself to the mere luxuries or comforts of 
 society. Is it not certain that the price of corn abroad w411 
 be raised upon us soon as it is once known that we must 
 buy ? — and when that fact is known, in what sort of a situa- 
 tion shall we be ? Besides this, the argument supposes that 
 agriculture is not a positive good to the nation taken in and 
 by itself as a mode of existence for the people, which suppo- 
 sition is false and pernicious, and if we are to become a great 
 horde of manufacturers, shall we not, even more than at 
 present, excite the ill-will of all the manufacturers of other 
 nations ? It has been already shown in evidence which is 
 before all the world, that some of our manufacturers have 
 acted upon the accursed principle of deliberately injuring 
 foreign manufactures, if they can, even to the ultimate dis- 
 grace of the country and loss to themselves." — Coleridge's 
 Table Talk in 1834, 2nd Edit., p. 296. 
 
 The following paragraph in the Times of the 25th January, 
 1878, tends to confirm what Coleridge has said, and we seem 
 at least to have induced them to take measures for keeping 
 our manufactures out of their markets : — 
 
 Sheffield Chamber of Commerce. — The annual meeting of 
 the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce was held yesterday at 
 Sheffield, Mr. W. K. Peace, the President, in the chair. The 
 annual report stated that in consequence of the disturbed 
 state of France, the Commercial Treaty with that country 
 had not yet been signed, and the report suggested that unless 
 some material reductions were made in the proposed tariffs 
 
55 
 
 justifying tlic maintenance of the sliding scale as 
 a protection to Home Agriculture. And certainly 
 nothing he said in his speech on introducing his 
 '' great experiment" in 1846 lessened the force of 
 his reasoning in 1842^ nor can it be disregarded 
 with impmiity. 
 
 " I should not, he said, be a friend to the Agricul- 
 tural class if I asked the House for protection for 
 the purpose of propping up their rents and main- 
 taining high prices for their produce. I disclaim 
 all such intention ; my opinion and that of my 
 colleagues is, that it is most important for the 
 country, of the highest importance that you should 
 tahe every precaution that the main source of your 
 supply of food should he derived from yourselves^ 
 from home-agriculture — that any additional price 
 which you may be called upon to pay for that 
 purpose cannot be vindicated but as a boon on 
 Agriculture in this country — and that to effect this, 
 
 the Treaty should not be signed. The new tariff proposed to 
 levy a duty of from 45 to 50 per cent, upon common pocket 
 knives, and 75 per cent, upon common table knives, whereas 
 up to the present time the duty has only been 15 per cent, 
 upon both articles. The Council have been in communication 
 with the Foreign Office with respect to the proposed new 
 tariff for Switzerland, which, it is feared, would shut out 
 Sheffield cutlery manufacturers and Britannia metal and 
 nickel goods manufacturers from the Swiss markets. The 
 resolutions which the Chamber proposes to lay before the 
 autumnal meeting of the Associated Chambers, which will be 
 held in Sheffield, were considered, and Mr. Peace was re- 
 elected president. 
 
56 
 
 you are entitled to place sncli duty on foreign corn 
 as, by forming an equivalent for special burdens on 
 your own agriculture may serve to effect this 
 object. But, sir, I consider it is for the general 
 interests of all classes^^ that by paying a small 
 sum in advance upon our own agricultural pro- 
 duce, we can take, as it were, msurance and 
 security on a proper supply, and thus have 
 it hi our power to meet the danger of being in 
 seasons of dearth, altogether or in great part 
 dependent upon foreign countries for a supply of 
 food. In my opinion the variation of seasons will 
 occasionally bring a deficient harvest, and I be- 
 lieve also that the deficiency will, on such 
 occasions, be found to exist in other countries as 
 well as our own. If then, you are solely, or in 
 great part, di^^Qw^eni upon those countries — if you 
 require a supply of from four to five millions of 
 quarters of corn-\ in the year, and if the deficiency 
 which you yourself feel should be general in 
 Europe and elsewhere, icliat becomes of this 
 country 9 You may depend upon it that the in- 
 stinct of self-preservation will prevail amongst 
 those who usually swpply us, you may rest assured 
 that impediments of every description would be 
 
 * " Nature, a mother kind alike to all, 
 
 Still grants her bliss at labour's earnest call." 
 
 The Traveller. 
 t What would Sir Robert have thought of " requiring a 
 supply" of thirteen or fourteen million quarters from foreign 
 countries ? 
 
57 
 
 thrown in the way of exportation, and you may 
 be satisfied that in the end they would insist on 
 applying their own domestic produce to the main- 
 tenance and supply of their own people: and, 
 therefore, I for one most certainly shall never he a 
 party — not on account of the Agricultural interest^ 
 but on account of the interest of all classes— to any 
 law or arrangement which will make this country 
 dependent upon other countries for any considerahle 
 'portion of its subsistence."* 
 
 Who must not regret that the ver}^ Statesman 
 who thus spoke, evincing such wisdom and 
 prudence, four years afterwards introduced and 
 passed the unrestricted competition policy^ or as 
 he himself termed his measure, " The great experi- 
 ment " of 1846. Whether he would have main- 
 tained that policy much longer had he lived is 
 very doubtful, for in a very interesting volume. 
 Sketch of the Life of Sir Robert Peel^ Bart. : by 
 his relative Sir Lawrence Peel ( the eminent 
 retired Indian Judge, who, till recently, rendered 
 for many years, such good service on Indian 
 Appeals), the following passages occur: " The 
 contests between Free-trade and Protection had 
 now [1841] come to be understood as contests 
 between the many and the few. Formerly they 
 had not been so regarded. Protection to each of 
 many interests had been regarded as protection to 
 the whole community^ and it w^as not a conscious 
 * See Appendix. 
 
58 
 
 preftrence of tlie/e/6- to the manij'^ (p. 2S1). " In 
 his posthumous memoirs two minutes were pre- 
 pared bv him and Laid before the Cabinet in 1841, 
 which indicate very clearly the course of ^ exptri- 
 mental policy^ on which he was ahout to enter.'''' 
 He entered upon it in 1842, and advanced more 
 boklly in the '^ great experiment" in 1846, and 
 since his death^ other ministers have gone still 
 farther in the same policy, and after twenty-five 
 [now 31] years' experience of its results., it would 
 he surely wise to consider whether they have been 
 S"ch as Avould satisfy Sir Robert were he nnv: 
 alive. ' Experience/ said Dr. Johnson, is the 
 great test of truth, and is perpetually contradicting 
 the theories of men.' " 
 
 It seems clear then from the language here used, 
 that Sir Lawrence himself doubted whether '' the 
 results" of the measure of 1840 would have "• satis- 
 fied '' ;Sir Eobert Peel, had he happily lived a few 
 vears longer, or at least up to the time Sir Law- 
 rence wrote- 1861.* In order to enable a reader 
 of these pages to judge for himself how far Sir 
 Robert Peel would have been likely to be satisfied 
 with the results of his ^' great experiment " of 
 1846 (in other words the Free-Imports Policy, 
 free-f/r/c/6 we have not and cannot gain) — it is 
 
 * Sir Eobert. it Tvill be remembered, was nnfortnnately 
 thrown from bis borse on riding up " Constitution Hill,"' on 
 the 29tb Jnne, 1850, and died a few days after, unbappilj for 
 tbe country, as be migbt bave revised and perbaps reversed 
 or partly modified bis poHcy of 18^6. 
 
59 
 
 necessary to remember what loere his expectations 
 as to results, and then consider how far they 
 correspond with his expectations.* 
 
 What his motives and expectations were will 
 be most fairly and best shown by a short quota- 
 tion from his speech on introducing the measure. 
 
 Sir Robert in his exordium said — 
 
 '' The great magnitude of the interests lohich are 
 concerned in the proposal I am about to make, will 
 insure me the patient and indulgent attention with- 
 out which it would not be within my power either 
 with satisfaction to myself or to the public in- 
 terest, to discharge the duties I have undertaken 
 to perform — mainly with a view to our own 
 interests, but partly for the purpose of encouraging 
 Russia to proceed in that liberal policy of which 
 she has, I trust, given some indication ; I propose 
 loithout stipulation that England shall set the 
 
 * In a leading article of the Times of tlie 13th August, 
 1877, calling attention to the new Tariff of duties on the part 
 of the Spanish Government, in respect of importations from 
 Germany and from several other States, and showing that 
 our productions will be subject to duties in many cases from 
 thirty to fifty per cent, higher than the duties on similar 
 commodities brought from Germany, Belgium, and elsewhere 
 — it is said, " If there is anything approaching ' a favoured 
 nation clause " in these Tariffs, we ought to be preserved from 
 these discriminating duties. Was not Mr. Gladstone wrong 
 in 1845 ? He made his elaborate speech in answer to Lord 
 Palmerston, who took the opposite view, and though the 
 House of Commons went with Mr, Gladstone, the judgment of 
 the Ho2cse of Commons is not i) fallible.'' Let this truth be 
 remembered, as regards the measure of 18-16. 
 
60 
 
 example by the relaxation of heavy duties^ in the 
 confidence that that example will ultimately pre- 
 vaiir 
 
 In his peroration he said — 
 
 ^' I ask you therefore to give your consent to 
 those measures not on any narrow view or prin- 
 ciple connected Avith the accumulation^ of wealthy 
 but I ask you to give your consent to them on 
 higher grounds— far higher principles. Encum- 
 bered as you are by heavy burdens, solicitous as 
 you are to provide for the public credit, depend 
 upon it the true source of increased revenue is in- 
 creased comfort and increased taste for luxury, 
 T/ius, I say^ are the interests of the i^evenue pro- 
 mated hy that unseen and voluntary taxation ichich 
 arises from the large consumption of articles of 
 general use, I ask you to consent to tlie scheme 
 you have heard on the proof which I have adduced 
 that abundance and cheapness lead to diminished 
 crime and to increased morality." | 
 
 * Mark reader, " accumulation''' in its primary meaning, is 
 " heaping np," and " by heaping up " in our individual 
 capacity, we necessarily take from and thereby diminish 
 diffusion of the general stock. " Accumulation " does not there- 
 fore necessarily imply increase of the general wealth of the 
 co'imtnj, or increase of aggregate wealth, but that the rich 
 have become richer and the poor poorer and by the wealth 
 not being adequately diffused. The farmer being the first 
 link in the chain of circulation must be in a thriving con- 
 dition, in order that there may be a due creation and diffusion 
 of wealth throughout the country in the Home-Market. 
 
 t Sir Robert Peel could not have been sufficiently impressed 
 with the very different consequences which would ensue from 
 
Gl 
 
 Well, it is now more than thirty years since 
 '' the great experiment " commenced, and we know 
 that Russia has not proceeded in that liberal policy 
 of which Sir Eobert Peel trusted she had mven 
 proof, though it was in the full confidence that 
 Russia and other nations would do so, that he 
 set the example of taking off heavy duties, 
 trusting that his new policy, or ^'' cjreat experiment'^ 
 would ultimately prevail. Other nations how- 
 ever, have not followed the example, nor are 
 any likely to do so. 
 
 In assuming that the interests of the Eevenue 
 would be promoted by ''' that unseen and voluntary 
 
 " abundaiice and cheapness " caused by free importation of 
 the produce of the soil and of manufactures of Foreign coun- 
 tries, instead of abundance and cheapness arising from the 
 cultivation of our oiuri soil and the inanvfactures of native 
 industry. 
 
 As to " increased moraJity " in trade, let any reader read the 
 article entitled " The Morals of Trade " in the Westminster 
 Beview iov April, 1859," No. xxx. A short extract is here 
 given — 
 
 "A still more subtle trick has been described to us by one 
 who himself made use of it when engaged in one of these 
 wholesale houses — a trick so successful, that frequently he was 
 sent for to sell to customers who could be induced to buy by 
 none of the other assistants, and who ever afterwards would 
 buy only of him. His policy was to seem extremely simple 
 and honest, and during the first /ew purchases to exhibit this 
 honesty by ]3ointincj out defects and inferiority of quality in the 
 things he was selling, and then having gained the customer s 
 confidence, he proceeded to pass off upon him inferior goods at 
 superior prices. These are a few of the various manoeuvres in 
 constant practice. Of course there Is a running accompaniment 
 of falsehoods uttered as well as acted.'' 
 
G2 
 
 taxation which arises from the enlarged consinnp- 
 tion of articles of general use," Sir Eobert must 
 have forgotten that '' indirect taxation " (which 
 McCulloch is in favour of) was about to be wholly 
 abolished, and that a very great portion of articles 
 of general use were to be and are the produce and 
 manufacture of foreign countries, and admitted 
 duty free. How then could the interests of the 
 revenue be promoted by his measure as he said ? 
 Each reader will form his own opinion as to 
 whether crime has diminished and morality in- 
 creased since 1846. It has been proved how- 
 ever beyond all doubt by the Factory Inspectors 
 and Medical Officers that serious degeneracy of 
 race has set in amongst the Factory operatives, 
 aye! and amongst many of our rural populations 
 too, long fast diminishing.* 
 
 * A leading article in tlie Tbties of the 7th July, 1875, 
 commences thus : — 
 
 " The alleged physical degeneracy of the aHisan classes in 
 our great centres of industry, is a subject of national impor- 
 tance, which should receive, both from statesmen and from 
 employers, a greater degree of attention than has hitherto been 
 given to it. We published yesterday the ojDinions as stated 
 in evidence before the Royal Commission on the Factory Acts, 
 of Dr. Fergusson, who has for fourteen years been one of the 
 certifying surgeons at Bolton, and who describes himself as 
 having for forty years taken a deep interest in everything 
 relating to the physical well-being of the population. . . . 
 During the five years which ended with 1873, quite one-half 
 of the children brought to him were unfit to work full time, 
 and the numherofthis class increased year by year.'' .... 
 With oreat truth the Times adds — ■ 
 
Now, altlioiigli Sir Ivobert repudiated tlie idea 
 of asking his hearers to give their consent to his 
 "great experiment"* '^ on any narroiv view or 
 
 "A coranninity of feeble artisans will not yield a fair 
 average ntimher of men who can think as well as work, who 
 can see the defects of the machinery among which they are 
 em/ployed, who can suggest improvements, or who can lift 
 themselves out of their own class as successful inventors. 
 Such a community, on the contrary, would furnish men wlio 
 would be driven hy muscular fatigue to a craving for shorter 
 hours of labour and for the use of stimulants, and whose weak 
 brains would be easily led into a fool's paradise by the talk of 
 those who would be for ever on the watch to prey upon them. 
 The manufacturing and commercial pre-eminence of England 
 depends in a degree which it would be difficult to exaggerate, 
 upon the maintenance among the artisan classes of a certain 
 sobriety of understanding, as well as of life, with which a 
 prevailing ]3hy sic al iveahness would be incompatible." 
 
 The Times does not allude to the Army. When, however, 
 we reflect how large a proportion of recruits are unavoidably 
 obtained from our " great centres of Industry," and how 
 unfit such men are to enter the army after the age of twenty- 
 five years, according to the pathological inquiry made by Dr. 
 Lyons, who was sent out to the Crimea by the Govern- 
 ment after the great mortality of the first winter, to procure 
 accurate scientific information on the state of the army, and 
 on the measures necessary then, and for the future, for pre- 
 serving its health. This Report was published in July 185G, 
 and offers very valuable information. The principle that the 
 Commissioner drew from the facts he ascertained was and is 
 of the highest importance. He took it as proved that Eufj-lish 
 soldiers sent on active service against the enemy ought to have 
 arrived at ]jeifect manhood. Yet the Commissioner is ao-ainst 
 recruiting amongst men of a certain age, particularly those 
 who have led an unhealthy and profligate life in "reat 
 towns. 
 
 * See Appendices. 
 
G4 
 
 principle connected icith the accumulation of wealth,'' 
 but '^ on far higher grounds — far higher princi- 
 ples,'^ it will be well to learn whether " accumu- 
 lation of wealth " in the hands of thefeio^ has not 
 been the result, and that at the expense of the 
 National interests. The Times, which has greater 
 credence from the generality of Englishmen than 
 any other authority, shall tell us. 
 
 A leading article in the Times of 20th February, 
 1860, commences thus: 
 
 " How rich we are ! There is the national pass- 
 book just submitted to us by the Board of Trade. 
 These ' Trade and Navigation Accounts,' are to us 
 what the Nilometer is to the Egyptians. We see 
 in them how high the stream of commerce has 
 risen, and w^e judge from them the quantity of the 
 rich deposit it has spread. We have exported 
 during the past year [1859] a hundred and thirty 
 millions — a greater sum than was before attained 
 by this country, even in exceptional periods of 
 wild and unsustained prosperity. 
 
 '' We are growing "plethorically rich upon our 
 new Free-Trade discovery. Bat who are ' We ? 
 There is a tremendous rush of riches somewhere ; 
 but, if we look abroad among the intellectual 
 classes we shall find that like the stream of 
 Pactolus, it seeks the lower levels. Those who 
 live among iJoets, artists, sculptors, story-spin- 
 ners, historians, lawyers, physicians, and divines, 
 see no sudden springs of icealth bubbling up 
 
G5 
 
 among their frie)ids* .... We throw up our 
 caps and sliout for the general prosperity^ and read 
 
 * In the IVestern Express of the 23rcl October, 1877, there 
 was a report of some speeches made at the luncheon that took 
 place on the opening of a " Fine Art and Industrial Exhibi- 
 tion," at Bideford. 
 
 Sir George Stucley occupied the chair, and in the course of 
 his address, said : — 
 
 "The town was indebted to some gentlemen for the spirit 
 they had shown in starting the present excellent show. But 
 however artistic one might be, a great deal depended on the 
 soil in the matter of development. Great demands for works 
 of art could be made only in a wealthy country, and the 
 wealthier a country was the greater was the demand for such 
 works." 
 
 " Dr. Thompson, in the course of his admirable speech, in 
 
 proposing ' the Army and Navy,' said He had 
 
 been struck with the philosophical remark of the chairman : 
 Art could not prosper in a community where there was no 
 great wealth, and here it might be added that this country 
 would never have possessed the wealth it now did but for 
 the renowned services of those who had to defend her 
 interests. When they reflected that for 8U0 years no foreign 
 foe had successfully invaded this country, they had at once 
 the key to the reasons why England has been made the 
 repository of the riches of the civilized world. He was sure 
 if our prosperity were to be maintained it was to be done only 
 by the maintenance of national independence, and the assur- 
 ance that we shall be safe from such revolutions as that which 
 was taking place in the East of Europe. He was a great 
 friend to science and art, but he was afraid they could not be 
 properly cultivated in this country unless we retained the 
 means of protecting our independence. \ As the poet said : 
 
 ' 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. 
 Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.' 
 
 I See Appendix. 
 
our ouTi city articles, and swell with pride and 
 glory that we are so rich ; but w^e should l)e 
 puzzled, if we had not this paper before us, to 
 know where this swarm of golden sovereigns had 
 hived. These columns, however, tell the tale. 
 There are two classes of citizens in this country icho 
 have tahen tremendous slices out of the great sum 
 total from which the others have drawn only 
 modest shares. The Ironmasters have got no less 
 than thirteen 'millions of this foreifjn trade, but the 
 Cotton- spinners have, after clothing all the many 
 millions of these islands, succeeded in pocketing 
 from the foreign trade all the profits upon no less 
 a smn than £48,208,444 ! Here is a pleasant sum 
 to revel and roll in, and to take toll from ! We 
 have found then the hive to which all those golden 
 bees have flown. There, far away in the North — 
 there in those flats, over which in ancient days 
 old ocean rose and fdl^ sometimes carrying his 
 foray up to the foot of the Cheshire peaks, pros- 
 trating the primeval forest and creating by the 
 waste he made those coal beds which are now 
 more ^>r(^c/o?i."? than cjold^'' [would that this nation 
 had continued to think so!] "there where the tall 
 chimneys would dwarf the old sylvan giants, 
 where the sound of the piston-strohe never ceases^ 
 
 And tlius while wealtli accumulates, and tliej progressed in 
 Science and Art, lie hoped the day would never come when 
 there were not stalwart hearts to man the army and navy, to 
 defend the interests of the country and maintain her indepen- 
 dence in the world." 
 
67 
 
 and where the frequent square Victories g-leam from 
 their msiny wmdo^Yi^ all 72tgJd long and give appear- 
 ances of a general illumination — there it is that all 
 tJiis gold is gone. It is gatliered by an industrious 
 race, with sharp instincts for their special mission, 
 which is to make calico and to amass gold ; frugal 
 in their habits, and not too delicate in their tastes ; 
 capable of great efforts of ostentatious munificence^ 
 but well remembering that habitual thrift is the 
 great secret of groicing rich. Here is concentrated 
 all this aboundIn.Q^ wealth. Here men reckon 
 each other bj what tltey save^ and not hj what 
 they spendj by what they have, and not by what 
 they have given away. Here is a community 
 jpoicerfid hy their riches, and jpowerful hij their 
 intensity of ijurpose. Their interests are always 
 propounded as the great interests of the nation : 
 well paid and well loell patronized apostles go forth 
 from them fiercely compelling all men to cry with 
 them ' Til ere is but one commercial faith, and 
 Manchester is its prophet! We rejoice in the good 
 fortune of the gold-encumbered inhabitants of that 
 wonderful city and bow before their enormous 
 wealth. We feel, in addressing them, that we are 
 ventining to approach busy men, who are laying 
 up the loealth wherewith to found great families ; 
 to the Rudolphs of succeeding generations, where 
 heralds will be taught to admit that the balls or 
 the coronet of the Baron and the Earl are properly 
 cotton-halls and that the Ducal Sfrawherry leaf is 
 
more truly a fossil vegetation of the coal measures. 
 We must not venture to ask for any quarter to 
 other commercial interests. The silk people who 
 import their eight millions and a half of raw 
 material, and who do not export £46,000 of manu- 
 factured goods ^ must of course, bear their fate, and 
 for the wines of the South African colonist we 
 possess no sympathy. We appear upon this 
 occasion only for those hardly worked people who 
 do not meddle or make in the great floods and 
 ebbs of commercial success. Manchester is very 
 great^ but Manchester is not quite all. If she were 
 left alone to-morrow, even with John Brio;ht for 
 her kino;, there would be somethino; wantino: to 
 mahe England Avhat s^he mm is. Is there no 
 means by which Manchester may be contented, and 
 and yet we non-commercial classes mag escaj^e 
 sacrifice 9 Manchester, and the class whereof 
 Manchester is the metropolis, represents, perhaps, 
 now one-sixth of the population, but still the rest 
 of the nation form the five-sixths. We must admit, 
 also, that Manchester and the ]\Ianchester class 
 have, very much to their honour, given to us Sir 
 Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone, who have been not 
 unmindful of their origin. We cannot but accord 
 also that unto those who have much, much shall be 
 given. But still the Middle class men.^ we professional 
 men, we country squires, we hrain-ivorhers.^ we non- 
 millionaires.^ would say to them 'Are we notm.en and 
 brothers f Cannot Manchester thrive icithout our im • 
 
GO 
 
 ■poverisliment^ and is it absolutely necessary that we 
 should all go up to be taxed \Qd in the pound, in 
 order that every Manchester gentleman who only 
 made £90,000 last year should make up his 
 £100,000 next year ? 
 
 Thus then it appears that National interests 
 have been sacrificed to increase the wealth of the 
 feio^ — '' an industrious race with sharp instincts 
 for their special mission, which is to make calico 
 and amass gold, — who reckon each other by 
 what they save^ and not by what they sjpendr 
 
 Now here let us remember what our great 
 English philosopher Lord Bacon has said in his 
 Essay Of Seditions and Troiddes : 
 
 '' Above all things^'' he says^ " good policy is to 
 be used that the treasure and money in a State he 
 NOT gathered into few hands^ for otherwise a State 
 may liave a great stock and yet starve^ and money 
 is like muck^ no good except it he spread. This is 
 done chiefly by suppressing, or at least keeping a 
 tight hand upon the devouring trades of usury, 
 engrossing, great pastures and the likeJ'^ 
 
 Yet England has abolished her usury-laws, and 
 has encouraged " great pastures, and the wealth 
 arising from the stimulus to foreign trade has 
 got into few hands'^ 
 
 And now let us learn from Mr. William Hoyle, 
 an eminent Cotton- spinner himself. Author of 
 An Inquiry into the Causes of the long-con- 
 * See Appendix. 
 
70 
 
 t'uimd Deijression in the Cotton Trade. In the 
 Prefixce to liis later Work, Our National 
 Resources and How tlteij are Wasted^ 1871, lie 
 says, '' The attention of the writer of the fol- 
 lowing pages was first specially directed to the 
 subject treated therein, in the autumn of 1868. 
 During the whole of the years 1867 to 1868, the 
 trade of the United Kingdom, but especially the 
 Cotton Trade, was in a most depressed condition. 
 The year 1869 was ushered in ; but instead of 
 there being an improvement, so fer at least as 
 the Cotton Trade went, matters grew worse. The 
 belief at that time was almost universal in Lan- 
 cashire, that the depressed condition of trade 
 arose from the fact that our Continental neigh- 
 bours were outstripping us in manufacturing, and 
 that they were still more certain to outstrip us 
 in the future; and^ consequently/ the great Cotton 
 Trade of Lancashire would shortly he a thing of the 
 past. Having considerable interest at stake, the 
 Author, like other spinners and manufacturers, 
 naturally became anxious about this unpleasant 
 prospect, and therefore, during the winter of 1868 
 and 1869, he spent his leisure evenings in giving 
 the subject a careful investigation. 
 
 '-'- In the autumn of 1869 the results of this 
 investigation were embodied and published by 
 him in the work before named, ' Aji Inguiry^ &c. 
 The investigation entirely disabused the mind of 
 the Author of all those ideas, as to the fallino: off 
 
71 
 
 of our Foreign trade owing to Continental com- 
 petition, and the publication of the pamphlet did 
 much to allay the fears of the commercial classes 
 in reference to the matter. An examination of 
 our exports of manufactured goods, alike in 
 cotton, woollen and linen, showed that a continued 
 and enormous increase had taken place^ and the 
 
 DEPRESSION AROSE FROM TPIE FALLING OFF IN 
 
 THE Home-trade." He tells us further, " That 
 this decrease has arisen mainly^ if not entirely^ 
 from the improvident and unproductive character 
 of our labour and expenditure, especially in 
 reference to the article of intoxicatino; drinks, 
 and that, if our lahour loere properly directed and 
 our expenditure properly applied^ settled pauperism 
 or destitution could not possibly exist." And 
 Mr. Hoyle very wisely in his book says : 
 
 " The purpose of all labour is, or ought to be, 
 to secure the pliysical comforts of life— good healthy 
 good food, warm clothing, and comfortable habita- 
 tions ; for, although the end of man's existence is 
 not to attend merely to the physical or animal, 
 but primarily to the intellectual and spiritual, yet 
 inasmuch as the proper development of these facul- 
 ties depends upon the healthy condition of the 
 physical organism, it is absolutely necessary^ if we 
 would fully develope the mental, to attend to the 
 physical y* 
 
 * There is a great deal of political wisdom conveyed in the 
 following doggerel : 
 
it 
 
 Now, it will be in the recollection of any readers 
 of these pages, that tlie opposition to Sir Robert 
 Peel's ''''great experimenf of 1846, was on the 
 ground that it would injare the Home-marhet by 
 the effect it would have on the tenant-farmers of 
 the soil of England, and consequently upon the 
 agricultural population and their neighbourhoods, 
 and the tradesmen of many of the provincial 
 towns. 
 
 In the Registrar- General's Quarterly return 
 during the Autumn-quarter that ended December 
 31, 1859, are the following remarks, well worthy 
 of attention : ^' The increase of births and the 
 decrease of deaths in Wilton, is, in his opinion 
 attributable to the introduction of a new and 
 sujperior class of cottages in lieu of the former ill- 
 huilt and badly ventilated dwellings of the agricul- 
 tural labourers. The numerous new cottages which 
 are being built in several parishes of that sub- 
 district by the direction of Mr, Sidney Herbert 
 (afterwards Lord Herbert), will no doubt improve 
 the health of the inhabit?aits." 
 
 And the Registrar added— and let this sink 
 deep into the minds of politicians and others — 
 '^ The improvement of the health of the labouring 
 popidation of the kingdom is one of the most preg- 
 
 Oh ! a very fine tiling is good legislation, 
 xlnd a very fine tiling is good education ; 
 But to make people thrive, contented, and q^idet^ 
 'Tis a sine qua non to begin with — ^/?e diet. 
 
nant measures of defence that can he conceived, and 
 will not (or should not) be overlooked by the 
 
 GREAT LANDED PEOPRIETORS."* ' 
 
 And here whilst reminded of measures of de- 
 fence let readers remember that although free- 
 traders ever claim Dr. Adam Smith's Wealth of 
 Nations as an authority for the policy of the 
 ^' unrestricied competition" policy of England, 
 that policy has in many respects violated his 
 teaching, notably, by the abrogation of the Navi- 
 gation Laws, for which Sir Robert Peel is not 
 responsible. 
 
 " The Act of Navigation/' wrote Adam Smith, 
 '' is not favourable to foreign commerce^ or to the 
 growth of that opulence which can arise from it. 
 As defence^ however^ is of much more importance 
 than opulence^ the Act of Navigation is perhaps 
 the wisest of all the commercial regulations of 
 England." Yet it has been abrogated. The late Sir 
 John Gladstone, Bart, (father of The Right Hon. 
 W. Ewart Gladstone, the eminent statesman and 
 scholar), addressed a letter to his son after having 
 had read to him the speech delivered by his son in 
 
 * And Lord Beaconsfield lias lately said, when opening 
 *' The Victoria Buildings" for Labourers' Dwellings — at 
 Battersea: — " The health of the people is really the founda- 
 tion upon which all their happiness and jpoiuer as a State 
 dejpend.'^ 
 
 Much to the honour and credit of the leading Journal of 
 England, it has been for years I'ejpeatedly impressing this great 
 truth on the mind of the public. 
 
74 
 
 tlie House of Commons in Jmie, 1848, in favour 
 of the repeal of the Navigation Laws^ and, in con- 
 clusion, Sir John sajs — 
 
 '' You are aware that 1 am at present confined 
 Ly indisposition, and that I dictate this letter from 
 my heel by the pen of a third party. I am 
 conscious you will find it abounds with errors and 
 imperfections, yet notwithstanding, now in my 
 eighty-fourth year, as a last duty, and perhaps 
 trihute to the interest of my countrij^ I give it to 
 the public, and send it for that purpose to the 
 columns of the Standard^ from whence it may, 
 perhaps, find its way to more general circulation." 
 (It was dated from Fasque, June 6, 1848). See 
 Appendix No. 7. 
 
 Sir John Gladstone wrote, no doubt, 
 
 " Knowing that course is best to be observed, 
 By which a nation longest i^ ijreserved.''' 
 
 And now let us see what has been shown in the 
 foregoing pages. 
 
 1. That whatever amount may have been de- 
 rived from the policy of 1846 has been confined to 
 '•'- few hands,'' " concentrated "'^^ — not generally 
 '' diffused^ 
 
 2. That the health of the factory operatives has 
 for years, more especially since 1846, been de- 
 clining, until degeneracy of race seems to have set 
 in. 
 
 3. AVe have had it recorded, — in a very valu- 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
able volume by an eminent eotton-spiimer, so long 
 since as 1871 — ''''after a careful investigation'^ — 
 that, '' during an enorinoits increase in our exports 
 of manufactured goods, alike in cotton, woollen, 
 and linen, the depression '' (in trade^ and conse- 
 quently of the factory-hands) '' arose from the 
 fallimj off in the Home-trader 
 
 If then in spite of " an enormous increase of 
 our exports ''in 1871, depression arose from the 
 falling off in the home trade^ surely we are only 
 wilfully deceiving ourselves in looking for any 
 further increase of our exports in order to improve 
 the Home-marhet ; for the w^ealth arising therefrom, 
 it seems, would be "" accumulated " by '^ the few," 
 and we shall find, by a still more bitter expe- 
 rience, than we have alreadv had it must be feared 
 that— 
 
 " Wealth in the gross is death, but life diffused; 
 As poison heals in just proportion used ; 
 In hea]js, like ambergris, a stinh it lies, 
 But, well dispersed, is incense to the SKIES." 
 
 It will doubtless be remembered that one of the 
 arguments used by those opposed to the abroga- 
 tion of the ^' sliding-scale " (during the agitation 
 for the total abrogation of the corn-laws) was the 
 periodical disturbance of the " money-market ^' by 
 sending out of the country large sums of gold for 
 the purchase of corn, Now the Times in a lead- 
 ing article in 1860, said — 
 
 '' Even at a moment when the whole countrv is 
 
76 
 
 revelling in a sense of prosperity^ the repetition of 
 the fact, observable m 1857, that with all our 
 loonderful tracle^ the tendency of our bullion returns 
 shows that toe are spending more than loe earn — 
 while the advance in the rates of discount has 7io 
 perceptible effect in checking the demand^ coupled 
 with the circumstance that the note-circulation 
 during the past twelvemonth has been frequently 
 10 per cent, in excess of its normal amount,* are 
 
 * The writer happens to possess a pamphlet, written in 
 1812, entitled : Further Observations on the Increase of 
 Population and High Price of Grain : being an Appendix to 
 Reflections on the Possible Existence, and supposed Expedi- 
 ence, of National Bankruptcy. By Peter Richard Hoare, Esq. 
 London : printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, Strand, and 
 Hatchard, Piccadilly, 1812. The pamphlet thus concludes : 
 — " Let us not be deluded by this phantom of an excessive 
 population, set up against the reality of an excessive currency. 
 It is this which has augmented the price of the common 
 necessaries of life, as of almost all other commodities of what- 
 soever kind, though divers causes may have operated to reduce 
 the price of some — which has increased the cost of agriculture, 
 as well as almost every other species of labour, the poor's- 
 rates, tithe composition, and rents, but these only in few 
 instances in a like proportion. Reduce the quantity of paper 
 money, you will reduce the price of the necessaries of life, and 
 all other commodities whatsoever, the wages of labour, poor's- 
 rates, tithe composition, and rents : you will enable the 
 British Farmer, without danger of being undersold by the foreign 
 Trader, to employ 'more hands in the cidtivation of luheat, and 
 other grain : lands, of late converted from arable to pasture, 
 may be re-converted, and ivastes be broken up, inclosed, and put 
 into tillage, not only ivithout loss, but with amazing profitj 
 measured by the real, not merely nominal amount. The times 
 are peculiarly fitted for the trial. Humanity and true policy 
 demand it- -smarting, as we are, under the severe affliction 
 
i i 
 
 signs which at all events are wortlnj of our atteii- 
 tionr And in 1869 — nine years later — the Jimos 
 in a leader said, '^ The question arises on idiat 
 terms has this trade''' (the export) ''''been done') 
 And it seems probable that it has been done on 
 losing terms — that more cotton has been spmi and 
 exported than foreign customers icere prepared to 
 huy. Is there any limit to trade or production at 
 this point ? Can Lancashire capitalists go on 
 adding mill to mill and factory to factory imthout 
 exceeding the demands of the loorldf (See Letter 
 VII. following.) 
 
 Let the correspondent of the Times during the 
 late International Exhibition at Philadelphia 
 answer this question. He writes under the title, 
 '-' Mechanician," a] id concluded his last conniiuni- 
 cation thus : 
 
 '^ In reckoning up the significance of this 
 
 of real or pretended scarcity — looking to otlier countries to aid 
 us ivith su2')])Ues, bnt dreading the effects of a stern policij, which 
 would mock our sifferings even m the agonies of famished nature 
 — with a large portion of our population already a victim to 
 the same policy, by which, hereft of its wonted means of liveli- 
 hood, and driven from necessity to any other which may offer, 
 would receive, ivith eager hands, the plough or mattoch — and 
 happily become the means of eff^ectually insuring a sufficient 
 supply, so far at least as UJi^iK^ prudence can provide." Could 
 anything more befitting the present time than the above be 
 written ? For, assuredly, ail the arguments there used for 
 " insuring a sufficient home supply, so far at least as human 
 " prudence can provide," apply now with tenfold force. The 
 writer of these pages offers no opinion in relation to the 
 Currency. 
 
78 
 
 oTaiid ao-o-reo-ate of macltinerii. and cono-ra- 
 tulating ourselves on the results^ as sliowing" 
 liow the toil of men can be mitigated, it is ini- 
 possihle not to feel that an important cliange is 
 approaching. A century ago no conditions existed 
 which could have enabled Adam Smith to antici- 
 pate a time when the producing power'' (it would 
 be more strictly correct to have said the converting 
 power, for the earth is the sole producing power) 
 '' of automatic machines woidd exceed the reguire- 
 ments of the hitman race. That state of tilings 
 is rapidly approaching.^ and it is for the philo- 
 sopher and political economist to consider carefully 
 beforehand the impending revolution, so that it may 
 all woi^h for good to tlie family of mankind!^ — 
 (Times of 18th November, 1876.) 
 
 Words of sound wisdom. May philosophers 
 and political economists add ^' Domine dirige nos^'' 
 — the motto of the City of London, and remem- 
 bering what Adam Smith has with truth recorde^l 
 that '' defence is of much more importance than 
 opulence '^ let us also ever bear in mind the 
 warning given in a Book, the admonitions of 
 which we should all do the better by following — 
 and which cannot be disregarded with impunity. 
 
 " When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, 
 his goods are in peace ; but when a stronger than 
 he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he 
 taketli from him all his armour wherein he trusted 
 and divideth his spoils/' (Luke xi. 21-2). 
 
71) 
 
 Of this all may rest assured, that the robust 
 cottager and the hardy yeoman will ever be found 
 to be the country's wealth in peace — the country's 
 strength in loar. 
 
 " Tlie nerve, support, and glory of the land." 
 
 How then can we best provide breeding-grounds 
 for these races. Is it too late to make the at- 
 tempt ? True it is, a poet, who was a deep philo- 
 sopher also, has long since written : 
 
 " A bold peasantry its country's pride, 
 When once destroyed can never be supplied." 
 
 But in endeavouring to render ourselves less de- 
 pendent upon foreign comitries for the common 
 necessaries of life, we should at the same time be 
 doing our best to re-animate agricultural industry, 
 cheer the hearts of our agricultural labourers — 
 and by thus diffusing wealth, improve the Home- 
 market^ and cheer also the drooping spirits of our 
 manufacturers and tradesmen. For let it ever be 
 borne in mind, that the Farmer is tliejirst link in 
 the chain of circulation. 
 
 This truth seems to have been recognized by ]\Ir. 
 Bazely (now Sir Thomas, Bart.), when President 
 of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in 1855. 
 Presiding at a '' Morning Meeting" of that Cham- 
 ber, on the 9 til of February in that year, he said: — 
 '^ Probably the last year, in trade and commerce^ 
 had been more disastrous than any we had expe- 
 rienced for a considerable length of time. An old 
 evil had unjortunatelg revived (mark, nine years 
 
80 
 
 after the policy wliicli was to secure plenty at a 
 low price), for we had a scarcity offood^ and tliere- 
 fore food had been extraordinarily dear^ the popu- 
 lation had had to live at a greater rate of expendi- 
 ture for their mere subsistence than for many years 
 previously, and it had become a plain and palpable 
 fact that less had been spent in clothing. About 
 two years ago he had called attention to the earth 
 being cultivated in every possible direction^ for the 
 supply not only of food but of rain materials^ to em- 
 ploy our industry upon^ and from that moment to 
 the present (1855) he only saw the increased neces- 
 sity of less attention being paid to the meclianical ele- 
 ment of this country and more to the agricultural 
 element — not only in this, but in every other country 
 on the face of the earth. We could not, he be- 
 lieved, have a sound state of evenjthing until we had 
 food — the first element of our existence — in greater 
 quantity and therefore at a cheaper rate^ At the 
 sam.e meeting, in the course of a long speech by 
 Mr. Bright, after referring to certain Corn statis- 
 tics, he proceeded : — " If we could conceive that 
 in 1854 the Harvest had been no better than in 
 1853, and that the supplies from B.ussia had been 
 stopped^ there cannot be the slightest doubt that 
 our poor people would have been perishing in our 
 streets, and on our door-steps, and it would have 
 been absolutely impossible to preserve the peace 
 of the country. There are one or two more state- 
 ments I will allude to with respect to this subject," 
 
81 
 
 continued Mr. Bright, " because I know there are 
 people who fancy that as long as people are well 
 employed, it does not much matter what people 
 pay for food ; but they seem to lose sight of the fact 
 that every day somebody is becoming less able to pur- 
 chase it'' .... Mr. Bright concluded thus : — " I 
 see no reason in the world tohj such a state of things 
 should not gradually creep on until it presses with 
 extreme severity upon every branch of trade^ upon all 
 those persons whose capital is not super-abundant 
 for everything they have to do^ and especially upon 
 all that class of worhmen loho are the soonest dis- 
 charged— soonest plunged into suffering and ruin 
 from disasters of this kind. All I ask is, that we 
 should endeavour to introduce to the minds of all 
 with whom we come in contact a sense of the vast evils 
 lohich are treading close upon us — for their very 
 footsteps you may hear now^ if you loill only hearken ; 
 and that we should, whenever there be any oppor- 
 tunity, put no obstacle in the course of any Minister 
 who shall endeavour by any rational and moderate 
 policy to put an end to what, I believe, is about to 
 be, if not soon ended, one of the most disastrous con- 
 ditions toe have seen in this country during our life^ 
 time'' It is now more than twenty-two years 
 since thivS was uttered, and let every candid reader 
 faithfully consider whether such a state of things 
 has not, in the interval, been ^' gradually creeping 
 on, until at last it presses with extreme severity 
 upon every branch of trade," as Mr. Bright fore- 
 
 6 
 
S2 
 
 shadowed. Every one knows that for the last 
 three years general complaints as to the depression 
 in trade have been taking place from all quarters. 
 But let the following extract from the '' Money 
 Market and City Intelligence" of the Times of the 
 9th July, 1877, answer the question.* 
 
 * A leading article in tlie Times of so far back as the 8th 
 Fehruary, 1877, begins thus : — " The commercial world has been 
 for a long time watcliing with anxious interest to detect tbe 
 signs of a general revival of trade; but hitherto, unfor- 
 tunately, the indications of improvement have been obscure 
 
 and evanescent In January last we imported 
 
 from foreign countries and British Colonies commodities to 
 the value of nearly thirty-three millions sterling — about two 
 millions and a quarter more than in the same month of 1876, 
 and half a million more than in the same month of 1875. 
 Among the particulars of importation we look first at the 
 food supplies. The wheat imported during the month was 
 less in quantity and in value by one- third than that taken 
 in 1876, but a little greater in quantity, and considerably 
 GREATER in VALUE than the imports of 1875, &c. In January, 
 1875, we imported fresh beef from America to the value of 
 £13,683, but last month (i.e., January, 1877) the imports 
 reached £87,768. The quantities of preserved meat of every 
 kind increased in some cases by one-third, in others by one- 
 half. The same thing is seen in the entries of other food- 
 supplies. Fortunately, British industry is founded upon a 
 solid basis of Home-trade [Mr. Hoyle, the great cotton- 
 spinner, tells a different story] , and when our commerce meets 
 with a check, our manufacturers can afford to bide their time> 
 and to encounter the slack-tide of fortune with cheerful 
 endurance. At the same time it must be admitted that the time 
 has come when a change for the better will be regarded as a 
 welcome deliverance from a painful if not a perilous situation. 
 The condition of our export trade, as shown by these Returns, 
 is such as to demand all our fortitude and confidence in the 
 native resources of the British manufacturer and merchant. 
 
83 
 
 " The Board of Trade returns for June^ issued 
 to-daj, are again unfavourable. The exports have 
 fallen off nearly Z\ per cent, against June last 
 year ; and the imports show an increase of over 5 
 per cent. As the reduction in the value of the 
 exports is still due to receding prices, the actual 
 bulk of the export trade may be said to be well 
 maintained, and that is so far satisfactory ; but 
 after making all allowance for this, the figures are 
 disheartening. That the imports should continue 
 to maintain so high a level against ever-receding 
 export values is also unsatisfactory when the source 
 of the increase is examined. Bearer food may be 
 said to be the cause of the lohole of it^ wheat and 
 wheaten flour alone covering more than the excess. 
 We have, therefore, no longer the same large im- 
 ports of raw materials for manufacture which 
 swelled the returns of 1875, and helped to sus- 
 tain those of 1876. On the contrary, cotton,^ 
 hemp,, jute, and wool were all received in much 
 lesser quantities last month^ and only flax and silk 
 in marked excess. The import totals of value are 
 therefore sustained by the greater import and 
 
 The total value of the exports for the month of January was 
 £15,946,000, or considerably less than half the value of the 
 imports of the same period. Moreover, this amount exhibits a 
 progressive decline when compared with the values of the 
 exports in the same montli of 1875 and 1876. Since 1875 
 there has been o, falling off of more than one million sterling.'* 
 Is all this written for our learning, and to show us tha|) we 
 are in a painful if not perilous situation ? It should so teach 
 us! 
 
 lo^ JV^R^IT 
 
84 
 
 higher lorices of corn and sugar, and in lesser 
 measure by that of such articles as silk, tea, wool, 
 and hides. Hoioever rich a country may he^ this 
 state of things must tell on its prosjperity. We are 
 now huying many things clear and selling most 
 things cheap — a state of things lohich must pinch 
 the community more and more severely the longer it 
 lasts* To sell cheap means to loicer wages, and 
 loio loages with comparatively dear bread can only 
 in the long run bring one result. The evil is not 
 very gigantic yet, however, and an abundant 
 harvest would prohahly avert any alarming conse- 
 quences^ restoring the two sides of the trade 
 account to a sounder footing/' After subsequently 
 showing that '' the falling off in the principal 
 woollen manufactured staples has long been conti- 
 nued and persistent," the report adds — " Demand 
 abroad has obviously lessened very considerably, 
 and although the decrease is more visible, per- 
 haps, in June than it was earlier in the year, there 
 can be no doidjt that it is hardly a passing one, 
 British India and our own Colonies are in some 
 respects our best customers just now and our stea- 
 diest ; for even France has been buying much less 
 from us than usucd^ while the demand from the 
 United States is of course still declining. Taking 
 account of these and such like facts and tendencies^ 
 we can only conclude that our trade is at present 
 seriously oppressed^ and that lately its conditions 
 * See Appendix. 
 
85 
 
 have in some respects materially altered for the 
 worse.'' 
 
 A leading article in tlie Times of the 10th of 
 July (the following day) admits the truth of the 
 foregoing, and (in endeavouring, judiciously per- 
 haps, to soften the effect it might produce) makes 
 some allusions to the real sources of our wealth 
 and comforts, upon which it would be well if our 
 legislators generally would dwell. 
 
 " The Board of Trade Returns for the month of 
 June, which we published in our City article yes- 
 terday, are still of the kind which financial autho- 
 rities are agreed in terming unfavourable. . . . 
 The more the figures are looked into the irjorse 
 does the case appear. The price of almost every- 
 thing we have to sell has declined considerably^ 
 w^hile the price of lohat we have been buying has, 
 under some important heads, been steadily rising. 
 We send out^ in fact, almost as much merchan- 
 dize as we did last year — in some cases even more 
 than we did last year — and we get less in payment 
 for it^^ &c. " The month's returns are thus proof 
 of a process even more exhausting than it would 
 appear at first sight. They show us in the position 
 of a spendthrift whose expenses tend more and more 
 to advance beyond his returns., and whose complete 
 financial collapse is a question merely of time''* 
 
 * See introductory part of Letter V. and following : A 
 paragraph in the Times of 9th October, 1876, says: — 
 *' The total value of the imports of merchandize into the 
 
86 
 
 The attempt^ however, the Times makes to comfort 
 
 us under such circumstances is in some respects 
 
 rather sophistical. The article g'oes on to say — 
 
 " We may remember that the Board of Trade 
 
 Eeturns do not profess to show us our entire 
 
 money relations v/ith the outer world. What 
 
 they do show is the declared or calculated value in 
 
 passing either way through our ports. What we 
 
 are sending out will be more highly paid for when 
 
 it reaches its market."* (But it is often frequently 
 
 United Kingdom in the year was £373,939,577. That total 
 was never before equalled in any year, and the value of the 
 exports of British produce in 1875 was never exceeded or 
 equalled, except in the three years next preceding 1875. 
 The imports of the year comprised articles of the value of 
 £139,047,488, being in a raw state and to be used in manu- 
 facture ; articles ^partially manufactured, of the value of 
 £28,568,266 ; articles ivholly manufactured, of the value of 
 £39,552,176; articles for /oof7, of the value of £162,274,950, 
 or ten millions more than in the ^recediiig year ; and other 
 miscellaneous articles, £4,496,697. The total value of the 
 British and Irish produce exported in the year was 
 £223,465,963." Now, if we deduct the amount for the value 
 of food alone imported from this amount of our exports, there 
 is a surplus only of £61,191,013 ; and if we deduct the 
 amount of our exports from the whole amount of imports, it 
 leaves a balance against us of £150,474,614. 
 
 * A leader in the Times of 27th July, 1862, says :— " How 
 can this falling off in the productions of Sheffield relatively to 
 those of Germany have come about ? To give a practical 
 answer to this question was the chief object of the meeting to 
 which we have referred. No allusion, however, was made to 
 one cause of deterioration, which is alone sufficient to account 
 for the fact. It is cJieajmess which has sustained the vast 
 export trade of Sheffield, and the study of cheapness is 
 directly antagonistic to excellence.'^ 
 
87 
 
 sold for a less price, and the Times has just before 
 said " that we get less in payment for what we 
 sent out last year than we did for that sent out the 
 year before.") " There are freights and profits to 
 be added/' continues the article in the Times^ 
 " and these together will make a very marked 
 alteration in the Board of Trade's modest fie^ures. 
 We must take account next of the yearly sums 
 which reach us from abroad at no 'present cost to 
 ourselves, and which represent not goods sold 
 during the year, but money permanently and pro- 
 fitably invested. There are sad deductions to be 
 made here. Foreign loans count for some hundreds 
 of millions less capital and for many millions less 
 income than they did five years ago. But we have 
 still a (jood property^ untouched for the most part, 
 scattered about here and there all over the habit- 
 able globe. If loe loere to cease exporting altogether 
 toe should still have the means of ohtaining large 
 imports loithout in any degree disturbing the real 
 balance of traded '' That we are under no need 
 of paying for what we receive ought not, as far as 
 it goes, to be taken as a sign or a likely cause of 
 financial ruin. Again, as to the general decline 
 of prices in our exported goods, this, so far from 
 alarming, is rather a proof that our trade is in 
 the right way of recovery." [It is difficult to 
 understand why.] '' Foreign trade ^ moreover^ is 
 not the only thing ive have to live upon. Corn, 
 GROWN and eaten within the country; metals 
 
88 
 
 from 0U7' own mines ; wool from om- own slieep, 
 and woven into cloth on our own hachs^ — all these 
 count for nothing in the Board of Trade Returns ; 
 but even in a manufacturing country like this, 
 they count for a very large part of one yearns 
 comforts." 
 
 May the nation remember this, and act accord- 
 ingly ! Do let us believe the all-important truths 
 that it is only by a great national effort being 
 made to largely increase the produce of our own soil 
 in food for man and beast that the j^bme-trade can 
 be revivedy or that we can maintain the national 
 status. 
 
 It is not necessary to enumerate the enormous 
 evils resulting from the overcrowding of our large 
 towns,! they are patent to us all, and hourly forced 
 
 * Only let us take measures for increas'uuj the quantity of 
 corn, wool, &c., within our oivu country and our Colonies, and 
 also the number of backs able to purchase the cloth, &c. of 
 our own manufacture, and we may yet be a thriving, happy 
 and powerful nation. At present the proportion of wheat and 
 wool, the produce of our own country, is but small, compared 
 with the amount required by our population if every man 
 could afford to provide himself with as much food and as 
 many garments as his health requires. 
 
 t Presiding at an influential meeting held in Liverpool on the 
 1st June, 1874, Lord Derby, as President, said in the course of a 
 most able address : — " Well, with all these facts (viz., relating 
 to the wretched effects of overcrowding) before us, and I think 
 1 have stated them fairly, we have to ask ourselves — first, what 
 are the causes of the excessive disease and mortality ? And 7iext, 
 how are we to find a remedy ? The causes, I think, are few 
 and simple. Overcrowding and dirt, drunkenness and immo- 
 rality, and, among a certain class, a wayit of a sufficiency of 
 
89 
 
 on our attention ; but in order to show what is 
 the only way to prevent the overcrowding going 
 on and increasing, it is advisable to give an extract 
 from a work of deep thought and great ability^ 
 entitled, The Method of the Divine Government^ 
 Physical and Moral, By James M^Cosh, LL.D., 
 Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the Queen's 
 University for Ireland, — and of which ^ fifth edition 
 was published in 1856. Under the head of 
 
 wholesome food. I say nothing of the temporary mischief 
 produced by epidemics, except so far as they are aggravated 
 by unfavourable physical conditions ; nor do I touch upon the 
 subject of drunkenness, because that is not before us, except 
 from this point of view — that if a man or a woman has to 
 live in a hole luhere cleanliness and decency are impossible, you 
 must not wonder if they try to drown — I will not call it their 
 misery — but their discomfort — in drink. There is action and 
 reaction in this matter. Crowded lodgings and poisoned air 
 produce the craving for stimulants, and drunken habits keep 
 the family from ever getting a chance of moving into a more 
 respectable home. I hear many people say, ' Oh ! education 
 will do that.' Now, I am as warm a friend to education as 
 any one, but 1 am not quite so sanguine. If a man is placed in 
 a position luliere moderately pure air is unattainable and self- 
 respect almost impossible, it is not being able to read and write 
 that ivill Jceep him out of the gin-shop. (Applause.) I am not 
 arguing in disparagement of either educational teaching, or of 
 that direct preaching of temperance, or rather abstinence, 
 upon which many people rely. It is well that the evil which 
 we have to fight against should be attacked from many 
 points at once ; but I believe that if it were possible that every 
 man, woman, and child in Liverpool should have a clean 
 wholesome, and decent lodging, you would have struck a heavier 
 blow at intemperance than could be struck by all the School 
 Boards and all the teetotal gatherings in England put 
 together." (Cheers.) — See Times, 2nd June, 1871. 
 
90 
 
 " Arrangements needful to the stability of the Social 
 System^^ the author says — 
 
 " All endeavours to elevate the degraded and 
 the fallen, so far as they are not immediately 
 religious^ should proceed on the principle of 
 calling in those aids and restraints which Provi- 
 dence furnishes.* If the rising members of our 
 
 * In The Life and Times of William IV., by John 
 Watkins, LL.B., at pp. 705-6 is the following :—" After the 
 usual Divine Service as used at the Coronation of England's 
 monarchs, the usual offering having been made by the king 
 and queen, &c., the Bishop of London (Dr. Blomfield) preached 
 from 1 Peter ii. 18. The discourse of the learned prelate was 
 impressively eloquent, and free from any political allusion, 
 except the following passage, reflecthig upon the modern doc- 
 trine of substitutiyig a flexible morality as the rule of 'policij, 
 instead of the Divine Rule, as revealed in the Sacred Oracles. 
 *' If the Word of God," continued the Bishop, " be true, and 
 if the history of the past be not deceitful, evil will sooner or 
 later befall that nation which loses sight of the sovereignty of 
 Jehovah, and substitutes other foundations for the duties of public 
 society than those which have been everlastingly laid by Him- 
 self. Evil will befall that nation where the maxims of a 
 temporary and secular expedie7icy are permitted to supersede the 
 motives and rules lohich are draw7i from the fountain of Eternal 
 Truth, and where the ruling Providence of God and the 
 supremacy of the Gospel — if they be not in terms denied — are 
 not recognized as influencing the councils of princes, nor as 
 affecting the welfare of States. It is, we would fain believe, 
 rather to be attributed to the fastidious refinement of modern 
 society, than to a real decay of religious principle amongst 
 us, that even in our own country, so remarkably favoured and 
 protected by the Most Sigh, His Providence is less frequently 
 referred to, and His glory less ostensibly sought, in our public 
 acts and measures, than it ivas ivo7it to be. We fear that it 
 cannot be said of us, as a nation, that ive acknowledge God in 
 
91 
 
 agricultural labourers^ for instance, are degraded 
 in some districts of our land, h?/ being cast out from 
 the family^ the cause is to be found in restoring 
 them to the privilege of the family ordinance. It 
 will be found too that any effectual means of re- 
 claiming the abandoned and the outcast must 
 contain within it a method of bringing the parties 
 anew under the power of those supports which 
 Providence affords to the continuance in virtue. It 
 may be doubted, whether the attempts at present 
 made to elevate the abandoned in the crowded lanes 
 of our large towns can be successful,, as a national 
 measure^ till the very crowding of human beings as 
 a system contrary to nature^ and until the population 
 are spread out in communities in which the aids to 
 virtue may again come into force. The evils which 
 extended manufactures have brought along with 
 them^ must be remedied by the loealth which these 
 manufactures have furnished,, being taxed to bring 
 about the natural system which they have deranged. 
 In order to secure the co-operation of Providence,, 
 we must adopt the system of Providence^ and place 
 
 all our ways, or ' give unto the Lord tlie glory due unto His 
 Name.' " And in the " Prayers selected from the services of 
 the Church," given in the Manual of Family Prayers, by 
 Dr. Blomfield, the following occurs in the Prayers for Friday 
 Morning : " Increase in us more and more a lively faith and 
 love, fruitful in all Holy obedience ; a spirit of fervent zeal for 
 our Holy religion ; grace to forsake all covetous desires, perfectly 
 to know Thy Son Jesus Christ, and steadfastly to walk in the 
 path that leadeth to eternal life.'" , 
 
92 
 
 the parties under its influence. Without this^ all 
 mere secular means will be found utterly useless 
 in elevating human character to a higher level. 
 Human wisdom is in its highest exercise when it is 
 ohserving the superiority of divine wisdom^ and 
 following its method of procedure,'^ (p. 240-1.) 
 Sect. iv. (the next). State of Society when the 
 aids to Virtue and the Eestraints upon Vice are 
 withdrawn " — commences thus : — 
 
 " We have been pointing out some of the em- 
 hanhments by which the turbulent stream of human 
 life is hejpt in its course^ some of the rocky harriers^ 
 by which the waves of this ever agitated sea are 
 restrained while they lash upon them. Just as the 
 native power of the stream is seen when the em- 
 bankments are swept away, and the irresistible 
 strength of the ocean when its opposing barriers 
 are broken down, so there are times and places in 
 which the usual suppoi^ts of virtue and correctives 
 of vice are removed^ and we behold the true ten- 
 dency of inward humanity. The character of the 
 
 * This expression has forced on recollection the concluding 
 lines of Goldsmith's Deserted Village, and of his touching 
 invocation to Poetry : — 
 
 " Aid slighted truth with thy persuasive strain 
 
 Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain; 
 
 Teach him that States of native strength possest, 
 
 Though very poor may still be very blest. 
 
 That trade's proud empire hastes to sivift decay , 
 
 As ocean sweeps the labour d mole away ; 
 
 While self-dependent poiver can time defy^ 
 
 As rocks resist the billows and the sJcy.^' 
 
93 
 
 prisoner is discovered when the keepers are ahsent 
 We see the true dispositions of the children at 
 those corners at which the master's eye is not 
 upon them. . . . The difficulty which the 
 philanthropist experiences in dealing with the 
 outcasts of society, on whom the aids to vii^tue* 
 have lost their power furnishes another amongst 
 
 * What was written by Mr. Jotm Simon, the eminent 
 medical ofiBcer to the Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honour- 
 able Privy Council, at the conclusion of his Report to their 
 Lordships under the Public Health Act, directed to be taken 
 during the year 1870, seems quite in accordance with what is 
 here said by M'Cosh : — 
 
 " Haying above laid before your Lordships, as the Statute 
 requires, my summary of the work of 1870, I find only one 
 further matter which in my opinion is at once so important 
 and so urgent that, even now, I must submit it for your con- 
 sideration. 
 
 " I refer, namely, to the extremely unsatisfactory state of 
 the laws which concern the general sanitary administration of 
 the country, a subject concerning which I two years ago sub- 
 mitted the chief facts to your Lordships (Eleventh Annual 
 Report), and on which the Royal Sanitary Commission has 
 recently made its final Report. 
 
 *' I would beg leave to represent to your Lordships that tho 
 unamended state of those laws, especially as regards the con- 
 stitution of local authorities and the powers which they ought 
 to have and exercise for the prevention of disease, is not only 
 an extreme difficulty and discouragement to persons engaged 
 in sanitary administration, but also involves a large and con- 
 stantly-increasing waste of human life ; and that since the 
 resources which might be utilized for the better protection of 
 life are also with the progress of knowledge constantly in- 
 creasing, so, almost month by month, the contrast becomes 
 more and more glaring between the little which is done and 
 the very much which with amended law might be done to 
 
94 
 
 many illustrations of this trutli. It is not because 
 
 they are not so much worse than others that he 
 
 finds his work to be so difficulty but because motives 
 
 reform the sanitary circumstances of the masses of our popu- 
 lation. 
 
 " I believe that your Lordships will deem this matter to be, 
 in various points of view, deserving of the particular notice of 
 Parliament. 
 
 " In the first place, there is the largeness of the continuing 
 waste of human life. It seems certain that the deaths which 
 occur in this country are fully a third more numerous than 
 they would be if our existing knowledge of the chief causes 
 of disease were reasonably well applied throughout the 
 country ; that of deaths, which in this sense may be called 
 preventable, the average yearly number in England and 
 Wales is now about 120,000 ; and that, of the 120,000 cases 
 of preventable suffering which thus in every year attain their 
 final place in the death-register, each unit represents a larger 
 or smaller group of other cases in which preventable disease, 
 not ending in death, though often of far-reaching ill-effects on 
 life, has been suffered. And while these vast quantities of 
 needless animal suffering, if regarded merely as such, would 
 be matter for indignant human protest, it further has to be 
 remembered, as of legislative concern, that the physical 
 strength of a people is an essential and main factor of national 
 prosperity ; that disease, so far as it aff'ects the workers of the 
 population, is in direct antagonism to industry ; and that 
 disease which afiects the growing and reproductive parts of 
 a population must also in part be regarded as tending to 
 deterioration of the race. 
 
 " Then, my Lords, there is the fact that this terrible con- 
 tinuing tax on human life and welfare falls with immense 
 over-proportion upon the most helpless classes of the com- 
 munity ; upon the poor, the ignorant, the subordinate, the 
 immature ; upon classes, which in great part through want 
 of knowledge, and in great part because of their dependent 
 position, cannot effectually remonstrate for themselves against 
 the miseries thus brought upon them, and have in this cir- 
 
which operate power fully on manldnd in general,, 
 such as pn'de, vanity^ and a sense of character^ have 
 
 cumstance the strongest of all claims on a Legislature wliich 
 can justly measure, and can abate, their sufferings. 
 
 " There are also some indirect relations of the subject which 
 seem to me scarcely less important than the direct. For 
 where that grievous excess of physical suffering is bred, large 
 parts of the same soil yield, side by side with it, equal 
 evils of another kind ; and your Lordships will often have 
 seen illustrated in my reports that in some of the largest 
 regions of insanitary influence, civilization and morals suffer 
 almost equally with health. At the present time, when popu- 
 lar education (which, indeed, in itself would be some security 
 for better physical conditions of human life) has its import- 
 ance fully recognized by the Legislature, it may be opportune 
 to remember that, throughout the large area to which these 
 observations apply, education is little likely to penetrate un- 
 less with amended sanitary law, nor human life to be morally 
 raised while physically it is so degraded and squandered. 
 
 " The above various considerations, taken together, seem to 
 me to invest the subject which I am bringing under your 
 Lordships' particular notice with a degree of national impor- 
 tance to which very few subjects can pretend. Its relative 
 position among such subjects is not a point on which I would 
 presume to speak. But, considering the trust which is re- 
 posed in my office with regard to this great national interest, 
 I cannot in too strong terms express my official knowledge 
 that it most urgently needs the attention of the Legislature, 
 And I venture to hope and believe that your Lordships' full 
 cognizance of the case will lead you to accord to that conclu- 
 sion your authoritative sanction and furtherance. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, my Lords, 
 " Your Lordships' obedient servant, 
 
 "JOHN SIMON. 
 " Medical Department of the Privy Council Office, 
 " March 31, 1871." 
 
 The Times, August 2, 1871. 
 
no influence on them for good. It is now generally 
 acknowledged that in order to the reclaiming of 
 criminals whose term oi punishment is expired^ it is 
 absolutely necessary to distribute them in society, 
 and in localities in which their previous conduct Is 
 unknown^ and all that they may come once more 
 under the ordinary motives of humanity. Our 
 philanthropists have thus been brought to acknow- 
 ledge the wisdom of the divine method^ and jind 
 that their success depends on their " accommodating 
 themselves to it!'' 
 
 It may be well here to pause and remind readers 
 of the fallacy of the leading maxim of Free- 
 Traders — viz., that it is the interest of nations^ as 
 much as oi individuals^ to buy as cheap ^ and to sell 
 as dear as possible. To pay to home producers a 
 higher price than foreign producers require, is, 
 according to this theory, to sacrifice a portion of 
 the national wealth. Foreign commodities, it is 
 alleged, must be paid for with English commodities,* 
 because foreigners will not be found disposed to 
 give us the produce of their labour for nothing. 
 If, therefore, some branches of home-trade should 
 be abandoned, others, according to the advocates 
 of free-trade, must be proportionately augmented. 
 Free-trade, therefore, we are told, increases our 
 enjoyments^ and secures them at a cheaper rate. 
 
 That theory, however, overlooks some most 
 
 * But we find that now the chief ^^ commoditif — must be 
 our gold. 
 
97 
 
 important facts in the structure of society — facts 
 which render the question of cheapness a question 
 fraught with very different consequences to different 
 portions of the social body. Society is divided into 
 two great sections. The first section comprehends 
 the classes which produce as well as consume ; the 
 second, the classes which consume loitliout pro- 
 ducing. Let us hear in mind this all^important 
 distinction^ and test the truth of the Free- trade 
 maxims by it. The supporters of Free-trade, then, 
 tell us that it is for the interest of nations as well 
 as individuals to " buy cheap and to sell dear " 
 (for some time, however, according to a recent 
 paragraph in the City Article of the Times ^ Eng- 
 land has been selling cheap and buying dear in 
 foreign markets). Let us apply this maxim to 
 the productive classes^ and to the non-productive^ 
 respectively. 
 
 Let us begin with the non-productive classes. 
 As applied to these classes the Free-trade maxim 
 is undoubtedly true. The non-productive classes 
 have^ beyond question, an interest in huying as 
 cheapo and in selling as dear as possible ; in other 
 words, they have an interest in getting as large an 
 amount of vcdue as possible for their money : for, be 
 it observed, that in the case of the non-productive 
 classes, the phrases '' to buy cheap and to sell dear^ 
 mean precisely the same thing. "" To buy cheap" 
 means, in their case, to get a large portion of the 
 labour of other men in exchange for their money ; 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 while '' to sell dear " means merely, to give little 
 money for a large amount of labour, and of the 
 various products of labour. 
 
 Such is the import of the great Free- trade 
 maxim, in reference to the ?20??- productive classes. 
 In reference to the productive classes, its import 
 is very different. 
 
 The maxim about ''buying cheap and selling 
 dear" is in short, false^ when applied to the pro- 
 ductive classes. They have, indeed, a decided 
 interest in '^ selling dear.,'' for they have a decided 
 interest in getting as high a price as possible for 
 their labour. But they have no interest (except- 
 ing as shall be shown presently) in " buying 
 cheap,''' As mere consumers., no doubt, they seem 
 to have an interest in buying the produce of other 
 men's labour as cheaply as possible, but then, if 
 each member of the productive classes has an in- 
 terest in getting a high price for his oion labour, 
 he also has an interest in preventing the general 
 VALUE of lahouT from falling. Now, unless the 
 general value of labour falls, the labourer cannot 
 hope, PERMANENTLY " to buv chcap ;" whilst if, on 
 the other hand, he succeeds in buying the labour 
 of other men cheap, he cannot in the long rim^ 
 expect to sell his own labour dear. 
 
 Every member of the productive classes, in 
 short, is under the influence af a double interest — 
 his interest as a consumer., and his interest as a 
 producer. But the labourer's interest as a producer 
 
99 
 
 outweighs, decidedly, his mtercst as a consumer; 
 because, if the labourer did not produce more than 
 he is permitted to consume, he would soon find 
 himself without employment. The non-productive 
 classes on the other hand, are, it is scarcely neces- 
 sary to state, under the influence of a single 
 interest — their interest as consumers. 
 
 In 2i particular class of cases, the labourer has 
 an interest in '' huying cheap " from the non-pro- 
 ductive classes ; in other words, the labourer has a 
 decided interest in getting as much as possible of the 
 money of the unproductive classes in exchange for 
 as small a quantity as possible of his labour. 
 
 The next maxim in the Free-trade school is, in 
 short, true, only in reference to the interests of the 
 non-productive classes of society.'^ It is the in- 
 
 * It would be amusing if tlie consequences were not serious, 
 to find how little the leading journal of this country regards 
 the producers' interest, more especially as they must precede 
 mere consumers only, or non-producers. 
 
 In a leader of the Times of the 14th September, 1858, it 
 was said : — 
 
 " The loungers upon the Paris Boulevards pay their money 
 without knowing to whom it goes. If the Press would teach 
 them how much they pay for those ridiculous protections, and 
 to whom the money goes, and in what the difference would 
 consist to each individual bourgeois between protection and 
 Free-trade, Frenchmen would not be long in seeing their own 
 interest in the matter. But the impost is indirect. It takes 
 the form of a difference in the price of a garment or a piece of 
 household furniture. So they pay what they have been wont 
 to pay and feel sympathy with the manufacturers, who are 
 continually crying that, if they fleece Frenchmen, it is in the 
 interest of France." 
 
 7 * 
 
100 
 
 terest of these classes to buy as cheap and to sell 
 as dear as possible : — it is their interestj in short, 
 '^ to get as much as possible for their money '^ It 
 is, on the contrary, the interest of the jyroductive 
 classes to sell their labour as clear as possible ; and 
 never to aim at buying anything cheap, excepting 
 the money of the non-productive classes. 
 
 The interests of these two great sections of 
 society, are, in short, directly at issue. It is the 
 interest of the productive classes to sell their 
 labour dear ; it is the interest of the non-productive 
 classes to buy that labour cheap. It is the interest 
 of the non-productive classes to sell their money 
 dear : it is the interest of the productive classes to 
 buy that money cheap. Finally, and by conse- 
 quence, it is the interest of the non-productive 
 classes, to establish a Free-trade system.^ whilst, on 
 the contrary, it is the interest of all orders of pro- 
 ducers to establish a system protective of native 
 industry. 
 
 To a protective system the Free-traders object, 
 that it must involve general loss. If every man's 
 industry was protected, every man would, accord- 
 ing to the philosophers of Free-trade, pay more 
 than the natural price for every article he con- 
 It would have been well if tlie loungers and the other 
 unproductive labourers of England had continued " content 
 to pay the indirect impost ;" but their great object, and pro- 
 bably sole thought, was to make their limited means go as 
 far as it would, no matter what the ultimate danger to the 
 country or to the permanence of that income itself. 
 
101 
 
 sumecl. A protective system would, we are 
 assured, lead to a scramble like that in which the 
 monkeys of Exeter Change engaged when each 
 tried to feed out of his neighbour's pan, rather 
 than out of his own. Every man, say these 
 reasoners, would, under the influence of a pro- 
 tective system, have his hand in his neighbour's 
 pocket; and universal loss would follow this 
 scheme of universal robbery. 
 
 Leaving metaphors, however, it is no difficult 
 matter to refute, if not rebuke, these fallacies of 
 the Free-traders. 
 
 A system of universal protection would be 
 attended with loss only to the 7zo/z-productive 
 classes of the community — to the idle consumers^ 
 who should no longer be able to buy labour and 
 its products so cheaply as Free-trade (free imports) 
 now enables them to do. A protective system 
 would leave the productive classes, in relation to 
 each other, exactly as it might find them ; whilst it 
 would place the productive classes in a position 
 very different from that which they now occupy in 
 relation to the classes of non-productive consumers- 
 If^ for instance, a protective system should enable 
 one class of consumers to demand — say one-fourth 
 more for the produce of their labour — that very 
 system would enable all other classes of producers 
 to raise their prices in the same proportion. 
 
 Under a protective system, be it observed, the 
 baker, the butcher, the brewer, and all the other 
 
102 
 
 producers in the community, would still exchange 
 with each other the same quantities, as before, of 
 their respective commodities, altliougli at a higher 
 price. That higher price would, however, so far 
 as all the ^producers of the community were con- 
 cerned, be merely nominal. When, however, we 
 should approach the circle of non-produdwe con- 
 sumers^ the rise in the prices of labour and of all 
 the creation of labour, would be found to be real 
 Every non-productive consumer — every idler in 
 society — would be called on to pay a higher price 
 
 to give a larger quantity of money — for the 
 
 commodities which he might consume; and as 
 idlers and ?^o?^-producers carry nothing but money 
 to market, they would not be able, by any conceiv- 
 able process, to transfer the increase of price to 
 the shoulders of any other class in the community. 
 Can we not hence plainly discover why labourers 
 and the productive classes, in all countries, are 
 averse to Free- trade principles, and v^\\j ^protective 
 tariffs are resolutely maintained ? And does not this 
 tend to prove what Carey, the great statistician of 
 America, has said, in his admirable work. The 
 Harmony of Interests : Agricultural^ Manufacturing^ 
 and Commercial^ that '' the effect of the English 
 legislation has been that of bringing about an un- 
 natural division of her popidation:' " The loom and 
 the anvil," he says, '' in that country, instead of 
 being second to the plough^ have become the first^ 
 with o-reat deterioration in the condition both of 
 
103 
 
 labourers generally and capitalists. For a long 
 period the few engaged in manufactures made vast 
 fortunes ; while the owners of land were enabled 
 to obtain high rents, because the consumers of 
 food increased more rapidly than the producers of 
 food. Land generally consolidated itself into 
 fewer hands,* and the little occupant of a few acres 
 gradually gave way to the great farmer^ who cul- 
 tivated hundreds of acres by aid of hired labour — 
 
 * Mr. Bright and the Landowners.— Mr. Alfred Grill j, 
 Assistant- Secretary to the Financial Eeform Association, 
 writes to us from 50a, Melville Cliambers, Lord Street, Liver- 
 pool ; — " As frequent reference is being made to Mr. Bright's 
 remarks at Boclidale respecting tlie list of landowners pos- 
 sessing over 10,000 acres eacb, published in this month's 
 'Financial Ueformer, will you allow me to correct an error into 
 which the right honourable gentleman fell through a misprint? 
 Instead of holding, as stated, 23,000,000 acres, the 955 persons 
 possess 29,743,402 acres, which is 5,703,415 more than one- 
 third of the entire reported extent of the United Kingdom, 
 exclusive of the metropolis." — Times, 15th November, 1877. 
 
 t Of this the Times seems to approve. Mr. Maguire, in 
 moving on the 14th April, 1858, the second reading of the 
 Tenants' Compensation (Ireland) Bill, observed "that it should 
 be regarded not as an Irish, but an Imperial measure, inas- 
 much as the question involved not only the happiness and 
 well-being of the people of Ireland, but the interests of Eng- 
 land. He contended that the foundation of the social fabric 
 in that country, owing to the condition of its agricultural 
 population, was still insecure, the great social evil being a 
 deficiency of motive in that population for industry." And 
 a leader in the Times of the 15th April, 1858, on the debate 
 thus concludes :— " We can see in this annual field-day little 
 else than such a statement of ' sufierings ' as a protesting sect 
 or a ruined cause makes once a year on an occasion. These 
 are the sufferings of the Irish tenantry. Do we laugh at 
 
104 
 
 the few became richer^ and the many went to the 
 poor-house. The value of lahour in food was also 
 dimmished, because both were, as they still are, 
 shut out from employment or land^ the only employ- 
 
 tliem in England ? We do not, though we might do so ; for, 
 as it happens, we have gone through all this before ; we have 
 had our sufferings ; and, on full consideration, we have given 
 up the class whom Mr. Maguire pleads for, and the idle habit 
 which he wishes to reward with the spoils of industry. The 
 class of small farmers — that is, of those who went on dividing 
 and subdividing farms continually, and descending to a lower 
 and still lower rank of life and scale of cultivation — has long 
 been extinct here. Under our heavily taxed and rated system 
 the petty holdings which Mr. Maguire would fix and per- 
 petuate into virtual freeholds have long since been absorbed 
 into the large farms of the substantial English yeoman, the 
 man with 500 acres and a capital of £5000. We have sub- 
 mitted to the great change which has peopled our cities at the 
 expense of the villages, and swollen this huge metropolis with 
 the near descendants of small farmers and labourers. What 
 is more natural, what is less blameable, than that we should 
 expect from others the same submission to necessity, to public 
 good, and to law, that we have rendered ourselves ? Grant 
 that the change has its ill consequences, that our army is not 
 so well recruited from towns as from villages, and that the 
 standard seems to fall ; grant that w^e stand too thick on the 
 ground under the smoke, too thin under the fresh air and 
 bright sun. We bear this in England, and we expect it also 
 from Ireland. Our own peasantry have settled into labourers. 
 They hold nothing except a quarter, or more generally a tenth, 
 of an acre for a few greens and potatoes. We forbid them 
 cows and even pigs. We are jealous of their poultry. They 
 must give us their labour on our own terms. Yet the class 
 that is reduced to this bondage, as it must seem in Irish eyes, 
 is descended from copyholders, from small landowners, and 
 from the same class as that which now calls for fixity of tenure 
 in Irclajid. They are not the less comfortable for the loss of 
 
105 
 
 merit in which both can he used to an indefinite 
 extent, with constant increase in the return for 
 labour r 
 
 In the very valuable and interesting inaugural 
 address of Mr. G. J. Shaw-Lefevre, M.P., as 
 President of the Statistical Society^ on the 20th 
 November last, the following passage occurs, when 
 speaking of the theory of Free-trade : — 
 
 " It is not too much to say that every year expe- 
 rience tends to confirm the theory and to disprove 
 and confound all the arguments of those who 
 opposed it/' 
 
 The writer of these pages being a consumer only^ 
 and enjoying a fixed income arising from the 
 public funds^ had every reason (so far as his own 
 mere self-indulgence w^as concerned) to think 
 favourably of a policy that tended to cheapen 
 labour and articles of consumption ; but upon 
 reflection, and dismissing selfishness^ he became 
 
 position and independence ; but, as they have lost it, and as 
 England accepts this feature of her social condition, she is not 
 likely to advise or maintain another course for Ireland." 
 How a class could " feel not less comfortable from the loss 
 . of position and independence," the writer of these pages can 
 understand as little as he can how the writer of the Times 
 article could know that they did not. Whether the results, 
 however, of " giving up the class of small farmers " not a 
 peasant proprietary, has proved beneficial to the country 
 admits of serious doubt. Mr. Shaw-Lefevre's late agricultural 
 statistics tend to increase such a doubt. The real and vital 
 question is, under which system the greatest amount of food 
 for man and beast is produced ? 
 
106 
 
 convinced that the effect of the Free-hnports 
 system {i.e.^ unrestricted and unreciprocated free- 
 competition) upon the national interests must, 
 in a short time, prove most injurious to the 'per- 
 manent well-being of the country, and therefore it 
 was that he was opposed to the policy, being 
 sufficiently spiced with selfishness, or a lave of self- 
 'preservation^ to feel convinced that his own interest, 
 and the interest of each, must be lest secured by 
 the general welfare of the country. 
 
 Let us, then, reflect how far results, as stated by 
 Mr. Shaw-Lefevre himself in the latter part of his 
 address, have tended " to disprove and confound 
 all the arguments of those who opposed the ' Free- 
 Imports Policy of 1846.' " 
 
 First however, let it be observed, that before 
 accepting '' the great increase of trade and pros- 
 perity^ GENERALLY, as a verification^ (by the results 
 of experience^) of the Free-trade policy," it would 
 be necessary to show the profits resulting from 
 such increase of trade, either foreign or home, 
 however either may have increased (the latter 
 indeed has rather decreased) and of deterioration, 
 of quality in our manufactures, still more of 
 degeneracy of our people has taken place — any 
 "prosperity" resulting from the policy must be 
 sadly alloyed, and it must be feared, short-lived, 
 
 Mr. Shaw-Lefevre concluded his address thus : — 
 
 " Eecent statistics tend to show that a smaller 
 amount of agricultural produce is being raised from 
 
107 
 
 the land of the United Kingdom than a few years 
 ago. The extent of corn-crops has been reduced 
 since 1870 by no less than 897,000 acres or 8 per 
 cent, and the number of cattle has been reduced 
 since 1874 by 557,000 about 5 per cent, and the 
 number of sheep by 2,606,000, or 8 per cent. 
 What is the cause of this reduction and how far is 
 it likely to be carried further ^ These and many 
 other questions of no ordinary imjgortance^ as bear- 
 ing upon tlie progress of England and Ireland^ 
 and tlie condition of her cultivators^ arise upon the 
 figures quoted, and require the careful consideration 
 of economists and statesmen.'^ 
 
 * The Registrar's Returns for Ireland, in May, 1877 : — 
 "The birth-rate has been, since 1870, falling steadily to the 
 end of 1875 ; while the death-rate has been for five years 
 above the average, and the marriage-rate is falling to a lower 
 point. The Irish are generally in these matters compared 
 favourably for themselves with the more provident and 
 prudent Scotchman ; but now both the birth-rate and the 
 marriage- rate of Scotland are very much higher than those of 
 Ireland, while the death-rate, though as a matter of fact 
 higher, is gradually diminishing, and was lower last year than 
 it has ever been before during the period accurate observations 
 have been made throughout the kingdom." 
 
 The low marriage-rate is an especially ominous symptom 
 of the condition of the Irish people at the present time, for 
 the Registrar- General says of them, " They will marry when 
 they can, and be celibates only when they must." Poverty 
 alone can prevent the Irishman from marrying; and facts, if 
 they indicate a slight increase in the population, do not also 
 indicate an increase of prosperity, which alone will render a 
 fresh rise in numbers a blessing instead of a curse to the 
 country. 
 
108 
 
 They do indeed^ Mr. Shaw-Lefevre. But such 
 results were anticipated bj those opposed to the 
 abrogation of the Corn-laws and the policy of 
 1846. And it surely is too much to say that every 
 year's experience tends to confirm the theory of 
 unrestricted competition, and to "J^sprove and con- 
 found all the arguments of those who opposed it." 
 
 The following extract from a very able article 
 entitled "Free- Trade and Protection in 1844," by 
 the late Sir Archibald Alison, F.E.S. and His- 
 torian, will best answer Mr. Shaw-Lefevre' s 
 question — " What is the cause of this reduction in 
 tillage and cattle, and how far is it liksly to be 
 carried further ?" 
 
 "If," says Sir Archibald Alison, "capital, 
 machinery, and knowledge, conferred the same 
 immediate and decisive advantages on agriculture 
 that they do on manufacturing industry, old and 
 densely peopled states would possess an undue 
 superiority over the ruder and more thinly inha- 
 bited ones ; the multiplication of the human race 
 would become excessive in the seats in which it had 
 first taken root, and the desert parts of the world 
 would never, but under the pressure of absolute 
 necessity, be explored. The first command of God 
 to man, ' Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the 
 earth and subdue it' would be frustrated. The 
 apprehensions of the Malthusians as to an excessive 
 increase of mankind with its attendant dangers^ 
 
109 
 
 would be realized in particular places, while nme- 
 teen-twentietJis of the earth lay neglected in a state o^ 
 nature. The desert would be left alone in its 
 glory. The world would be covered with huge 
 and densely -peopled excrescences — with Babylons, 
 Komes, and Londons — in which wealth, power, 
 and corruptioii^ were securely and permanently in- 
 trenched, and from which the human race would 
 never diverge but under the pressure of absolute 
 impossibility to wrench a subsistence from their 
 over-peopled vicinities. 
 
 " These dangers, threatening alike to the moral 
 character and material welfare of nations, are Q,ovci- 
 ^X^i^Xj ]jr evented hy the simple law^ the operation 
 of which we every day see around us, viz., that 
 wealth, civilization, and knowledge, add rapidly 
 and indefinitely to the powers of manufacturing and 
 commercial^ but comparatively slowly to those of 
 agricultural industry. This simple circumstance 
 effectually provides for the dispersion of the human 
 rojce and the check of an undue groioth in particular 
 communities. The old state can always undersell 
 the young ones in manufactures, hut it is everlastingly 
 UNDERSOLD hy tlicm in agriculture. Thus the 
 equalization of indastry is introduced, the disper- 
 sion of the human race secured., and a limit put to 
 the perilous midtiplication of its numhers in parti- 
 cular communities. The old state can never rival 
 the young ones around it in raising suhsistence^ the 
 young ones can never rival the old one in manu- 
 
110 
 
 factured articles.* Either a Freo-frade takes place 
 between them, or restrictions are established. If 
 
 THE COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE between them is UU' 
 
 restricted agriculture is destroyed, and toitJi it 
 national strength is undermined in the old state^ and 
 manufactures are nijpped in the hud in the young 
 ones. If restrictions prevail and a loar oj tariffs is 
 introduced.^ the agriculture of the old state., and loith 
 it its national strength., is preserved., but its export of 
 manufactures to the adjoining states is checked., and 
 they establish gi^owing fabrics for themselves."!" 
 Whichever effect takes place, the object of nature 
 in the equalization of industry., the limitation of 
 aged communities and the dispersion of mankind is 
 gained ; in the first by the ruin of the old empire 
 from the decay of its agricidtural resources ; in the 
 second., by the check given to its manufacturing 
 progress, and the transference of mercantile in- 
 dustry to its younger rivals. These considera- 
 tions," continues Sir Archibald '' point out an 
 important limitation to which on principle., the 
 doctrines of Free-trade must be sidjjected. Perfectly 
 just in reference to a single community^ or a com- 
 pact empire^ of reasonable extent., they wholly fail 
 when applied to separate nations in different degrees 
 
 * They have, however. America, at least, and others ; and 
 therefore a Free-trade does not take place between them, and 
 restrictions are established. 
 
 I Germany, France, and America have long been rivals. 
 
 "l Sach as England, with the consolidation of her Colonies, 
 would constitute. 
 
Ill 
 
 of civilization^ or even to different provinces of the 
 same empire when it is of such an extent as to 
 bring such different nations, in various degrees of 
 progress, under the common dominion^ 
 
 How far experience tends to confirm what Sir 
 Archibald Alison has said, the writer of these 
 pages will leave each reader to decide for himself, 
 and should he or others want further confirmation, 
 it will be found abundantly in that most valuable 
 work, Sophisms of Free-Trade, by John Barnard 
 Byles, Serjeant-at-Law.* Seeleys, Fleet Street 
 and Hanover Street, London. 8th edition. 1851. 
 
 The writer of these pages would most anxiously 
 urge upon statesmen and others to procure^ if 
 possible, a copy of that edition — or any later^ if 
 there has been one — and ponder over the Preface 
 to it and Chapter IX., headed '^ What is the good 
 of our Colonies ? So say the Free- Traders." 
 
 The chapter thus begins : — 
 
 " ' Give me ships. Colonies, and commerce/ 
 said the greatest administrative genius of modern 
 times. 
 
 " Well does it behove the rulers of the British 
 Empire to see to it that they commit no mistake 
 in this matter. A mistake here is irreparable. 
 The world is now occupied. No more colonies 
 are to be had. Repentance and. a change of public 
 
 * Tke learned serjeant was elevated to the bench in 1858, 
 and retired in 1873 ; and long may he live to enjoy the otium 
 cum dignitate which he so well earned and deserves. 
 
112 
 
 bpinon^ however- soon it may arrwe^ may yet come 
 too lateP 
 
 If, then, the " dangers, threatening alike to the 
 moral and material icelfare of the nations^' have not 
 in this country been prevented by the simple law 
 referred to by Sir Archibald Alison,* should not 
 the nation reflect whether it is not owing to a dis- 
 regard of that simple law ? Whether it has not 
 been that we have persistently pursued an unnatural 
 system J in spite of the very dangers^ moral and mate- 
 rial, of which we have had warning ^ And may 
 not the great social evils, long existing, and which 
 are the inevitable result of overcrowding^ be per- 
 mitted by Providence in order to warn, and, if pos- 
 sible, convince us that human wisdom is in its highest 
 exercise when it is observing and achnoioledgiiig 
 the superiority of Divine wisdom by pursuing the 
 course it dictates ? The way it marshals us that 
 we should go is plainly pointed out in that book of 
 Divine wisdom which England was loooit to accept 
 as the highest authority. 
 
 We are there told that — 
 
 The profit of the eartli is for all ; 
 
 The king himself is served by the field. 
 
 Ecclesiastes v. 9. 
 
 which is thus expounded by an eminent old com- 
 mentator : — '^ Without the field he cannot have 
 supplies for his own house, and unless agriculture 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
113 
 
 flourish^ the necessary expenses of the State cannot 
 well he defrayed. Thus God joins both the head 
 and the feet together; for while the peasant is 
 protected by the king, as executor of the laws, 
 the king himself is dependent on the peasant, as 
 the wealth of tlie nation is the fruit of the 
 labourer's toil." 
 
 It has been said " Man's necessity is God's 
 opportunity ;" and if we will only make the best 
 use of our land, hoth at home and in the Colonies, 
 may we not have a more reasonable hope that we 
 shall be, in time, relieved from many of the 
 dangers and difficulties that have long been press- 
 ing upon us, and from which, unaided hy Provi- 
 dence.^ we are utterly unable to escape ? Let us, 
 in humility and sincerity, acknowledge this, and 
 not presumptuously think that godless labour and 
 self-trusting adventure will extricate us from the 
 perplexing position into which we are drifting by 
 not duly cultivating God's first gift to man. '' The 
 earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." 
 
 Omnium rerum ex quibus aliquid acquiritur, 
 Nihil est agricultura melius, nihil uberius, 
 Nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius. 
 
 Cicero cle Ojfic. I. c. 42. 
 
 Now the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart., 
 who was '' Founder of the Board of Agriculture,* 
 
 * He was also author of the Statistical Account of Scotland, 
 and Historian of the British Hevenue. He was father of Mr, 
 Alexander Sinclair, the eminent Scotch antiquarian, who died 
 in August last, cet. 82. 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 and so in truth of the Roval Agricultural Society," 
 has, in his invaluable work, The Code of Agricul- 
 ture (printed by Archibald Constable and Co., 
 Edinburgh, in 1817), given a chapter (V.) '' On 
 the means of improving the Agricultural State of 
 a Country," and it would be well if that chapter 
 were at the present time printed in a cheap sepa- 
 rate form. The work itself has long been out of 
 print and rarely to be met with, and a few of the 
 '' Introductory Observations on the Importance of 
 Agriculture" are therefore here given.* 
 
 " The prosperity of a nation," says Sir John, 
 " possessing an extent of territory, sufficient for 
 maintaining its inhabitants, chiefly depends (1) 
 
 * The Times, however, of the 17th November, 1876, in a 
 leader on the land question in Ireland, said : — " The soundest 
 views of national economy are those which teach ns to regard 
 land as differing from a mere chattel in no circumstance save 
 that it is immoveable ; and this is a circumstance w'hich has 
 no bearing on the present controversy. But whether the 
 contract be for spinning cotton, for carriage by sea or by land, 
 or for cultivating the soil, whenever we find one class, so to 
 speak, in subjection to another, the State steps in to limit the 
 power of the dominant order." 
 
 Our patriotic and loyal ancestors did not so think or teach. 
 In Froude's Historij, Vol. I. p. 10, it is said :— " Turning to 
 the tenure of land —for if we would understand the condition 
 of the people, it is to this point that our first attention must 
 be directed— we find that through the many complicated 
 varieties of it there was one broad principle which bore 
 equally upon every class— that the land of England must 
 provide for the defence of England. The land was to be so 
 administered that the accustomed number of families sup- 
 ported by it should not be diminished, and that the State 
 
115 
 
 upon tlic quantity of surplus produce derived from 
 the soil after defraying the expenses of cultivation ; 
 (2) upon the surplus produce obtaining such a jyrice 
 at market as loill encourage reproduction; and (3) 
 upon the cultivator having such a command of 
 capital as may enable him to carry on his business 
 loith energy,^ 
 
 should suffer no injury from the carelessness or selfishness of 
 its owners (see especially 2 Hen. VII. cap. 16 and 19). Land 
 never was private property in that personal sense" (a mere 
 "chattel," as the Times says), " of property in which we speak 
 of a thing as our own w4th which we may do as we please ; 
 very few things in England were then property in any such 
 sense as that, for duty to the State was at all times and in all 
 things supposed to over-ride private interest or inclination." 
 
 Have we then become more selfish ? Is " the spirit of 
 selfishness" really, as Mr. A. Froude says, "the canker of 
 English society ?" 
 
 The Agricultural Statistics of Ireland for 1876, as given by 
 Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, M.P., President of the Statistical Society, 
 in his late address, are, as he said, by no means satisfactory. 
 
 * In a recently published well-written pamphlet, Euglish 
 Zand Tenure, by Mercator (Bemrose and Sons, Paternoster 
 Row, 1877), in speaking of "insufficient capital," the author 
 gays : — " On all hands it is admitted, that the want of capital 
 embarked in farming operations is much below the profitable 
 limit. . . . Capitalists will readily invest their money 
 in the wildest imaginable schemes, and even the slowly 
 hoarded gains of the industrial toiler are swept away at one 
 fell swoop to fatten the rapacious promoters of some bubble 
 undertaking; whilst agriculture, one of the most important of 
 all our industrial occupations, is left in struggling penury. 
 If we include the whole of the English counties, I 
 estimate the tenant's capital at £6 per acre ; yet double the 
 amount could be profitably employed." (And here let us 
 remember, that this means that the present cultivated lands 
 
 8 * 
 
116 
 
 " 1. The surplus produce arises from that ines- 
 thnable quality possessed by the soil which en- 
 ables it, in proportion as it is skilfully managed^ 
 to furnish maintenance for a greater number of 
 persons than are required for its cultivation. 
 Thence proceed the profits of the farmer; the 
 rents of the landlord ; the subsistence of the mamt- 
 factiirer and of the merchant; and the greater pro- 
 portion of the income of the State. That surplus 
 marhctaUe produce., therefore., is justly considered to 
 he the principal of cdl political poioer., and per- 
 sonal enjcnjinent. When that surplus produce does 
 not exist (unless in circumstances of a very parti- 
 cular nature) there can he no flourishing toicns ; no 
 military or naval force ; none of the superior arts ; 
 none of the finer manufactures ; no learning; none 
 of the conveniences or luxuries of foreign coun- 
 tries; and none of that cultivated and polished 
 society at home, which not only dignifies the indivi- 
 dual., but also extends its heneficial influence 
 
 might be made to yield double tlie produce they now do, and 
 that consequently the national loss sustained by the cultivators 
 not having such a command of capital as would enable them 
 " to carry on their business with energy," is as great as the 
 produce at present yielded by the soil.) " This shows," the 
 author goes on to sa}", " a great want of confidence either in 
 the industr}' of the tenants or the probity of the landlords, or 
 ■why should such sums be unemployed, or only earning the 
 insignificant interest of 2 per cent, per annum. Without 
 better security for the capital employed by the tenant, it is 
 idle to look for any great improvement in the general agricul- 
 ture of England." See Appendix. 
 
117 
 
 throughout the lohole mass of the communiUj , (Sec 
 Malthus' Enquiry into Rent^ p. 10.) What ex- 
 ertions oiiglit not, tlien, to be made, and what 
 encouragement ought not to he given to ^preserve or to 
 INCREASE so essential a resource^ the foundation of 
 our national 'prosperity 9 
 
 " Nor is this subject to be dwelt upon solely 
 in ^financial point of view. Let it^ at the same 
 time, be considered that it is the land which fur- 
 nishes the raw materials of the greater part of our 
 manufactures; that the proprietors and occupiers 
 of land supply the best markets to our manufacturers 
 and merchants ; and that, through them^ the greater 
 part of all other professions gain their livelihood. 
 Numbers of the fundholders are little .aware that 
 upon the prosperity of agriculture the regular 
 
 PAYMENT OF THEIR DIVIDENDS MUST PRINCIPALLY 
 
 DEPEND. For it is to be observed that as the pro- 
 perty tax was imposed on all the classes of the 
 community, in proportion to their wealth or 
 income^ hence the taxes, payable in every other 
 w^ay, by each class and every individual in each 
 class, who spent his income, must be paid in nearly 
 the same proportion as the tax on property, 
 
 " It cannot at the same time be doubted, that 
 the agricultural classes are much indebted to those 
 employed in trade and manufactures, for con- 
 suming the produce of the soil, and by the skill 
 and industry of those who occupy it, which con- 
 stitute the REAL hasis of our national prosperity^ 
 
118 
 
 and exported manufactures are notlcimj else but so 
 much heef mutton^ tolieat^ barley^ &c. converted into 
 another and more convenient shape. Where 
 manufactures, however, are maintamed hy the pro- 
 ductions of foreign industry^ and in particular tohen 
 the articles they manufacture are produced from 
 foreign raio materials^ as fine wool^ instead of being 
 an advantage, they have the effect of depreciating 
 the value of domestic agricultural productions^ and 
 hringing foreign articles into competition with them^ 
 hy MEANS of British capital. The paltry profits 
 of the manufacture, are nothing compared to the 
 mischiefs ichich are thus occasioned to the real 
 
 sources of our prosperity 
 
 ''It is to be hoped," says Sir John Sinclair, 
 '' that these statements* will satisfy every im- 
 partial individual that the strength and resources 
 of this country principally arise from the ])roduc- 
 tions of the soil — that the land is the basis of 
 OUR NATIONAL wealth| — and that on the amount^ 
 and the value of its productions^ our commerce and 
 manufactures, and \he payment of the public creditors^ 
 must in a great measure depend. The revenues of 
 the Church ; — and hy far the largest proportion of 
 the payments to the poor ; — and various other public 
 
 * Others than what are here set forth are given by Sir 
 John Sinclair in his Code of Agriculture. 
 
 t " It is," says Sir John Sinclair, "hardly to be credited, 
 how little the superior importance of agriculture was known 
 to the statesmen and ministers of this country, before a Board 
 of An^riculture was established." 
 
119 
 
 charges^ are likewise payable from the same source. 
 Hence nothing can he more {mpolitic than to neglect 
 the adoption of any measure hy lohich the interest of 
 agriculture* can he promoted; or more hazardous^ 
 than to take any step by which its p)rosperity can 
 he impaired^ or those toho live hy it impoverished^ 
 much less brought to rum. 
 
 '' The means therefore^ by which the agricidtural 
 prosperity of a country can hest he promoted, merit 
 
 OUR PECULIAR ATTENTION. 
 
 " It has long been considered, as an incontro- 
 vertible proposition, and approaching to the nature 
 of an axiom, that whoever could make two ears of 
 corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot 
 where only one grew before, would deserve better 
 of mankind, and do more essential service to 
 his country^ than the whole race of politicians 
 together. 
 
 " There never was a greater instance of sophistry 
 than this doctrine of Swift, who seems not to have 
 been at all aware of the immense benefits conferred 
 upon agriculture by a judicious system of civil 
 POLICY. In fact^ THE PROSPERITY of agriculture 
 depends upon the politician " (so emphasized by 
 Sir John Sinclair himself). " The better and tlie 
 
 * The Sahirday Review of 26th March, 1861, on the budget 
 remarked : " The receipt of £800,000 from the Is duty on 
 corn is convenient to the Treasury, but it represents a loss of 
 many millions incurred by English farmers." 
 
 Mr. A. Froude has said, in the first vol. of his History y 
 " The spirit of selfishness is the canker of English society." 
 
<'t; 
 
 120 
 
 more equitable the civil policy of the countrij^ tit 
 more perfect tcill its agriculture become,^ Those 
 
 * And Maucliester and other manufacturers have long since 
 begun to doubt whether the Policy of 1846 has proved to be 
 wise, as the following leaders from the Times show. 
 
 Though Mr. Cobden has gone from among us, Mr. Bright 
 still survives to witness a phenomenon which, twenty years 
 ago, would have been rejected from discussion as beyond the 
 very range of possibilities. In the heart of Lancashire, and 
 in the home of the cotton industry, it is now roundly affirmed 
 by spinners and manufacturers that Free Trade is a mistake, 
 that the Anti-Corn Law League promulgated error instead of 
 truth, and that a vast deal more is to be said for the principle 
 of Protection than political economists have been willing to 
 allow. This, as our readers will see elsewhere, is the tale told 
 in Manchester itself, and in that very Chamber of Commerce 
 which represents and expresses the doctrines of the famous 
 " Manchester School." The utmost Mr. Bazley could say for 
 the case is that the heresy had not penetrated within the walls 
 of the actual Chamber ; it is somewhat doubtful, as will be 
 presently seen, whether even this limited pretension to ortho- 
 doxy can be entirely sustained ; but beyond this inner circle 
 both unbelief and apostasy were owned to be rife. Mr. Bazley 
 added, indeed, that he had heard these false doctrines " while 
 he was among his constituents," as if the strange conversion 
 of Lancashire to Conservatism were in some measure due to 
 the collajDse of the Free Trade theory ; but it was allowed on 
 all hands that Protection had been taken into favour again, 
 and in fact the debates of the meeting were chieily occupied 
 with this surprising subject. We remarked some time since 
 that the surviving members of the League might advan- 
 tageously recommence their lectures for the benefit of Trade 
 Unions, but it now appears that manufacturers as well as 
 operatives have lapsed from the faith of the last genei'ation. 
 
 It would have been well if Mr. Bazley or some one of his 
 colleagues had explained a little more clearly, for the benefit 
 of the outside world, the origin and tendency of the commercial 
 heresy now infecting the cradle of Free Trade ; but it seems 
 
121 
 
 politicians or statesmen therefore, who by removing 
 every obstacle^ and furmshing every proper en- 
 
 as if the source of scepticism were actually nothing less than 
 Mr. Cobden's own darling work — the French Treaty. In a 
 Report circulated with the authority of the Manchester 
 Chamber there occurs this ominous passage: — "A comparison 
 between imports and exports, after deducting the total of raw 
 and manufactured articles on both sides, shows that in the 
 year 1867 the amount of French imports taken as manufac- 
 tured commodities was, in round numbers, 30 millions, against 
 13i millions of English exports of like description— a difference 
 of 16i millions in favour of the national industry of France." 
 No wonder the meeting came to words over such a statement, 
 implying, as Mr. Cheetham observed, that England had lost 
 16-^ millions by the operation of the French Treaty. It cannot 
 be denied, indeed, that the language employed, whatever 
 might have been the intentions of those who used it, was 
 " fitted to convey that impression to many minds." Unfor- 
 tunately, the speakers at the meeting assumed that all the 
 world knew as much of the facts as they did themselves, and 
 omitted to state distinctly what were the arguments of this 
 new Manchester School. We can only gather from words 
 dropped in reply that France is supposed to have the advantage 
 in the interchange of products negotiated by Mr. Cobden. 
 She sends us her wines in ever-increasing quantities, for the 
 obvious reason that we can make no wines like them or pro- 
 duce anything so cheap or so good. But w4ien it comes to 
 her taking our cotton stuffs we have no such decided supe- 
 riority to rest upon. The French have learnt to spin cotton 
 pretty nearly as well as we can, and they are spinning and 
 likely to spin more and more as time goes on. Mr. Piatt was 
 at the pains of arguing that England ought fairly to compete 
 with France in respect of labour and wages, and beat her 
 hollow in respect of machinery ; that the instances were few 
 and exceptional in which our fabrics could be undersold by 
 those of the Continental manufactories, and that nothing was 
 to be feared on these groands for future Lancashire trade. 
 Mr. Cheetham declared, with greater boldness, that "he went 
 
122 
 
 couRAGEMENT TO agriculture^ promote its advance- 
 ment^ have a liiglier claim to the gratitude of mankind^ 
 
 further, and said it mattered not a straw on whicli side the 
 balance might be, for they had the right to purchase wherever 
 they chose, and they would not purchase if they did not want 
 the article purchased." All very sound doctrine ; but to what 
 a pass must things have come when such apologies for Free 
 Trade and the French Treaty are required in the Chamber of 
 Commerce at Manchester ! — Times, 4th February, 18G9. 
 
 On Monday last, as we yesterday explained, the Liverpool 
 Chamber of Commerce was occupied with a discussion on the 
 present depression of trade, and on the following evening the 
 Manchester Reform Union devoted a sitting to the considera- 
 tion of the same subject. From these debates we may 
 succeed at last in gathering some definite ideas of the distress 
 reported, the causes assigned for it, and the measures pro- 
 posed for its removal. Of course, when trade is spoken of in 
 Lancashire, it is the Cotton Trade which is meant, and the 
 Cotton Trade, we are told, is depressed because cotton is dear, 
 because cotton-spinning has been carried to excess, and be- 
 cause foreign nations are competing with us in the cotton- 
 markets of the world. More plainly and specifically, the 
 doctrine of the Lancashire malcontents amounts to this : — 
 That we should be doing better if France would take our 
 cotton as freely and fairly as we take her wines and silks, and 
 that Mr. Cobden's Commercial Treaty has proved a failure in 
 so far as it allows France all the benefits of Free Trade 
 without imposing on her the duty of Reciprocity. Frenchmen 
 are glad enough to send us their silk fabrics and their cheap 
 claret, but, instead of buying our cheap hardware and our 
 cheap calico in return, they persist in manufacturing the 
 articles for themselves. 
 
 This is a concise statement of the case advanced for the 
 revival of Protection, and it has been met, of course, by a 
 stout re-assertion of the unimpeachable principles of Free 
 Trade. But Professor Leone Levi, who addressed the Man- 
 chester Union at considerable length on this subject, opened 
 an entirely new and by no means flattering view of the ques- 
 
123 
 
 than those who have merely performed a secondary 
 or practical part ^ loliicli part they never couldhave 
 
 tion. According to liis statistics it is very doubtful if we 
 could, under present circumstances, undersell our neighbours 
 in cotton goods, even if tlieir protective tariff were abolished 
 to-morrow. The French, as we yesterday observed, have 
 made extraordinary progress in manufacturing skill, and if 
 they have not overtaken us already, they are on the very 
 point of doing so. Professor Levi explained to his hearers 
 that in the year 1852 an English cotton mill had for every 
 1000 spindles an advantage of 1418 francs over a French 
 mill. In other words, an English manufacturer saved £56. 
 in the produce of 1 000 spindles by his superiority in all those 
 arts and attainments which render production cheap. Fifteen 
 years afterwards three-fourths of that superiority had been 
 lost. The advantage of the English spinner had been 
 reduced from 1418 francs to 343, and the diminution was still 
 going on. " Yet another effort," observed the Professor, 
 " and France will come up to this country." But who will 
 say that effort has not been already made ? The figures we 
 have given relate to the year 1867, and we are now in 1869. 
 There is nothing to show that France is not actually abreast 
 of us, except, indeed, it be her own misgivings as expressed 
 in her protective duties. 
 
 Professor Levi, however, proceeded presently to another 
 point of the question. The special merit of our work has 
 hitherto been its cheapness, and yet France has learnt to spin 
 cotton almost as cheaply as we do. But " cheapness is not 
 the only element. Goodness of material and elegance of 
 design are quite as necessary in these days of show and 
 luxury." Exactly so ; and what, asked the Professor, " will 
 be the consequence if France can, besides cheapness, best suit 
 the taste and wants of an advancing civilization ?" That is 
 a question which our manufacturers should carefully consider, 
 but Professor Levi has already, in our opinion, furnished the 
 reply. If France succeeds in appropriating our best apti- 
 tudes, while we make no progress in imitating hers, she must 
 beat us in the commercial race, and it obviously becomes our 
 
124 
 
 performed at all^ hut under the protection of wise 
 
 laios^ regularly administered^ and executed with 
 
 impartiality and vigour, 
 
 interest and duty to do as slie has done, and strengthen our- 
 selves at our weakest points. In the combination of capital, 
 enterprise, and industry which makes production cheap we 
 have hitherto been first ; in the various tastes and gifts which 
 conduce to elegance of work we have been usually surpassed, 
 and it is here, therefore, that we, in our turn, may gain 
 ground upon our rivals. " What we want," said the Pro- 
 fessor, " is greater alacrity and inventiveness, greater power 
 of adaptation, and greater range of industries." If it is 
 asked how these improvements are to be attained, the answer 
 is ready — "by extended education and enlightenment among 
 the whole community." The artisan in France is better 
 educated than the artisan in England. He has, in some 
 respects, greater aptitudes to begin with, but these aptitudes 
 are encouraged and developed by judicious training. This is 
 the chief secret of French progress, though it may be, as 
 Professor Levi thinks, that cheap transport and other econo- 
 mical advantages have helped our neighbours in the race. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, in explanation of our present 
 difficulties, that the dearness of the raw material tells heavily 
 against us. It may be that we still retain a certain superiority 
 in the matter of cheapness, but this advantage counts for less 
 when the ultimate price of the manufactured article is so 
 greatly enhanced by the first cost of the material. When 
 cotton is a shilling a pound, instead of sixpence, the cost of 
 workmanship in a yard of calico becomes less perceptible, and 
 thus our special excellence is proportionately eclipsed. 
 Nevertheless, in all these arguments we are met by a strange 
 phenomenon. The fact, incredible as it may appear, is, that 
 we actually do import as much raw cotton as ever, and we 
 actually do export as many yards of manufactured stuffs. 
 We pay, it is true, many millions of pounds more for the 
 material than we did formerly, but still we buy it, and we 
 work it up. Thus the question arises, on what terms is this 
 trade done, and it seems probable that it has been done to 
 
'' This leads to the most important discussion, 
 perhaps, in the loliole range of political inquiry^ and 
 
 some extent on losing terms — that is, more cotton has been 
 spun and exported than foreign customers were prepared to 
 buy. Is there, then, any limit to trade or production at this 
 point ? Can Lancashire capitalists go on adding mill to mill 
 and factory to factory without exceeding the demands of the 
 world ? Professor Levi, though recognizing the fact of over- 
 production at a recent period, is of opinion that, practically 
 speaking, there are no bounds to the world's possible demands. 
 *' Millions upon millions of people," he says, "have not yet 
 tasted the benefits of mechanical inventions in articles of 
 clothing," so that there is ample room for both France and 
 England together in the industrial field. Only, these new 
 markets must be sought out and opened, and as cheapness in 
 the goods produced is the very essence of the problem, we 
 must needs endeavour, in the first instance, to get raw cotton 
 at a lower price. It cannot be too often repeated that the 
 groundwork of the whole trade is popular custom. The 
 wearers of calico, whether Europeans, Asiatics, or Americans, 
 are the people who find the money for cotton-growers and 
 cotton-spinners together, and these wearers will never be as 
 numerous as they should be unless we can make calico cheaper 
 and better than any other wear. At present, as the Professor 
 remarked, the high price of cotton has brought wool and linen 
 into the market again. 
 
 One thing must needs be clear from these debates, and that 
 is that want of Reciprocity has very little to do with the 
 depression of trade.* The industry of Lancashire could 
 hardly be much benefited by the admission of English 
 cottons into France duty free. If Professor Levi's statistics 
 are accurate, the margin of cheapness still existing in our 
 favour must be very small, whereas in all the elements of 
 recommendation except cheapness we are actually behindhand. 
 
 * The Times, therefore, attaches no value to Reciprocity, 
 and would continue our Free-Imports system at all hazards. 
 See Appendix. 
 
12G 
 
 respecting which the most ill-founded prejudices 
 are iinfortunatehj entertained^ viz., ' What public 
 encouragements to agriculture ought a icise 
 Government to bestow ? ' 
 
 " Many able men, reasoning solely from tlie 
 ABUSES to which the system of encouragement is 
 liable^ have thence been induced to condemn 
 this policy, and to recommend that of giving to 
 individuals the entire freedom of exercising their 
 industry in their own loay^ without any legislative 
 interference whatever. They dwell much on the 
 reply once made by some of the princi])al mer- 
 chants of France to the celebrated Colbert who 
 having asked, ' What Government loould do for 
 themV was answered, ' Laissez nous faire ' (Let 
 us alone). On the other hand they totally repro- 
 
 Instead of crying out for duties on French goods, it would be 
 far better to take a lesson from French manufacturers. We 
 have been accustomed, it must be owned, to make light of our 
 rivals, and to persuade ourselves that nothing could touch us 
 in commercial enterprise. The sooner we undeceive ourselves 
 the better. Such a monopoly as we once enjoyed we enjoy 
 no longer, and shall never, in all probability, enjoy again. 
 There was a time when we had no competitors ; we must now 
 look for keen competition. There is not the slightest reason 
 why the national trade should not be as good as ever, but it 
 must be maintained and extended on different terms. We 
 have taught other nations to rival us, and we must now main- 
 tain our position by the same arts which have proved so 
 serviceable to our rivals. We must give up the idea of inhe- 
 rent and unapproachable superiority, and condescend at last to 
 avail ourselves of every lesson, and turn every example to 
 account. — Times, October 29, 18(39. 
 
127 
 
 hate the mercantile system, as they call it (or a 
 series of laws which have been enacted in this 
 country for promoting the prosperity of commerce) 
 as in the highest degree impolitic ; though under 
 that VERY system the commerce of Great Britain has 
 risen to a height altogether unexampled in history 
 (1817). But as our legislature have wisely deemed 
 it expedient, to protect both our manufactures and 
 commerce^ which, under such a system have so pre- 
 eminently flourished^ no good reason can be assigned 
 why, in a like manner, and on the same principles, 
 agriculture ought not to he encouraged in Great 
 Britain^ where it produces such a great revenue ; — 
 where with a thousand millions of national debt 
 (1817) we still have about twenty millions of acres^ 
 lying in a state comparatively waste and unpro- 
 ductive; — where the population is rapidly in- 
 creasing ; — and lohere it has heen found necessary to 
 import no inconsiderable portion of the means of our 
 subsistence. 
 
 ^' It is certainly better to let agriculture alone, 
 than to establish injudicious regulations respecting 
 it. But if a Government will make such inquiries 
 as may enable it to judge of what can be done 
 with safety and advantage; and will promote 
 agricultural industry.^ not only by removing every 
 obstacle to improvement^ but by granting positive 
 ENCOURAGEMENT ; agriculture will prosper loith a 
 rapidity, and will be carried on to an extent which 
 is hardly to be credited ; and in a much superior 
 
128 
 
 degree, than by the ' let alone system ^ under the 
 torpor of which ages might loass aicay^ without 
 accomplishing what might be effected in the course 
 of a few years^ under a judicious system of encou- 
 raging regulations. 
 
 ^' The principal encouragements which a wise 
 and liberal Government will naturally be anxious 
 to bestow, for the purpose of advancing the Agri- 
 cultural prosperity of a country, may be classed 
 under the following heads. (1.) Eemoving all 
 obstacles to improvement ; (2.) Relieving agricul- 
 ture from any hur dens peculiarly affecting it; (3.) 
 Promoting the collection and diffusion of useful 
 information ;t (4.) Giving a preference to domestic 
 
 * Well would it have been had our Legislature acted upon 
 the very able Report made by the Commissioners appointed in 
 1838 (of whom the late Lord Derby, so ably represented by 
 his son, our present most cautious and judicious Foreign 
 Secretary), to consider a general system for railways in 
 Ireland, with a view to the improvement of agriculture and 
 bringing into cultivation large tracts of land lying waste — 
 millions of acres. The Report with great truth said : — "It is 
 a waste of the public available resources to suffer so large a 
 portion of the empire to lie fallow, or to leave it to struggle, 
 by slow degrees, and with defective means, towards its im- 
 provement, when the judicious aid of the State might quickly 
 make it a source of common strength and advantage." 
 
 f An ancient usage, which dates from the times of Henry 
 lY. (whose great minister the Duke de Sully, used to say 
 tillage and pasturage were the foster mothers {les deux 
 mammelles of the State) — that of giving Agricultural Lectures 
 on Sunday after Mass— has lately been revived in some com- 
 munes in France under government patronage. — Illustrated 
 London News, March 24, 18G0. 
 
129 
 
 productions in the ^omc-market ; (5.) Encouraging 
 the exportation of our surplus produce that might 
 
 Of all the pursuits of man, agriculture — the work of pro- 
 duction — is the one that most tends to the expansion of in- 
 tellect. There is none in which so many of the laws of nature 
 must be consulted and understood as in the cultivation of the 
 earth. Every change of the season, every change even of the 
 wdnds, every fall of rain, must affect some of the manifold 
 operations of the farmer. In the improvement of our various 
 domestic animals, some of the most abstruse principles of 
 physiology must be consulted. Is it to be supposed then that 
 men thus called upon to study, or to observe the laws of 
 nature, and labour in conjunction with its powers, require less 
 of the light of the highest science than the merchant or the 
 manufacturer ? It is the science which requires the greatest 
 knowledge, and the one that pays the best for it. For these 
 reasons it has often occurred to the writer of these pages, that 
 it is the want of being instructed, in some degree at least, in 
 this science that renders the ploughman's occupation so dull 
 and insipid to him, and that prevents him from bringing up 
 his sons to agricultural labour, as it is well known he does 
 not, if he can possibly push them into any other occupation. 
 Would it not be well to excite and interest these boys by in- 
 troducing generally into the National Schools, in agricultural 
 districts at least, the Catechism of Practical Agriculture, by 
 Henry Stephens, F.R.S.E., 1857, W. Blackwood and Sons; 
 and also the CatecJiisni of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology^ 
 by James F. W. Johnston, M.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.S.E., also by 
 Blackwood and Sons, 1873 ? 
 
 The parents of the boj's discovering, when the boys are at 
 home, that they are learning something useful to them in 
 their calling, would appreciate the education given all the 
 more, and the more willingly send them to school. 
 
 This would be more in accord with what Mr. A, Froude 
 tells us, in the most valuable first volume of his History of 
 Henry VIII., was formerly the course of instruction. He 
 says : — 
 
 " Every child, so far as possible, was to be trained in some 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 remain on hand, after the demands at home are 
 supplied; (6.) Extending^ ly every prudent means^ 
 
 business or calling, idleness being the mother of all sin, and 
 the essential duty of every man being to provide honestly for 
 himself and his family. The Education theory, for such it 
 was, was simple but effective; it was based on the single 
 principle that next to the knowledge of a man's duty to God, 
 and as a means towards doing that duty, the first essential of 
 a worthy life was the ability to maintain it in independence. 
 Varieties of inapplicable knowledge might be good, but they 
 were not essential. Such knowledge might be left to the 
 leisure of after years, or it might be dispensed with without 
 vital injury. Ability to labour could not be dispensed with, 
 and this therefore the State felt it its own duty to see pro- 
 vided ; so reaching, I cannot but think, the heart of the whole 
 matter. The children of those who could afford the small 
 entrance fees were apprenticed to trades, the rest were ap- 
 prenticed to agriculture ; and if children were found growing 
 up idle, and their fathers or their friends failed to prove that 
 they were able to secure them an ultimate maintenance, the 
 mayors in towns, and the magistrates in the country, had 
 authority to take possession of such children, and apprentice 
 them as they saw fit, that when they grew up ' they might 
 not be driven by want or incapacity to dishonest courses.' " — 
 Frondes History, Vol. I., p. 44. 
 
 The late Lord Monteagle speaking in Ireland in relation to 
 Popular Education, in 1857, said : — 
 
 " We knew that there was great difficulty in securing 
 children's attendance after they had arrived at an age in 
 which they were at all capable of employment, or could be of 
 any use to their parents at home. The withdrawal of the 
 children from the school was therefore owing to causes 
 operating in England as well as in this country ; for wherever 
 there was a demand for labour they would find that children 
 who could do any work would be taken from the schools in 
 those districts of the country which were agricultural ; and 
 where schools existed in which was added agricultural to 
 intellectual teaching, they found the pupils were allowed to 
 
131 
 
 the cultivation of loaste lands^ in order that the 
 productive territory may he constantly on the 
 increase; (7.) Granting public aid to substantial 
 improvements^ such as roads, bridges, canals, &c., 
 on which the agricultural and ^e^era^ prosperity of 
 a country so essentially depend; and (8.) Counte- 
 nancing the establishment of corporations to 
 furnish the means of carrying on such improve- 
 ments as are beyond the power of individual 
 wealth or enterprise."* 
 
 The great importance of the matter contained in 
 the above extract, has prompted the present writer 
 to give it at length. And the question is, how far, 
 since Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agriculture in 
 1817 was published. Government has afforded 
 vsuch ^'' principal encouragements'' to the Agricul- 
 ture of England ? AVithout pretending to answer 
 
 remain longer, until they grew up and became vigorous 
 plants. This was an agricultural country, and it was neces- 
 sary that agriculture should be taught in the schools, in 
 order to convince the masses tbat the instruction which their 
 children were receiving applied to their occupation in after 
 life, and would fit them for it. He considered, therefore, that 
 ' the Agricultural Schools,' which the Commissioners of 
 National Education had established in many districts, were a 
 benefit to the country. In his (Lord Monteagle's) own 
 neighbourhood they had a most excellent Agricultural School, 
 around which there was a cycle of other schools and he could 
 state that the boys, after working in the farm for part of the 
 day, returned to their studies for the remainder of the day 
 with increased activity and with their physical and mental 
 powers greatly invigorated."— Tidies, September 3, 1857. 
 * See Appendix. 
 
132 
 
 tins question, it is sufficient to know that tlie land 
 does not produce (as it might be made to do, more 
 adequately than it does) in proportion to the 
 amount of population, and that last year there was 
 a considerable decline in cereal crops^ in cattle, and 
 in sheep. 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of Satur- 
 day, the 24th September, 1859, '' Cause of Dis- 
 content in the Tyrol." " An Englishman some- 
 time resident in Germany, writing to one of 
 the Parisian Journals, says, ' Among the lower 
 classes the discontent is great. The land is not 
 made to produce in proportion to the amount of 
 population^ and the peasant is taxed dispropor- 
 tionately to his means, ^ 
 
 " The result of this misrule is fearful poverty, 
 without a prospect of alleviation, and the far-famed 
 loyalty of the Tyrolese peasant has been put to 
 rather a hard test. It was with the greatest diffi- 
 culty that the sharp- shooters were got together to 
 defend the frontiers during the war^ nor did they 
 come at the first call ; they came when it was 
 better to volunteer than to wait to be called forci- 
 bly^ and the murmurs are long and loud for the 
 promised Tyrolese representation." And in the 
 same Times is a report of an Agricultural Meeting 
 at Ledbury, Herefordshire, at which Mr. H. Mild- 
 may, M.P. (in 1859), said, "The landed interest 
 was more concerned in the proper defence of the 
 country than any other^ because while capital 
 
133 
 
 engaged in trade could fly to any other country, tlie 
 land was irremoveahle /" 
 
 Now in a clever article in the Times of the 21st 
 of November, 1877, on the increase of population 
 that has taken place in recent years in France, it 
 is said — 
 
 '' Generation after generation, all the services^ all 
 the trades^ look to our villages as the nurseries of 
 strength^ endurance^ and those other natural quali- 
 ties^ which fit man for the most necessary occupations. 
 Upon the whole, the internal polity of our villages 
 is free. Preserving a mean between the centrifugal 
 and centrij^etal forces^ it neither drives away from^ 
 nor draws too much to, the native soil. It does 
 not hold out the vain hope that by simply cling- 
 ing to their Parish the humblest men may become 
 Statesmen at home, nor yet does it compel a choice 
 between banishment and starvation. Without 
 Colonies^ without even a readiness to assimilate 
 and unite with other nations, France is always 
 expelling her progeny from the soil, with no other 
 result than to accumulate them in the Toions, 
 
 " Here, then, is ^fact which France ca?z7^o^ 5«/e7^ 
 overlook^ whatever inference she may please to 
 draw from it. She recognizes with much compla- 
 cency that her population is increasing. Well and 
 good. It would be hard indeed if it did not 
 increase. But it is equally true that the increase 
 is not in the ranks of agricultural husbandry^ in the 
 
13G 
 
 their surplus labour; so af least they feel.* If, 
 however, labour is ircalfl/, they arc so far the 
 jMorcry (Let the last truth sink deep into the 
 memory of all who read it). . . . ^' AVe are 
 threatened," concludes the article in the Timcs^ 
 '^ icith dcjpojiuJation and accumidation beyond reason 
 and measure^'^ and as the institutions of this country 
 have been generally framed upon the sujyjwsition of 
 an unchang-eable state of things it is evident they 
 WILL hare to undekgo some adattation," IV> not 
 all these evils and nianv others — the existence of 
 disease amongst our flocks and herds and the de- 
 generacy of race amongst our people, tend to 
 remind us and warn us that — '^ A fruitful land 
 maketh lie barren for the wickedness of thcni 
 that dwell therein.'' And has not God said — 
 '^ I will be exalted among the heatlien and 1 
 will be exalted in the earth?" And ^' The nation 
 that will 7wt scrrc 'Thee/' we are told, '' shall 
 perish." Isa. Ix. 12. 
 
 The philosophy which merely concerns itself 
 with the investigation o( the laws and properties 
 of matter and simply deciphers, so to speak, the 
 characters inscribed on the book of nature, has 
 
 ■* On the coiitrarv, tlioy feci greatly the lack of agricultural 
 labourers, as the speeches maile at the agricultural gatherings 
 annually announce. One ot' the most tliriving tenant-farmers 
 in Devonshire, about iwo years ago, told the Avriter of these 
 pajrcs that "soon thev >vould not be able to find any men to 
 do the rough -work of the country." That the strongest of 
 the young men liad emigrated, and tliat only tlie least strong 
 and au'cd were left io do the >vork iu a'jTiciihiirc. 
 
137 
 
 taken precedence of that h'gJier pldlosoiihy whlcb^ 
 not content with deciphermg these characters, 
 seeks also to interpret their meaning^ and by a care- 
 ful study both of mental and physical phenomena 
 and of their natural adaptations^ to rise to a hnow- 
 ledge of the attributes and designs of the Creator. 
 Hence the tendency so prevalent in our day to 
 construct and adopt such theories of the universe 
 as either exclude a Creator altogether^ by the 
 assumed sufficiency of natural laws to account for 
 the appearances of design, or, recognizing the 
 existence of an intelligent First Cause ^ assign to 
 Him the least possible share of direct agency in the 
 production of creatioiUs loonders^ and nothing 
 beyond the most general superintendence of the 
 events in creations history. When so much of the 
 boasted knowledge of the age is of this descrip- 
 tion — when the tendency is so general and so 
 strong, to look at the operations and results of 
 natural law simply as beautiful or striking 2^he7iO' 
 mena in themselves^ or with an eye merely to their 
 subserviency to man's temporal interests^ while the 
 indications which they give of the character of 
 their divine Author and of His moral relations to 
 man as his Lawgiver and Judge, are scarcely, if at 
 all, being heeded— it is well that the inquirer 
 should be arrested in this too superficial and 
 cursory reading of nature by the significant ques- 
 tion — Understandest thou ichat thou readest ^ That 
 '^ knowledge is power " is a common saying. The 
 
136 
 
 their surplus labour; so at least they feel.* If, 
 however, labour is ivealth, they are 50 ,/ar the 
 poorer,'' (Let the last truth sink deep into the 
 memory of all who read it). ... " AVe are 
 threatened," concludes the article in the Times^ 
 " with depopulation and acciimidation beyond reason 
 and measure^' and as the institutions of this country 
 have been generally framed upon the supposition of 
 an unchangeable state of things it is evident they 
 WILL have to undergo some adaptation.'' Do not 
 all these evils and many others — the existence of 
 disease amongst our flocks and herds and the de- 
 generacy of race amongst our peo23le, tend to 
 remind us and warn us that — '^ A fruitful land 
 maketh He barren for the wickedness of them 
 that dwell therein." And has not God said — 
 '^ I will be exalted among the heathen and I 
 will be exalted in the earth?" And " The nation 
 that will not serve Thee'' we are told, " shall 
 perish." Isa. Ix. 12. 
 
 The philosophy which merely concerns itself 
 with the investigation of the laws and properties 
 of matter and simply deciphers, so to speak, the 
 characters inscribed on the book of nature, has 
 
 * On the contrary, they feel greatly the lack of agricultural 
 labourers, as the speeches made at the agricultural gatherings 
 annually announce. One of the most thriving tenant-farmers 
 in Devonshire, about two years ago, told the writer of these 
 pages that " soon they would not be able to find any men to 
 do the rough work of the country." That the strongest of 
 the young men had emigrated, and that only the least strong 
 and aged were left to do the work iu agricultare. 
 
137 
 
 taken precedence of that higlier ^liilosoj)hj whlcb^ 
 not content with deciphermg these characters, 
 seeks also to interpret their meaning^ and by a care- 
 ful study both of mental and physical phenomena 
 and of their natural adaptations^ to rise to a know- 
 ledge of the attributes and designs of the Creator. 
 Hence the tendency so prevalent in our day to 
 construct and adopt such theories of the universe 
 as either exclude a. Creator altogether^ by the 
 assumed sufficiency of natural laws to account for 
 the appearances of design, or, recognizing the 
 existence of an intelligent First Cause^ assign to 
 Him the least possible share of direct agency in the 
 production of creation's loonders^ and nothing 
 beyond the most general superintendence of the 
 events in creations history. When so much of the 
 boasted knowledge of the age is of this descrip- 
 tion — when the tendency is so general and so 
 strong, to look at the operations and results of 
 natural law simply as beautiful or stinking pheno- 
 mena in themselves^ or with an eye merely to their 
 subserviency to man's temporal interests^ while the 
 indications which they give of the character of 
 their divine Author and of His moral relations to 
 man as his Lawgiver and Judge^ are scarcely, if at 
 all, being heeded— \i is well that the inquirer 
 should be arrested in this too superficial and 
 cursory reading of nature by the sigTiificant ques- 
 tion — Under standest thou ivhat thou readest 9 That 
 " knowledge is power '' is a common saying. The 
 
138 
 
 objects, liowever, loithin the range of maris fore- 
 siglit are placed beyond Ms poicer ; while tlie 
 objects loitliin Ms power lie heyondMs foresicjht In 
 the one case, man's knowledge increases without an 
 increase of his power ; and in the other his power 
 is rendered zVzeffectual by his want of hnowledge. 
 The confident expectations of the poicer accruing 
 from knowledge could be realized only by the fore- 
 sight ever imparting a power of action; and by the 
 power of action having 'provided for it an available 
 foresight. But there are limits to the one and to the 
 other ; and where the one is enlarged^ the other is 
 confirmed; and where power is given in the one, it 
 is counteracted by a corresponding weakness in 
 the other. No doubt there is great room^ as 
 knowledge increases, at once for foresight and 
 action ; but still there are necessary limits to both ; 
 and ALL THAT MAN MAY FEEL Ms dependence alike 
 in the one, as in the other, on the government of 
 God, Human sagacity and activity will no doubt 
 both increase as the world grows older ; but both 
 the one and the other will find checks raised to 
 humble them in their very extension,^ No man 
 
 * Therefore, liowever we may advance in tlie science of 
 aerriculture and in inventions for meclianical aid to the 
 farmer, it will never become the less necessary for the latter 
 to exclaim, as the " Poet of the Seasons" has in his " Spring" 
 so rightly suggested he should do, after the grain has been 
 "thrown into the faithful bosom of the ground," and the 
 harrow " has followed harsh and shut the scene" — 
 
 " Be gracious, heaven ! for now laborious man 
 Has done his part." 
 
139 
 
 feels Ills impotence more than he who knows all 
 the com'ses of the stars, and yet feels that he 
 cannot influence them in the least degree^ except it 
 be the person who feels himself surrounded by 
 agents which he can, to some extent, control, but 
 wliich in a far higher degree control him, and dis- 
 appoint by their unexpected movements^ Ids best laid 
 schemes. The farther human knowledge penetrates^ 
 it discovers, with a painful sense of weakness, the 
 more objects utterly beyond its control, and 
 moving on in their own independent sphere. The 
 greater human activity becomes, it complicates the 
 moi^e the relations of human society^ and the rela- 
 tions of man to the most capricious of the agents 
 of nature ; and the greater the power he exerts, he 
 feels himself the more powerless in the grasp of a 
 higher poioer. Increased knowledge should make 
 him bow in deeper reverence before infinite know- 
 ledge ; and his own augmented action cause him 
 to acknowledge in a deeper feeling of helplessness 
 the IRRESISTIBLE POWER of the action of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 This little episode must not run to greater 
 length, but it may help to convince any reader 
 that human wisdom is in its highest exercise when 
 it is observing the superiority of Divine Wisdom^ 
 and. so far as it is able, following its dictates. 
 
 And now let us see how these dictates can best 
 be followed in relation to our Waste Lands, in 
 '' Extending " as Sir John Sinclair urges^ '' by 
 
140 
 
 every prudent means the cultivation of waste 
 lands in order i\\?Li ijroductive territonj may he con- 
 stanthj on the increased 
 
 We all know how our present able and excel- 
 lent Home Secretary has of late been worried as 
 to the convict labour in our prisons seriously in- 
 terfering with /ree-labour — in different branches 
 of trade — mat-makers, basket-makers and others. 
 Now, it is very certain that the waste lands of 
 England, or the greater part of them, will never 
 be brought into cultivation at the expense of 
 employing free-labour ; consequently no injustice 
 could he done to /ree-labourers by employing con- 
 victs to bring these waste-lands into such a state 
 of cultivation as that they would ultimately pay for 
 fi^ee labour, and by so much increase the area for 
 the employment of free labour and consequently 
 increase of produce. But there are many other 
 reasons for so employing convicts. As regards their 
 health and reformation, and particularly with a 
 view to qualify them for such labour as they 
 would be likely to obtain either in England or in 
 our colonies^ upon gaining their freedom, it is most 
 desirable that they should be employed out of 
 doors and in the cultivation of the soil.* 
 
 * The Colonization Circular issued a short time since sajs — 
 " How we shall provide for our surplus population?" is 
 a question by no means easy to answer. For it is not merely a 
 matter of ships and passage -money ; there is no colony ready 
 to receive human beings of any sort or size, they are all very 
 cautious in bidding for immigrants; each of them is as 
 
141 
 
 Our indefatigable Home Secretary on intro- 
 ducing liis ''Prisons Bill" last Session, 1st, for 
 promoting economy and efficiency in the manage- 
 ment of Prisons; and 2nd, at the same time, for 
 effecting the relief of local hurdens^^ said, " Both 
 of these matters had been brought before his 
 notice not only as' a member of Parliament, but as 
 a magistrate of some standing. They were spe- 
 cially brought before his notice in 1874, by a depu- 
 tation which waited on him at the Home Office, 
 by the Social Science Association. That deputa- 
 tion pointed out that although the Act of 1865, 
 which had done so much to improve not only the 
 discipline of our prisons, but their entire manage- 
 ment, had worked well — and in its main features 
 the ministry did not propose to interfere with it, 
 subject to certain exceptions — still there was a 
 
 anxious to get a good article as we are to part with a bad 
 one ; they will not take off our hands the waste material, the 
 frayed edges of humanity, the sweeping of the shop that so 
 disorder and encumber us. What they want, and all that they 
 will have is capital and its adjuncts, thews and sinews. Poor 
 gentlemen, poor ladies, clerks, shopmen, persons of no par- 
 ticular trade or calling, and unaccustomed to manual 
 labour, they one and all shut their doors against ; they want 
 none of these impedimenta, these camp-followers, that 
 hamper the effective strength of a country." 
 
 Surely then it is time that we so legislate as to endeavour 
 to divert capital to the rendering of our land more productive 
 in many parts, and also doing our utmost to increase the area 
 for production, not only of the fruits of the earth, but of a 
 breed of men, that will add strength to the mother country, 
 and make any surplus of such acceptable to the Colonies. 
 
140 
 
 great want o{ uniformity of discipline in the prisons 
 tliroughout tlie country, a great want of efficiency 
 in many of those prisons, and a great amount of 
 unnecessary expense, owing to the excessive number 
 of our prisons. Further, that there was a great 
 mistake made in having regard too much to penal 
 labour as opposed to industrial labour ; and per- 
 haps the result of that may be traced, and may be 
 seen very visibly^ not only fnancially, but also 
 morally as far as our prisons are concerned." 
 
 Now in the employment of convicts on waste 
 lands, not only in England, but in Ireland and 
 other parts of Great Britain (and there are vast 
 natural resources of the country which cannot 
 be turned to account except by State interference 
 and aid) the health, physical and moral, of 
 the convicts would be improved and their 
 reformation promoted at a far less cost to the 
 country. 
 
 The following may be taken as a summary of 
 the reasons for recommending the cultivation of 
 land for the employment of prisoners in preference 
 to any other occupation. 
 
 1. Cultivating land is the most healthful of all 
 occupations for prisoners. 
 
 2. It is the occupation most easily learnt, and 
 practised by able-bodied men, either unskilled, or 
 skilled labourers. 
 
 3. It is an employment easily capable in all its 
 branches of being made the subject of task- work. 
 
143 
 
 so as to enable the superintendents of labour to 
 test and record the amount of each man's daily 
 performance. 
 
 4. It is best adapted to the circumstances of a 
 mixed body of unskilled labourers of all ages, 
 because its varieties, from the hard labour of deep 
 digging to the light employment of weeding, 
 furnish means of appropriating suitable occupa- 
 tion to each individual according to his age, 
 strength, capabilities, and previous habits and 
 pursuits. 
 
 5. It is a pursuit which will enable the disci- 
 pline officers to maintain order, enforce silence, 
 and prevent intercommunication amongst the 
 prisoners better than any other, because they may 
 pursue their various employments at such distances 
 from each other as with a moderate amount of 
 supervision, will enable the officers to detect 
 breaches of the prison laws. 
 
 6. It is an unfailing 'pursuit^ and does not, like 
 employment on public icorJcs^ end with their cample^ 
 tion. It is independent of all external influences, 
 it requires no extra expenses of chargeable labour 
 or materials, both of which are important elements 
 of cost in all puhlic icorhs to which auxiliary prison 
 labour can be applied. 
 
 7. The system of cultivating land for the main- 
 tenance of the entire prison population^ officers and 
 prisoners (thus o^ombixmig prodiiction and consump- 
 tion in the same establishment) is one of unchange- 
 
144 
 
 ahle economy^ and cannot he affected by a variation 
 of prices or other external circumstances.* The 
 money payments by the contractor for rent (if 
 any were required) and labour may be made to 
 adjust themselves to his contract and allowances 
 for the prisoners' diet. His averages of produc- 
 tion and consumption being nearly equal^ he will 
 (except as to his surplus) be unaffected by market 
 prices, and any loss by friction in bringing and 
 selling will be always saved. 
 
 8. Unlike most other productive prison occupa- 
 tions extensively carried out, the cultivation of 
 land by the manual labour of prisoners will not 
 inflict injustice upon other classes of the community, 
 even if adopted to the extreme limit public exigencies 
 may require. The owners and occupiers of land 
 who are the principal contributors to the County- 
 rate^ though theoretically affected by the system^ 
 would be practically benefited by the consequent 
 reduction in the rates ; besides which the quantity 
 
 * " Convict Prison Farming. — Oar Plymouth correspon- 
 dent states that the annual sale of stock from the Dartmoor 
 prisons farm having just taken place, it has now been ascer- 
 tained that, deducting the cost of convict labour, the estab- 
 lishment has gained nearly £1000 as the result of last 
 year's agricultural operations. For some years the convict 
 farm was unremunerative, but now 1000 acres on Dart- 
 moor have been reclaimed, and profits are made. Black- 
 polled heifers from Scotland have been introduced, and 
 more extensive operations are contemplated. The convicts 
 employed are men whose sentences are nearly expired, and 
 Avho, therefore, have less inducement to escape." — Fall Mall 
 Gazette, 6 Sept. 1877. 
 
145 
 
 of agricultural produce raised by prison labour, 
 however important an item in prison charges, 
 would be too small to exercise an appreciable 
 influence over prices, spread as is the supply of 
 prisons, over the entire kingdom, whilst the con- 
 sumption by prisoners does not amount to one 
 day's average importation of foreign food. 
 
 9. The cultivation of land is an occupation for 
 prisoners^ most available for i\\Q\v future tuelfare as 
 free-lahourers ^Nh^tl^QY at home or in the colonies; 
 and for its effective pursuit no cumbrous or expen- 
 sive tools or machinery are required ; its natural 
 and invigorating exercise huilds up constitutions in 
 health and strength^ and it creates and confirms 
 habits and aptitudes for a description of labour 
 which is i\\Q foundation of loealth, and is in constant 
 demand in every quarter of the globe. 
 
 To these reasons for employing our criminals 
 in cultivating the soil may be added another not 
 less important — as concerning their reformation, 
 Mr. Henry Mayhew in his most valuable publi- 
 cation published some years ago," says — 
 
 " We are well aware how difficult it is to give 
 any pecuniary value to mere physical exertion^ 
 especially in towns^ where field or garden-work, 
 on account of the great value and scarcity of 
 land cannot be adopted on any large scale ; never- 
 theless, if it come to a choice, we boldly declare 
 we prefer idleness itself to making industry idle 
 (because useless)^ and therefore hateful in .^yer^ 
 
 10 
 
 mw 
 
146 
 
 prisoner's eyes. Besides, what necessity is there 
 for Correctional Prisons being situate in Towns^ 
 where they are as much out of place as Churchyards, 
 and where prisoners must be put to grind the wind, 
 simply because they cannot he put to till the land? 
 
 " The late Governor of Millbank Prison (and 
 he is a gentleman whose Prison experience 
 extends over nearly a quarter of a century) speak- 
 ing of Prison labour, told us that it is a great 
 thing to make a prisoner feel that he is employed 
 on some useful loork. JN'othing so disgusts a man^ 
 or makes him so querulous as to let him know that 
 he is labouring, and yet doing nothing — as when 
 at the Tread-ioheel. 
 
 " I am of opinion," he said, "that to employ 
 men on work which they know and see is useful., 
 has the best possible effect upon their characters, 
 and much increases their chance of reformation.^ 
 
 * " The eiglitli report of the directors of convict prisons 
 comes opportunely to reassure the public mind and abate the 
 alarm caused by the revival of agrarian crime in Tippe- 
 rary. The number of convicts in Irish prisons in 1853 was 
 more than 3000. In January, 1861, it was reduced to 
 1492, and at the beginning of this year it was only 1314. 
 The report states that at the present time Parliament is asked 
 to vote £60,000. per annum less than was required six years 
 ago, though the cost per head is now more than it was then, 
 because there is the same staff of officers over a smaller 
 number. Even now the cost is only £24. IO5 per head, while 
 in England it is £35. In the five years preceding 1853 
 convicts were transported beyond the seas from Ireland at 
 the rate of 1000 a-year. Since that time no person has been 
 transported. In the meantime 6121 convicts have been 
 
147 
 
 Every other hind of work irritates and hardens 
 them. After twenty thousand prisoners have 
 passed through one's hands, one must have had 
 some little experience," p. 44, (1856). 
 
 Several experienced Governors of Prisons have 
 said that — ^' The criminal under penal servitude 
 should be made to work so as to pay up or atone 
 for the injury he has done to the communit}^, and 
 have expressed their belief that if that principle 
 were carried out, and if the prisoners were permitted 
 gradually to partake of an increased portion of 
 their fruits of this industry^ it would he efficacious 
 
 liberated in this countiy, and since the establishment of 
 intermediate prisons, six years ago, only 10 per cent, of the 
 liberated have returned to prison, the great majority having 
 been steadily pursuing courses of honest industry. This 
 gratifying fact is ascribed to three causes — the convicts are 
 trained in small numbers, their labour and training are con- 
 ducted on plans more natural and better calculated to establish 
 good habits, while the appliances for the detection and police 
 supervision of persons who have been once convicted render 
 the pursuit of crime so hazardous that few venture to resume 
 it if they can manage to live otherwise, and the public confi- 
 dence is so far secured by the reformatory system that 
 employers assist in having the reclaimed convicts absorbed in 
 the labouring population." — Times' Irish Correspondent, May 
 12, 1862. 
 
 In the Cornhill Magazine for April 1861 there is a most 
 excellent article showing the advantages resulting from 
 " The Irish Convict System." 
 
 * This does take place in the treatment of convicts in Ireland. 
 
 And the report of a Convict Establishment for 100 men in 
 Ireland, published in the Irish Quarterly (1st) in 1858, gives a 
 credit balance of nearly £500 per annum. In America many 
 of the prisons are nearly self-supporting, and in some the 
 
 10 '^ 
 
148 
 
 to tlieir rejormation^ and they micjlit safely he 'per- 
 mitted to return to the husij licmnts of honest men,'^ 
 
 And if this could be brought about, surely 
 ^^ finis coronat opiis'^ may it not be said ! more 
 especially is such a result to be desired^ when we 
 remember that in many instances the pressure of 
 outward circumstances rather than any inward 
 evil propensity leads to a violation of the law. 
 
 It does really seem then that no industrial 
 occupation more beneficial for the convict or 
 advantageous to the country can be found for 
 convicts than on the Waste Lands in the United 
 Kino;dom. An immense tract of the central and 
 western area of Ireland, comprising at least a 
 million and a half acres exists at present in the 
 condition of waste. 
 
 '^ As regards the Land," (says Mr. E. H. 
 Patterson in his able and valuable work, The 
 State^ the Poor and the Country^ Blackwood 
 and Sons, Edinburgh, 1870^) '' The action of the 
 
 labour is let out at so much a day. Cannot we make more 
 of our ordinary prisoners ? 
 
 The present writer would strongly recommend all who 
 would wish to satisfy themselves as to the beneficial results 
 of the employment of convicts, upon themselves as well as 
 financially, to procure a copy of a small work, but of great 
 utility, published by " Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1862," 
 " Ohservations on the Treatment of Convicts in Ireland, tvith 
 some BemarJcs on the same in England, hij Four Visiting Justices 
 of the West Hiding Prison at Wakefield.*' 
 
 They pronounce greatly in favour of the Irish system, from 
 results as shown. 
 
149 
 
 State must be of a more direct kind. There are 
 vast natural resources of the country wliicli cannot 
 h^ turned to account save hy the direct action of the 
 State, The works requisite for this purpose are 
 too great to be undertaken by private enterprise. 
 They are either so costly, or else the return upon 
 the expenditure would he so remote^ as to render 
 their execution impossible save hy the State — by 
 the Nation as a whole acting through the Exe- 
 cutive." 
 
 As in such works as reclamation of land from 
 the sea, or the throwing up barriers to prevent its 
 encroachment — and in many other works in rela- 
 tion to agriculture. Some of the gaols that will 
 be disused by the operation of the New Prisons' 
 Act, and even some of the Union Workhouses, (so 
 little occupied except by the staff, since o^^/-door 
 relief has become so general) might be made 
 available, in some districts, for housing the con- 
 victs, when waste lands are found in their 
 neighbourhoods, and thus the expense of move- 
 able iron-huts would be saved. 
 
 Not the least important benefit arising from the 
 employment of convicts in cultivating the soil, is 
 the preparing them both in character and health 
 for employment, either in the Mother-Country or 
 the Colonies, on their gaining their liberty. 
 
 How we can make the most of our Colonies 
 becomes yearly a more serious consideration of 
 vital importance to the well-being, if not safety of 
 
150 
 
 the entire country. A very clever and interest- 
 ing pamphlet — England^ her Colonies and her 
 Enemies^hj E. G. Hatherly — (Riclgway, Piccadilly, 
 1848), demonstrated at some length, and clearly^ 
 that '' the distress which prevailed at the time it 
 was written, and which^ more or less^ prevails at 
 all times amongst the working classes of this 
 country^ and that of almost every other social evil 
 with which Great Britain is afflicted, proceeded and 
 proceed from a deficiency^ and a very large defi- 
 ciency in our national supplies of hread^ corn^ meat^ 
 and other articles of food i^^ * and he proceeded to 
 
 * We are most of us well aware tliat it was an inadequate 
 Land Revenue, resulting from lack of a due cultivation of the 
 soil (not making the most of it), that brought on the financial 
 difficulties of Turkey and perhaps induced the terrible War, still 
 unhappily going on, under an impression of her incapability 
 of long defending herself with vigour. And perhaps many 
 ■will remember an article that appeared in the Westminster 
 Beview of October 1870 — "The Land Question in England." 
 The writer of it was evidently seriously impressed with the 
 importance of his subject, and well up in his facts. He 
 shows the different forms of tenure of land in different 
 conntries, and in writing of that of Turkey he concludes : — 
 
 "The last form of land tenure, and that which exists to 
 the smallest extent, is freehold, and is entirely confined to 
 house property in towns and lands in the immediate 
 vicinity." 
 
 "In India," he says, "from time immemorial the owner- 
 ship of the soil has been vested in the State. The Sovereign 
 was the landlord, and the cultivators the tenants. The land 
 was held on the communal system, as in Russia, each com- 
 munity containing within itself all the elements of self- 
 Government. The village community was governed ])y the 
 
151 
 
 recommend corn colonies as tlie most politic and 
 eiFectual remedy for our various national maladies. 
 
 head man, wbo collected the rents from the cultivators and 
 paid them to the representative of the Sovereign. And this 
 is the general system of land tenure throughout India at the 
 present day, the Anglo-Indian Government being de facto land- 
 lord of the whole territory under its sway ; but it was long 
 before the English rulers understood the exact nature of the 
 land tenure in that country. The Zemindars who collected 
 the rents in a particular district, were regarded by them as 
 the real owners, corresponding to our landlords. It was not 
 understood that when the Zemindars collected the rents, they 
 did not keep them, but handed them over to their Sovereign, 
 after deducting a per-centage for collection, which enabled 
 them to live in splendour." — MilVs History of British India^ 
 Vol. i., p. 217. 
 
 " The importance of the land revenue to the Government 
 of India may be imagined from the fact that it forms the 
 principal portion of the national income. Even now, not- 
 withstanding the waste and mismanagement inevitable where 
 the rents are assessed and collected by strangers, ignorant of 
 the capabilities of the country and of the customs of its 
 inhabitants, the revenue from land alone, previous to the 
 Mutiny, met all the expenditure of the Empire except mili- 
 tary charges, which in a conquered country are necessarily 
 heavy. The expenditure included public works, navy, mint, 
 interest or debt, and pensions ; and if we deduct waste and 
 alienated land, the revenue to meet this large expenditure was 
 derived from about one-sixth of the whole territory." 
 
 (As the late horrible famine will, it has been said by the 
 correspondent of the Times, cost India at least ten millions, 
 let us hope that by prudential measures being taken to pre- 
 vent, as far as possible, drought, and by bringing into culti- 
 vation a far greater portion of the soil, such famines will 
 henceforth be averted). 
 
 " So far then," continues the writer of the article in the 
 Westminster Review, " we have arrived at the following' con- 
 
152 
 
 He proposed that sucli corn colonies should con- 
 sist of large quantities of the ^ne and fertile^ but, 
 at present, loaste and useless lands of our North 
 American^ Australian^ and African possessions, 
 that the Government should cause such lands to 
 be brought into cultivation, that they should be 
 divided into farms of 300 or 400 acres each ; that 
 
 elusions : that pauperism has grown with the growth of large 
 estates ; that at the same time our Agricaltaral labourers 
 have been reduced to a condition incompatible with the 
 maintenance of physical strength, and in many cases to the 
 verge of starvation ; that the poorer classes, driven into the 
 large towns, living in hovels, dens and garrets, in darkness, 
 ignorance and want, constitute a breeding-ground for crime 
 and disease ; that the rent derived from the soil has been 
 diverted from its original purpose, and appropriated by 
 individuals to their own personal gain and advantage, to the 
 great detriment of the public, upon whose shoulders now 
 rests the burden of raising the Revenue ; that the land so 
 appropriated has been negligently cultivated, and the pro- 
 duce therefrom far below the standard of other countries. In 
 a word, the system has benefited neither tenants, nor land- 
 owners, producers, or consumers. Whether viewed socially 
 or economically, it has proved disastrous to the country at 
 large. 
 
 " These conclusions are still further confirmed," the writer 
 of the article adds, " by the fact that wherever the same 
 system has been tried, it has produced results equally evil," — 
 and he shows them. 
 
 However unpleasant these " facts " may be to any parties 
 in the country, it will be well not to attempt to deny their 
 existence, but to look them steadily in the face and at once do 
 our best to bring about a better state of things though but by 
 slow degrees, for we may rest assured that all such " facts " are 
 impressed upon the great mass of the people who suffer from 
 them. (See Appendix). 
 
153 
 
 suitable farm buildings sliould be erected on each 
 farm ; that a skilful farmer should be placed 
 there ; and that all the corn and other produce of 
 the said colonies sliould he imported into Great 
 Britain and Ireland^ except what might be re- 
 quired for the support of those who should be 
 eno-ao-ed in the cultivation of the corn colonies. 
 The writer of these pages cannot here enter upon 
 the full merits of this proposition, but whatever 
 be the direct agency employed for the execution 
 of this project^ the idea in itself of the founding of 
 corn colonies does seem to be a happy one — an 
 idea which meets the exigencies of our age and 
 country better than any other the icriter has heard of. 
 Such a substantial increase in our National or 
 Imperial loealth must manifestly bring with it a 
 great gain to all classes ; employment would then 
 receive the strongest impetus, increased wealth 
 would be followed by an increased demand for 
 labour of every kind ; the value of labour would 
 rise therefore in the Home-Market, and so the 
 great problem as to food for the people would be 
 partially solved, on the solution of which depends 
 the happiness and the moral and religious well- 
 being of the working classes, as well as the welfare 
 and safety of the State. But even if this pro- 
 position were carried out, it would not supersede 
 the necessity of a more extended and better culti- 
 vation of our soil in the United Kingdom. 
 
 In turning to The Memoirs of the Duhe of 
 
154 
 
 Sully ^ Prime Minister to Henry the Great of France^ 
 (z.e., Henry IV.) we find that that great Pro- 
 testant minister considered tillage and pasturage 
 as the " Foster - Mothers," — les deux mamelles 
 — of the State, and his legislative measures were, 
 fortunately for his country, in accordance with his 
 conviction. At a very critical period in the 
 history of France, when that country had been 
 distracted by the wars of the League, when its 
 finances were in great disorder, and the State on 
 the verge of bankruptcy — Sully, by the en- 
 couragement of Agriculture, re-animated industry 
 and by increasing the growth of National loealth^ 
 he in ff teen yeaj's abolished fve millions of direct 
 taxes upon the cultivators of the soil, reduced by 
 one-half the duties levied on the internal trade of 
 the country — and yet the annual income had 
 increased four millions. In the meantime one 
 hundred millions of the State debts had been 
 paid off; thirty-five millions of Royal Domains, 
 alienated by the king's predecessors, had been re- 
 purchased, and upwards of forty-one millions of 
 livres were accumulated in the Treasury. Well 
 then does he deserve what a quondam professor of 
 Political Economy at Oxford said of him in one 
 of his lectures. '' Sully must not be regarded as 
 a mere financier — he did not content himself with 
 temporary expedients, or with measures devised 
 solely with a view to the immediate replenishment 
 of the State Coffers, but he fully appreciated the 
 
155 
 
 truth— wlncli arbitrary power so generally and so 
 strangely overlooks — tliat^ the best icay to enrich 
 the Sovereign was to enrich the subjects of the 
 Sovereign^ He advocated indirect taxation * (as 
 M'Culloch does) saying, " That if he made money 
 to pass through the hands of the people, there 
 w^ould necessarily flow into the public treasury a 
 proportionate quantity lohich no one would regret : 
 if the people have but little money^ it can give 
 up but little, and that little must be wrested 
 from it." 
 
 If we turn to Frederick II., of Prussia (com- 
 monly known as Frederick the Great), we shall 
 find that it was more from his attention to 
 
 * So long ago as 22nd May, 1856, a leader in the Times 
 said : — 
 
 " The working classes must be aware by this time that they 
 are not the pure gainers by the substitution of direct for in- 
 direct taxes, that they were supposed to be. The Income-tax 
 is paid out of the fund which has to meet the demands of 
 industry, hospitality, benevolence, and other equally pressing 
 applicants. Most of us live up to our incomes, and when the 
 collector has carried off a cheque for £50 or £100 to be spent 
 in gun-boats, ammunition, militia, or subsidies, the signer of 
 that cheque is obliged to contract his expenditure in another 
 direction. He dismisses a servant, or reduces his orders to 
 his tradesman, and denies himself some ordinary expenditure 
 which contributed to the maintenance of a numerous house- 
 hold. Domestic service is one great resource for the children 
 of the working classes ; yet, in spite of the general pros- 
 perity (?) there is a universal complaint of the difficulty of 
 finding places. 
 
 *' The working classes therefore are paying much more of 
 the Income-tax than they are aware of." See Appendix. 
 
156 
 
 internal improvement than to foreign conquests, 
 that he earned the title of " the Great.'' By pro- 
 moting permanent and substantial improvements in 
 Agriculture (at the same time not neglecting, but 
 thus cherishing and advancing other interests), he 
 raised his dominions, notwithstanding the dis- 
 advantages of situation, soil and climate, to such a 
 height of prosperity and power, that he was able 
 to contend single-handed during seven years 
 against the united force of Eussia, Saxony, 
 Sweden, France, Austria, and many of the other 
 German States, and in 1763 was left in peaceful 
 possession of all his paternal and acquired 
 dominions. Let us then see and mark well by 
 Avhat measures he made his kingdom, in spite of 
 the disadvantages before named, so powerful and 
 independent. His practice was to lay out about 
 £300,000 per annum in the encouragement of 
 Agricultural improvements which he considered 
 as manure spread ipon the ground to secure an 
 abundant harvest; and instead of being at all 
 impoverished by such liberal grants, he thereby 
 increased his Revenue so much, that he was 
 enabled to leave behind him £12,000,000 sterling 
 — (See Miscellaneous Essays, by the Eight Hon. 
 Sir John Sinclair). 
 
 In the Eeport made by the Commissioners ap- 
 pointed in 1838 to consider a general system for 
 Eailways in Ireland '' with a view to promote 
 Agriculture generally, and to aid in bringing into 
 
157 
 
 cultivation the loaste lancls^ it was said, ' it gave 
 assurance of enormous profits on the greatest pos- 
 sible outlay.' Notwithstanding this assurance such 
 public aid as was required was not given, and 
 consequently ' a large portion of the Empire which 
 might have been made a source of common strength 
 and advantao'c ' was allowed ' to lie fallow.' " 
 
 We have a striking example of noble and 
 generous patriotism in the Bishop of LlandafP, Dr. 
 Watson. In his Essay on Waste Lands (1782) he 
 explains very forcibly and ably the advantages to 
 be derived from National encouragement being 
 given to Agriculture. He says — '^ The agricultural 
 improvements which have hitherto taken place 
 amongst us have been by the expenditure of 
 private wealth; but the country cannot be 
 brought to that perfection of cultivation of which 
 it is capable, unless indwidual efforts are aided and 
 accelerated by public wisdom and munificence. I 
 boast not of any particular patriotism, but I would 
 willingly pay my share of twenty or thirty mil- 
 lions of public money to be appropriated by the 
 legislature, to the Agricultural improvement of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. This ajppears to me 
 an object of far nearer concern to our independence 
 than any extension of commerce.^ or any acquisition of 
 distant territory ever can be. If the time had fully 
 come when an unproductive acre of land could not 
 be found in either of these fortunate islands^ we 
 shall then have food, within ourselves for the annual 
 
158 
 
 sustenance of at least 30 millions of people ; and 
 with a population of 30 millions, what power in 
 Europe or what combination of powers, would 
 dare to attempt our subjugation r^'* 
 
 The patriotic Bishop had not contemplated 
 '' degeneracy of race" taking place, nor enfeebled 
 millions, making redundancy of people not a 
 source of strength, but rather of weakness. 
 
 The Editor of The principal SpeecJies and 
 Addresses of the late Prince Consort (Albert the 
 Good), one who evidently was quite in the con- 
 fidence of the Prince and knew him thoroughly, 
 after having shown how the Prince devoted him- 
 self to Ao-riculture and how he stimulated the 
 
 * The Special Correspondent of the " Times,''' writing from 
 Amsterdam on the 30th October, 1876, says : " Bj the time 
 this letter reaches London the telegraph will, it is to be hoped, 
 have announced the opening by the King of Holland of the 
 great ship canal between Amsterdam and the North Sea — 
 The North Sea Canal." 
 
 The gross cost of the Canal is more than £2,000,000. But 
 the net cost in cash will be probably not much more than 
 £1,000,000. . . . The total amount of land reclaimed and 
 to be reclaimed is 12,450 acres. " But the undertaking," says 
 the Correspondent, " was not projected for the sake of im- 
 mediate gain ; and in guaranteeing the interest of the shares 
 for half a century in advance on certain conditions, the 
 Government recognized that the benefit to accrue to the 
 country and the city of Amsterdam was worth purchasing at 
 the National expense." The whole of the Report is interest- 
 ing and might lead to, something profitable. 
 
 Why should not miles of land be preserved from the over- 
 flowing of the Shannon, in Ireland ? 
 
159 
 
 practice of it, says, ^' That with a large breadth of 
 the land of Great Britain only partially tilled^ or 
 scarcely cultwated at all^ the British Nation should 
 not unfreqiiently have to expend 20 or 30 millions 
 of money in foreign corn, is a reproacli against our 
 practical sagacity^ in which the Prince at least can 
 have no share of blame." 
 
 No man can consider the great questions relating 
 to the social interests of the country without clearly 
 perceiving that the interests of Agriculture are 
 the interests of the whole community. And great 
 care should be taken, in fostering any particular 
 interests^ whether it be that of cotton manufactur- 
 ing, or any other, not to hurt the parent stem., the 
 primary interest — Agriculture. Nature provides 
 that the stem of the tree shall go on swelling., as the 
 branch goes on growing, and unless you carefully 
 follow Nature and keep strengthening the parent 
 stem (or the Mother- Country) as the separate 
 branches (or the Colonies) strengthen, depend 
 upon it, that both together will come to grief. 
 Happily for the country the present Prime Minister 
 duly estimates the value and importance of our 
 Colonies. At the great Conservative meeting held 
 in the Crystal Palace on the 24th June, 1872, Mr. 
 Disraeli (now Lord Beaconsfield) said — '^ If you 
 look to the history of this country since the 
 advent of Liberalism forty years ago, you will find 
 there has been no eiFort so continuous, so suhtle.^ 
 supported with so much energy, and carried on 
 
160 
 
 with so much ability and acumen, as the attempts 
 of Liberalism to effect this disintegration of the 
 Empire'' — and after makinf^ some remarks in 
 relation to self-government, he continued — '^ Not 
 that I for one object to self-government. I cannot 
 conceive how our distant Colonies can have their 
 affairs administered except by self-government. 
 But self-government^ when it was conceded^ ouglit^ in 
 my opinion^ to have been conceded as "part of a great 
 policy of Imperial consolidation. It ought to have 
 been accompanied by an Imperial Tariffs hy 
 securities to the ^people of England for the enjoyment 
 of the unappropriated lands which belonged to the 
 sovereign as the trustee^ and by a military code, 
 which should have precisely defined the means and 
 the responsibilities by which the Colonies should 
 have been defended, and by which if necessary, 
 this country should call for aid from the Colonies 
 themselves. It ought further to have been accom- 
 panied by the institution of some representative 
 council in the Metropolis, which would have 
 brought the Colonies into constant and continuous 
 
 relations with the Home Government 
 
 Well, what has been the result of this attempt 
 during; the reim of Liberalism for the disinteo-ra- 
 tion of the Empire? It has entirely failed. But 
 how has it failed? By the sympathies of the 
 Colonies with the Mother- Country. They have 
 decided that the Empire shall not be destroyed, 
 and in my opinion no minister in this country icill 
 
161 
 
 do his duty^ who neglects an opportunity of recon- 
 structing as much as possible our Colonial Empire^ 
 and of responding to those distant sympathies which 
 may become the source of incalculable strength . and 
 happiness to this land'' 
 
 Happily, the present Colonial Secretary, Lord 
 Carnarvon* has proved himself most anxious and 
 able to promote the interest of the Colonies on every 
 occasion that presents itself, entertaining the same 
 truly statesmanlike views as his chief ; for in the 
 House of Lords, when speaking in relation to the 
 Colonies in 1870, he said — '' If there is any lesson 
 which we should draw from the loss of the United 
 States, it is the misfortime of parting from those 
 
 * Since the above was written and in print circumstances 
 unhappily occurred which led to Lord Carnarvon's resigna- 
 tion, and on the 6th of March, " A deputation of Merchants 
 and others connected with South Africa," and " the 
 Agent- General of the Australian Colonies, and the Agent- 
 General of New Zealand, also waited on his Lordship at his 
 residence to present to him addresses on his retirement." 
 
 In the course of his replying to the first he said in a spirit 
 of generous and true patriotism, " I shall anxiously watch 
 the progress of events, to observe, I trust, before long,* the 
 disappearance of those clouds which now darken your political 
 horizon ; and I need scarcely repeat that whatever little 
 knowledge or influence on Colonial questions I may have 
 acquired during my administration, I hold myself bound hy 
 every sense of duty, as well as of personal inclination, to 
 place at the service of my successor in office.'' 
 
 We may therefore feel that Lord Carnarvon's successor, 
 Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, will be not less ardent than the 
 Premier and Lord Carnarvon appear to be, for the consoli- 
 dation of the Colonies with the Mother-Country. 
 
 11 
 
1G2 
 
 Colonies in ill-will and irritation" (and so wrote 
 the retired Colonial Judge Mr. Halibiirton) . We 
 parted with those great Colonies because we at- 
 tempted to coerce them ; and if we now part with 
 our present Colonies it will be because we expel 
 them from our dominion. The circumstances are 
 different, but the result must be the hitter alienation 
 and undying enmity of these great countries. For 
 my own part I see with dismay the course which 
 is now being taken, a part at once cheeseparing in 
 point of economy, and spendthrift in point of 
 National character, I will be no party to it, and I 
 beg to enter my humble and earnest protest 
 against a course which I conceive to be ruinous to 
 the honour and fatal to the best interests of the 
 Empire,^ ^* 
 
 It cannot be doubted that these are sentiments 
 in accordance with those of all capable of due re- 
 flection on the present position of this country. 
 
 * It is due to Sir Julius Vogel, the author of that most 
 important and valuable article, " Greater or Lesser Britain" in 
 the number of the Nineteenth Century for July last, to state 
 that, although the passage from the speech of the Premier 
 and that from Lord Carnarvon's address in the House of 
 Lords, just given, are also quoted in that article, they had 
 been marked by the present writer long before July last and 
 placed amongst his notes, and he felt highly gratified to find 
 that the same passages had made an impression on the mind 
 of so distinguished a Colonist and able a writer, as Sir Julius 
 Vogel. It would be well if his " Greater or Lesser Britain" 
 were published in a separate and cheap form, for it cannot be 
 too generally read. 
 
163 
 
 It is a somewhat common observation that " large 
 families often do better than small ones" — ^but 
 when is that the case? When all the members of 
 such families have been brought up in harmony 
 and affection, and quit the family circle cherishing 
 such feelings. Then as the elder ones go out into 
 the world and succeed, or any one of them, they, 
 or he, as the case may be, help those who may 
 require assistance and rejoice to be able to afford 
 aid to the parents^ should they, on any occasion 
 require it. For the same reason, the Parent country 
 and her Colonies should cherish feelings of regard 
 towards each other beyond what either can feel 
 towards foreign countries — but to cherish this 
 regard a mutual interest must exist and be main- 
 tained between the Mother-Country and her 
 Colonies — her adult offspring. 
 
 Fortunate indeed is it for the country that H. R. 
 Highness the Prince of Wales was inoculated by 
 his late father, the Prince Consort, with the same 
 ideas as to the importance of a thriving agriculture to 
 the well-being of the State., as he himself entertained. 
 The Prince of Wales, therefore, as '' President of 
 the Royal Agricultural Society," is truly ''the 
 right man in the right place." When presiding at 
 the banquet of the Society in Dublin in August, 
 1871, he expressed in the course of his speech the 
 following sentiment — " I say what will do more 
 than anything else towards making a country 
 prosperous is the extension" (mark that term, 
 
 11 * 
 
164 
 
 reader) " of its agriculture." And when presiding 
 at the dinner of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, 
 in June, 1872, H. R. Highness, in proposing the 
 toast of the evening referred at some length to the 
 celebrity of Norfolk Agriculture and Agriculturists,* 
 and went on to say that his father — the Prince 
 Consort — always felt the greatest interest in Agri- 
 
 * Reclamation of Land. — The Earl of Leicester was for 
 two years engaged in a work of some interest and import- 
 ance — viz., the reclamation from the sea, of 700 acres of 
 the vast tract of low marshy lands near the little port of 
 Wells, Norfolk. For this purpose a great embankment 
 involving an outlay of about £12,000., was carried from 
 the Hookham side of Wells, in a straight line towards the sea, 
 which has been, it is hoped, effectually shut out by this 
 means from the land sought to be reclaimed. 
 
 There are similar works required in many parts of the 
 country, by which hundreds of thousands of acres of land 
 that might be made productive, would be secured. Happily 
 Lord Leicester had the capital to enable him to do such work. 
 The Duke of Sutherland too, having capital, is doing a great 
 National work really, though at his own expense. Let us con- 
 sider what would be the result if such works could be carried 
 into execution wherever required. 
 
 There is much wisdom evinced in a letter of the late 
 Emperor Napoleon III., addressed to his Minister of State in 
 1860— 
 
 Sec. 5. " In that which relates to agriculture you must 
 make it share in the benefits of the Institutions of credit, clear 
 the forests, situated in the plains, and replant the hills, devote 
 annually a considerable sum to great works of drainage, irri- 
 gation, and clearage. These works transforming the unculti- 
 vated districts into cultivated lands, will enrich the districts 
 w^ithout impoverishing the State, which will cover its advance 
 by the sale of a portion of these lands restored to agricul- 
 ture." 
 
165 
 
 culture and used to take his cliildren to inspect his 
 prize animals. For his own part he would support 
 such an extension of the Society as would enable 
 it to embrace operations with regard to Cottage 
 accommodatian. He had endeavoured to improve 
 the Cottages on his own estate and he felt pride 
 and satisfaction in having his workmen properly 
 housed. In conclusion H. R. Highness strongly 
 supported the idea of having a great County 
 School for Norfolk, and said it would give him the 
 greatest pleasure to support the enterprise.'" On 
 another occasion, when presiding at an Agricultural 
 gathering, he said, '' he felt quite convinced that 
 Agriculture was the very back-hone of the Army!^ 
 
 With a Premier and Colonial Secretary holding 
 such strong opinions in regard to the vital im- 
 portance of the Colonies to the Mother- Country, let 
 us hope that early in the next session of Parlia- 
 ment "" a great policy of Imperial consolidation'^ will 
 he hr ought forward. And, in the meantime, let 
 all who feel any interest in their country and the 
 colonies., read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Sir 
 Julius Vogel's reasons for bringing about the con- 
 federation of the Colonies, for he has shown — 
 
 1. The unsatisfactory nature of the relations 
 between the Mother-Country and her Colonies. 
 
 2. The urgent necessity for doing something to 
 
 Sec. 12. This extraordinary resource will facilitate to us 
 not only the prompt completion of the railways, canals, means 
 of navigation, roads, and ports, but it will also allow us to 
 restore in less time our cathedrals and churches, and worthily 
 to encourage science, literature, and the arts. 
 
166 
 
 arrest the disintegration towards wliicli progress is 
 being made. 
 
 3. That a union depending upon the pleasure, 
 for the time being, of the different parts of the 
 Empire, means separation sooner or later. 
 
 4. That, under the union-during-pleasure con- 
 dition, much is being done to hasten separation. 
 
 5. That, the Mother-Country is entitled to retain 
 and consolidate her possessions. 
 
 6. That confederation is desirable, and would be 
 fraught with advantage both to the Parent- Country 
 and the Colonies in the shane of increased trade^ 
 increased value of property, the augmented 
 happiness of the people, and the saving of much 
 misery and disaster. 
 
 7. That its accomplishment does not present 
 great difficulties. 
 
 Lord Blachford in an article in the October 
 number of the Nineteenth Century treats Sir Julius 
 VogeVs suggestion, of preserving the integrity of 
 the British Empire, as impossible^ and if carried 
 out, as likely to merge the Mother- Country in a 
 general confederacy, where she would be outvoted 
 and ruled by her Colonies. But surely such argu- 
 ments ought not to deter our Government from 
 endeavouring to carry out what not only Sir 
 Julius Vogel, but the Premier and his Colonial 
 Secretary think so desirable for the welfare, not 
 only of the Mother-Country, but also for the 
 Colonies themselves. 
 
167 
 
 The following extract from a Pamplilet, entitled, 
 The Perils of England^ 1852, (a copy of which 
 could not be procured a week after it was pub- 
 lished) may not be inappropriately given here. 
 
 " A few men of the people, of whom the honest 
 and consistent Oastler may be taken as a type, 
 did perceive the real causes of the sufferings 
 of the masses, and various proposals more or 
 less judicious were put forward for their relief. 
 Of the nature of those, the Ten Hours' Bill 
 may be taken as an exponent. The tendency 
 of these measures proved incontestably, that the 
 one thing needful, was to give the people the 
 means of making an equitable bargain with their 
 task-masters, but of the great opportunity here 
 offered tliem of coming forward as the champion of 
 the lower classes^ the aristocratic party, less wise 
 than their ancestors at Eunnymede, never availed 
 themselves. 
 
 In fact, they never perceived that the dangerous 
 enemies of their order were the monied men of the 
 manufacturing Towns^ and not the labouring popu- 
 lation'^ 
 
 " She (England) is in peril of forfeiting her 
 proud position, and one of the first symptoms of 
 her dangerous state is to be found in the prefer- 
 ence which she exhibits to words as substitutes ^or 
 facts — *" videri' for the ' esse,' and the atmosphere 
 of hypocrisy in which it pleases her to exist with 
 reference to the greatest social questions of the day. 
 
168 
 
 The writer of that pamphlet should not have 
 omitted the name of one member of the aristo- 
 cracy at least, then Lord Ashley, now Earl of 
 Shaftesbmy, who was a fellow- labourer with the 
 late Mr. Oastler, and after many struggles suc- 
 ceeded in carrying the Ten Hours (Factories') 
 Bill through Parliament. 
 
 Happily, too, at the present time, there is a 
 nobleman. Lord Bateman, so convinced of the 
 injustice inflicted on Native Industry^ and of the 
 exhaustive effect produced by the operation of the 
 " unrestricted and unreciprocated Free Trade 
 Policy of England that he had the '' temerity" — 
 (rather the high moral courage of an unselfish 
 patriot) to send a letter to the Times suggesting 
 the necessity of at least " Limited Protection," or 
 for Eeciprocity in Free Trade." He has proved 
 himself indeed one of the true " Patres Patriag." 
 Since his admirable letter appeared in the Times 
 of the 12th November, it has been published as a 
 Pamphlet (at 6 6?) by Ridgway, Piccadilly ; and 
 few can read the Preface and the letter without 
 being convinced of the wisdom of Lord Bate- 
 man's suggestion and feeling obliged to him for 
 endeavouring to arouse the nation to a sense of 
 the dangers the Policy of 1846 has brought on 
 us, and appealing to the " common sense and 
 patriotism of his countrymen" to correct it. 
 
 In 1827, " The Substance of a Charge delivered 
 to the Grand Jury of Wiltshire at the Summer 
 
169 
 
 Assizes, 1827, by the Lord Cliief Justice Best'* 
 (afterwards created Lord Wynford) was printed 
 for T. Cadell, in the Strand." 
 
 It was printed " at the special request of tlie 
 Grand-^ViYj^ " in order that observations 50 
 important may be more generally circulated^ and 
 that the public may receive the gratification and 
 advantage which an acquaintance with such valu- 
 able instruction cannot fail to impart." 
 
 The Chief Justice thus concluded his charge, 
 ''Mutual attachments between masters and servants, 
 and that respect of the lower classes for the 
 higher, which is essential to the peace and good 
 order of Society must he restored. 
 
 '' It may be said, that the times will not allow 
 of any increase of wages. Then the times must he 
 changed. How that is to be done ; how the 
 inexhaustihle sources of employment which this great 
 Empire possesses can hest he opened; how the 
 productions of each description of labourers are 
 to be made to contribute most to the comfort and 
 well-heing of all labourers ; what is that just rule 
 that will afford equal protection and impose equal 
 burthens on all sorts of capital.^ and tend to promote 
 every interest of Great Britain and her Colonies, 
 is for the Legislature to determine. This I will 
 say, that as the labouring class is more numerous 
 than all the others, and yet more helpless, it 
 should be the first object of the Nation's care. 
 Whatever other interests may suffer.^ the interests of 
 
170 
 
 the poor must he maintainecL Tliat nation is most 
 glorious and most flourishing in which the poor 
 are hestfed^ and clothed^ most orderly , virtuous^ and 
 happy y 
 
 If the monied interests of the nation were wise 
 and patriotic enough to be willing to bear a tax 
 that would realize (of course as it might be 
 required) such an amount as the good Bishop of 
 Llandaff said was necessary to bring Agriculture 
 in England to perfection, we might hope to make 
 this nation " most glorious and flourishing," and 
 attain the character given by Virgil to ancient 
 Italy : 
 
 '' Terra potens armis atque ubere glebse." — 
 iEneid L, 335.* 
 
 Laus Deo finitum. 
 
 * Thus translated, 
 
 " For deeds of arms, aud/er^iZe soil re^iowned.'' 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Stanley's Life of Dr. Arnold. 
 
 Since the foregoing pages were in the hands of 
 the publisher, in the Times of the 17th Jan. 
 1878, appeared the following, being the com- 
 mencement of the report of what passed at the 
 meeting. 
 
 " Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. — The 
 annual meeting of the members of the Liverpool 
 Chamber of Commerce was held on Tuesday; 
 Mr. Samuel Smith, President of the Chamber, in 
 the chair. The President adverted to the un- 
 satisfactory state of the commerce of the country, 
 and said he believed that last year was the worst 
 we had yet passed through since the recent com- 
 mercial depression commenced. He attributed 
 this depression to the competition of foreign 
 countries ; protective tariffs abroad ; increased 
 cost of production ; and wasteful consumption of 
 strong drinks. In order to jprevent strikes he 
 suggested that the education department should 
 consider the desirability oi providing for the teach- 
 ing of the rudiments of political economy to boys 
 in elementary schools." 
 
 Can it really be that a gentleman occupying 
 such a position, or any of those who were present, 
 
172 
 
 can think that a want of knowledge of *' modem 
 political economy '^ lies at the eoot of the present 
 conflict between labour and capital, which has 
 been so fast increasing under the policy of 1846 ? 
 and that we have only ^' to provide for the teach- 
 ing of the rudiments of political economy to boys 
 in elementary schools," to prevent strikes in 
 future ? 
 
 Perhaps the president of the Liverpool Chamber 
 of Commerce, and many others, will think differ- 
 ently — and throw aside such delusions — upon 
 reading what the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge 
 said so long ago as in " 1833/' of " Modern Poli- 
 tical Economy." 
 
 " What solemn humhiig this modern political 
 economy is ! What is there true of the little that 
 is true in their dogmatic books, which is not a simple 
 deduction from the moral and religious credenda 
 and agenda of any good man, and with which we 
 were not all previously acquainted, and upon 
 which any man of common sense instinctively 
 acted ? I know none. But what they truly state 
 they do not truly understand in its ultimate grounds 
 and causes ; and hence they have sometimes done 
 more mischief by their \i?li'ignorant^ li^M-sophis- 
 tical reasonings about, and deductions from, well- 
 founded positions, than they could have done by 
 the promulgation of positive error. This particu- 
 larly apj)lies to their famous ratios of increase 
 between man and the means of his subsistence. 
 
Political economy at the highest^ can never be a 
 pure science. You may demonstrate that certain 
 properties inhere in the arch which yet no bridge- 
 builder CAN ever reduce into brick and mortar ; 
 but an abstract conclusion in a matter of political 
 economy, the premisses of which neither exist now, 
 nor ever will exist within the range of the wildest 
 imagination, is not a truth but a chimera — a prac- 
 tical falsehood. For there are no theorems in 
 political economy — but problems only. Certain 
 things being actually so-and-so ; the question is, 
 how to do so-and-so with them. Political ^Mo- 
 sophy^ indeed, points to ulterior ends, but even 
 those ends are all practical; and if you desert the 
 conditions of reality, or of common prohaUUty^ 
 you may show forth your eloquence or your 
 fancy, but the utmost you can produce will be a 
 Utopia or Oceana." — Tahle-Talk^ p. 205. 
 
 You talk about making the article cheaper by 
 reducing its price in the market from ^d to ^d. 
 But suppose in so doing, you have rendered your- 
 self weaker against a foe ; suppose you have 
 demoralized thousands of your fellow-countrymen^ 
 and have sown discontent between one class of 
 society and another, your article is tolerably dear^ 
 I take it, after all. Is not its real price enhanced 
 to every Christian smd patriot Si hundred-fold?" 
 
 If '^ discontent " had been then (1833) "so^^?^" 
 and the results such as Coleridge states, can we be 
 surprised, however we may lament^ that the crop 
 
174 
 
 of discontent has so increased under the Free- 
 Imports policy of 1846, so encroaching upon 
 native industi^y^ and rendering cheapness in manu- 
 facturing (though, alas ! at the risk of forfeiting 
 our character for quality), our sole chance of not 
 being superseded in foreign markets by nations 
 who already rival us in manufacturing. 
 
 There is reason to fear that it was owing to the 
 teaching of the Political Economists, or at all 
 events the ^'unchristian tone" of some of the 
 works issued antecedent to 1833, viz. in 1831-2, by 
 the '' Useful Knowledge Society," that perverted 
 the judgment of many masters perhaps, as well as 
 workmen. No one will accuse the late Dr. 
 Arnold, for so many years the Head-Master of 
 Eugby, with being a bigot in religion, and yet 
 what did he say of the '' unchristian tone of 
 Cottage Evenings^' one of that Society's publica- 
 tions ? We had about that time and have since 
 admitted the people to a much greater degree of 
 power, and exacted of the peopb a much greater 
 degree of endurance and self-restraint. There is 
 nothing so likely to adjust the balance — which, 
 from both these causes — and especially the con- 
 currence of them — has been deranged — as to 
 enforce on the people a more lively sense, in the 
 language of the world^ of the duties of imperfect 
 obligation; in other and better language^ of making 
 a conscience of their ways ; and there are no means 
 of doing this half so effectual as by improving, 
 
175 
 
 still improving^ their religious education, and if the 
 times of strife upon which we have fallen, should 
 give occasion to a blessing- so unspeakable, we 
 shall only have another proof of the wisdom of 
 God in overruling events to purposes which their 
 contrivers did not contemplate. For the danger 
 now lies in having substituted secular knowledge 
 as the refining principle of the country, for the 
 wisdom loMch is from above ; or compendiums of 
 political economy for the Word of God. But of 
 this all may rest assured that mere secular educa- 
 tion will not stand, in any rank of life, in the 
 stead of religious — that the virtue will not go out 
 of it to improve society, or minister to the wants of 
 man^ which many persons in these days seem to 
 suppose ; and tJien^ that if religious you must have, 
 it must be communicated after some specific form.* 
 And now what said Dr. Arnold, writing in 1831 ? 
 In a letter to W. Tooke, Esq., who was for 
 many years treasurer to the " Useful Knowledge 
 Society/' the following passage, deserving cer- 
 tainly of not less consideration at the present time 
 
 * Let us ever bear in mind that — " They that will be rich 
 fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
 hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
 
 " For the love of money is the root of all evil ; which while 
 some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced 
 themselves through with many sorrows." — 1 Tim. vi. 9, 
 10. 
 
 May we all heed the admonition — *' Let your moderation 
 be known unto all men." 
 
176 
 
 than when it was written, occurs. See Stanleifs 
 Life of Arnold, p. 299. The letter is dated " Eugby, 
 June 18, 1831." 
 
 " In this day's number of the Register there is a 
 letter on the Cottage Evenings^ condemning very 
 decidedly their unchristian tone. It is not written 
 by me, but 1 confess that I heartily agree with it. 
 You know of old how earnestly I have wished to 
 join your" Useful Knowledge Society f and how 
 heartily on many points I sympathize with them. 
 This very work the Cottage Evenings, might be 
 made everything I wish, if it were hut decidedly 
 Christian, I delight in its plain and sensible tone 
 and it might be made the channel of all sorts of 
 information, useful and entertaining ; but as it is, 
 so far from co-operating with it / must feel utterly 
 adverse to it. To enter into the deeper matters of 
 conduct and principle, to talk of our main hopes 
 and fears, andyet7io^ to speak of Christ, is absolutely 
 to my mind, to inculcate poison. In such points as 
 this, " he who is not with us is against us.'^ It has 
 occurred to me that the circumstance of some of 
 the principal members of the ^' Useful Knowledge 
 Society" being now in the Government is in itself 
 a strong reason why the Society should take a more 
 decided tone on matters of religion. Undoubtedly, 
 their support of that Society, as it now stands, is 
 a matter of deep grief and disa'pprohation to a large 
 proportion of the best men in this kingdom, while 
 it encourages the hopes of some of the very worst. 
 
177 
 
 And it would be^ I do verily believe, one of the 
 greatest possible blessings, if, as they are honest, 
 fearless, and enlightened against political corruption j 
 and as I hope they will prove, against ecclesiastical 
 abuses also^ so they would be no less honest and 
 fearless, and truly wise, in labouring to Christianize 
 the people^ in spite of the sneers and opposition of 
 those who understand full well., that if men do not 
 worship God they at once., hy that very omission., 
 loorship most surely the power of evil ^^ 
 
 In an earlier letter (Oct. 1, p. 77) to his friend 
 " the Rev. G. Cornish" dated from Laleham, Oct. 
 18, 1825, Dr. Arnold says: 
 
 '' I met five Englishmen at the public table at 
 our inn at Milan, who gave me great matter for 
 cogitation. One was a clergyman and just returned 
 from Egypt 5 the rest were young men, i.e. between 
 twenty-five and thirty, and apparently of no pro- 
 fession. I may safely say, that since I was an 
 undergraduate, I never heard any conversation so 
 profligate as that which they all indulged in, the 
 
 * The editor of Dr. Arnold's Life — tlie present .Dean of 
 Westminster — (to whom the thanks of all old Ragbeans must 
 be due for such an excellent and interesting piece of Bio- 
 graphy of a Master who so raised the character of the School 
 and became almost an idol of the boys) adds the following 
 note — 
 
 " There is something to me almost awful'' he (Arnold) used 
 to say, speaking of Lo?tZ Byron's Cain, *' in meeting suddenly 
 in the words of such a man, so great and solemn a truth as is 
 expressed in that speech of Lucifer — 
 
 ' He who bows not to God hath bowed to me.' " 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 clergyman particularly ; indeed, it was not merely 
 gross, but avowed principles of wickedness, such 
 as I do not remember ever to bave beard in Oxford. 
 But loliat struck me most icas^ tbat witb tbis 
 sensuality tbere w^as united some intellectual 
 ACTIVITY* — tbey w^ere not ignorant, but seemed 
 bent on gaining a great variety of solid information 
 from their travels. Now tbis union of vice and 
 intellectual 'power and knowledge seems to me rather 
 a sign of the age^ and if it goes on^ it threatens to 
 produce one of the most fearful forms of An fi- Christ 
 which has yet appeared. 1 am sure tbat tbe great 
 prevalence of travelling fosters tbis spirit, not tbat 
 
 * The late Dr. James, Canon of Peterborougli (not long- 
 deceased, and therefore, a contemporary of Dr. Arnold) in his 
 admirable Christian I Watchfulness, has the following remark — 
 
 " Surely if ever there was a period in the history of Chris- 
 tianity, when they to whom are afforded opportunities of culti- 
 vating their intellectual powers, must be conscious of glaring 
 and open violation of a bounden duty in neglecting the Word 
 of God, it is in these days — days marked by an extension of 
 human learning, and a facility in acquiring it, altogether 
 unparalleled. The experience of the past warns us that as scien- 
 tific attainments become general there is too much ground to 
 fear lest intellectual pride should elevate itself, and reason 
 should delight to array itself against Revelation (there is a 
 wisdom which " descendeth not from above"). Who sees not 
 then that in proportion as human learning is extended so 
 divine wisdom claims the closer regard ? The wisdom of the 
 world when it stands alone " is foolishness with God" and 
 brings ruin to its votaries by fostering an intellectual pride, 
 which is an especial offence to the Majesty of the Most High. 
 If man fancies his own reason as su£G.cient guide and trusts to 
 human learning for counsel w^hereby to guide his ways, either 
 
179 
 
 men learn misclilef from the Frencli or Italians, 
 hut because they are removed from the check of 
 pjihUc opinion^ and are, in fact, self- constituted out- 
 laws^ neither belonging to the society which they 
 have left, nor taking a place In that of the countries 
 where they are travelling." 
 
 In the work before referred to in the body of 
 this Yolmne, Physical Science compared with the 
 Second Beast^ or the False Prophet^ Eivingtons, 
 AVaterloo Place, 1845^ ch. xiii. 81, under the head 
 of '' The Number." 
 
 with integrity before men, or holiness before God, he raises 
 in his heart a Babel-tower, whose end is confusion. 
 
 " The principle upon which these observations are founded 
 is too clear to be a matter of doubt. 
 
 What was man's original offence ? Was it not the proud 
 wish to be wise above that which was revealed ? " Ye shall 
 be as gods," said the serpent to our first parents, "knowing- 
 good and evil." And what pride has worldly pride assumed 
 in this land ? Not the pride of wealth mainly, that would 
 lead to a different result, would be productive of carefulness 
 to preserve in quiet what industry had procured in an honest 
 calling. Nor is it the pride of ancestry, that is wont, let us 
 hope, to be the spring of noble feeling and honourable conduct. 
 It is the pride of intellect— striving to supersede as a guide 
 through this life to the next, the Word of God, and the Spirit 
 of God." 
 
 " No. viii. of Nineteenth Century, September, 1877, contains 
 an article by Mr. W. Malloch "Is Life worth living ?" in 
 answer to Mr. Harrison's Article in a former number. Mr. 
 Malloch therein says " Nearly all our great modern unbelievers, 
 the men on whose speculations and discoveries unbelief in our 
 days has based itself, have been men of letters, of research or 
 of science. 
 
 12* 
 
180 
 
 '' Here is wisdom. Let him that hath under- 
 standing comit the nmiiber of the Beast, and his 
 number is six hundred, three-score and six." — Rev. 
 xiii. 18. 
 
 The author says — ^' When we read, ' It is the 
 number of a man/ I understand by that it is 
 human, I will give you my reasons. This Beast is 
 evidently the emhodiinent of great power. He com- 
 bines the character of the four beasts of Daniel. 
 He is as a lion, a bear, a leopard, and, like Daniel's 
 fourth beast, has ten horns, and is exceeding ter- 
 rible and strong. He is also of a very persecuting 
 nature,^ comjyelling men to loorsliip him. Ke is the 
 jyersonif cation of ambition,^ obtaining authority over 
 the nations of the earth. He puts himself in 
 opposition to God and the servants of God. He 
 seems to be the picture of some great king of men 
 whose mightiness so lifts him up that he looks upon 
 himself and is looked upon by others,, as at the sum- 
 mit of human greatness. To confirm this feeling, 
 he recovers from a blow so deadly that ordinary 
 men could undoubtedly be destroyed by it. The 
 healing of this wound completes the delusion under 
 which the nations of the earth labour, and from 
 henceforth when the Beast issues his commands, 
 they cry, as they did to Herod, ^It is the voice 
 of a god and not of a man.* 
 
 *' In Scripture language two numbers have been 
 used to signify perfection, seven and three. Both 
 these numbers are freely applied to God. The 
 
181 
 
 perfect Spirit of God is denoted by the seven 
 spirits ; and the perfect Godhead is denoted by the 
 number three, the Trinity. If then it were writ- 
 ten, ' Let him that hath understanding count the 
 number of God,' what number would seem so 
 obvious as three sevens — 777 ? Here it says, 
 ' Count the number of the Beast, for it is the num- 
 ber of man/ for it seems to me that ^ the number 
 of a man^ means the number of a man as opposed 
 to the number of God. Now if we examine it 
 in this light, it will seem that this Beast is the 
 representative of the highest development of 
 human poioei\ He possesses great physical au- 
 thority^ and this is vastly assisted by his compact 
 with the second beast, who is the representative of 
 human intellect^ or science. If then we have a 
 union between the greatest material human force., 
 and the highest development of human intellect, 
 the result is human perfectibility. It seems already 
 that science, puffed up by the discoveries in God's 
 physical world, and by the theories of moral 
 government, is^ loith rapid strides., advancing to the 
 rejection of the God of science and of morality.* 
 
 * In opening tlie 58tli Session of tlie Leeds Philosopliical 
 and Literary Society, at Leeds, on Tuesday evening (the 2nd 
 Oct. 1877), the Archbishop of York delivered an address on 
 " The Worth of Life." In the course of it he said — " That 
 brilliant speaker, Professor Tyndall, lecturing at Birmingham 
 the other day, adopted forcibly the theory of necessity, and in 
 the name of conscience dismissed free will henceforward from 
 all civilized society. . . Of course the neck of this bore is 
 
182 
 
 Ambition lias never allowed divine laws to hinder 
 its designs^ and lolien these two are comMned we shall 
 then have the greatest developnent of humanity^ and 
 the Beast will be revealed. His number will be 
 %^Q^ for if Divine perfection be fitly represented 
 by three sevens^ may not human perfection (some- 
 thing just short of absolute perfection) be w^Ith 
 equal fitness symbolized by three sixes ^ For 
 these reasons, / consider the Beast to signify human 
 j)ower in its two natures^ physical and intellectual^ 
 and so conscious of its own greatness that it rushes 
 into infidelity and blasphemy^ ignoi^ing any higher 
 power than itself belie vrng its number to be 777, 
 while in reality it is only ^^^, I think that the 
 first beast represents open practical infidelity. To a 
 certain degree this has existed from the earliest 
 times. It was exhibited in the first murder. It is 
 human energy depending on itself working out its 
 own will.^ ignoring a superintending Providence, In 
 the days of Nimrod it excited the admiration of 
 the world : in the person of Nebuchadnezzar men 
 were draion to worship it ; but it will not he 
 developed to the fullest extent till it has the alliance 
 of the second beast- theoretical infidelity. Hitherto 
 knowledge, civilization, the arts of peace, have 
 been against the savage persecution of the first 
 beast. Now, science is putting the revelation of 
 
 safe in the Professor's hands ; but logically the right might 
 be asserted — no responsibility , no guilt; no guilt, no punish- 
 ment: punishment without guilt is blind revenge or warfare." 
 
183 
 
 discovery in the place of the revelation of God; and 
 
 when it lias become the ' prophet' of infidelity 
 
 then we shall see the personification of the numbei' 
 
 666." 
 
 The little volume contains but 123 pages, 
 
 and is well worthy the attention of thoughtful 
 
 readers. 
 
 The public journals of the 26th July last, under 
 the heading, Mr. Bright on Cobden^ at the Un- 
 veiling of his Statue, informed us, " The pedestal, 
 of polished Aberdeen granite, bears the inscription, 
 ' Free-trade, peace, and good will among Nations,' 
 encircling the name of Cobden." It was upon 
 reading this, that the thoughts of the present 
 writer recurred to the preceding extract from the 
 little work published by Eivingtons. 
 
 Now we read in the Book which in England 
 was wont to stand as the highest authority for 
 Christian morality that at the announcement of 
 the birth of a Saviour, '' suddenly there was with 
 the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising 
 God and saying — 
 
 " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good will towards men." — St- Luke ii. 
 14. 
 
 And the writer of these pages has always been 
 taught, and thoroughly believes that "peace on 
 earth and good will towards men, or men of 
 peace," "or among nations,'' are more likely to 
 flow from giving " Glory to God in the highest,'' 
 
184 
 
 — first, as it stands proclaimed — * than from Free- 
 trade or its maxims. Though doubtless not in- 
 tended to convey the idea, the motto encircling 
 Mr. Cobden's name, does seem to insinuate that 
 Free-trade doctrines where adopted^ would secure 
 to nations and individuals the same results as the 
 due worship of God. If so, the hearers of Mr. 
 Bright's address respecting Mr. Cobden, might 
 almost have exclaimed, ^' It is the voice of a god 
 and not of a man." 
 
 A Short Extract from the Harmony of 
 Interests. 
 
 In 1851 was published at Philadelphia, by J. 
 S. Skinner^ 79, Walnut Sti^eet, a very remarkable 
 work entitled, Tlie Harmony of Interests^ Agricul- 
 tural^ Manufacturing and Commercial^ by the well- 
 known eminent statistical writer of America, Mr. 
 Henry C. Carey. It is indeed a most valuable 
 work, replete with practical information as to the 
 statistics of the Great Western World, and it 
 would be well if all who wish to investigate the 
 
 * All may rest assured that the " Gloria in Excelsis," must 
 precede the " Pax in terra." 
 
185 
 
 causes of tlie progress and decline of industrial 
 communities would try to procure it, and read it 
 with unprejudiced minds. "To be indifferent" 
 wrote Locke, " which of two opinions is true, is 
 the right temper of the mind that preserves it 
 from being imposed on, and disposes it to examine. 
 This is the only safe way to Truths 
 
 That the author of The Harmony of Interests .^ 
 etc., entered upon the examination of the subject 
 therein treated of in such ^' a right temper of the 
 mind," is manifest from what he has said in the 
 two first pages of his work. 
 
 As the Tariffs of foreign countries have been 
 for some time under consideration, and great 
 anxiety is felt as to how far other countries (after 
 upwards of 30 years of the Free-Imports System 
 of England), can be induced to reciprocate with 
 her, it may be well to give the two first pages of 
 Mr. Carey's Harmony of Interests, The Times has 
 long in vain endeavoured to convince America and 
 other countries of the impolicy of Protective 
 Tariffs, and so lately as the 8th June, 1877, an 
 article on the financial position of the colony of 
 New South Wales thus concludes — "If the 
 Americans are restricted in their range of 
 customers, they have only their own perversely 
 Protectionist system to blame for it.'' 
 
 Mr. Carey thus begins his work, The Harmony 
 of Interests^ Agricultural .^ Manufacturing and 
 Commercial — 
 
' 186 
 
 '' Why is protection needed ? Why cannot 
 trade with foreign nations be carried on without 
 the intervention of custom-house officers? Why 
 is it that that intervention shoukl be needed to 
 enable the loom and the anvil to take their natural 
 places by the side of the plough and the harrow ? 
 Such are the questions which have long occupied 
 my mind, and to the consideration of which I now 
 invite my readers. 
 
 Of the advantage of perfect freedom of trade, 
 theoretically considered, there could be no doubt. 
 The benefit derived from such freedom in the 
 intercourse of the several States, was obvious to 
 all ; and it would certainly seem that the same 
 system so extended as to include the Commerce 
 with the various States and Kingdoms of the 
 world could not fail to be attended with similar 
 results. Nevertheless, every attempt at so doing 
 had failed. The low duties on most articles of 
 merchandise in the period between 1816 and 1827^ 
 had produced a state of things which induced the 
 establishment of the first really protective Tariff, 
 that of 1828. The approach to almost perfect 
 freedom of trade in 1840, produced a political 
 revolution, and a similar but more moderate 
 measure, led to the resolution of last year (1850). 
 These were curious facts, and such as were deserv- 
 ing of careful examination. 
 
 It may be assumed as an universal truth, that 
 every step in the rigid direction will be attended 
 
187 
 
 with results so beneficial as to pave the way for 
 further steps in the same direction, and that every 
 one made in the ici'ong direction will be attended 
 with disadvantageous results tending to produce a 
 necessity for a retrograde movement. The Com- 
 promise Bill, in its final stages was a near approach 
 to perfect freedom of trade, the highest duty 
 being only 20 per cent. Believing it to be a step 
 in the right direction, one of the enthusiastic 
 advocates of perfect freerlom of trade proposed, 
 soon after its passage, that, commencing with 
 1842, there should be a further reduction of one 
 per cent, per annum for twenty years, at the end 
 of which time all necessity for Custom-Houses 
 w^ould have disappeared. With the gradual 
 operation of the earlier stages of the Bill there 
 waS; however^ produced a state of depression so 
 extraordinary as to lead to a political change 
 before reaching its final stages^ and the duties had 
 scarcely touched the point of 20 per cent, before 
 they wxre raised to SO, 50^ 60, or more, by the 
 passage of the Tariff of 1842. With the election 
 of 1844, the friends of Free-trade were restored to 
 power, and two years afterwards was passed the 
 Tariff of 1846 — the Free-trade measure — in which 
 the revenue duty on articles to be protected was 
 fixed at thirty per cent. Here was a retrograde 
 movement. Instead of passing from twenty down- 
 wards, we went up to thirty, and thus was furnished 
 an admission that so near an approach to Free- 
 
188 
 
 trade with foreign nations as was to be found in 
 twenty per cent, duties had not answered in 
 practice. Since then it has been admitted even 
 by the most Free-trade advocates, that on certain 
 commodities even 30 per cent, was too low, and 
 within six months of the date of the passage of 
 the Act of 1846, its author proposed to increase a 
 variety of articles to thirty-five and forty per cent. 
 {Treasury Report^ February 1, 1847). Here was 
 another retrograde movement. It is now admitted 
 that there are other articles the duties of which 
 require to be raised, and daily experience goes to 
 prove that such must be the case, or we must 
 abandon some of the most important branches of 
 industry. The tendency is, therefore, altogether 
 backward. Thirty per cent, duty is now regarded 
 as almost perfect freedom of trade, and instead of 
 proposing a further annual reduction, each year 
 produces a stronger disposition for a considerable 
 increase. In all this, it is imjpossihle to avoid 
 seeing that there is great error somewhere^ and 
 almost equally impossible to avoid feeling a desire 
 to understand why it is that the approaches 
 towards freedom of trade with foreign nations 
 have so frequently failed, and why it is that every 
 strictly revenue tariff is higher than that which 
 preceded it. With a view to satisfy myself in 
 regard thereto, I have recently made the exami- 
 nation before refen-ed to, of our Commercial 
 Policy during the last twenty-eight years, com- 
 
181) 
 
 mencing with 1821, being tlie earliest in relation 
 to which detailed statements have been published. 
 Before commencing to lay before you the results 
 obtained, it may be well to say a few icords as 
 to the merits claimed hy the two imrties for their 
 respective systems. 
 
 The one party insists that Protection is "• a war 
 upon labour and capital," and that by compelling 
 the application of both to pursuits that would 
 otherwise be unproductive, the amount of neces- 
 saries, comforts, and conveniences of life obtainable 
 by the labourer is diminished. The other insists that 
 by protecting the labourer from competition with 
 the ill-fed and worse- clothed workmen of Europe 
 the reward of labour will be increased. Each has 
 thus Ms theory^ and each is accustomed to furnish 
 facts to prove its truth, and both can do so whilst 
 limiting themselves to short periods of time, 
 taking at some times years of small crops, and at 
 others those of large ones, and thus it is that the 
 inquirer after truth is embarrassed. No one has 
 yet, to my knowledge, ever undertaken to examine 
 all the facts during any long period of time, with 
 a view to show what have been, under the various 
 systems, \[\q powers of the labourer to command the 
 necessaries and comforts of life. One or other of 
 the systems is true, and that is true under lohich 
 labour is most largely rewarded ; that under which 
 the labourer is enabled to consume most largely of 
 food, fuel, clothing, and all other of those good 
 
190 
 
 tilings for the attainment of which men are willing 
 to labom\ If, then, w^e can ascertain the power 
 of consumption at various periods, and the result 
 be to show that it has invariably increased under 
 one course of action, and as invariably diminished 
 under another, it will be equivalent to a demon- 
 stration of the truth of the one and the falsehood 
 of the other. To accomplish this, has been the 
 object of the inquiry in which I have recently 
 been engaged. 
 
 At page 46, Mr. Carey says, " A great error 
 exists in the impression now very commonly enter- 
 tained in regard to national division of labour, 
 and which owes its orio-in to the Enn^lish school of 
 POLITICAL ECONOMISTS, wliosc systcm is throughout 
 based upon the idea of making England ' the 
 workshop of the world,' than which nothing could 
 be less natural. By that school it is taught that 
 some nations are fitted for Manufactures and 
 others for the labours of Agriculture, and that the 
 latter are largely benefited by being compelled to 
 employ themselves in the one pursuit^ making all 
 tlieir exchanges at a distance , thus contributing 
 their share to the maintenance of the system of 
 of ' ships, colonies, and commerce.' The tvhole 
 basis of their system is conversion and exchange^ 
 and not jgroduction^ yet neither makes any addi- 
 tion to the amount of things to he exchanged. It 
 is the great boast of their system that the ex- 
 changers are so numerous and the producers so 
 
191 
 
 FEW,* and the more rapid the increase hi tlie pro - 
 portion which the former bear to the latter, the 
 more is supposed to he the advance towards perfect 
 prosperity. Converters and exchangers however 
 must live out of the labours of others; and if three, 
 five or ten persons are to live on the product of 
 one, it must follow that all will obtain but a small 
 allowance of the necesSxVRIES or comforts of life as 
 is seen to be the case." 
 
 Present Opposition on the Part of the Work- 
 people TO the E eduction of the American 
 Tariff. 
 
 From The Times, 23rd February, 1878. 
 
 The introduction into Congress of ]\lr. Fernando 
 Wood's new Tariff Bill has caused quite a flutter 
 among the Protectionists. The Committee of 
 Ways and Means, of which Mr. Wood is chairman, 
 is composed of members, the majority of whom 
 
 * Mr. Carey's note in 1851. " Out of 3,400,000 families in 
 Great Britain in 1831, but 960,000 were engaged in agricul- 
 ture, tlie work of production Between 1821 and 1831, the 
 number of adult males increased 630,000, but the number of 
 tbose employed in agriculture diminished 19,000. The Town 
 population, that which lives by the work of conversion and 
 exchange is steadily increasing in its ratio to the producing 
 population, and as a necessary consequence there is a steady 
 increase Qf poverty, vice and crime." 
 
192 
 
 favour a reduced tariff. For several months, while 
 Congress and the country have been paying atten- 
 tion chiefly to the silver agitation and to the Re- 
 publican faction fighting over the public patronage, 
 a Sub-Committee of the Ways and Means Com- 
 mittee have been framing, under Mr. Wood's 
 guidance, a new Tariff Bill. A few days ago 
 the Sub-Committee reported it to the full Com- 
 mittee, and it was made public 
 
 The opposition to it in the Middle St.'ites, while 
 very strong in the newspapers^ also takes the 
 form of indignation meetings and the pouring in upon 
 Congress of almost iimumer able anti-tariff reduction 
 petitions, A prominent feature of this opposition 
 has been the loorMng meiH s Protectionist demonstra- 
 tion at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 9th inst. 
 
 This Pittsburg demonstration was a procession 
 and mass meeting. For several days prepara- 
 tions loere made for it^ and all the factories and mills 
 were closed so as to give the worhmen opportunity to 
 participate. The day was damp and the clouds 
 lowering, while a heavy rain the previous day 
 falling upon the remains of the last snowstorm 
 made the not over- clean streets a sea of mud. 
 But.^ nothing daunted., at least 15,000 worhmen 
 marched in procession., while half a million people 
 gazed upon the pageant., the surrounding country for 
 miles heing almost stripped of inhabitants. Except- 
 ing a few coaches containing the city officials, the 
 procession was entirely composed of workmen, 
 
193 
 
 marching four and six abreast, and carrying ban- 
 ners displaying mottoes which illustrated the 
 object of the demonstration. The popular belief 
 that England is at the bottom of the proposed re- 
 duction of the tariff found expression in a variety 
 of ways. Here are some of the mottoes : — 
 "" America first, England afterward ;" '' The im- 
 portation of British iron means starvation to 
 American freemen ;'' " Congress must not reduce 
 Americans to the level of European serfs ; we 
 want high tariff and prosperity ;" '' High tariff gua- 
 rantees prosperity throughout the country ;" '' We 
 leant Protection to the last^ and nail that to the mastf^ 
 " No British gold for us." Two companion ban- 
 ners were borne, one inscribed " Free Trade with 
 America," and having a picture of John Bull and 
 the British Lion, well-fed and contented ; the other 
 inscribed " Free Trade in America," representing a 
 hungry and tattered iron-worker tramping along a 
 road and passing a milestone which said, '' One 
 mile to the Poor-house." A banner had on one 
 side an iron mill in ruins, labelled^ " Free Trade," 
 while on the other side a mill in prosperous opera- 
 tion was marked '' High tariff." Another bore the 
 inscriptions, " This is no time to experiment with 
 Free Trade," and '' Put tea and coffee on the free 
 list, but protect home industries." Another large 
 display said, '^ Free Trade — foreign countries ijros- 
 per at our expense'^ The procession showed that 
 the best feeling existed between tlie employers and 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 workmen, tliougli times liave been very bad at 
 Pittsburg, and such expressions as '' Protection to 
 the manufacturer means 'prosperity to the working 
 m.an^'' were frequent. 
 
 The Exposition buikling in which the mass 
 meeting was held is an enclosure covering several 
 acres, and a vast crowd filled it, listening to Pro- 
 tectionist orations delivered from three platforms 
 at the same time. The speakers were men of local 
 fame only, and came mostly from the ranks of the 
 procession; but the leading people of Pittsburg 
 gave the use of their names as officers of the meet- 
 ing, the sentiment of the city and its neighbourhood 
 being almost unanimous on the subject. The ad- 
 dresses generally advised that the present tariff be 
 let alone, denouncing any change in the Protectionist 
 duties^ particularly on iron and steely the chief 
 Pittsburg industries. Free Trade was unanimously 
 opposed^ and one of the orators declared that ''^ the 
 mamfacturing interests of England lie prostrate to- 
 day^ the result of Free Trade and open polish The 
 meeting adopted resolutions expressive of its senti- 
 ments, and determined to send Congress a 
 memorial on the subject. These resolutions repre- 
 sent the Protectionist views in reference to the 
 proposed reduction of the tariff, and I therefore 
 quote them : — 
 
 The agriculturists, merchants, manufacturers, and working 
 m.en of Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, West Virginia, 
 and Maryland, in mass convention assembled, representing 
 all shades of opinion, having considered the proposed changes 
 
195 
 
 in the present tariff laws and their effect upon our industrial 
 interests and the prosperity of the whole country, do hereby 
 declare : — 
 
 "That whereas it is especially important at this time, when 
 the country is just emerging from the greatest depression 
 known to our history, that no obstacle be thrown in the way 
 of returning prosperity ; and whereas we believe, and expe- 
 rience has shown, that one of the principal causes of business 
 depression in this country has been the frequent and radical 
 changes in the laws bearing upon our material interests, the 
 constant agitation whereof produces a state of uncertainty, 
 which is destructive of business enterprise ; and whereas an 
 examination of the provisions of the proposed Tariff Bill 
 shows that its effect will be injurious to many of the indus- 
 tries which we represent, and absolutely fatal to some, and 
 whereas the blighting effect of the agitation of these changes 
 is already apparent in reduced revenues, in the disorganization 
 of business enterprises, and in the check of that returning con- 
 fidence so necessary to prosperity, therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That, reiterating our abiding faith in Protection 
 and its beneficial effects on the whole country, we protest 
 against any departure from its principles in the framing of 
 our tariff laws. 
 
 " Resolved, That, we deem it unwise, inexpedient, and 
 hostile to the best interests of the country to make radical 
 change in a law which an experience of 16 years has shown to 
 be highly advantageous to the welfare of the nation, and to 
 have been the largest factor in the development of our 
 resources. 
 
 " Resolved, That a due sense of patriotism and proper re- 
 gard for the development of the resources of our country and 
 a becoming attention on the part of the Grovernment to the 
 welfare of all its citizens require that the paramount object to 
 be kept in view in all tariff legislation is the protection of the 
 people and their concerns, rather than any concessions to 
 foreign solicitations or interests. 
 
 " Resolved, That upon this question the interests of em- 
 ployer and em2Jloye, of labour and capital, are identical. 
 
 la * 
 
196 
 
 " Resolved, That the proposed revision of the tariff must re- 
 Bnlt in the curtailment of the quantity and variety of our pro- 
 ducts, and imposing burdens thereon which cannot but bear 
 heavily upon the class of men who, by their skill and labour, 
 contribute to the production of these varied articles, and that 
 it is neither wise nor humane to take such a step as shall result 
 either in the enforced idleness of thousands of labouring men 
 or in the necessity of such wages as shall afford only the most 
 meagre subsistence to their families. 
 
 " Resolved, That the chairman of this Convention shall 
 appoint a committee of 15, representing the various interests 
 involved, who shall prepare a memorial setting forth the 
 especial hardships that will be entailed by the proposed tariff 
 changes, which shall be forwarded to our members of Congress, 
 with the request that they use all fair and honourable means 
 to prevent any radical change in the existing rates and duty." 
 
 As TO THE POSSIBILITY OF COMBINATION OF FoREIGN 
 
 Nations in their Tariffs, as opposed to 
 Engl;\nd's Free- Trade Policy. 
 
 In 1843, only one year after the 5 and 6 Victoria, 
 c. 47, entitled ''An Act to amend the Laws relating to 
 the Customs," 9th July, 1842, the first of Sir Robert 
 Peel's experimental policy, there appeared in the 
 first volume of The Foreign and Colonial Quarterly 
 Eevieic (Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane) an 
 able article written in a very fair spirit, " Com- 
 mercial Policy at Home and Abroad," and looking 
 back through a period of four-and -thirty years and 
 considering foreign tariffs at the present time, the 
 following passage has peculiar interest. 
 
197 
 
 " There is," says the Reviewer, "a supposition 
 which seems to haunt some minds : that of a com- 
 hination of Foreign nations against England to 
 exclude lier^ as a common foe from the commerce of 
 the world. We do not believe that so preposterous 
 a conception has a place anywhere,* except possibly 
 in the minds of a few among our own countrymen, 
 
 * We find, however, in a recent number of the Journal des 
 Dehats, for the 9th of November last (1842) an intimation 
 that such a combination may become necessary. Speaking of 
 the woollen trade of Belgium, the writer says : " Une decrois- 
 sance analogue, bien que moins sensible, se fait sentir dans ses 
 exportations de tissus de laine. L'avantage pour ses articles 
 passe de plus en plus a I'Angleterre. Ce ne sera pas trop 
 bientot, que I'union de toutes les forces industrielles de I'ouest 
 du continent contre la puissance productive croissante de 
 cette redoutable rivale !" 
 
 With our Home-Trade mainly resting on the safe basis of a 
 more extended and profitable agriculture both in the Mother- 
 Country and her Colonies, however we might regret such a 
 combination we should at least have less reason to care for it. 
 We cannot be surprised that other nations should wish to pro- 
 tect their manufacturers from such a struggle for existence as 
 is named in the following letter which appeared in the Times 
 of the 16th January, 1878. 
 
 "Paper Manufacture. — Sir, — Mr. Brook Lambert is incorrect 
 in stating that the extension of paper works now being made 
 is made in the hope of large profits when a revival comes. 
 They are being made in order, if possible, to secure some 
 profit by diminishing the dead weight. 
 
 " The chances are that before many years are past (unless the 
 manifest injustice of allowing foreign paper to come in duty 
 free while prohibitive duties are put upon foreign rags is done 
 away with) the paper trade in England will be extinct. 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " January 16, 1878. A PAPER MAKER.'' 
 
198 
 
 hard pressed by the recent complications of com- 
 mercial disaster, and predisposed accordingly to 
 the most doleful imao'inations. There have been 
 
 o 
 
 The Board of Trade returns for June issued to-day are 
 again unfavourable. The exports have fallen off nearly SJ 
 per cent, against June last year, and the imports show an in- 
 crease of over 5 per cent. As the reduction in the value of 
 the exports is still due to receding prices, the actual bulk of 
 the export trade may be said to be well maintained, and that 
 is so far satisfactory ; but after making all allowance for this 
 the figures are disheartening. That the imports should con- 
 tinue to maintain so high a level against ever-receding export 
 values is also unsatisfactory when the source of the increase is 
 examined. Dearer food may be said to cause the whole of it, 
 wheat and wheaten flour alone covering more than the excess. 
 We have no longer, therefore, the same large import of raw 
 materials for manufacture which swelled the returns of 1875 
 and helped to sustain those of 1876. On the contrary, cotton, 
 hemp, jute, and wool were all received in much lesser quanti- 
 ties last month, and only flax and silk in marked excess. The 
 import totals of value are therefore sustained by the greater 
 import and higher prices of corn and sugar, and in lesser 
 measure by that of such articles as silk, tea, wood, or hides. 
 However rich a country may be, this state of things must tell 
 on its prosperity. We are now buying many things dear and 
 selling most things cheap — a state of business which must 
 pinch the community more and more severely the longer it 
 lasts. To sell cheap means to lower wages, and low wages 
 with comparatively dear bread can only in the long run bring 
 one result. The evil is not very gigantic yet, however, and 
 an abundant harvest would probably avert any alarming con- 
 sequences, restoring the two sides of the trade account to a 
 sounder footing. 
 
 The export trade is, indeed, in one sense healthy, the 
 quantities in some important instances being larger than they 
 were this time last year, though prices still go downward. 
 Thus, cotton yarns and piece-goods, iron, and steel, linen 
 piece-goods, and several minor articles, continue to be freely 
 
191) 
 
 we must admit ^ signs in the course of the last 
 twelve months which might appear to support sucli 
 an opinion. With hi that period France has passed 
 
 exported. Against this, however, has to be set a heavy falling- 
 oiF in the export of woollen manufactures, combined with an 
 increased export of raw wool. It is true that for the six 
 months the export of wool has been less than last year and a 
 brief month's demand may mean nothing ; but the falling off 
 in the principal woollen manufactured staples has also been 
 long continued and persistent. The exports of refined sugar 
 are 'also decreasing heavily, and the price of silk has 
 evidently told most materially on the demand for silk tissues. 
 In jute, again, business would appear to very bad, and the 
 falling off in the exports of machinery and mill- work, not- 
 withstanding lower prices, is serious. So with the chemical 
 trade, the copper trade, and the oil trade. Demand abroad 
 has obviously lessened very considerably, and although the 
 decrease is more visible, perhaps, in June than it was earlier 
 in the year, there can be no doubt that it is hardly a passing 
 one. British India and our own colonies are in some respects 
 our best customers just now and our steadiest, for even France 
 has been buying much less from us than usual, while the 
 demand of the United States is, of course, still declinino*. 
 Taking account of these and such like facts and tendencies, 
 we can only conclude that our trade is at present seriously 
 depressed, and that lately its conditions have in some respects 
 materially altered for the worse. No doubt the outbreak of 
 war has had much to do with the change, the price of corn, to 
 take one example, having been forced up be^^ond what was 
 justified in the first moments of alarm. This disturbing 
 element is, at the worst, temporary, and we may well believe 
 that the country vnll soon show signs of surmounting it. As 
 it is, no more signal proof of the wealth and staying power 
 of the community at large could well be given than is to be 
 found in the manner in which it bears its present burdens of 
 depressed trade and low profits.* — Time^, Jaly 9, 1877. 
 
 But is it safe to mistake tranquillity — the result of exha 
 
 us- 
 
200 
 
 an ordinance doubling tlie duty on linen yarns^ a 
 measure hostile enough had it been uniform with 
 its application to all countries, but lest there should 
 
 Our Ports. — More tlaan nine-tenths (in value) of tlie ex- 
 ports in the year 1875 of the produce of the United Kingdom 
 was shipped at 12 ports. From London went merchandise 
 of the value of £57,923,927; from Liverpool, £79,460,771; 
 from Hull, £23,273,231; from Grimsby, £10,149,580; from 
 Glasgow, £9,128,372 ; from Southampton, £8,652,933 ; from 
 Newcastle, £4,882,433 ; from Leith, £3,848,466 ; from Car- 
 diff, £2,837,747; from Harwich, £2,806,149; from Hartle- 
 pool, £2,484,648; from Folkestone, £2,253,678. These 
 amounts together exceed £207,000,000 of the £223,465,963 
 which is the total value of the British and Irish produce ex- 
 ported in the year. Liverpool takes the lead in its vast ex- 
 ports of our cotton, linen, and woollen goods, and the exports 
 of coal materially raise the totals at Newcastle and Cardiff. 
 The twelve principal ports of entry for imports of foreign and 
 colonial merchandise are not exactly the same as the chief 
 ports of departure above named. The imports into the port 
 of London in 1875 reached the value of £135,102,452 ; Liver- 
 pool, £105,095,188 ; Hull, £18,456,334 ; Folkestone, 
 £11,822,742 ; Southampton, £9,236,460 ; Glasgow, 
 £8,987,005; Leith, ^'8,084,081 ; Bristol, ^6,911,963; New- 
 haven, £6,143,741 ; Greenock, ^-5,869,987; Dover, £5,409,042; 
 Newcastle, £5,151,115. These sums together exceed 
 5f 326,000,000, and constitute nearly nine-tenths of the 
 £373,939,577, the total value of the imports of merchandise 
 
 tion — for content ? If we would know how a nation is really 
 progressing we must learn whether her capital of labour is 
 augmenting, and whether the use of it is every day greater 
 and more remunerative ; whether her production — that is to 
 say, her additions to her wealth — -be annually on the increase. 
 All else is but the filigree-work of our civilization — very in- 
 teresting to the artist, to the philosopher, and to the philan- 
 thropist, but not touching the question of a country's rise or 
 fall. 
 
201 
 
 be any ambiguity about its meaning she has 
 actually left open her Belgian frontier to that 
 article at the former duty, on the condition that 
 
 into the United Kingdom in the year. That total was never 
 before equalled in any year, and the value of the exports of 
 British produce in 1875 was never exceeded or equalled, 
 except in the three years next preceding 1875. The imports 
 of the year comprised articles of the value of £139,047,488, 
 being in a raw state and to be used in manufacture ; articles 
 partially manufactured, of the value of £28,568,266 ; articles 
 wholly manufactured, of the value of ^39,552,176 ; articles for 
 food, of the value of ^61 62, 2 74,950, or ten millions more than 
 in the preceding year ; and other miscellaneous articles, 
 £4,496,697.— rime.<?, October 9, 1876. 
 
 The above shows that the value of imports in 1875 was 
 £373,939,577 ; total value of British and Irish exports, 
 £223,465,963 ; plus imports, £150,473,614. 
 
 The SilkTkade.— Sir, —Absence from the countryprevented 
 my sending you the statistics of the silk trade till somewhat 
 late last month, so that you will have two statements rather 
 close together. The Board of Trade returns to the end of 
 November are as follows : — 
 
 Imports in Xoveraber 1859. 1861. 
 
 (The year before the 
 French Treaty.) 
 Broad Stuffs, Silk, or Satin 26,0511bs. 91,9091bs. 
 
 Ribbons of all kinds - - 24,4831bs. 50,llllbs. 
 Imports in the first eleven months of 
 
 1859. 1861. 
 
 Broad Stuffs - . - . 265,5711bs. 905,4631bs. 
 Bibbons of all kinds - - 453,7091bs. 746,1941bs. 
 Exports in the first eleven months of 
 
 1859. 1861. 
 
 Manufactures of Europe, not British. 
 Broad Stuffs, Silk or Satin 6,3821bs. 8,5821bs. 
 
 Ribbons of all kinds - - 22,0241bs. 7,8731bs. 
 
202 
 
 Belgium shall levy tlie higli French duty in lier 
 own Custom- Houses, so as to prevent the transit 
 of the British yarns through that country. To 
 
 Exports of British Manufactures. 
 
 1859. 1861. 
 
 Stuffs, Handkercliiefs, and 
 
 Ribbons - . . - 554,5901bs. 542,6161bs. 
 
 From this it will appear that we continue to import of all 
 silk goods largely in excess of what we did before the French 
 Treaty. In ribbons the increase in imports in the eleven 
 months ending 30th of November last year amounted to 
 292,485 pounds weight, or 64^ per cent. This statement of 
 pounds weight will probably convey to the uninitiated a very 
 vague, if any, idea of the displacement of labour caused by 
 this change in the place where the ribbons have been made 
 for us — that is, in France and Switzerland, instead of 
 Coventry, Derby, and Congleton. But it will be very clear 
 when they are informed that the increased imports alone of the 
 first eleven months of 1861 would have suiiplied full work to the 
 greatest number of weavers ever eynployed in Derby at one moment 
 in our most prosperous times for fully three years and four months. 
 But that is far from being all ; for it must be remembered 
 that no weaver can be thrown out of work without those 
 being also so who prepare the silk by throwing, dyeing, wind- 
 ing, and various other processes, and this number cannot be 
 calculated at less than four for each weaver. This perhaps 
 will serve to explain the melancholy fact of the very large 
 number of workpeople now out of employ, and why upAvards 
 of twenty — more than half — of the silk mills in the town are 
 now closed entirely, and the rest mostly working short time 
 and with far less than their usual number of hands. I believe 
 we are not worse off than our neighbours in the silk trade. 
 The present condition of Coventry is vividly portrayed in the 
 Coventry Herald of last Friday. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Derby Mercury, Jan. 7, 1862. J. L. 
 
203 
 
 this disreputable and Imrailiating proposal Belgium 
 has consented. Again, amidst the loudest pro- 
 fessions from the Prussian Government of an 
 
 The Associated Chambers of Commerce. — The 18th annual 
 meeting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce will be 
 held at the Westminster Palace Hotel on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 
 and the two following days. The notice-paper contains an 
 unusually long list of propositions, Sunderland, Derby, and 
 Sheffield having given notices of motion with reference to 
 free trade, calling attention to the want of reciprocity on the 
 part of several Governments, and requesting the Council to 
 press this question at the Board of Trade. The Dundee 
 Chamber proposes that it is urgently required to enlarge the 
 powers of the present commercial department at the Foreign 
 Office by remodelling it, and placing it in charge of a per- 
 manent Under-Secretary of State, and that steps be taken for 
 the formation of an Internatioual Free Trade Association. 
 The Leeds Chamber will also propose that Mr. S. S. Lloyd 
 be requested to move in the House of Commons for a Select 
 Committee to inquire into and report upon the manner in 
 which the commercial interests of this country are watched 
 ovef and furthered by the various departments of the Govern- 
 ment. The following proposition will be submitted by the 
 Birmino-ham Chamber : — " That this Association, after an 
 experience of 35 years of the advantages of Free Trade, 
 expresses its undiminished confidence in its principles, and 
 urges upon the Government the faithful adherence to the 
 same policy, irrespective of the action of foreign nations as 
 regards tariffs and import duties." There are other motions 
 on the French and Anglo-Italian Treaties, and the Spanish 
 Tariff. Among the other subjects discussed will be the 
 necessity of appointing Public Prosecutors, the levying of the 
 Inhabited House Duty, Imperial Taxation, Income-Tax, Post- 
 Ofi&ce Letter Boxes and Telegrams, the Factory Acts, Board 
 of Trade Statistics, the Australian Mail Service, the Bank- 
 ruptcy Laws, the Enlargement of County Court Jurisdiction, 
 the Appointment of a Minister of Commerce, the Continuance 
 
204 
 
 anxiety to advance the relaxation of commercial 
 restrictions, that Government has nevertheless 
 adopted a proceeding not less hostile or mis- 
 chievous than the measure of France with regard 
 to linen yarns. The Congress of Deputies of the 
 Zollverein at Stuttgard have, in a new tariff 
 which is to take effect on the 1st January (1844), 
 besides some minor alterations of an unfavourable 
 kind, decreed, upon the proposal of Prussia, that 
 goods mixed of cotton and wool, if of more than 
 one colour, shall pay fifty thalers the centner 
 instead of thirty ; that is, instead of a very high, 
 shall be liable to an exorbitant and, as it may 
 prove^ a "proliibitory duty. Next, America, as all our 
 readers must be aware, has, after a struggle, passed 
 a tariff subverting altogether the arrangement as 
 established by the Compromise Act of 1833, and 
 imposing upon the various descriptions of manu- 
 factured goods rates of duty varying from 30 to 
 40 and 50 per cent, and upwards, which have had 
 the effect of stojpping a great portion of the sldpynents 
 of cotton goods to that country from Great Britain 
 
 of the Railway Commission, tlie Indian Famine Commission, 
 the Statute of Frauds, and the Registration of Firms. — The 
 Times, Jan. 15, 1878. 
 
 Happily, at last, even some of the Chambers of Commerce, 
 have come to doubt the policy of 1844. But the Times has 
 told them that the want of " reciprocity " is not the cause of 
 the depression of trade, and Mr. Hoyle has told them that the 
 great falling off in the home trade has caused and ever will 
 cause depression until it is revived by increasing the ^ower 
 to purchase more food and clothing. 
 
205 
 
 during the past autumn (i.e.^ of 1842) and, without 
 doubt, have added greatly to the distresses of our 
 manufacturing population. Besides the greater 
 instances, Eussia, according to her wont in such 
 matters, and kSpain, have published within the last 
 fifteen months new tariffs, of which it is difficult 
 to say whether they are still ivorse than, or only as 
 execrably had as those which they succeeded ; but 
 in the close rivalry between the old and the new 
 the latter seem upon the whole entitled to the palm 
 of prohibitive rigour. And Portugal, also, has 
 augmented the duties payable upon certain classes 
 of her imports by a measure of the recent date of 
 March 1841, and by another of the present year. 
 In the meantime, Spain has concluded a treaty 
 with Belgium for the admission of her linens, and 
 the King of Prussia has effected an arrangement 
 with the Czar which, in certain particulars, secures 
 upon his own frontier a relaxation of the iron 
 strictness of the Russian system. England has 
 concluded no commercial treaty with any of these 
 powers, and the negotiation with France which 
 the measures of Lord Palmerston interrupted in 
 1840, at the very period of its ripeness, appears 
 still to slumber." 
 
 What is shown by the above extract seems to 
 afford little encouragement to proceed further in 
 such "experimental policy," and yet Sir Robert 
 did in 1846, and other ministers have since gone 
 beyond him in the same policy, and now, in 1878, 
 
206 
 
 the struggle and demand for reciprocity with foreign 
 tariffs are being carried on as much as ever. 
 Verily^ what Coleridge foretold has, or seems to 
 have, come to pass, viz. — ^" that, by becoming a 
 great horde of manufacturers^ we have, more than 
 at the time he wrote, excited the ill-will of all the 
 manufacturers of other nations." Is there no 
 danger likely to result from the confession that 
 England so requires the maintenance of an ex- 
 tended foreign trade for her prosperity that she is 
 ready to cast herself at the feet of the rest of the 
 world, and acknowledge that we are subject to the 
 liabilities of a dependence which is not reci- 
 procal ? 
 
 The Christmas Article in the '' Times " of 
 
 1876. 
 In the Times of the 25th December, (1876), in a 
 well considered and able leader on our Christmas 
 Charities, it is said^ '' ohligations loe all admit are 
 becoming every year larger and more difficult. The 
 chief peril of society consists in its contrasts and 
 its differences. The contrasts are groioing continu- 
 ally more violent and the differences wider* The 
 
 * Whicli means, in other words, the rich are becoming 
 richer and the poor poorer, and hence unable to clothe and 
 feed themselves as thej would and should do, and hence the 
 home-market for our own manufactures, as Mr. Hoyle has 
 shown, is so suffering, and was in 1869 when our exports 
 were so very lai'ge. 
 
207 
 
 increasing aggregation of the people in towns, 
 instead of the more scattered distribution of former 
 days^ makes those differences more galling and hard 
 to he home, 
 
 " These are but homely suggestions — too homely 
 some will think for the season. It is rather a 
 time^ they will say, for extraordinary and strictly 
 seasonable hospitalities. But every year repeats 
 and intensifies a painful impression that sudden 
 gushes and fitful manifestations of henevolence have 
 hut a LIMITED power to cure the deeper ills of the 
 social state . . . Perhaps it is 'possible to 
 improve men upon the Christmas Appeal. There 
 is much more to he done than to contribute to charit- 
 able Societies^ lohich^ after all^ cannot go to the 
 ROOT OF THE MATTER." Whilst making' these 
 extracts, some beautiful and suggestive lines by 
 one of the most elegant female writers of late 
 days, (Mrs. Norton, afterwards Lady Stirling 
 Maxwell), in reference to ' The Man of Sorrows/ 
 have been brought to the recollection of the writer 
 of these pages : 
 
 God has built up a bridge 'twixt man and man 
 Which mortal strength can never overthrow, 
 Over the world it stretches its wide span, 
 The key-stone of that mighty arch is Woe ! 
 Pleasure divides us ; the Divine command 
 Hath made of sorrow's links a firm connecting band. 
 
208 
 
 Accumulations of Capital. 
 
 At the meeting of the Statistical Society held 
 last evening, under the presidency of Mr. Shaw 
 Lefevre, M.P., a paper was read by Mr. Bohert 
 Giffen on Becent Accumulations of Capital in the 
 United Kingdom. It ajpjpeared that the growth of 
 those accumulations had been very rapid. The 
 Income Tax returns showed that the gross income 
 assessed rose in Great Britain from dB115, 000,000 
 at the beginning of the century to £130,000,000 
 in 1815, £251,000,000 in 1S43, and £262,000,000 
 in 1853 ; and then, in the United Kingdom, from 
 £308,000,000 in 1855 to £396,000,000 in 1865, 
 and £571,000,000 in 1875.* If the capital of 
 that portion of the income derived from capital 
 had only progressed at the same rate, the annual 
 increase of capital all through, and especially 
 of recent years, must have been enormous. The 
 
 * If what Mr. Robert Giffen here states be true, it confirms 
 what the leader in the Times of the 20th February, 1860, says, 
 and leaves no doubt as to the wisdom of Lord Bacon in fore- 
 seeing and warning that, " above all things, good policy is 
 to be used that the treasure and money in a state be not 
 gathered into few hands ; for, otherwise, a state may have a 
 great stock and yet starve," &c. : See p. 15. It will be well 
 for the nation to consider also, whether we can violate with 
 IMPUNITY what he has further said in his " Essay on Seditions 
 and Troubles." It was rather unfortunate for Mr. Giffen 
 that the paragraph disavowing the terrible distress in Shefiield 
 should immediately follow." — Recent Accumulations of Cajjital 
 in the United Kingdom. 
 
209 
 
 increase in tlie income assessed between 18G5 
 and 1875 amounted to £175,000,000, ^liich 
 was equal to 44 per cent, of the income assessed 
 in 1865. Leaving out altogether the capital not 
 yielding income, a similar increase of capital, 
 assuming the present amount to be what he had 
 stated, would give us for 1865 a total capital of 
 about £5,200,000,000, on which the increase at 
 44 per cent, would be £2,228,000,000 ; or, in 
 round figures, £230,000,000 per annum. Mr. 
 Giffen observed that if his estimate was moderate, 
 and any cause would justify a higher figure for 
 the present capital, then the increase between 
 1865 and 1875 would be even more than he had 
 stated. A question lohich had been raised of late 
 loas whether the nation was now spending its capital. 
 The figures in his paper might, he thought, be 
 taken to prove that if the nation had begun to 
 spend its capital instead of saving capital, the 
 process was a very new one. As far as his 
 researches carried him^ the fact he had to deal with 
 was that the rate of saving had been far greater of 
 late than at any previous period during the present 
 century ; that the saving all through had been at 
 an increasing rate. The figures woidd also show 
 that the only fact alUged in proof that we were 
 living on our capital loas insufficient to mahe out 
 the case. That allegation ivas that the excess of 
 imports teas now so great as to shoio that we were 
 calling in our capital from abroad. There was 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 incidental evidence as to the great amount of 
 lendino; in former vears, loliich entitled us to the 
 receipt in each year of an enormous income from 
 foreign countries^ so that the excess of imjoorts toould 
 need to he much larger than it was to prove any 
 material calling in of capital from abroad. Apart 
 from this evidence, however, it must also be 
 apparent that if the nation was calling in some 
 fraction of its foreign investment, it was not there- 
 fore stopping its savings or diminishing its capital. 
 The foreign investments, though they were very 
 large in the years before 1875, were by no means 
 the chief part of the national accumulations. Our 
 main savings were at home. Before the nation could 
 he said to he living on its capital^ it must he shown 
 that not only teas capital heing called in from 
 abroad^ but that more icas so called in than was 
 being simidtaneously invested at home. He had 
 not seen this point considered by any of those who 
 had made the suggestion that the nation was 
 living on its capital. The reading of the paper, 
 which lasted upwards of an hour, was followed 
 by a discussion in which Dr. Guy, F.E.S., Mr. 
 Stephen Bourne, Mr. Newmarch, F.R.S., who 
 expressed his belief that the figures given by Mr. 
 Giffen were considerably below the reality, Mr. 
 C. Walford, Captain Craigie, Mr. Mundella, M.P., 
 and the Chairman took part. 
 
211 
 
 The Distress in Sheffield. 
 
 The gentlemen who have been caviymg out a 
 tentative arrangement for the relief of sufferers by 
 the distress in Sheffield met the Mayor, Alderman 
 Mappin, yesterday morning, to report the result 
 of their labours. They stated that the distress was 
 much deeper and more loidely spread than was 
 generalhj supposed^ and that to properly grapple loith 
 it something more extensive than private enterprise 
 was needed. It was decided to form a committee in 
 each parish, with the vicars as chairmen, assisted 
 by the ministers of the various denominations, and 
 all deserving cases are to be relieved. Among 
 families tickets for groceries and meat will be 
 distributed, and an arrangement is being made by 
 which dinners will be given three days a week in 
 halls in central places to poor children. The 
 Mayor has issued an appeal to the public for con- 
 tributions, a,nd on Saturday two sheets placed in 
 prominent parts of the town realized £d>6. I85 2f cZ. 
 The Mayor's fund in addition has already realized 
 over £370. — IQth January^ 1878. 
 
 Statistics of Wool Imports. 
 
 In 1876, from Australia 263,870,597 lbs.; South 
 Africa, 42,054,712 lbs.; India 24,322,611 lbs.; 
 European Countries, 35,961,694 lbs. ; other Coun- 
 
 14 * 
 
212 
 
 tries, 19,793,228 lbs. ; Total 385,987,842 lbs. 
 The Home- supply of British grown wool was care- 
 fully estimated at 160,000,000 lbs. 
 
 A recent number of the Economist (Dec. 1877) 
 concluded a paper on the question, "Are we con- 
 suming our capital f^ as follows: — 
 
 '' While there seems to us no proof that we are 
 living out of our capital, it is yet obvious that 
 accumulation does not go cm in the country at the 
 same rate as 'previously. So far as the increased 
 importations, which have been so much discussed 
 of late, have been paid for out of the capital set at 
 liberty by the diversion of trade from one channel 
 to another, we are not necessarily the worse off, if 
 the imports have been employed in a manner which 
 will he a source of future profit. So far as we are 
 accumulating stocks of manufactured goods in the 
 country for future use,, a source of future profit may 
 he merely accumulating unsold, waiting till a 
 demand may, as it doubtless will, in course of time 
 spring up. So far as our importations of articles of 
 food enable us to support a large population engaged 
 in preparing stocks of manufactured articles draion 
 from materials found within our oicn boundaries^ 
 this supply of food is the stay also of an industry 
 lohich may also be classed as productive. So long 
 as the country is merely fetching back in one shape 
 or another the capital which it formerly exported, 
 no injury is done to its permanent prosperity. But 
 further it cannot safely go. There are limits in 
 
213 
 
 time to iJie largest accumulated resources^ and there 
 are other considerations besides mere movements of 
 caintal to he thought of. There may have heen^ and 
 there prohahly loas^ a considerable increase^ in the 
 days of our recent prosperity^ in the unproductive 
 expenditure of the country^ and this must lead to its 
 idtimate impoverishment. There is the difference 
 in the modes of life started or developed during the 
 recent years of too abundant sunshine to be borne 
 in mind. Tliere has been much loaste of capital in 
 various loays. It is always unpleasant for ^people^ 
 when less well off than they have been^ to come doion 
 to a loicer scale of expenditure ; but come down they 
 must^ if they loould avoid ruin. The prodigcdity in- 
 dulged in among the working classes during the time 
 of high wages has been the theme of many a speech 
 and many a statement. The recldess extravagance of 
 those above them in station^ loho suddenly enriched^ 
 thought there loas^ as the old saying has it, ' no bottom 
 to the money bag^ the sums lavished upon costly 
 buildings., on splendid establishments., on luxuries of 
 every description — cdl these have to be written off the 
 account., as so much wasted capital. Yet the business 
 heart of the nation is still thoroughly sound. The 
 evidence is strong in favour of this. The Clearing- 
 house returns^ the railway returns^ the receipts of 
 the Exchequer^ all show that though the great 
 wave of prosperity, which seemed as if it would 
 bear everything so rapidly onwards with it a few 
 years since, is stayed in its course, and has for the 
 
214 
 
 moment even receded, im may well hope to maintam 
 our ])osition hy a timely economy. Betrencliment will 
 undouhtedly have to he the order of the day^ and when 
 the cloud IS removed.^ it is to he hoped that the lessons 
 of the past will not he forgotteny 
 
 " So farj^ says this paper, "as our importations 
 of articles of food enable us to support a large 
 population engaged in preparing stocks of manu- 
 factured articles deawn feom materials found 
 
 WITHIN OUR OWN BOUNDARIES, tllis SUpplj of food 
 
 is the stay also of an industry wliicli may also be 
 classed as productive. But is the greatest portion 
 of such articles manufactured ''from materials 
 iomA within our own hoiindariesf' The amount 
 of the large increase of imports, though doubtless 
 mainly for food, embraces a great amount of foreign 
 raw materials for our manufactures. Let us ever 
 remember too, that the capital paid for food to 
 support our artizans whilst engaged in these verv 
 manufactures, goes to enrich other nations instead 
 of being circulated amongst our own farmers and 
 agricultural and other labourers in this country, 
 and hence '' the depression, as Mr. Hoyle tells us, 
 in the Home-Marhet during the very year wdien 
 our exports were the greatest. If such an amount 
 of capital were circulated in this country, our Home- 
 trade would again flourish, but never can till more 
 is done to enable us to feed and provide more food 
 from our own land, for our own people, in proportion 
 to their increase. Then the power of the people to 
 
215 
 
 'purcliase would be increased^ instead of, as it is 
 under existing circumstances, being gradually 
 diminislied. 
 
 We have in this country tens of thousands of 
 unemployed, half-employed, and mis-employed 
 hands. We have, at the same time, idtliin this 
 Idncjdom and its colonies^ hundreds of millions of 
 uncultivated and half -cultivated acres of prolific 
 land. The combination of land and labour has 
 ever been, and must ever he the foundation of all real 
 wealth. And it really is a scandal to civilization, 
 it is a standing reproach to a Christian Legislature 
 that while within little more than the last half- 
 century, railroads have been invented to traverse 
 the land and steam-boats to over-ride the ocean, 
 so as to be able to convey unemployed hands to 
 uncultivated acres with a degree of speed, cheap- 
 ness^ and safety, utterly unknown to former times, 
 yet the honest poor, the untrained youth, and the 
 mismanaged portion of our prison poiDidation are 
 shut out from this never-failing source of wealth 
 and happiness, and are left to drag out a miserable 
 existence in involuntary idleness, or in wilful 
 crime. 
 
 In a short and interesting paper lately read 
 before the Statistical Society, by Mr. Fredenck 
 Martin, author of the Statesman s Year Book, or 
 Births^ Deaths^ and Marriages^ and the Comjjarative 
 Progress of Population, in some of the 'princijpal 
 countries of Europe — !Mr. Martin said that '' as far 
 
216 
 
 as could be ascertained from the vital Statistics of 
 the nine States passed under review, and leaving 
 out of view disturbing elements ; such as emigra- 
 tion, the average increase of population is largest in 
 England, and that it seems probable that at the 
 end of the present century the population of 
 England and Wales will have risen to thirty 
 millions. 
 
 Our Army. 
 
 In BlackwoocFs Edinhurgli Magazine for August, 
 1871, is an excellent letter from Brigadier-General 
 Adye, on '^National Defence and Army Organ- 
 isation," and his concluding words, setting forth 
 the qualities essential to secure a successful army, 
 are especially w^orth remembering. 
 
 "There are three main principles,^' he say^, 
 '^ on which all successful armies must be formed — 
 first, disciplines^ and professional leaders. The 
 first is the training of the body. Men who aspire 
 to be soldiers must not only be well-drilled to the 
 use of their arms, but they must be content to sleep 
 in the open ah\ to live occasionally upon rough, 
 scanty, hadly-coohed food;\ and in every respect to 
 
 * Can a stronger inducement to discipline be found or 
 suggested than that set forth by the Wisdom of Solomon, 
 ch. vi. 17, 18, 19. 
 
 •j- The Club-life of our young men does not tend to promote 
 the qualities here enumerated as essential in a soldier. 
 
217 
 
 submit cheerfully to ex;posure and privations. The 
 second is the training of the mincl^ and is far more 
 difficult of acquirement. Soldiers, to be really siich^ 
 must be content to sacrifice their personal and 
 political liberties, and in silence and cheerfulness to 
 suhmit to the suj^erior loill of their commanding 
 officers. These iron rules are absolute^ and can 
 never he relaxed; they are the basis of all success. 
 But above all it is necessary that armed men 
 should be commanded by experienced professional 
 leaders. A man who aspires to lead others must 
 know more^ dare more — aye, have suffered more — 
 than they. He must be one to whom his men can 
 look up loith confidence and with a feeling that he 
 is able to lead them to victory and, what is still 
 more difficult, to save them in defeat. Armed men 
 without such a leader loill rarely gain a victory.^ and 
 a disaster will render them a despairing .^ helpless 
 mob of men with muskets. These principles are 
 eterncd. They have been the foundation of successful 
 armies since the creation^ and will continue to be so 
 till the end. Each one can judge for himself how 
 far they form the basis of our present military 
 arrangements, and how far the nation generally is 
 prepared to acquiesce in them. There are many 
 loho fear that a large number of people in this 
 country are gradually giving themselves up to luxury 
 and pleasure^ whilst others are completely absorbed 
 
 * Six years after this excellent letter by Brigadier- General 
 Adye appeared in BlachvoocVs Magazme — when lie had 
 
 r 
 
218 
 
 in the sordid pursuit of wealth. If this he so in any 
 great degree our national character will assuredly 
 deteriorate and the Army cannot be maintained in 
 efficiency. If we continue to be hrave^ simple, en- 
 become Major-General Sir Jolin Adye, K.C.B., and Governor 
 of tlie Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, it must have been 
 painful to him, in making his report of the Gentleman Cadets 
 to his Royal Highness, the Commander-in-Chief, to find him- 
 self obliged to insert the following passage : — 
 
 " The conduct of the Gentlemen Cadets about to be com- 
 missioned, has not in some respects been so satisfactory during 
 this term, as I could have desired. There have been no serious 
 ofiences committed by them ; but a certain amount of slackness 
 or tlioughtlessness lias been observable, and the officer's of the 
 Company cannot, therefore, have received that constant support 
 from the under officers to w^hich they were entitled. In those 
 circumstances, I regret not being able to make any recommend- 
 ation to your Royal Highness as to the presentation of a 
 regulation sivord, w^ hich is usually given as a reward for excellent 
 conduct.^* — Times, 25th July, 1877. 
 
 It would indeed seem that the passion for gain, the intense 
 struggle to keep tip appearances, the importance which is 
 attached to mere physical comfort, and the habits of luxury, have 
 sapped the very foundations of the body politic. 
 
 " Sed, per deos immortales, vos ego appello, qui semper 
 domes, villas, signa, tabellas vestras pluris quam rempublicam 
 fecstis." — Sallust, Cataline i. 11. 
 
 In the 4th leading article of the Times of March 4th, 1870, 
 will be found the following paragraph : — 
 
 " It is said that the stress of life is grooving more intense day 
 by day. Yet we doubt whether pleasure ivas ever pursued tvith 
 well-intentioned diligence by a greater proportion of the English- 
 speaking race." 
 
 May not dissipation be a more correct word than pleasure, 
 and sought in too many instances in order to induce forgetful- 
 ness for a time of the painful consciousness that " the stress 
 of life is growing more intense day by day." 
 
219 
 
 tcrprising, and modesty as of yore^ the country Is In 
 no danger ; but if, on tlie other hand, we become 
 lazij^ frivolous^ and effeminate^ and if toe live cldefiij 
 for the pleasure of heaping up money, then it may 
 be relied on that no army organization^ however 
 perfect^ loill he sufficient to save us in the day of 
 peril^ shoukl it come." This grave but friendly 
 warning was written and published in 1871. 
 
 In a letter which appeared in the Times of the 
 24th December, 1874, from Mr. Edward Walter, 
 Barracks of the Corps of Commissionaires, Dec. 
 22nd, are the following passages : — 
 
 " Previous to the publication of Col. Anson's 
 letter, (which also w^as given in a previous No. of 
 the Times) I had prepared some notes on the 
 Ijresent as compared with the former moral and 
 'physical state of the rank and file. Circumstances, 
 however, delayed my purpose, and as my views 
 coincide with those expressed by that officer, it is 
 needless now to repeat them. I will, therefore^ 
 confine myself chiefly to quotations from official 
 Eeports bearing on the controversy, adding a few 
 observations founded on an experience of more 
 than thirty years, acquired, during half that time, 
 among discharged soldiers and sailors of every 
 rank and branch in her Majesty's service, of whom 
 nearly 3000 have presented themselves for admis- 
 sion into this corps from its foundation to the 
 present time. 
 
 " The first official document I quote from is that 
 
220 
 
 of Major Du Cane, E.E., on ' Military Prisons/ 
 dated 1873; in this, Col. Wellesley, writing from 
 Gosport^ says : — 
 
 " Desertion would appear to liave been on the 
 increase^ and assumes, with msuhordination^ a 
 'prominent 'place in the list of offences for which 
 imprisonment was awarded." 
 
 Surgeon-Major Tuflfnell, Dublin, says, '' The 
 Ijliysical development of the prisoners admitted 
 during the past year has not been in any way an 
 improvement. There are a large number of men, 
 or RATHEE LADS, now in the service who must 
 break down^ if^z^^ to hardioorh and heavy exertion^ 
 as inseparable from tear. Many of those who 
 have been under confinement during the past 
 twelvemonths, have been weakly and ill-framed^ 
 without muscle, hone^ or courage^ crying like 
 WOMEN in their cells. An inspection of every 
 regiment, each man stripped naked, as they are 
 upon admission into prison, would, I feel assured, 
 exhibit many individuals as in the ranks who are 
 never likely to become efficient soldier s,^^ 
 
 The medical officer at Millbank^ Mr. Gower, 
 says ; — 
 
 " A large proportion of the military prisoners^ 
 amounting to fully 13 per cent, were found to be 
 unfit for hard labour on medical grounds. This 
 unfitness arose in some cases from organic disease^ 
 but in most cases it was due either to feebleness of 
 constitution^ tenuity of muscle^ or defective bodily 
 
091 
 
 development. It is to he hoped., tlierefore,, that 
 although drawn in tolerably equal proportions 
 from the regiments quartered in England and 
 Wales^ they do not fairly represent the Britisli 
 Army.'^ 
 
 " The next witness I intend," says Mr. Walter, 
 " to produce, is Surgeon-Major Leith Adams, 
 whose paper on the Recruiting Question, read last 
 Spring at the Eoyal United Service Institution, 
 ought to be carefully studied by all who wish to 
 make themselves acquainted with the facts of the 
 present physique of the army. He says, p. 10 : 
 
 " Now, I must candidly assert that the physique 
 of our infantry is not at present up to the standard 
 of our race, and I cannot conceal from myself a 
 feeling, that unless remedial measures are adopted,, 
 it Avill become lower and lower. This conclusion 
 has been arrived at mainly from my personal 
 inspection of about 25^000 recruits, over 17,000 
 of whom have been passed into the army." 
 
 After quoting other statistics, one of which is, 
 that out of 1812 enlistments in Scotland during 
 1872 only 746 mew finally reached their regiments^'' 
 he adds — 
 
 " I now venture to assert, as the residt of my 
 experience,, that the army has deteriorated in a 
 morcd and physical sense to a deplorable extent; 
 a gradual change has been going on for many years,, 
 hut in an increasing eatio of late." 
 
 All who remember the Eeport on the Pathology 
 
222 
 
 of the Diseases of the Army by Dr. Lyons, the 
 physician to whom the inquiry as to the cause of 
 the great mortality of the first winter in the 
 Crimea was intrusted, and who went out at the 
 end of April, 1855, and made his Eeport in July 
 of the same year, will be inclined to agree with 
 Mr. Walter as to deterioration taking place at 
 least in the physique of our raw material for the 
 army. 
 
 " The British army suffered fearfully from 
 dysentery, which assumed at length the scorbutic 
 type, and the question arose what were the causes 
 which produced so violent a form of sickness in so 
 fine an army ? The Crimea, it was stated, has by 
 no means an unhealthy climate. Dr. Lyons told 
 us that " the soldier was ill-clothed, ill-fed, and 
 ill-housed during the winter months, while exposed 
 to harassing and excessive duties. These things 
 were the direct cause of disease, but the Eeport 
 attributes much to the physical cliaracter of the 
 men themselves. Among the predisposing causes 
 of sickness were counted, as they must be, the 
 youth and immature condition of a great part 
 of the army. Another class of men, says Dr. 
 Lyons' s Eeport, ill-fitted for a military life, are the 
 recruits gathered at a somewhat advanced age 
 from the large towns. Those who have passed 
 25 or 30 years of life in the close streets and 
 impure atmosphere of a manufacturing or seaport 
 town are generally found to have passed the meri- 
 
223 
 
 dian of their physical development. The testimony 
 of tbe medical officers is unanimous tliat sucli men 
 are early and constant applicants for admission into 
 hospital. The effects of a campaign on the appear- 
 ance of the soldiers is strikingly described in the 
 Beport^ and causes us to understand how those lohom 
 YOUTH or social antecedents may have rendered 
 unsuitable should have so early sunk under the toils 
 of the siege. Some of those effects were visible to 
 the eye. A marked characteristic of the Crimean 
 soldier was a premature appearance of age. With 
 the HAGGARD FEATURES of disease, especially that 
 of a chronic hind.^ these appearances became still 
 more exaggerated, often to a most marked degree." 
 " The principle that the Commissioner has drawn 
 from these facts is of the highest importance. He 
 takes it as proved that English soldiers sent on 
 active service against the enemy, ought to have 
 arrived at perfect manhoods Many will remember 
 that great numbers of mere hoys were sent to 
 replenish our army in the Crimea, and provoked 
 Lord Raglan, then Commander-in-Chief there, to 
 say, in one of his despatches home, " We don't 
 want mere gristle sent out to us, we want bone 
 and sinew." 
 
 It is not the artizan class only that look prema- 
 turely old, as many members of the bar, and, the 
 writer of tliese pages doubts not, the judges also, 
 would state that when agricultural labourers have 
 been placed in the dock at the assizes for trial, their 
 
224 
 
 personal appearance and tlieir ages given in the 
 As.size Calendar so little coincide that all in court 
 have been astounded. The writer of these pages 
 has often heard the presiding judge question such 
 prisoners as to whether they were really not older 
 than was stated in the calendar. The Times 
 article^ 28th July, 1856, continues : — " Yet he (Dr. 
 Lyons) is against recruiting amongst men of a 
 certain age, particularly those who have led an un- 
 healthy and profligate life in great towns. He 
 advises early enlistment, and a system of training. 
 Some singular facts are mentioned 
 in the Report in connection with the surgical opera- 
 tions practised in the various hospitals. A tolerance 
 of the effects of injury and of greater surgical 
 operations has been observed among the Russian 
 prisoners, both in the French and English 
 hospitals, far sujjerior to that exhibited by the 
 wounded among the allied troops^ with the excep- 
 tion, perhaps, of the Sardmians. Our men, though 
 stalwart and healthy looking, were found too soft 
 and inflated for a safe endurance oftvoimds or the 
 surgeon's knife. The report refers to sifact which, it 
 will be remembered, was warmly contradicted, 
 " It was with regret," says Dr. Lyons, " that I 
 noticed subsequently to the month of May that the 
 increased facilities for procuring malt and other in-- 
 toxicating liquors became a means of great and 
 general abuser The Report condemns the issue of 
 porter as a ration, even in moderate quantities, 
 
225 
 
 and states that, immoderately used, as it often was, 
 the consequence was " an inflation of the system 
 and plethoric state not consistent with firm and 
 vigorous health.'^ The document, as a whole, con- 
 iirms many of the views that have heen taken by 
 former observers of the condition of our army, and 
 will, wo diowht^ furnish suggestions for the conduct 
 of any future campaign." 
 
 So ends the article in the Times of 28th July, 
 1856, more than twenty years since ; and it is, indeed 
 an all-imjportant consideration whether the increase 
 of our population during that period has added to 
 the strength of the country or contributed only re- 
 dundancy without strength.* 
 
 And, as regards our Volunteers, the official re- 
 port on the last Easter Monday Field Day, from 
 the General Commanding Home District to the 
 Adjutant-General of the Forces, dated from 
 '^ Home District Office, Horse Guards," is not very 
 satisfactory or assuring. Lord Elcho who, with 
 becoming zeal on behalf of the Volunteers, ques- 
 tioned some parts of the Adjutant- General's re- 
 
 * The Times of the 24th December, 1874, in an article re- 
 lating to our army, truly said : — " We have to keep in the 
 front line of the most powerful States in the world by making 
 one man do duty for several, and this can only be done by a 
 liberal and judicious expenditure. But peace in these days is 
 as expensive in its requirements as war, and we that stay at 
 home are bound to try to live healthily, strongly and long, as 
 in that way only can we spare to send out the men who are 
 to protect our commerce and shores." 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 port, says in his letter wliicli appeared in the 
 Times of the 2nd July^ 1877, under the heading 
 '• Volunteer Officers," '• if its general tenour he 
 correct^ enough remains to fill loith well-founded 
 alarm not only the general jpuhlic and Parliament, 
 who annually vote £500^000 for the maintenance 
 of the Volunteer Force, but also all those who, 
 whether as ministers or Volunteers, have for the 
 last eighteen years, been labouring to create, 
 establish^ and improve it, in the belief th?it^ even as 
 at present constituted or organized, our Volunteer 
 army may be relied on in time of need as a 
 material and efficient element of national defence." 
 We may some time or other be compelled to take 
 our part in the European struggle, to defend and 
 keep down by the parade of an imposing force 
 possible disaffection in India^ to hold with strong 
 garrisons imperial strongholds in the Mediterranean 
 and beyond the seas. The spirit of the nation 
 may be as bold and determined as ever, but moral 
 determinations cannot compensate for the short- 
 comings of ijhysical force. Compared with legions 
 at the beck of other states, our armies are but a 
 mere handful — some 50,000 bayonets at home, 
 15,000 in our colonies, and in India 60,000 more, 
 making up the sum total really under arms. 
 Nor can we lay the flattering unction to our souls 
 that quality makes up for quantity as heretofore.* 
 
 * In a late review of tlie troops at Alclcrshot the Times 
 commented on '■'the youthfulness of too many.'" 
 
227 
 
 Our hoy battalions liavc too recently been tried 
 and found wanting. 
 
 It was a wise saying (and miglit well be taken 
 as a warning) of the late Lord Ellenborougli on 
 tlie late Lord Lyndlmrst's motion relative to 
 national defences {Tlmes^ Gtli July, 1859) — ^'Wlien 
 one nation determines to apply all her energies io 
 mahing money, and another to making preparations 
 for war, it is obvious enough with which of the 
 two nations all the money idUI ultimately heT 
 
 An able letter of the late Sir Chas. Napier upon 
 the defenceless condition of the British people 
 which appeared in the Times oi Oct. 11th, 1850, 
 and was inserted in the appendix to "- The De- 
 fenceless State of Great Britain," by Sir Francis 
 Head, Bart., 1850, thus concludes : — 
 
 " Napoleon said Cherbourg was an eye to see 
 and an arm to strike. We had better take care, 
 or some day it will strike with a vengeance. We 
 have Russia on our left in the Baltic, and France 
 with a harbour capable of holding a large fleet in 
 our front waiting only a railroad from Paris to 
 make it complete. Should these two powers at 
 any time fall out with us, I do not think they will 
 pay much attention to Cobden's Peace Congress. 
 One wants to go to Constantinople, the other wants 
 to go to the Rhine^ and we want to prevent both ; 
 and when the pear is riper, Cohden's ]jreaching at 
 Frankfort will not prevent them. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Merchistown^ 1st Oct. Ciias. Napier." 
 
 15 * 
 
228 
 
 A correspondent with the Mediterranean Fleet 
 in Besika Bay writes as follows, under date 
 Aug, 22, 1877:— 
 
 ''•I am sorry to mention that on Friday last 
 some very serious ads of insubordination icere com- 
 mitted on hoard Her Majesty's ship 'Achilles,' 
 recently arrived on this station. It appears that on 
 that day, after the customary exercise of general 
 quarters, the ropes were ordered to be coiled up 
 for the better clearing up of the decks, and, owing 
 to some slackness in the manner in which this duty 
 was performed, the watch were ordered to have 
 only one hour for their dinner-time instead of two, 
 which they are allowed during the hot months. 
 At one o'clock they were piped to fall in, and 
 afterwards employed in coiling up and down ropes 
 as a punishment until two, when the bugle sounded 
 ' Quarters, clean guns/ The men not moving as 
 smartly as it was considered they ought, were 
 piped to fall in, and told that they were to double 
 to their quarters when dismissed, which order 
 seems to have been greeted with murmurs and 
 exclamations of ' Stop where you are,' and it was 
 7iot until an order had been given to a ships 
 corporal to take the names of the men who did not 
 move that they commenced to go to their guns. The 
 same evening it was discovered that a number of 
 tangent sights and some other gear connected with the 
 guns had been thrown overboard ; also a quantity of 
 brass bclmjing pins. The ship's company were 
 
229 
 
 then, at about twelve o'clock at nig"ht, mustered at 
 quarters, and severely admonished by the captain, 
 Sir William Hewett. The Admiral has since 
 given them a certain time to discover the men who 
 are guilty of throwing the gun gear overboard, 
 and in case of their not being discovered has deter- 
 mined upon disrating the whole of the petty officers 
 in the ship and replacing them hy others from the 
 different ships in the fleet. It is certainly very dis- 
 creditahle that such proceedings should occur in our 
 finest ships J hut I think it is not difficult to find where 
 the fault lies. In the first place, in all newly com- 
 missioned ships there is far too large a proportion of 
 young ordinary seamen and hoys just out of the 
 training-ships,^ who are not accustomed to the hard 
 loorh and strict discipline of a sea-going man-of-war. 
 The ' Achilles ' has, I hear, of this class some 400 
 lads out of a complement of 100 all told, of which 
 a great many are marines, stokers, and artificers, 
 so that the seaman class is principally composed of 
 these young hands. The mistake is not having more 
 old and well-seasoned men,, who,, in conjunction with 
 the petty officers,, would steady and control the young 
 hlood. The fact,, unfortunately,, is that the hest men 
 at the end of their ten years^ service go into the 
 Coastguard or else are lost to us altogether. In the 
 second place,, I am afraid the cause of these out- 
 hreaks is too often to be found in the want of tact 
 and judgment of those in command, who, being 
 old hands themselves, forget that they have 
 
280 
 
 unbroken youngsters to deal with, who require 
 careful management and judicious handling. The 
 system employed in the harbour training-ships, 
 perhaps, requires investigation ; hut the greatest 
 evil we suffer from is the want in newly-commissioned 
 ships of a proper proportion of thoroughly trained 
 seamen^ and until this is rectified we must expect to 
 hear of these acts of insuhordination^ ichich throw 
 discredit on the navy^ and also on the country. The 
 Achilles will leave this evening for a cruise, 
 calling at Salonica, and will be picked up by the 
 fleet next w^eek. The Agincourt, carrying the 
 flag of Sir J. E. Commerell, K.C.B., arrived on 
 Sunday last from Malta. The fleet went out on 
 the 7th, 8th, and 9th, returning the same evenings, 
 to practise at evolutions under steam." 
 
 The Army Strength of Europe. 
 
 A special lecture on this subject was given on 
 Friday afternoon at the Eoyal United Service 
 Institution, Whitehall, under the presidency of 
 General Sir William Codrington, hj Mr. C. E, 
 Howard Vincent^ F.R, G.S.^ late of the 2Srd Boyal 
 Welsh Fusiliers, The lecturer, after a few words 
 of apology for the amount of statistics which his 
 subject necessarily involved, and also for other 
 circumstances wdiich he trusted would entitle him 
 
231 
 
 to the consideration of his audience, — he having 
 but recently left the ranks of the Army for those 
 of the Law, — proceeded to review various nations 
 of Europe and their strength both on land and sea, 
 premising, however, that, by the rules of the 
 Institution, all lecturers are responsible for what 
 they utter in the theatre, and that, therefore, all 
 conclusions he might deduce from the facts he 
 should advance were to be taken as purely per- 
 sonal, and in no way ratified by the Council or 
 any other official. With regard to the manner in 
 which he was to treat his subject — a subject which 
 was peculiarly appropriate to the day, inasmuch as 
 just sixty years ago the fate of Europe was at stake 
 on the field of Waterloo— he had been advised by 
 some to take the major states separately and group 
 the minor; by others to consider Europe collec- 
 tively. He, however, preferred to "personally 
 conduct " his audience round Europe. Beginning, 
 then, with Holland, it appears that the military 
 forces which can be assembled for the defence of that 
 country consist of 68 battalions of Infantry, of five 
 companies; 111 companies of Engineers, Transport 
 Corps, &c. ; 24 squadrons of Cavalry, four to a regi- 
 ment ; 18 batteries of Artillery, of six guns, with a 
 ^'combatant" strength of 90,260 Infantry, armed 
 with the Snider and Beaumont breech-loaders ; 3850 
 Cavalry, with 108 bronze breech-loading rifled guns ; 
 while the Dutch Navy consists of 113 ships, of 
 which 17 are armour-plated, with 981 guns, and 
 
232 
 
 7250 men — all exclusively recruited by enlistment ; 
 for, altliougli conscription is allowable, it is never 
 enforced. To Belgium belong 84 battalions 
 (mostly of four companies) of Infantry, armed 
 with Albini, Braendlin, and Comblain breech- 
 loaders ; 16 companies of Engineers ; 45 squadrons 
 (14 to a regiment) of Cavalry; 20 batteries (of six 
 guns) of Artillery ; with a '' combatant " total of 
 130,000 Infantry, 7500 Cavalry, and 152 guns, on 
 the Prussian system; and since October, 1874, the 
 kingdom has been divided into two military con- 
 scriptions, the one embracing the provinces of 
 Antwerp and of East and West Flanders, the 
 other Brabant, Hainault, Liege, Limbourg, Luxem- 
 bourg, and Namur. To Norway and Sweden^ 122 
 battalions, mostly armed with the Eemington ; 15 
 companies of Engineers, 58 squadrons of Cavalry, 
 40 batteries of Artillery, with 152,800 Infantry, 
 10,540 Cavalry, and 322 guns, plus 20,000 Volun- 
 teers ; while their Navies, recruited partly by 
 voluntary enlistment, partly by conscription among 
 the seafaring population, consist of 65 vessels, of 
 which five are armour-plated, with 491 guns and 
 5100 men. The combatant strength of the Danish 
 Army may be set down at 5 territorial brigades, 
 42 battalions of Infantry, armed with the Snider 
 and Remington rifles, 28 companies of Engineers, 
 21 squadrons of Cavalry^ 12 batteries of Artillery, 
 with 36,050 foot, 2100 horse, and 96 guns. In 
 time of peace the German Army, including that of 
 
233 
 
 Bavaria, numbers 18,079 officers, 401,659 men, 
 97,379 horses, wliich are in times of war increased 
 to 31,195 officers, 1,273,346 men, witli about one 
 million combatants, 270,920 horses, and 2472 field- 
 guns. Besides these there is the Landsturm, 
 which is divided into two classes. The first, 
 including all able-bodied men not already in the 
 Army, is calculated to produce 175,800 men; 
 while the second, which is not yet organized, w^ll 
 include every other available male. The German 
 Navy, which is yet comparatively in its child- 
 hood, is manned by some 9000 officers and men, 
 the latter drawn by conscription from the seafaring 
 population estimated at 80,000, who on that 
 account are exempted from military service. The 
 Eussian Army, which three years ago formed a 
 subject for the same lecturer in this theatre, now 
 consists of 752,000 combatant Infantry, 172,000 
 Cavalry, with 2768 guns, including 400 mitrail- 
 leuses, and in about 10 or 15 years will probably 
 consist of 2,000,000 men, of whom about three- 
 fourths will be combatant. The Navy, which 
 every day is increasing in importance, consists of 
 some 300 vessels, including 25 ironclads, with an 
 armament of over 1500 guns. Turkey claims 
 350,000 combatant Infantry, 21,000 Cavalry, with 
 648 guns, with an ironclad Navy, perhaps one of 
 the finest in the world, and commanded by an 
 Englishman of no less ability than experience. 
 Passing by Greece, with the 100,000 men and 50 
 
234 
 
 guns, tlie 20 ships, and 2 ironclads tliat tlie 
 Government of Athens is reputed to have at 
 command, Austria and Hungary next claim our 
 attention, with 798,172 Infantry, 62,746 Cavalry, 
 and 1616 guns, and a fleet of eight or ten ironclads 
 in the Adriatic. Italy, with an Army of 447,264 
 Infantry, armed mostly with the Remington breech- 
 loader, 15,850 Cavalry, and 1240 guns; Portugal 
 — Spain in the present deplorable state of affairs 
 being necessarily set aside — with 50,000 combat- 
 ants and 100 guns and 50 ships^ of which, however, 
 probably not more than half are seaworthy ; 
 Switzerland, with 174,000 Infantry, 5000 Cavalry, 
 and 294 guns, brings us to France. With a 
 recuperative power peculiar to Gaul^ said the 
 lecturer. Frenchmen have been unremittingly devoting 
 themselves to remedy tlie evils in their military 
 administration which the last loar laid hare in so 
 terrible a manner. Those, however, who know 
 France best^ who have resided there of late, will 
 need no telling of how much there is yet to do, in 
 what a transition state is the whole mechanism 
 of the Army, how wholly unfit it is at present for 
 revenge. The new laws are but imperfectly 
 understood by the local officials, and years must 
 elapse before the eagle of France can again be borne 
 against a foe. Not half a million combatants is it 
 possible for France to put into the field^ and before 
 even this, it may almost be said, paltry number 
 could be brought to bear on any one spot, could 
 
235 
 
 be available for the defence of one frontier, could 
 be concentrated for any attack, months of prepara- 
 tion would be essential. But in her Navy France 
 is strong. The Tricolor is hoisted by hand upon 
 350 ships of war^ with an ironclad fleet of 50 
 strong, and all are manned partly by conscription 
 and partly by enlistment. With regard to Great 
 Britain, the lecturer said that it is the inherent 
 delight of Englishmen to depreciate themselves 
 and to condemn their own institutions. Never- 
 theless^ though the services might he in many points 
 defective^ he maintained that an Army Corps of 
 30,000 regidar troops complete in all its branches^ 
 could icithin a loeeh set sail from our shores. Both 
 the Militia and the Volunteers he considered to be 
 not only at present of a certain degree of efficiency, 
 but easily to be made far more so ; while as for the 
 English Navy, he held that the figures would 
 speak for themselves — those figures being 586 
 vessels afloat, including ironclads ; 29 building, 
 also inclusive of ironclads; 6250 guns and 60,000 
 men. In conclusion^ the lecturer considered that, 
 looking at the Armies of Europe from every point 
 of view, the rapidity with w^hich they can be 
 mobilized, fed from reserves, concentrated on any 
 point, maintained in the field, they may be ranged 
 in the following precedence : — First class — 1, 
 Germany; 2, Austria; 3, Kussia; 4, France. 
 Second class — 5, Italy ; 6, England. Third class 
 — 7, Belgium; 8, Turkey ; 9, Sweden and Norway; 
 
236 
 
 10, Holland; 11, Denmark; 12, Spain; 13, 
 Portugal; 14, Switzerland; 15; Greece. Alto- 
 gether four Armies of the first class ^ two Armies of 
 the second^ and nine Armies of the thirds witli^ in 
 round numbers^ a paper strength of seven and a half 
 millions and a combatant strength oi five millions^ 
 with 15,000 guns, and a million and a quarter of 
 horses. In Navies, Great Britain is supreme ; 
 then come in their order — France, Eussia, Turkey, 
 Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Denmark, 
 Sweden and Norway, and Portugal, with an aggre- 
 gate total of 2039 vessels, of which 209 are iron- 
 clad, the whole being manned by some 280,000 
 men, and armed with 15,000 cannon. One hun- 
 dred and ten ships of war are building in 
 European dockyards, and of these 56 will be 
 armour-plated, and the expenses incidental to 
 these forces exceed £112,000,000 sterling per 
 annum, of which fully three-fiftlis are devoted to 
 the land forces. Of all these armaments, those of 
 Turkey and Austria are maintained at the least 
 cost— viz., at about £29 a year per man; that of 
 Great Britain at the most — close upon £100 a 
 year. — "list June ^ 1875. 
 
 Eecruiting. 
 
 The Eeport by Major-General E. C. H. Taylor, 
 Inspector-General of Eecruiting, upon recruiting 
 
237 
 
 for tlie Regular Army for the year 1875 lias been 
 presented to Parliament. It states that the estab- 
 lishment of the Eegular Army for the year 1875-6? 
 as voted by Parliament, was 178,423 men, exclusive 
 of officers^ being very nearly the same strength as 
 for the previous year 1874-5, but slightly in excess. 
 As during the past twelve months the country has 
 enjoyed peace, and there have been no exceptional 
 circumstances to affect the condition of the Army, 
 a number of recruits equal to that liaised in 1874 
 would have been sufficient to meet all requirements. 
 Such number^ however, has not been raised. The 
 number of men who have joined the service during 
 the year 1875 is 18,494, as against 20,640 in 1874, 
 and 17,194 in 1873. There has consequently been 
 a falling off in the numbers raised in the past year to 
 the amount of 2146 recruits j as compared with 1874 • 
 and the Army in the aggregate is noio 897 men 
 below the establishment. No special reason can be 
 assigned for this falling off., except that there was a 
 good demand for labour.^ and that the rate of loages 
 obtainable loas high in comparison with the pay of a 
 soldier. The consequence is that the deficiency is 
 noticeable in the Brigade of Guards and in the 
 Eoyal Artillery for gunners, both thesearms of the 
 service demanding men of a higher standard and of 
 superior physique generally to the ordinary recruits. 
 The great care taken to insure a proper description 
 of recruits, upwards of 5000 of those offering for 
 enlistment having been rejected as ineligible, may 
 
238 
 
 also in some degree account for llie climinution in 
 numbers. Tlie numbers raised for the Cavalry 
 and Infantry of the Line have been sufficient to 
 keep the regiments and brigades of those arms of 
 the service up to the authorized establishments, the 
 Cavalry of the Line having, on the 1st of January, 
 1876, supernumeraries to the amount of 356, and the 
 Infantry 634. The Colonial corps are in the 
 aggregate 237 r}ien helow their estahlisliments, Tlie 
 Army Service Corps is complete to within four 
 men, while the Army Hospital Corps^ for luldch 
 special qualifications are required^ is deficient 61 men. 
 No changes had been made in the system of 
 recruiting, an account of which was given in the 
 report submitted last year. It only remmns there- 
 fibre to he stated that whereas on the 1st of 
 January.! 1875, there were 33 Brigade Depots 
 '' formed " and in fiull operation^ the number up 
 to the present date has heen increased to 37, 
 showing an addition of four during the last twelve 
 months. In the course of the present year it is 
 anticipitated that in 11 more sub-districts the 
 necessary buildings will be completed, making up 
 the number of these establishments to 48 by the 
 beginning of next year. The scheme fior carry- 
 ing out the principle ofi local organization is thus 
 annually becoming nearer completion^ and in the 
 year 1878 the period will arrive when the system 
 may receive a full and fair trial. In analyzing the 
 returns firom the several suh-districts ofi the number 
 
239 
 
 of the recruits raised icithin their respective liimts^ 
 the results toill he found to he very variahle. In 
 some sub-districts a number has been obtained 
 considerably in excess of what was required to 
 keep the linked battalions of the brigade up to 
 their establishment, the surplus in such cases 
 passing to other brigades in want of men. In 
 certain others the supply has been about equal to 
 the demand, hut in several suh-districts the deficiency 
 has heen very apparent^ notahly in counties on the 
 seahoard and in remote jparts of the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 The degree in which localization has promoted 
 recruiting is not easy to ascertain ; but in one 
 respect there has been a good result, inasmuch 
 that in nearly all cases the Militia corps of the sub- 
 districts have provided during or after the annual 
 trainino' a fair number of volunteers for the affi- 
 liated battalions of the Line. Tlius the men luho 
 have lately joined the Army have heen procured 
 in a greater proportion from the large towns and the 
 great centres of population. The recruits ohtained 
 in towns and manufacturing districts may not he on 
 the ichole physically such eligible men as those raised 
 from among the agricultural classes.^ yet they are 
 stated he intellectually^ and as regards educational 
 attainments^ superior. It may be asserted that the 
 recruits who have joined the Army during the past 
 year, are, on the whole, of a fairly good type.^ and 
 of a somewhat hetter description than those raised 
 
240 
 
 ill the previous two years. It may be taken for 
 granted that no system of conscription or com- 
 pulsory service is likely to find favour in tins 
 country^ and tliat^ therefore, the principle of 
 voluntary enlistment must continue in force ; but, 
 in the present prosjperous condition of the country as 
 regards the rate of loages^ the existing advantages, 
 direct and indirect, which together form the remu- 
 neration offered to a soldier, are evidently 
 insufficient to attract to the ranks men physically 
 and intellectually suitable for service in sufficient 
 numbers to supply our requirements. It is probahle 
 that as the system of localization becomes more 
 perfect the Militia may be made one of the chief 
 feeders of the Regular Army. Already many 
 excellent recruits are obtained from that source 
 during or at the end of the annual training ; and if 
 a regular quota from each Militia regiment could 
 be supplied for its affiliated Infantry Brigade, a 
 great step in advance would be taken towards 
 furnishing the number of recruits required under 
 the short service system of enlistment. It must 
 be remembered.^ hoioever^ that the Militia force 
 throughout the country is at present much below 
 its authorized strengtli., and that recruits are 
 enrolled in it at an earlier age and of a lower 
 standard than the regulations for the Regular 
 Army require. It is consequently apparent that, 
 in order to carry out such measures as are here 
 proposed.^ it would be necessary to alter or amend 
 
241 
 
 the system upon lohich the Militia is now raised, 
 so as to insure at every annual training a fall 
 complement on the rolls of each corps. The 
 regiments of Militia Artillery might in like 
 manner supply the requirements of the Royal 
 Artillery. 
 
 As an additional means of furnishing the 
 increased supply of recruits which it has been 
 shown will in future be required, it has been 
 strongly urged that the practice of enlisting hoys 
 from the several industrial, district, union, and 
 other schools shall he still further extended. If 
 authority were given for the enlistment of a 
 larger number of boys in excess of the establishment, 
 to be retained at the depots or at their present 
 schools until they reached the age of 17 or 18 years, 
 during which time they should attend to study ^ be 
 instructed in trades, and thoroughly drilled, besides 
 being put through a course of gymnastics, it is believed 
 that a very valuable element would be introduced into 
 the Army, and that from this source many good 
 non-commissioned officers especially would be 
 obtainable, supplying thus a want from which many 
 corps are now reported to suffer. In order to 
 induce a higher class of the community to enter the 
 service, and to remain in ity it is suggested the 
 prizes of the profession should be made more 
 alluring ; and with this view it is very desirable 
 that the dignity and emoluments of non-commis- 
 sioned officers should be increased, and that all 
 
 IG 
 
242 
 
 ranks of that valuable and deserving class, from 
 the Eegimental Sergeant-Major downwards, in- 
 cluding those holding lance rank, should receive 
 more pay while serving, and possibly for those who 
 complete their full term of 21 years a corresponding 
 addition to pension on discharge. As regards 
 desertion, the returns for the past year show a 
 decided improvement, the number, which amounted 
 in 1874 to 5,572, having fallen in 1875 to 4,382.— 
 1th March, 1876. 
 
 Desertion. — Our soldiers desert at the rate of a 
 strong company per weeh^ and less than half sur- 
 render or are recaptured. This is a crying evil^ and 
 the cause of its existence, as well as the best means 
 of diminishing it, ought to be carefully inquired 
 into. The obvious mode of procedure is, in the 
 first place, to try and remove the causes. What 
 the causes are could easily be ascertained by 
 taking the evidence of private soldiers and referring 
 to the reports of the Chaplain at Millbank. — Army 
 and Navy Gazette^ 4th February, 1878. 
 
 The Greeks in the time of Aristides. What 
 
 LED TO their DeGENERACY ? 
 
 Perhaps there never has been, making the 
 necessary allowances for the age, so prosperous 
 
243 
 
 a nation as Greece at the time of Aristides. After 
 becoming free from outward dangers, their ener- 
 gies were turned upon their interior advancement. 
 
 What, then, overthrew that nation'? The cause 
 could not be in the Government; no Government, 
 however bad, could possibly have ruined, or even 
 degraded, a people such as were the Aristidean 
 Greeks, The cause of all the evils lay in them- 
 selves. 
 
 As gains accumulated^ commerce was turned 
 from its employment of mutual support^ and 
 followed chiefly as a means of procuring unlimited 
 prodigality and refined voluptuousness of body and 
 intellect. Aces that before had tended to gratify 
 that thirst for the beautiful which so largely dwells 
 ill every healthy mind^ in the course of time were 
 prostituted before growing sensuality and glittering 
 depravity.^ and were made the instruments for 
 satiating the newly -kindling, fast-extending thirst 
 for costly superfluities and all the effeminate luxuries 
 of the senses. From manly men., the Greeks sank 
 swiftly into elegant machines^ the mind gradually 
 adopted a tone of hland oiliness, and Truth was in 
 every instance sacrificed to conventional smoothness^ 
 until a century after the heroic age of Miltiades and 
 Aristides, we find them sunk so low as to fully 
 warrant the remark that they had " become a 
 degenerate race ; levity and indolence had taken the 
 place oi patriotism and honourable ambition." See 
 Dr. Vaughan's Age of Great Cities^ P^^ge 32. 
 
 16 * 
 
244 
 
 " Let that word levity be noted particularly/' says 
 another able writer, " it is of itself the key to the 
 fall of Greece, and of every other empire, ancient, 
 mediaeval, or modern." 
 
 Soon this luxuriousness and levity began to show 
 itself in their literature. Instead of revelling in 
 the child-like Samsonism of the Homeric poetry, 
 and the severe sublimity of the drama — comicalities^ 
 'personalities^ buffooneries,, and even obscenities,, 
 formed the staple part of their popular composi- 
 tions. The nation that could tamely submit to — 
 nay, eagerly applaud — a man like Socrates being 
 openly ridiculed on the stage, was already fast 
 advancing towards its period of visible decay. 
 But that was not all ; the very gods were laughed 
 at. The stern old deities became legitimate 
 subjects for wit and frivolous jestings. A scepti- 
 cism took possession of the people, and the gods 
 were rendered 7iullities. This did not proceed from 
 a conviction of the falsity of such gods ; had it done 
 so, it would have been well (though surely a cast-off 
 faith of any hind,, however unworthy^ should produce 
 another tone of memory than that) ; on the 
 contrary, they uere still,, ptrofessedly,, worshippers 
 of their old deities, Socrates was poisoned for 
 denying them,, and hecatombs were offered to the 
 omnipotent powers, at the very time when half the 
 city was enjoying the ridicule of their peccadilloes 
 and extravagant adventures. A nation of men thus 
 so .degenerate from all real manlinpss required no 
 
245 
 
 evil government to accelerate its fall. It liad the 
 sure seeds of that fall deep sown and far -scattered 
 within itself* That no Solon^ no Lycurgus, no 
 
 * Here one is reminded of Byron's lines in " The Giaour— 
 a Fragment o£ a Turkish Tale " :— 
 
 " 'Twere long to tell, and sad to trace '■ 
 
 Each step from splendour to disgrace ; 
 
 Enough — no foreign foe could quell 
 
 Thy soul, till from itself it fell ; 
 
 Yes ! self-abasement paved the way 
 
 To villain-bonds and despot sway." 
 In the Times review, 2nd September, 1859, of Senior's 
 Turkey and Greece, commencing thus : — 
 
 "We have to thank Mr. Senior for the most suggestive 
 work that has yet appeared on the great Eastern Question. 
 It is a question which the Crimean War rather opened than 
 settled, and which is the rock ahead of European politics." 
 
 The following passages occur, worth heeding, at the present 
 time especially : — 
 
 " Nearly all the violent crimes of Constantinople are due to 
 the wine- shops and spirit- shops which exist, it is said, only 
 because the English Government forces the Turks to submit 
 to them. The Turkish law is something like the Maine 
 Liquor Law ; it prohibits the sale of wine and spirits in retail. 
 But, by the Treaty of Commerce negotiated by Lord Ponsonby, 
 English subjects are entitled to full liberty of trade in Turkey, 
 and loe have interpreted this as giving them full liberty to 
 trade in any manner whatever — let it even be in defiance of 
 Turkish laws. Englishmen, for example, claim a right to 
 open shops as tailors and shoemakers, though these trades in 
 Constantinople are incorporated, and no Turk, not a member 
 of the Corporation, can exercise them." " When we gave to 
 you full liberty to trade in any manner whatever," say the 
 Turks, " we meant commerce, not retail trade. We meant 
 that you might bring us cloth or leather — not that you might 
 be our tailors or shoemakers. We meant you to bring us 
 wine and gin in barrels — not to open spirit-shops in breach of 
 
246 
 
 lawgiver earnestly bent upon producing a code 
 intrinsically triie^ and not vitiated into conformity 
 with the evil demands of the time — that no such 
 appeared, and that the State was corrupt, dis- 
 cordant, and paralyzed from its imhecility and 
 dividedness^ was but the natural result, and not in 
 any way the cause of such degeneracy. 
 
 Every prodigal voluptuary, then — every elegant 
 and flippant conventionalist ^ as he plunged deeper 
 into his prodigality and brilliant hollowness, 
 added his share to the final extinction of the 
 prosperity of his race and nation. This is not a 
 new theory, it finds a place among others in 
 many histories and essays, hut it is a neglected 
 one. Smothered and concealed too often by the 
 sensational solutions, it is nevertheless one that 
 shoidd not he neglected— thsit should not be allowed 
 to lie unnoticed, but perpetually should he hrought 
 forward prominently as the one great all-explain- 
 ing fact ; in no time so particularly as the present, 
 when the root of all our errors and disasters is our 
 
 our religion and our laws, and to corrupt and poison our 
 
 people." 
 
 # * ^ * * * * 
 
 " If it be true," says the reviewer, further on, " that the love 
 of money is the root of all evil, it is in the corruption of the 
 Turkish Government that one must seek the true source of the 
 evils which afflict the empire. This corruption is universal 
 among the holders of office, and is bad not only as a cause, but 
 as a sign of evil. It shows that the higher classes have lost 
 their self-respect, despair of the future, and gi-asp only at 
 immediate and monetary advantages." 
 
247 
 
 regarding Government as the cause of all good and 
 all evil — as a ijoioer^ as it were, out of the nation 
 and working upon it ; and not, on the contrary, as 
 the mere surface of the great social stream^ which 
 flows on beneath its wave-broken gas-coloured 
 breast, the surface not influencing the waters under- 
 neath it, but, true or false^ suhstance or shadow^ as 
 the ceaseless under-current varies. Let us then 
 ever remember that 
 
 'Tis EDUCATION forms the common mind, 
 Just as the tivig is hent the tree's inclined. 
 
 Dr. Schimtz, in his History of Rome (p. 94), thus 
 paints the character of the early Romans : — 
 ^' Their character was more severe, and warlike^ 
 and practicaly and domestic duties had more charms 
 for them than the volatile Greeks " (that is, the 
 Greeks of the same age, then beginning to 
 degenerate.) " Their domestic life was of the 
 simplest kind." And Gibbon speaks thus of some 
 characteristics of the beginning of their fall : — 
 ''' They diligently practised the ceremonies of their 
 fathers, devoutly frequented the temples of their 
 gods, . . . They concealed the sentiments of 
 an atheist under the sacerdotal rohes. 
 Tacitus indulges an honest pleasure in the contrast 
 of harharian virtue with the dissolute conduct of 
 the Roman ladies. 
 
 Bat the fall of empires is fast becoming an un- 
 known thing, because empires have well-nigh 
 ceased to be great in the ancient sense. If there 
 
248 
 
 be now one pre-eminent power answering in any 
 way to Rome or Greece it is perhaps England. 
 But hers is not a supremacy over enslaved tributary 
 nations — a feudal domination. It is, or was, a 
 power of a moral rather than a physical description 
 — of the conquest of common sense and commer- 
 cial skill, and not of belligerent aggression. Her 
 supremacy consists in the moral weight she 
 possesses, or did possess, among the other nations 
 of the world. Instead of nations falling from 
 their pride of place into the tributary subjects of 
 a newer and more powerful race^ crises — ruinous, 
 terrible, prostrating, political, commercialj and 
 social crises — are the forms in which such falls 
 will for the proximate future be experienced.'' 
 
 Letter by an Old Tory, to Sir Henry Parnell. 
 
 AFTERWARDS LoRD CoNGLETON. 
 
 " A Letter to Sir Henry Parnell [after^s^ards 
 Lord Congleton], showing the unsoundness of the 
 doctrines laid down in his work on Financial 
 Beform^ and proving that Free-trade will inevitably 
 produce the ruin of the country^ by ' an Old Tory' — 
 was published in 1830, by ' Thomas Cadell, 
 Strand,' and as experience is said to be the test of 
 truth (to arrive at which is the sole object of the 
 
249 
 
 writer of these pages), it may be well to give 
 the conclusion of the said letter. 
 
 '-'• Now, Sir Henry Parnell, I ask you as a 
 gentleman, have 1 not proved, heyond the possi- 
 hllity of controversy^ that a free-trade in corn woidd 
 inevitably ruin the country^ and I expect, as a 
 matter of course, you will admit, that if our 
 artizan is obliged to 'purchase his hread from the 
 British Jarmer^ so also, he is entitled to demand 
 that the British farmer shall be obliged to purchase 
 his manufactures. No person witli the slightest 
 pretence to just feeling, can for a moment hesitate 
 at making such an admission. But supposing that 
 your belief in the tenets of free-trade be shaken, 
 you will immediately say, what must we do ? To 
 make laws one year upon the principles of Free- 
 trade, and in another upon those of prohibition^ 
 will unhinge all common transactions^ and render 
 us the scorn of our neighbours. My answer is 
 that if our rulers refuse to retrace their steps^ when 
 satisfied they are leading the country to certain de- 
 struction^ they deserve to lose their heads for their 
 vanity or their cowardice. The truth is, this king- 
 dom, for the last ten or twelve years ' (z*. e. prior 
 to 1830),' has been governed by no fixed princi- 
 ples. A succession of ephemeral ministers have 
 appeared and vanished with unheard-of rapidity. 
 It was the policy of former governments to foster 
 rising talent^ give it a proper bias^ and thereby 
 afford permanence to their principles. But during 
 
250 
 
 the long time Mr. Peel has been in power, whom 
 has he brought into notice ? He has acted upon 
 the principle, that if the country is properly 
 governed during this time, it is of no consequence 
 what becomes of it afterwards ; she may become a 
 prey to any political adventurer, when he can no 
 longer taste the sweets of power and office. 
 
 '' We were just beginning to recover from that 
 depressed state of commerce which was inevitable 
 on the transition from war to peace, when every 
 political quack insisted that his nostrum would 
 more speedily recover us. There was Mr. Peel 
 with his Currency Bill^ Mr. Huskisson with Free- 
 trade, and poor Wilmot Horton with his Emigra- 
 tion panacea. I cannot but think this latter 
 gentleman has been unfairly treated by his schem- 
 ing brethren. While Mr. Peel was allowed to try 
 the effect of his Gurrency Bill^ wJiicli has depredated 
 property from £20 to £30 per cent. ; while Mr» 
 Huskisson was allowed to try his Free-trade theory 
 upon the manufacturing population of the country, 
 driving thousands to want and beggary ; Mr. 
 Horton only wanted a few milHons to transport 
 his fellow-citizens to other countries ; only desii'ed, 
 in fact, to make this country a breeding- place for 
 our colonies. His was by far the most innocent 
 remedy, and therefore left untried. 
 
 '' That retracing our steps will be productive of 
 
 * See Miscellanies, Nos, 1, 2. 
 
251 
 
 confusion, and some injustice, is doubtless ; but I 
 iinnly believe the country will suffer much less of 
 both, by reverting to the ancient order of things 
 tlian by continuing the present system. Something 
 must be done. That those plans may be adopted 
 which will best uphold the real welfare of the 
 country^ is the sincere wish of one who glories in 
 the name and principles of an Ultra Tory, and 
 remains, yoiu' most obedient servant, 
 
 " The Author." 
 Eead by the light of the experience of the forty- 
 six years since it was written, the letter is worthy 
 of grave consideration, and the writer of these 
 pages thinks himself fortunate in coming upon it, 
 bound up with others on a variety of subjects. 
 
 The French Statesman, Baron Dupin, alludes 
 TO Sir R. Peel in reference to his measure 
 OF 1846. 
 
 On the 5th March, 1859, that eminent French 
 Statesman, Baron Dupin, read to the Senate the 
 Report of the Commission in support of the Peti- 
 tioners praying for the maintenance of the pro- 
 tecting Corn Laws. The Baron said — 
 
 '' Sir Robert Peel, the celebrated Statesman, is 
 deservedly noted as one of the most enlightened on 
 
252 
 
 the alliance of economic science with the prudent 
 practice of Government. We must therefore take 
 into great consideration the system he defended 
 so long as lie remained master of liimself^ {sic in 
 original), "the system which he patronized in 
 1828, and which he maintained with so much 
 eloquence when he was Prime Minister from 1842 
 to 1845. Sir Eobert, gentlemen, defended the slid- 
 ing scale. He proclaimed that system to be the 
 only one applicable by turns, and without detri- 
 ment to years of abundance and scarcity, when 
 the figures are fixed with moderation. He de- 
 nounced another combination which Lord John 
 (now Earl) Russell particularly supported, that of 
 a fixed duty — a duty raising with unintelligence, 
 the price of bread in times of abundance as in 
 times of scarcity, while the sliding scale then 
 reduced to zero the protection which ceases to be 
 necessary, and which when prolonged becomes 
 odious. 
 
 Baron Dupin thinks that the British Constitu- 
 tion itself is endangered by the repeal of the 
 Corn Law, of which the present (1859) cry for 
 Eeform is the first symptom. The Report con- 
 cludes as follows : — 
 
 " We have the honour to propose for the peti- 
 tions in question, the following recommendations 
 which are required by the greatness of the interests 
 endangered, 
 
 1. To the Minister of Commerce, because this 
 
253 
 
 minister is also the Minister of Agriculture, and 
 because he ought to cherish by the same title 
 these two Breasts of the State (les deux mamelles 
 de Vetdt)^ as Henry the Great and his sage friend 
 Sully used to call them. 
 
 2. To the Minister of AVar, because France has 
 for its right arm Agriculture, and in defending the 
 labour of the soil he defends the force of the country, 
 
 3. To the Minister of Marine, that he may tell 
 us what perils, in case of a struggle at sea, might 
 occur to the quarter or a third of France with 
 foreign corn, if substituted for our unprotected 
 and discouraged Agriculture. 
 
 4. To the Minister of the Interior, because the 
 surety, the security, the affections of Agriculture 
 form the security of the State; they are France 
 and its life. 
 
 5. To the Minister of Finance, the necessary 
 friend of Agriculture, and of the taxes it pays so 
 well when it is happy, and even now (1859) ''in 
 spite of its sufferings, to him that he may defend 
 the jprimary and principal source of all revenues^ 
 and the interesting legion of tax-payers, who are 
 called in France 25,000,000 of men, women, and 
 children disseminated in our rural districts." 
 
 In the year before this Eeport was read, the 
 Times (1858) said :— 
 
 " France and Wheat Growing. 
 
 " The Minister of Commerce in a Eeport to the 
 Emperor some time since, stated that not only had 
 
254 
 
 arable land become more fruitful from the better 
 system of manuring employed, but tliat the extent 
 of land sown with wheat had increased since 1846 
 a million of hectares (1^250,000 acres), and the 
 yield gave an average augmentation of from ten 
 to eighteen hectolitres.'* 
 
 The late Emperor, Napoleon III., who through- 
 out his reign proved that he considered tillage 
 and pasturage as the Foster-Mothers of the 
 State, in a letter to the Minister of State dated 
 " Palace of the Tuileries, January 5th, 1860," said : 
 
 5. Sec. " In that which relates to Agriculture 
 you nmst make it share in the benefits of the 
 Institutions of Credit, clear the forests situated in 
 the plains^ and replant the hills, devote annually 
 a considerable sum to great works of drainage, 
 irrigation and clearage. These works transform- 
 ing the uncultivated districts into cultivated lands 
 will enrich the districts without imjpoverisldng the 
 State^ which will cover its advance hy the sale of a 
 portion of those lands restored to Agriculture.^^ 
 
 12. Sec. in letter: 
 
 " This extraordinary resource will facilitate to us 
 not only the prompt completion of the railways, 
 but it will also allow us to restore in less time our 
 cathedrals, our churches, and worthily to eii- 
 courage science^ literature^ and the arts J ^ 
 
 Napoleon III. was doubtless well acquainted 
 with Edmund Burke's works and remembered 
 what he had written. 
 
255 
 
 Statesmen before they valued themselves on the 
 relief given to the people, by the destruction of 
 their revenue, ought first to carefully attend to the 
 solution of the problem — whether it be more 
 advantageous to the people to pay considerably 
 and to gain in jproportion^ or to gain little or no- 
 tiling and to be disburdened of all contribution ? 
 My mind is made up to decide in favour of the 
 first proposition. Experience is with me and I 
 believe the best opinions also. To keep a balance 
 between the power of acquisition on tlie 'part of the 
 subject^ and the demands he is to answer on the 
 part of the State is a fundamental part of the skill 
 of a true politician " (Burke's Reflections on the 
 French Revolution), 
 
 From what was said in a leader in the Times 
 of the 4tli January, 1877, there is reason to fear 
 that this '' fundamental part of the skill of a true 
 politician " was not duly heeded when the Free 
 Imports Policy was introduced. 
 
 " The experience of the last quarter,'^ says 
 the Times J " was the natural sequel of the quarters 
 which preceded it. We have been passing through 
 a year of sluggish trade, of limited productions, 
 and of diminished profits. There has been no 
 elasticity in the Revenue, and the Christmas 
 quarter has even shown a declined .... 
 Will the receipts between this time and the end 
 of March be sufficient to satisfy the necessities of 
 Sir Stafford Northcote and give a promise of 
 
256 
 
 equilibrium in the next year ? There is at least 
 one significant fact that makes us hesitate to 
 answer this question as we could wish. The 
 yield from the Income Tax in the last nine 
 months has been £1,273,000. against £1,287,000. 
 in the corresponding months of the preceding 
 year— a decline of £11,000. . . . An exami- 
 nation of the returns of the several quarters leads 
 to the conclusion that there has been more difficulty 
 in collecting arrears in 1876 than there was in 
 1875 ; and a larger proportion will be abandoned, 
 while the effect of the increase from 2d to 2td has 
 not been sufficient to counterbalance this loss. 
 This conclusion is important in its bearing on 
 our prospects in the present quarter. A greater 
 difficulty in collecting arrears means a diminished 
 productiveness in the Income Tax in the current 
 year, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer cannot 
 rely with any confidence on getting in the four 
 millions which he requires between this and the 
 1st of April to make up the estimated Revenue 
 under this head. The returns thus confirm the 
 lesson of every-day experience^ that 1876 has been 
 a year of straitened incomes. Is not the same 
 lesson taught by the figures of Customs and 
 Excise receipts ? Diminished receipts from the 
 Income Tax imply diminished iwojits for Manu- 
 facturers and Traders, and where profits are 
 diminished wages are almost certain to be dimi- 
 nished also." 
 
257 
 
 What wrote the Lite Canou (the Rev. Charles) 
 Kingslej ? 
 
 '^ We have sold ourselves to a system which Is 
 Its own punishment. And yet the last place In 
 which a man will look for the cause of his misery 
 Is In that new money-mongering to which he 
 now clings as frantically as ever. But so It Is 
 throughout the woi4d. Only look down over that 
 bridge-parapet, at that huge black-mouthed sewer 
 vomiting its pestilential riches across the mud. 
 There It runs and will run, hurrying to the sea 
 vast stores of wealth elciborated hy Natures die- 
 mistnj Into the ready materials of food — there It 
 runs, turning them all Into the seeds of pestilence, 
 filth, and drunhenness. How can It be wondered, 
 if the appetites of those who live In the midst of 
 such scenes, sickened with filth and self- disgust^ 
 crave after the gin-shop for temporary strength 
 and then for temporary forgetfulness ? Every 
 London doctor knows this — would that every 
 Preacher would tell that truth from his pulpit ! 
 
 " But are not pestilences a judgment on the 
 rich in the truest sense of the word? Are they 
 not the broad un mis tak cable seal to God's opinion 
 of a state of society which confesses its economic 
 relations to be so utterly rotten and confused that 
 it actually cannot afford to save yearly millions 
 of pounds-worth of materials of food, not to men- 
 tion thousands of human lives ? Is not every man 
 who allows such things hastening the ruin of the 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 society in which he lives hy helping to foster the 
 indignation and fury of its victims ? Look at that 
 group of stunted haggard artizans — what if one 
 day they should call to account the landlords 
 whose covetousness and ignorance make their 
 dwellings hells on earth ?" 
 
 So wrote the late Rector of Eversley, to whose 
 widow thanks are due for the tw^o very interest- 
 ing volumes she has given us of '' his Letters and 
 Memories of his Life." 
 
 An Extract, not uninteresting, read in rela- 
 tion TO "The Eastern Question." 
 
 The following, which appeared in the Times of 
 the 14tli September, 1859, under the head of " The 
 Ionian Islands, from our special Correspondent," 
 acquires, at the present time, renewed and perhaps 
 greater interest than at the time it first appeared. 
 
 '' The alarming state of the Ottoman Empire, 
 which country seems going through a succession of 
 financial summersaults^ from which however, some- 
 how or other, it manages to alight wdth only a7i 
 additional confusion, renders the accounts from the 
 Provinces trull/ dejjiorahle ; extra taxes have been 
 levied on the unfortunate population, to be 
 redeemed by the im]jorts of future years, while 
 hoardes of Albanian Irregulars render the province 
 
259 
 
 bordering on Greece insecure, and expose the^oor 
 inhabitants to every species of extortion and injustice. 
 It is not to be wondered at that the old feeling of 
 hatred to the Turkish yoke, which dates from the 
 day that Mahomet II. took possession of Byzantium, 
 should be as much alive as ever. The Christians 
 are replacing everywhere in the East, by a constant 
 and unperceived effort, the Mahomedans, who are 
 disappearing, and under these circumstances, those 
 of the Christian elements which offer some 
 guarantee for the future^ must naturally attract 
 the attention of Europe. Owing to their religion, 
 the Christian population of the East consider them- 
 selves specially placed under the protection of 
 Russia^ and the influence of that power loitli the 
 Greehs has been generally considered all-jyowerful. 
 This feeling loas confirmed in 1854 ; when, at the 
 commencement of the Crimean war, the Greeks 
 crossed the Turkish frontiers and invaded Epirus, 
 espousing the cause of Russia, and attacking Turkey, 
 the ally of England and Erance — a movejnent 
 which led to the occupation of Greece by the 
 Western powers. The later demonstration of 
 Athens in favour of France, consequent upon the 
 successes in the cause of Italian nationality, 
 however, go far to show that the sympathies of 
 the Greek people are, in reality, ever strongest 
 with that power from which they at the time hope 
 for more aid towards the emancipation of their 
 countrymen from the Turkish yoke." 
 
 17 * 
 
260 
 
 Mr. Bright at the Eochdale Working Men's 
 Club, on 2nd January, 1877, and The Origin 
 OF THE Corn Laws. 
 
 In an address delivered by Mr. Bright at the 
 "Eoclidale Working Men's Chib," on the 2nd 
 January last (see Times of the 3rd) in eulogizing 
 the " Unrestricted Competition Policy," he seems 
 to allude to the Corn-Law of 1815^ as the first 
 ever enacted. He said, " he (Ebenezer Elliott, the 
 Corn-Law Reformer) knew, everybody knew, who 
 comprehended the character and operation of that 
 law, that if it should have continued to afflict the 
 people as it did through thirty years of its existence^ 
 there was no institution in the country, not even 
 its venerable monarchy, that could stand the 
 strain that law would bring to bear upon 
 it." Had Mr. Bright possessed a copy of 
 Dirom's excellent but little known work on 
 the Corn-Laws, he would have known that the 
 origin of the Corn-Laws dates back to 1393^ and 
 the following extract will show that they have 
 operated favourably for national prosperity. 
 
 '^We find that the origin of the Corn-Laws 
 dates back to 1393. This law, confirmed in 1413, 
 reserves to the King in Council, a power to restrain 
 exportation. In 1463, from grievous damacje to 
 farmers and occirpiers hy import of foreign grain, it 
 
261 
 
 was proldhited until prices exceeded certain rates. 
 [This was just what the law of 1815, called the 
 Slidmg Scale, did]. In 1562, exportation was 
 allowed in ships oicned hy Englisli-hoim subjects. 
 This Act teas the dawn of the Navigation Laivs,^ 
 
 " Tlie encouragement given by Protection, made 
 England and its agriculture flourish to such a 
 degree as to cheapen food, so as to enable much 
 surplus corn to be exported. In 1750, no less than 
 1,667,776 quarters loere exported^ and in ten pre- 
 ceding years 8486 quarters. 
 
 '•'- In 1773-4, the system was revised and im- 
 proved as to export, regulating it hy av ei- age prices ; 
 and the capability of England to increase growth 
 to any degree — if duly 'protected — was satisfactorily 
 proved. The direct contrary must arise from im- 
 proper laios, 
 
 " During that prosperous period of Agriculture, 
 the result was that labourers and manufacturers, 
 &c., had their bread at a very cheap rate. 
 
 " The reverse was the case when the country 
 was opened to foreign grain by injudicious duties or 
 restrictions on our produce. Our farmers were 
 dispirited — very much soil lay uncultivated — the 
 prices rose very high^ and 'population was restrained. 
 
 '^ But when not only restrictions were removed 
 but bounties were given on the export of surplus 
 by the Acts of 1668 and 1700, the haj)piest effects 
 
 * See " Defence of the Navigation Laws," p. 271. 
 
262 
 
 were immediately experienced; these laws acted 
 like magic ; om- agricultm*e immediately arose as 
 from the dead. Population increased, and instead 
 of eating foreign bread, people were maintained at 
 a lower rate than ever before known — the kingdom 
 increased in riches and strength — our shipping- 
 increased — and a state of prosperity continued for 
 above half a century after the Union of England 
 and Scotland. 
 
 "No sooner, however, was importation again 
 encouraged, than our agriculture languished, and 
 exportation declined. Prices again rose, and the 
 nation became dependent on foreign grain, raised 
 hg foreign capital and untaxed industry^ to the detri- 
 ment of the Industrial classes of the British Nation. 
 
 " From the experience of several hundred years 
 we have found that the principle of protective 
 Corn-Laws is calculated to promote the improvement 
 of our land^ and to raise all the produce our soil 
 and climate admit of. This is only attainable 
 through securing a certain and steady market to the 
 farmers — both by preventing importation and 
 encouraging export, giving bounties when abund- 
 ance affords a surplus above our requirement — 
 thus ensuring a ready vent for our superabundant 
 stock in foreign countries." 
 
 "It is not enough to raise sufficient food for 
 national consumption — more should be raised so as 
 to afford plenty in bad seasons ] and the annals of 
 the country ought to be distinguished by a greater 
 
or less exportation, hut on no account ought loe to 
 be reduced to apply to foreign countries for an 
 expensive and precarious relief. (So tliouglit Sir 
 Eobert Peel in 1842)." 
 
 '' Tlie effect of lowering duties on Barilla lias 
 been ruinous to tbe Scotcli islanders, who, by the 
 manufacture of Kelp, in a great measure supplied 
 the soap manufactures of this country/^ 
 
 The Real Sinews of War. 
 
 In a work of great ability and evincing deep 
 reflection^ entitled. The Strength of Wdions^ it is 
 said : — 
 
 "Since the publication in 1776, of Adam 
 Smithes immortal work on the ' Wealth of Nations,' 
 the loealth of nations has, in this country at least, 
 engaged so much attention^ that but little has been 
 left for another quality of nations — their strength ; 
 without which their wealth, with all its advan- 
 tages may be of little use, since it may he destroyed 
 at any time with fearful rapidity. There appears 
 to be a time in the history of all powerful nations 
 at which, while their wealth goes on increasing, 
 their strength hegins to decline^ till — to use the 
 words of Bacon — it comes to that, that not the 
 
 * On the Strength of Nations, by Andrew Bissett, M.A., and 
 of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-law. London : Smith, Elder 
 & Co, 65, Cornliill, 1859." 
 
264 
 
 hundrecltli poll will be fit for a helmet ; and so 
 there will be great population and little strencjthJ^ * 
 
 And it is also well to bear in mind another re- 
 mark of Bacon in the same Essay : " Neither is 
 money the sinews of war (as it is trivially said), 
 where the sinews of men^ arms in hase and effe- 
 ruinate people are failing •, for Solon said well to 
 Croesus (when in ostentation he showed him his 
 gold) : * Sir, if any other comes that hath better iron 
 than you, he will be master of this gold.' As 
 soon as this current has fairly set in, unless its 
 course can be arrested — which is a difficult if not 
 an impossible operation— the decay of that nation 
 has commenced, and will continue till the time 
 arrives when its strength is made greater for its 
 defence, and its wealth becomes the prey of an 
 invader." 
 
 Dr. Russell who was the Times' " own corres- 
 pondent " during the Civil War in America in 
 1862 (and was also during H.E.H. the Prince of 
 Wales's late tour through India, and which he 
 has happily published), writing from " New York, 
 Jan. 14, 1862," said:— 
 
 " I am, I may be permitted to say, by no means 
 a believer in the omnipotence of gold or credit in 
 war. The sinews of War cannot be of much 
 avail unless there is heai^ hrain^ and hone to give 
 them forcC; direction and leverage. France has 
 
 * ^ssay on the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates. 
 
265 
 
 proved it, old Fritz demonstrated it long ago, 
 Eno'land in the midst of her millionnaire extrava- 
 gance showed it, the history of all nations fighting 
 for honour, liberty and life, has recorded it. But 
 there is a time, when the saying is true, and that 
 time may arrivG lolien the love of gain is greater 
 than the love of country^ and when the only army 
 that lives and moves and has its being in the field 
 when the country calls for help^ is the whole army 
 of contractors." 
 
 This was written probably in relation to 
 America, but other nations may well take warning 
 from it. 
 
 Lord Overstone on the Results of Invasion. 
 
 16 June, 1860. 
 
 The following extract from the replies of Lord 
 Overstone to queries put to him by the Commis- 
 sioners of National Defences will have much in- 
 terest for our readers : — 
 
 ''2. Question 2 asks my opinion of the probable 
 effects of the occupation of London by an invading 
 anny, — books, security, and public property 
 having been previously removed, and private pro- 
 perty being respected by the invader. 
 
 ''I cannot contemplate or trace to its conse- 
 quences such a supposition. My only answer is, 
 
266 
 
 it must never be. In proportion as a country has 
 advanced in civilization, and in commercial and 
 manufacturing prosperity, the metropolis of that 
 country becomes more and more intimately con- 
 nected with all the operations and interests of the 
 whole community ; it becomes the centre, the heart 
 of the entire social and industrial system. The 
 movements of the central city become connected 
 by an indefinite number of the most delicate links 
 with the daily transactions of every town in the 
 empire, Ruere ilia non possunt et non licec eodem 
 lahefactata motu concidant 
 
 " An invading army occupying London will be 
 in possession of the centre of our Governmental 
 system, the centre of internal communication, the 
 centre in which a large proportion of the trans- 
 actions of the whole country is daily adjusted, the 
 centre of our financial system ; and, as Woolwich 
 must of course be included in the fate of London, 
 the enemy will hold the great depot of our mili- 
 tary resources. Can any doubt exist as to the 
 effects of this? 
 
 " But the enemy will respect private property, 
 and will endeavour to allay alarm, to restore con- 
 fidence, to obviate confusion, and to give to his 
 presence the character of a purely military occu- 
 pation. What, it is asked in question 5, will be 
 the results of this ? 
 
 '' I believe that in the case supposed there 
 would exist a prevalent feeling that the fatal blow 
 
267 
 
 liad been struck ; that tlie deep liumlliatloii had 
 been sustained ; that the means of satisfying his 
 exactions are under the command of the enemy ; 
 that the means of further and effectual resistance 
 are doubtful, while the calamities attending it are 
 certain and overwhelming. Under these circum- 
 stances, many, no doubt with a noble spirit, would 
 counsel determined and persevering resistance at 
 all hazards and under any sacrifice ; but many 
 would deem such courage to be recklessness, and 
 would think the time come for bending under the 
 blow, and that no rational alternative remains but 
 that of purchasing the withdrawal of the enemy 
 upon the best terms that could be obtained. 
 Which of these conflicting views would prevail I 
 cannot undertake to determine. 
 
 " The efforts, however, of a country thus humi- 
 liated, paralyzed, dispirited, and divided in opinion, 
 would not, I fear, lead to any satisfactory result. 
 
 '' The safety of the country j as much as its 
 honour^ requires that the integrity of the empire he 
 defended on the sea principally^ and in the first in- 
 stance ; and in case of any serious mishap there^ we 
 must be prejpared to fight the battle upon the first 
 inch oi ground upon lohich a foreign foe sets his 
 hostile foot. Our riches^ the complicated nature of 
 our social and monetary system^ the limited extent 
 of our country J the necessity of internal order and 
 confidence for the maintenance of our manufac- 
 turing population^ loould 1 fear he found to render 
 
268 
 
 a prolonged conflict upon our oion soil perhaps 
 impracticable^ at all events fatal to all that con- 
 stitutes the power^ the icellheing^ and the happiness 
 oj the country. 
 
 "3. A serious apprehension of invasion^ still 
 more the actual landing of an invading army in 
 force, would, I apprehend, necessitate the immediate 
 suspension of specie payments hj the Bank of 
 England; this loould he followed hy the prevcdence 
 of monetary alarm^ partaking more or less, according 
 to circumstances.^ of the character of panic. Money 
 would he loithdrawn from savings hanks^ from 
 country hanks, from all parties holding money at 
 call. To meet these demands Government secu- 
 rities must he hrought to market in unusual quanti- 
 ties at a time when the credit of the Government 
 would he shaken.^ and the disposition to invest in 
 Government securities would jfi^ow the same cause 
 be seriously checked. The consequence is obvious; 
 a heavy fall in the price of public securities, a 
 prostration of public credit.^ and grievous incon- 
 venience.^ amounting not improbably to the absolute 
 suspension of the usual course of monetary opera- 
 tions, 
 
 '' In this country the use of money is economized 
 hy various complicated expedients to an extent in- 
 finitely greater than in any other country. The 
 efficiency of these expedients depends upon the un- 
 disturbed state of social order and public corifi- 
 dence; they would be at once paralyzed by any 
 
2G9 
 
 serious invasion of the country. More money loould 
 be required for the purposes of circulation wlien 
 more money coidd not he had; and the existing 
 amount of money would be rapidly secreted for 
 safety. Money ^ and the suhstitute for money ^ 
 credit.^ would disappear simultaneously. To what 
 extent would tliis go ? No man can say before- 
 hand. But these results woidd he more disastrous 
 in England than in any other country.^ on account 
 of the complicated character of our monetary 
 arrangements.^ lohich renders the whole system 
 peculiarly sensitive to any movement tending to 
 produce disorder or discredit. 
 
 4. The fourth question directs attention to the 
 effect which an invasion of England may be 
 expected to produce upon the prosperity of other 
 countries, and the strong reaction which it is sup- 
 posed this might cause against the author of the 
 ao'OTession. 
 
 " I cannot doubt that the consequences of any 
 blow inflicted upon the prosperity of England 
 would be felt, and seriously felt, through every 
 quarter of the globe to wliich trade and commerce 
 have penetrated. A large portion of the produc- 
 tive energies of the world are sustained by British 
 capital and British credit. Looh at our annual 
 exports amounting to about 100,000,000 of sterling 
 value. This indicates the extent to lohich other 
 countries derive the supply of their necessaries or 
 their luxuries from British industry. Look again at 
 
270 
 
 our annual imports^ sioeUing to ihe same amount^ 
 and thus showing the extent to which other countries 
 find a market for their products in British pro- 
 sperity. The country from which these gigantic 
 transactions emanate cannot be seriously injured 
 without disastrous consequences to every country 
 which directly or indirectly has held intercourse 
 with her. Such is the beneficent law of inter- 
 national commercial intercourse ; all trading- 
 countries have a common interest in the pro- 
 gressive prosperity of their neighbours, and no 
 doubt can be entertained that the effects of a blow 
 which an invasion of England would inflict upon 
 our commercial prosperity must vibrate through 
 the whole trading world. But these effects will 
 be very slightly estimated by anticipation; it is 
 only after the fatal occurrence other nations will 
 fully recognize the extent to which their interests 
 are involved in the well-being of this country. 
 Our safety must in no degree he left dej^endent upon 
 the pi^ecarious and tardy sympathy of other countries. 
 The aid to be derived from this source will ai^ise 
 after the evil has been consummated. With our- 
 selves alone must rest the defence of our country. 
 " We have every inducement to make our system 
 of national defence complete and effectual, because 
 the calamities and misery which a successful in- 
 vasion of England must produce would be far 
 more serious than any of which the world has yet 
 had experience." 
 
271 
 
 Defence of the Navigation Laws. 
 
 To the Right Hon. Wm. Eicart Gladstone, M.P. 
 
 FoRFAE, June 6, 1848. 
 
 My dear Son, William — 
 
 Last evening I had read to me the speech 
 you delivered in the House of Commons on Friday 
 last, in favour of the repeal of the Navigation 
 Laws. I think your facts are fairly stated, but 
 your conclusions.^ drawn from them, I cannot admit 
 to be generally y?^s/^ \n principle or well-founded. 
 
 It appears to me that in your attempt to justify 
 and defend a general principle founded on the 
 modern notions of free trade — which implies a 
 desire to concede existing rights.^ because it is in the 
 present day called liheral to do so — you work 
 yourself into a labyrinth from which you can only 
 escape by the undue sacrifice of certain rights and 
 privileges which are possessed by and belong to 
 us, and for which, if given up, I cannot discover 
 that w^e are to receive in return any due and just 
 consideration. Hitherto the discussion of those 
 interests has been confined to national treaties, and 
 \ko^Q founded on Reciprocity, where there was to 
 be a quid pro quo to be the principle, that an 
 equitable consideration was to be conceded to us in 
 lieu of it ; but you propose to abandon rights lohicli 
 have been proved by experience to be naturcd, and 
 
272 
 
 nationally imporfant and yaluable. When the 
 Governments of two countries meet to decide these 
 interesting subjects, the one proposes to the other 
 to relinquish certain branches of their ti'ade by 
 laying them open under treaty, ^oith the understand- 
 ing that those with whom they treat possess similar 
 advantages which they are to relinquish. Thus let 
 us suppose that the United States propose that if 
 w^e will consent to admit the produce of the Brazils 
 or of France to be imported into this country in 
 American bottoms, subject only to such conditions 
 as are required when these importations are made 
 in British bottoms, to make us in return similar 
 concessions in favour of British shipping employed 
 in carrying on a similar trade between the Brazils 
 and France and the ports of the United States. 
 
 Here then is a clear principle of reciprocity 
 adopted, a quid pro quo^ which being acted upon, 
 draws nearer, and into closer intercourse and con- 
 nection, those countries that agree to make such 
 concessions to each other ^ and is, therefore, likely to 
 prove for their mutual benefit ; but such conces- 
 sions can only be special and founded on Treaty — 
 they cannot, without the risk of great sacrifices, be 
 admitted or acted upon under such general prin- 
 ciples and practice as you propose to adopt. Thus 
 for instance w^e have very extensive Colonies and 
 foreign possessions (^many of them earned at a cost 
 of British blood and treasure and thus considered 
 to be achieved by conquest, though noW; I lament 
 
273 
 
 to tliink, Uhehj to he rendered valuelesfi to us by the 
 present measure of our rulers) with which an 
 intmiate and constant Intercourse is maintained 
 and carried out In British shipping, productive of 
 important advantages to Britain and British ship 
 owners. If I understand you right, you propose 
 to lay open this carrying trade to the shipping of 
 other countries — for instance to the United States, 
 Now it does happen that the United States possess 
 neither Colonies nor Foreign possessions, and 
 therefore have no such privileges to offer to us in 
 return or to concede. It therefore follows there 
 can he no reciprocity in such a course of conduct 
 vlo qidd pro qiio^hMi cdl the advantages^ wlmtexeY 
 they may be, to be given up by us loithout a con- 
 sideration. You contend that, in such a case, our 
 Colonists have a choice of conveyance, some of 
 them., perhaps, on lower terms than by British 
 shipping, are willing to adopt them, and would reap 
 the advantage. If this principle is to be recognized 
 and acted upon, do you not at once lay the axe to tlie 
 root of the tree out of which have grown the sources 
 of our Commerce,^ our wealth, and our maritime 
 greatness f By laying them open, you propose to 
 abandon to others the sources which support the 
 superiority we have hitherto possessed in our ships, 
 our colonies, and commerce, the sources of envy 
 and jealousy to other countries. You say, that if 
 you do so, in return we shall confer advantages on 
 our colonies ; as, for instance, you suppose a Ger- 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 man ship carries emigrants from Germany to 
 Australia, and on lier arrival tliere tlie Colonists 
 should have the power of loading their wool or 
 other produce and through such foreign channel 
 conveying it to a British market. If such a con- 
 cession were to be made, the benefit to the 
 Cokmist would only be incidental and unimportant. 
 But whilst the transport of their produce is re- 
 stricted to British shipping the certainty of their 
 finding employment secures the necessary supply 
 on which the Colonist may depend ; but if laid 
 equally open to the foreigner, they with such com- 
 petition, can have no dependence on finding em- 
 ployment; thus, between the two stools, whilst 
 you propose to benefit the Colonist, you risk his 
 being left without the means of sending his wool 
 to market. 
 
 But this is only a secondary consideration. AYe 
 have at a great expense established and settled our 
 Colonies; we have given them privileges, protec- 
 tion, and admission to our markets of consumption 
 for their produce, on conditions advantageous to 
 them — concessions all calculated to promote an 
 union and intercourse alike heneficial to hotJi^ but 
 which, under your propositions, are to be abandoned 
 and tJiroion open to the icorld^ whilst that icorld^ 
 caring only for itself, makes no optional contribution 
 in return towards raising our enormous revenue — 
 defraying or providing for our sources of taxation, 
 local and general, or supporting our systems, 
 
275 
 
 institutions, or hahits of industry^ labour, expen- 
 diture, and consumption. These are wholly local 
 and depend upon ourselves; whilst you propose^ 
 with a hand of vast and lihei'al profusion, to lay 
 open every source we possess, or advantage we 
 enjoy, to the free and open competition of others, 
 who, so far as I can discover, while we are to 
 part with substantial good, have nothing to give, 
 or even to offer us in return. 
 
 If I understand you right, you are also disposed 
 to lay open our coasting- trade to the foreigner, 
 which certainly, in many instances, would be not 
 only gratuitous, but without 'pretence to reciprocity. 
 The principle of reciprocity might be urged by the 
 United States, if she proposed to us to admit 
 British shipping to participate in carrying on their 
 coasting-trade, provided the same privileges were 
 conceded by us to American shipping in the 
 coasting-trade of the United Kingdom. If such 
 an uncalled-for, unnatural, and inconvenient con- 
 cession, with a sacrifice of local feeling, was to be 
 made, I can discover no serious advantage it 
 would be productive of to the interests of either 
 party, whilst it would be found to prove a source 
 of great jealousy and risk of misunderstanding. 
 
 But come nearer home, and let us suppose that 
 the excess of shipping belonging to the ports of 
 Hamburgh and Bremen, built and fitted equally 
 well with British shipping, though at a much loicer 
 cost^ navigated and provisioned on more favourable 
 
 18* 
 
276 
 
 terms, and now spread over tlie ocean and advan- 
 tageously employed in tlie commerce of the loorlcl^ 
 which seems rather a favomite object of yom's. I 
 say that if these bottoms from the opposite coast 
 were to be employed in om- coasting trade — let us 
 suppose that great branch of it, carrying the supply 
 of coals from Newcastle and its neighbourhood to 
 supply the consumption of fuel by near two 
 millions of our population residing in London and 
 its vicinity, employing many hundred sail of 
 British ships, and many thousand of British 
 seamen ; suppose the trade laid equally open to 
 the shipping of Hamburgh and Bremen, Avhat 
 have they to give us in return ? I answer nothing, 
 literally nothing ; for they have neither coast nor 
 coasting-trade of any kind or description. Yet in 
 this mania of liberality you, with others, appear 
 disposed to make such vast and uncalled-for 
 sacrifices. You may say that what we give up is 
 to be occupied by others, but that the general 
 trade and commerce of the country is to be 
 extended and increased by it. That may be true, 
 but the concessions and sacrifices are to be ours — 
 the gains and advantages are to he given to others ; 
 whilst this country, raised to power and eminence 
 by the advantages of situation, united with loell- 
 regulated liberality in our intercourse with others, 
 but icitli a due regard to our own interests, su]3- 
 ported by the wisdom of laws and institutions, 
 has gained a pre-eminence in the affairs of the 
 
277 
 
 world, wliicli these new-fangled doctrines and 
 theories are calculated to imdermme and ulti- 
 mately to overthrow^ but which I would fain hope, 
 by hastening a change of botli men and measures, 
 may be preserved to us unchanged. 
 
 These novel theories and dangerous experiments 
 with which our legislation now teems bring to my 
 recollection a favourite toast of a very old and 
 respected, but a too liberal friend of mine, now no 
 more, Mr. Thomas Booth, a well-known merchant 
 in Liverpool. His toast was^ " May the world be 
 our country, and doing good our religion" — 
 sentiments beautiful in the ahstracty but totally 
 incapable of application to the conduct and habits 
 of mankind in their relations with each other. 
 But in the proposed mode of re-casting and 
 liberalizing our Navigation Laws, I think I see 
 an attempt to introduce and act upon such imprac- 
 ticable doctrines. God in His wisdom instilled 
 into the breast of man self-preservation as the first 
 law in his nature ; but our rulers^ in the present 
 day, seem disposed to give it only the second 
 place. Once lay open our colonial possessions 
 and coasting-trade to the shipping and seamen of 
 other powers, I ask, where is your boasted nursery 
 that has hitherto manned your navy and protected 
 your shores^ If they are to be laid open, and 
 passed into the hands of foreigners, who, in place 
 of being our friends^ may prove to be our inveterate 
 enemies, and if we shall thus be cultivating the means 
 
278 
 
 and engines for our future destruction^ wliat tlieii 
 is to become of your justly-boasted wooden walls? 
 You are aware that I am at present confined by 
 indisposition, and that I dictate tins letter from my 
 bed by tbe pen of a third party. I am conscious 
 you will find it abounds with errors and imper- 
 fections, yet, notwithstanding now in my eighty- 
 fourth year, as a last duty, and perhaps tribute to 
 the interests of my country^ I give it to the public, 
 and send it for that purpose to the columns of the 
 Standard, from whence it may perhaps find its 
 way to more general circulation. 
 
 I am, ever your affectionate Father, 
 John Gladstone. 
 
 Sm Stafford Northcote on the Consolidation 
 OF THE Empire. 
 
 Since the foregoing pages were sent to the press 
 the writer of them was greatly rejoiced to read in 
 the Times of Friday the 7th December, the 
 following in a speech singularly happy and able 
 for the occasion^ made by the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer at a dinner given to him by the County 
 of Devon at Exeter, at which both Liberals and 
 Conservatives united to do him honour. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote said : " At the present 
 
279 
 
 time I need not say to you that England requires 
 
 in every possible way to strengthen herself and to 
 
 consolidate her power. I am not one of those who 
 
 take a gloomy view of the possible future ; at the 
 
 same time it is impossible for any man who is in 
 
 any way or degree charged with the conduct of 
 
 public affairs not to take a somewhat anxious view, 
 
 and I believe myself that the true safety of 
 
 England, the true line to follow for the preservation 
 
 of the Empire which has been bequeathed to us, and 
 
 for its strengthening and development^ is not so much 
 
 fear and jealousy of others, as a determination to 
 
 strengthen and consolidate power loithin ourselves . . 
 
 I do not say that we are to extend the physical 
 
 limits of our Empire to a great extent beyond the 
 
 point at which they already stand, but / say this^ 
 
 that for the consolidation of our poioer^ for the 
 
 hutting together of our great Colonial and Indian 
 
 Empire with the Mother- Country at home^ there is an 
 
 enormous amount of work to be done^ and it is to the 
 
 doing of the work and doing it fairly^ that I look 
 
 for the salvation of the greatness and continued 
 
 prosperity of this Empire.'^ 
 
 The excellent and hard-worked Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, who 
 
 " Smiles without art, and wins without a bribe/' 
 
 having wisely reminded us of the '' enormous 
 amount of loorh to be done in knitting together 
 our great Colonial and Indian Empire^^ it has 
 occurred to the writer of these pages that the 
 
280 
 
 carrying out of the scheme, or something like 
 it^ named in a printed letter sent to him by a friend 
 a year or two since, might perhaps well be allowed 
 to form part of that ^* enormous work." Such a 
 scheme, if wisely worked, and judiciously extended 
 from time to time in the Colonies^ might aid alike 
 the material and spiritual interests of the people. 
 It would, too, afford strong proof (at present rather 
 deficient) on the part of the Mother-Country, that 
 she does " respond '' to the requirements and the 
 " distant sympathies of her Colonies," and the 
 scheme, viewed in this light, would lead to a 
 stronger bond of union between them than the 
 pursuit of mere material interests alone could do. 
 At all events, the letter deserves as wide a 
 circulation as can be given to it. 
 
 Benevolence is like the generous sun, 
 AYliose free impartial splendour fosters all : 
 It is the radiance of the human soul, 
 The proof and sign of its Celestial Birth. 
 
 Missionary Colleges. 
 
 "Henfield, August 1, 1873. 
 ''' Dear Sir, — The large and rapidly increasing 
 number of boys, from all stations in society, now 
 under training in the several Schools of St. 
 Nicholas College has directed the mind of the 
 Society to the enquiry whether it would not be 
 possible for such a body, to contribute an import- 
 
281 
 
 ant instalment to tlie cause of Missions both at 
 liome and abroad. 
 
 "• The Missionary labour of the world has fallen 
 chiefly upon this small island, and I believe, in 
 point of money, we of the Church of England 
 have contributed more to this cause, than the whole 
 of the rest of Christendom. But no exertions 
 hitherto made are at all equal to the necessities of 
 the case, and it will be obvious to those who have 
 considered the subject, that other means, besides 
 those already existing, must be used, if we are to 
 meet the wants of our times. When we consider 
 the extent of the field, and the thousands of 
 labourers required at this moment to occupy it, we 
 are at a loss to conceive how it can be dealt with. 
 If we looked to man only we should despair, but 
 to faith all things are possible. The greatest 
 obstacle can be removed by an earnest and never- 
 flaggmg faith, and we may not question the ability 
 of the Church of England to occupy that place, 
 which God, in His providence has assigned her. 
 
 '^ I have no intention at this time of writing in 
 favour of Missions, but I wish to ask you if you do 
 not think that our Society could largely help the 
 general cause by some such scheme as the 
 following, viz. : — That we should have attached to 
 St. Saviour's School, Ardingly, a College for 
 Missionaries, as we have at St. John's, Hurstpier- 
 point — a College for Commercial Schoolmasters, and 
 
 '' 1. That boys from any of our Schools should 
 
282 
 
 be eligible as candidates for this department, re- 
 moving when approved to the Mission College. 
 
 '' 2. That the diet table at the Mission College 
 should be the same as the one used for the St. 
 Saviour's School. 
 
 ^' 3. That the College should be made nearly or 
 quite self-supporting, and that the general scale of 
 payments should be as follows : — 
 
 "- Accepted Candidates from St. Saviour's, 
 Ardingly, and other schools of that grade — £15 
 per annum. 
 
 "Accepted Candidates from St. John's, Hurst, 
 and other schools of that grade — £20 per annum. 
 
 "Accepted Candidates from St. Nicholas, 
 Lancing, and other schools of that grade — £25 per 
 annum. And that a few exhibitions be founded 
 to relieve the needy among them. 
 
 '' 4. That persons on becoming members of the 
 Mission College engage to place themselves in the 
 hands of the College as to their future destination 
 and employment. 
 
 " 5. That the object of their joining shall be to 
 promote the spread of the Gospel at home and 
 abroad, either as Clergymen, Catechists, and 
 Schoolmasters ; or as Scholars devoted to literary 
 pursuits ; or if need be^ as Architects, Builders, 
 and Mechanics. 
 
 "6. That for the sake of the latter class of 
 persons, the College should have attached to it 
 workshops, and teach the candidates trades. 
 
283 
 
 " 7. That no candidate be received wlio lias not 
 been, for one year at least^ a pupil in some school 
 belonging to the Society, nor then until he shall 
 have reached fifteen years of age. 
 
 " 8. On being accepted, he shall remain one 
 year as a probationer, and then if approved, con- 
 tinue three years or more a student, so as in no 
 case to pass his final examination before he is 
 twenty. 
 
 "9. Having passed, he shall be considered as an 
 Associate of the College, and his payments to the 
 College shall cease ; and where he can be em- 
 ployed, he shall receive a stipend. 
 
 "10. Associates thus prepared and qualified, 
 shall be eligible and bound, either to teach at home 
 in the schools of the Society, at a fixed and 
 sufficient salary, or to go out to the colonies or 
 other dependencies of the British Crown or else- 
 where as Missionaries^ Schoolmasters, Catechists, 
 or in any other capacity which the Society may 
 determine for them. 
 
 "11*. That the Society shall purchase land^ and 
 
 otherwise make arrangements for settling such 
 
 Associates in the colonies, or in places to which it 
 
 shall send them ; and that their place of settlement 
 
 shall be called and shall be a College. That is to 
 
 say, it shall be a Society, with an authorized, and 
 
 * This rule might in necessary cases be applied at home, 
 and bodies formed as precursors of our largo centres of 
 education. 
 
284 
 
 responsible liead, holding tlie lands and otlier 
 property in trust for the common good. 
 
 "' 12, That the Principal shall be a clergyman, 
 and that all the fellows and members of the 
 Society shall be in communion with the Church of 
 England, and that the Bishop of the Diocese shall, 
 if he be willing, be visitor, 
 
 " We believe that by a scheme of this sort, much 
 might be done for our colonies, and for India — 
 much for the emigrants, especially for those who 
 have been educated at our schools, and generally 
 for the spread of the Gospel, by teaching, direct and 
 indirect. 
 
 " Our plan of settling Societies would bear 
 some resemblance to that adopted by the Mora- 
 vians. We should purchase land where it could 
 be had cheap, but as near to the large towns as 
 possible. The lay members of the Society might 
 cultivate this for the general good — others would 
 keep schools or work on trades, and others again 
 would be clergymen, and place themselves in the 
 hands of the Bishop. The architects and me- 
 chanics might build the College with their own 
 hands, and would above all things provide a fit 
 chapel in which the services might be daily said, 
 as in our cathedrals at home. If they settled near 
 a town how great a help would it be to the 
 ordinary missionary, while to young men from 
 England, the brothers or friends of the members of 
 the College^ the good would be inestimable, and 
 
285 
 
 tend to keep our emigrants from being a disgrace 
 to tlie mother country. This woukl certainly be 
 one of the special advantages of having a large 
 portion of the members of the College of the same 
 class as the emigrants themselves, — and moreover, 
 as these Colleges would, from time to time^ be 
 replenished with new members from home, and 
 also from among the natives or colonists who may 
 be educated by them, they would form nurseries 
 to supply regular missionaries, and afford retreats 
 for the worn and exhausted missionary when he 
 needed a rest or a change. 
 
 " I confine this paper to as few lines as possible, 
 and it is only put out as a feeler, to discover how 
 far it may prove acceptable to those whom God 
 has blessed with a missionary spirit, and also to 
 ascertain the opinions of parents on the subject in 
 case any of them should entertain the hope of 
 giving a son to the service of religion. It may be 
 as well to add an explanation on one or two 
 points. 
 
 " 1. I propose the St. Saviour dietary because, 
 if people are to be of any use as missionaries they 
 must start with, and retain afterwards plain and 
 inexpensive habits. They must lay aside, too, all 
 pride of birth and station, and seek only to surpass 
 others in goodness and learning. And because, if 
 they will content themselves witli this diet table 
 of abundant and wholesome food, we may train 
 missionaries by tliousands instead of hundreds, and 
 
28G 
 
 give them many more years education without 
 calling for any large amount of public charity, as 
 most of the parents can find such a sum as £15 or 
 £20 a year; especially if aided in necessary cases 
 with small exhibitions, say of from £2 to £5 
 a year. 
 
 "2. It must however be remembered that a 
 Mission Fund would be needed for several pur- 
 poses such as for the purchase of land ; outfit, 
 perhaps, and passage money ; a professor or two 
 beyond the ordinary masters of the school ; 
 scholarsliips, and exhibitions ; a foreman to work- 
 shops, &c. But all this would be a mere trifle 
 compared with the usual cost of missions. 
 
 '' This opportunity appears to me a great 
 opening, and my belief is that we shall find the 
 boys from St. Saviour's School — many of whom 
 have relations and friends in the colonies — glad to 
 devote themselves to this work, and that they will 
 prove, in not a few instances, the fittest agents we 
 could get. Will you^ therefore, be so kind as 
 seriously to think this matter over, and to let me 
 have a letter from you^ stating your opinion on the 
 subject ? 
 
 " Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 '^ Faithfully yours, 
 
 " N. WOODARD, 
 
 ^^ Provost of St. Nicholas College^ Lancing ^ 
 
287 
 
 To the Editor of the '' Times r 
 Sir, — My attention has been drawn to a letter in 
 the Times of Wednesday, under the above head- 
 ing, which very properly emphasizes afresh the 
 evidence of the genuine British feeling of our 
 Colonies afforded by the subscription of South 
 Australia to the Indian Famine Fund. 
 
 Allow me, however, to protest against the 
 latter part of this same letter. There is a large 
 and widening circle of the home puhlic taking a vivid 
 interest in matters colonial. The Boy at Colonial 
 Institute is hut the outward sign of the fact that the 
 rafpid growth of our Colonies is inevitably thrusting 
 to the fro7it their importance as integral jparts of the 
 Empire; and^ considering their far distance, and 
 the fact that they are creations of yesterday, with 
 no past to be set out in histories, with a present 
 in ''perpetual flux," and a future of probable 
 surprises, it is raatter of congratulation that so much 
 definite puhlic interest should he centred in so puzzling 
 a suhject. 
 
 But to those numerous Englishmen, both in 
 England and in the Colonies, who are regarding our 
 fast-growing Empire witii feelings of sanguine 
 hope or puzzled apprehension, it is distressing to 
 read the remarks of *' B. L.,'' put forward with all 
 the apparent emphasis of well-founded authority. 
 Australasia, he remarks, " is generally spoken of as 
 Australia, whereas Australasia is nearly as large as 
 Europe, and is divided into separate States, with 
 
288 
 
 laws almost as distinct, witli feelings and tastes 
 certainly as different as those of Spain and Eussia.'^ 
 Were this the case, farewell once and for all to 
 every hope, or, indeed, rational prospect of a con- 
 tinuance of the integrity of the Emijire. But to say 
 of the different Colonies of Australasia that in laws, 
 feelings and tastes they differ as much as Russia 
 from Spain, is to put forward an interpretation of 
 actual facts which is totally inadmissible, and, 
 moreover, damaging to the intelligent treatment of 
 the. Colonial Question. 
 
 So far as there is any type in a nationality, it is 
 a type entirely the resultant of antecedents, Spain 
 and Eussia have developed their respective 
 national types ; their laws, and feelings, and tastes 
 have grown to what they are out of widely 
 different and entirely distinct antecedents; they 
 inherit no one point in common^ because their ances- 
 tors loere ever unhnoion to each other. But can this 
 he said of English Colonies 9 Is it not rather 
 a notorious fact that wherever Englishmen congre- 
 gate there they promptly reproduce in every 
 detail the national idea that they left behind them 
 in the British Isles ? And above all is this true 
 of the Colonies in Australasia. They are pure re- 
 productions of English communities^ unmixed by the 
 presence of the large " servile " elements of our 
 " TropicaV^ Colonies^ unmixed by the presence of 
 the large native and alien populations of South 
 Africa and North America. 
 
289 
 
 Another correspondent, giving an able American 
 view of the Eastern Question, has asked ^' Shall 
 people of distinct nationalities, races, religionSj 
 languages^ manners, and customs ... be 
 bound to each other in political servitude ? Yet 
 this question would almost fit to the English 
 Colonies if the description of'^B. L!^ were actually 
 correct. In our Colonies^ above all in those of Aus- 
 tralasia^ /, for 07ze, liave found nothing hut genuine 
 English feeling. Pervading the lohole Colonial 
 Empire there exist the essential characteristics of 
 one distinct nationality^ one race^ one religion^ 
 one language^ and one system of manners and 
 customs. And, remembering their historical origin.^ 
 as offshoots of the British race^ it is difficult to see 
 how there could be other than a distinct unity of 
 " laws., feelings., and tastes '^ pervading all British 
 communities. 
 
 These remarks of " B. L." do call for earnest 
 correction, and urge us to hope with '' B. L.'' that 
 all things may '' lead many people who write and 
 speak about Australia to acquaint themselves a 
 little with its history." 
 
 I am, Sir, &c., 
 
 George Baden-Powell. 
 2{)th October, 1877. 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 Cultivation of Waste Lands by Aid of 
 Government. 
 
 On February 21st the House of Commons was 
 occupied with the discussion of a Bill, intro- 
 duced by Mr. MacCarthy, for the reclamation 
 of Waste Lands in Ireland. Had the purpose of 
 the Bill been accurately and adequately described 
 in its title, it would be difficult to understand why 
 it should have been refused a second reading. No 
 opponent of the Bill attempted to deny the evils 
 which it proposed to remedy. Ireland, as we 
 have been told on high authority, is surrounded 
 by a melancholy ocean which drenches it with 
 unwelcome rain. The owners of its soil are for 
 the most part poor, and their isolated efforts are 
 powerless to rid it of the water which nature only 
 too bountifully supplies. Mr. MacCarthy tells us, 
 on the authority of the Registrar- General for 
 Ireland, thatout of 20,227,204 acres of land which 
 might be made available for agricultural purposes, 
 4,000,000 acres — that is, nearly one-fifth of the 
 whole — are still lying waste. Even if the local 
 proprietors were rich instead of poor, the reclama- 
 tion of land in such large tracts as alone could be 
 profitably dealt widi would need combined efforts 
 and a large outlay of capital. Both these con- 
 ditions, however, are for the most part wanting, 
 
291 
 
 and it was the ostensible purpose of the Bill which 
 was rejected yesterday to supply them. Various 
 attempts have already been made to deal with the 
 subject. Under an Act passed by the late Sir 
 Eobert Peel in 1842, 257,000 acres were reclaimed, 
 but the operations sanctioned by that Act were 
 suspended by the famine, and by the dislocation 
 of public industry which ensued upon it^ and 
 subsequent Acts have not produced the effects 
 which were anticipated from them. Not more 
 than twenty isolated districts have been reclaimed 
 under the Acts passed after the subject was 
 reconsidered by Parliament in 1856 ; but Mr. 
 MacCarthy stated yesterday that an area of 
 2,213,472 acres, amounting to one-twelfth of the 
 soil of Ireland, still remains in a condition that is 
 little better than dismal bog, and drew from that 
 and similar facts the inference that further powers 
 of reclamation were needed. No attempt seems 
 to have been made to question this statement of 
 facts, nor did even the opponents of the Bill deny 
 that the subject was one well worthy of Parlia- 
 mentary consideration. But the Bill as introduced 
 by Mr. MacCarthy contained provisions of many 
 kinds, tending to a variety of different objects, and 
 thus it concentrated on itself a preponderating 
 aggregate of independent oppositions. Some 
 speakers objected to an undue interference with 
 proprietary rights, others to a State guarantee 
 of the money to be expended, others to the 
 
 19^^ 
 
292 
 
 confusion of the question of reclamation with that 
 of arterial drainage^ — though it is difficult to see 
 how the two can be kept distinct, — others to the 
 attempt to create a class of peasant proprietors 
 hj a legislative side-wind, others to a private 
 encroachment on the province of Government 
 initiative, and so forth. Thus, although a good 
 deal was said in favour of the Bill, and a good 
 deal more on behalf of the objects it ostensibly 
 aimed at, it was rejected on a division, and its 
 promoters wdll have to be content for at least 
 another year, as Mr. Lowther, the new Secretary 
 for Ireland, recommended them, with having 
 raised a discussion on the subject. 
 
 The subject, indeed, is well worthy of the 
 attention promised to it by Mr. Lowther on behalf 
 of the Government. If it he truc^ as cannot he 
 douhtecl^ that 4,000,000 acres of soil ca]jahle of 
 cultivation in Ireland are still in the condition of 
 unreclaimed loaste^ there clearly must he some icant 
 of enterpriser initiative^ or encouragement to account 
 for the fact. Of course there must in all countries 
 be land which will not repay the cost of agi'icul- 
 tural cultivation. Some is bog of such hopeless 
 character as would never pay for reclamation ; 
 some is mountainous and stony, and its natural 
 herbage, which is all that it can be made to bear, 
 will yield a scanty sustenance to sheep ; some 
 is fit only for woodland, and furnishes a precarious 
 profit in periods counted by years ; some, as 
 
293 
 
 Mr. ]\Iacai'tney pointed out in the debate, may 
 be so poor as to be worth less than five shillings 
 an acre, and yet may be of use to tenants of 
 cultivated land in the vicinity, because their 
 geese, goats, and pigs can run wild on it. But, 
 if we understand his purpose aright, it is not with 
 irreclaimable waste of this kind that Mr. MacCarthy 
 is anxious to deal. A good deal of land ts only 
 pronounced irreclaimable because there is neither 
 enterprise nor capital ready for the task of redeeming 
 it. It may be very pleasant for an unthrifty 
 occupier to have the run of a large tract of waste 
 land, where his geese, goats, and pigs may fatten 
 or starve at no cost to himself; but the case is 
 greatly altered if, as Mr. 0' Sullivan said, land 
 which is now not worth ^yq shillings can be 
 made worth thirty shillings by drainage and 
 reclamation. Even if the 4,000,000 acres capable 
 of reclamation in Ireland were all reclaimed^ there 
 would still remain pasturage for the geese, goats^ 
 and pigs whose interests Mr. Macartney defends, 
 and even shelter for the grouse which excite the 
 admiration of Lord Crichton. But it is hardly 
 fair to expect that those interesting idlers should 
 remain the exclusive occupants of land ivhich^ if 
 properly brought under cultivation^ might furnish a 
 great stimulus to the industry and a great increase 
 to the toealth pf Ireland, As Mr. MacCarthy 
 pointed out, the present generation has witnessed 
 the reclamation of lands on a vast scale in Holland 
 
294 
 
 and other parts of Europe. The Lake of Haarlem 
 has been pumped dry, and a scheme is now in 
 progress for the reclamation of a great portion of 
 the Zuyder Zee. It is true, as was remarked by 
 Mr. O'Eeilly, that the problem in Holland was to 
 reclaim land from the sea^ while in Ireland the 
 task is a different one. But it is not necessarily 
 a more difficult task because it is a different one, 
 and it surely must be easier to make water follow 
 its natural course and flow downhill through 
 channels artificially provided for it than, as in 
 Holland^ to force it to a higher level and to 
 maintain it there without encroaching on lands 
 reclaimed literally from below its normal surface. 
 We are not concerned to defend the details of the 
 scheme introduced by Mr. MacCarthy ; they may 
 have been open to all the objections which were 
 brought against them, and to many more besides ; 
 hut it seems to us indisputahle that if^ as is not 
 seriously questioned^ there exist in Ireland large 
 tracts of land which are now waste and profitless 
 hut are capahle of profitahle cultivation^ it shoidd he 
 the husiness of the Government and of Farliament 
 to devise some means of reclaiming them. 
 
 As regards the actual provisions of the Bill, it 
 will be manifest to any one who reads it that, as 
 Mr. Verner, who moved its rejection, said, it 
 contains a good many more clauses open to 
 question and objection than would be supposed by 
 those who relied solely on the description given 
 
295 
 
 of it by ]\Ir. MacCartliy. It may be a good or a 
 bad tiling to create a class of peasant proprietors 
 in Ireland, and both views have their advocates ; 
 but there can be no doubt as to the impolicy 
 of effecting such an object by a Bill ostensibly 
 dealing with the reclamation of Waste Lands. 
 Arterial drainage is one thing, and a social revolu- 
 tion is another ; if an attempt is made to combine 
 the two^ we are scarcely surprised to find Parlia- 
 ment looking with hesitation and suspicion at both. 
 It is said that when a certain Head of a College in 
 Oxford wanted to marry, the authority of Par- 
 liament was sought and obtained in a clause 
 attached to an Act relating to turnpikes. Some 
 of the legislation proposed for Ireland seems to be 
 modelled on this obsolete and probably apocryphal 
 precedent. A Bill which ostensibly aims at a 
 particular object is found to contain collateral 
 provisions which^ even if defensible in themselves, 
 are certainly entitled to independent discussion. 
 We will not say that such was the character of 
 the Bill rejected yesterday, hut it is at any rate safe 
 to assume that the final judgment of Parliament on 
 the reclamation ofioaste lands in Ireland has not yet 
 been pronounced, Mr. Lowther held out hopes that 
 the subject would receive from the Government the 
 attention which it manifestly deserves. The popula- 
 tion of Ireland, largely reduced by the famine and 
 by the emigration consequent on it, is now again 
 on the increase after long remaining stationary. 
 
296 
 
 As poijulation inci^eases poorer land necessarily 
 comes into cultivation. Waste land cannot he 
 reclaimed on a large scale hy private enterprise 
 alone^ even in countries loliere the proprietors are 
 loealthier and more enterprising than is generally the 
 case in Ireland, Arterial drainage is essentially an 
 undertaking which demands a combined effoji, a 
 comprehensive plan^ and an efficient control. In 
 other words., it is one which needs to he superintended 
 hy the State, even if it is not undertaken hy it. 
 Much lias already been done, as Sir Eobert Peel, 
 Mr. Lowtlier, and other speakers pointed out; 
 much remains to do, as the statistics quoted by 
 Mr. MacCarthy show ; but the wide divergence 
 of opinion exhibited by the various Irish members 
 who spoke is a proof that those who are best 
 entitled by local knowledge and experience to 
 a voice in the matter are as yet far from agreed 
 as to the wisest course to be pursued. (See note, 
 p. 128.)— Times, 21st February, 1878. 
 
 '^The Physical Degeneracy of the Artizan 
 
 Classes. 
 
 " The alleged physical degeneracy of the artizan 
 classes in our great centres of industry is a subject of 
 national importance., lohicli should receive., both from 
 
297 
 
 statesmen and from employers^ a gi^eater degreee of 
 attention than lias hitherto been given to it, Wc 
 published yesterday the opmions, as stated in 
 evidence before the Eoyal Commission on the 
 Factory Acts, of Dr. Fergusson^ who has for 
 fourteen years been one of the certifying surgeons at 
 Bolton^ and icho describes himself as having for 
 forty years tahen a deep interest in everything 
 relating to the physical loell-being of the population. 
 Dr. Fergusson told the Commissioners that he had 
 kept an accm-ate record of all the children Avho 
 were officially brought under his notice^ and that 
 the number of those who lu ere physically unfit to loork 
 full time teas steadily increasing. When he com- 
 menced his duties he was instructed that he miirlit 
 refuse certificates to these children ; but subse- 
 quently he found that he had no power to refuse 
 unless the evidence of age was imperfect ; and 
 that, whatever might be the physical state, the 
 production of an authenticated certificate of bap- 
 tism entitled the child to a factory certificate as a 
 matter of right. When he thus certified a child 
 who icas unfit for loorh he was in the habit of noting 
 doicn its exact loeight and its physical conditio?! 
 generally ; and., on icatching such children., he found 
 that the lapse of time brought little or no improvement 
 in its train. At the end of six months many of the 
 children had not increased in weight, and some 
 had even decreased, showing, in his judgment, 
 that their powers had been overtaxed. The effect 
 
298 
 
 of working full time upon a feeble child was to 
 stunt its growth, to impair its strength, and pro- 
 bably to shorten its life. During the jive years 
 which ended loith 1873 quite one half of the children 
 brought to him were unfit to work fidl time^ and the 
 numher of this class increased year hy year. He 
 thought it very important that the factory certi- 
 ficate should be withheld even from children who 
 were undoubtedly thirteen years old, imless they 
 were of the ordinary strength and appearance of 
 that age ; and unless they were in all respects con- 
 formable to the physical standard which the 
 existing test, although manifestly intended to 
 secure, had hitherto failed in securing. 
 
 "• We shall doubtless be told, and we trust we may 
 be told with some degree of truthfulness, that Dr. 
 Fergusson is an alarmist, or that his account of 
 the conditions which have come under his notice 
 is exaggerated, or that his standard of physical 
 development is too high^ or that the local circumstances 
 are in some respects exceptional. We shall he very 
 glad to believe something of each and all of these 
 statements ; hut they loill not remove the impression 
 that the warning given is impoi^tant. Excepting in 
 certain industries, for which a limited number of 
 the sons of Anak will probably always be forth- 
 coming, the physical powers of the individual artizan 
 loere never of less importance than at present., lohen 
 nearly every kind of hard labour has been transferred 
 from men to machinery, But^ notwithstanding this^ 
 
299 
 
 it must not he forgotten that physical strength forms 
 the natural basis of strength of every other descrip- 
 tion^ and more especially of that strong common sense 
 for tohich our people loere once so conspicuous^ and 
 which they noio so greatly need as a defence against 
 the rhetoric of Union leaders and other agitators, 
 A community of feehle artizans will not yield a fair 
 average number of men loho can think as well as loorh^ 
 who can see the defects of the machinery among which 
 they are employed^ who can suggest improvements^ or 
 who can lift themselves out of their oion class as 
 successful inventors. Such a community^ on the con- 
 trary^ would furnish men loho would be driven by 
 muscidar fatigue to a craving for shorter hours of 
 labour and for the use of stimidants^ and lohose loeah 
 brains ivould be easily led into a fooVs paradise by 
 the talk of those who would be ever on the watch to 
 prey upon them. The manufacturing and commercial 
 pre-eminence of England depends., in a degree which 
 it looidd be difficult to exaggerate., upon the main- 
 tenance among the artizan classes of a certain sobriety 
 of understanding^ as well as of life^ with which a 
 prevailing physical loeakness would be incompatible. 
 ''It is satisfactory to record that Dr. Fergusson 
 does not attribute the ills which he describes to the 
 labour itself, but almost entirely to the unwhole- 
 some habits of the 'parents., to their intemperance., and 
 to their excessive use of tobacco. He states that the 
 latter form of excess is not confined to the parents ; 
 for that at least one-half of the boys in the mills 
 
300 
 
 either smoke or chew tobacco^ or both; and he 
 adds that, however an adult may be able to bear 
 moderate smokmg, there can be no doubt of the 
 prejudical operation of the practice upon the healthy 
 development of a growing child. He also strongly 
 condemns the general substitution in his district of 
 tea or coffee for milk in the food of children ; 
 and related what might be called some experiments 
 which he had tried, in having milk given twice a 
 day to feeble children by mothers or managers of 
 mills whom he could trust. The children so 
 treated grew and increased in weight nearly four 
 times as fast as others of the same age who had tea 
 or coffee instead of milk : the increase of weio-ht of 
 the latter, between the ages of 13 and 15, not ex- 
 ceeding 4lbs. a year, while that of the former was 
 as much as 151bs. a year. To the causes thus 
 enumerated it would probably be necessary to add 
 the influence of very early marriages, and of total 
 want not only of care, but also of knowledge, with 
 regard to the rearing and management of children. 
 Dr. Fergusson mentions, Avliat is well-known to all 
 certifying surgeons, that parents will frequently 
 make false statements in order to send children to 
 the mills at an earlier age than that which the law 
 allows ; and that the baptismal certificates of 
 deceased children are often produced as those of 
 younger brothers or sisters. He might have added 
 that in some districts, where infantile mortality is 
 very high, it is not an uncommon practice to in^e- 
 
301 
 
 pare for a fraud of this description by registering 
 successive children under the same baptismal name. 
 It is unnecessary to assume that the people who do 
 this care less for their children's welfare than 
 others of their class. They probably think that a 
 child can hardly enter too soon upon that which is 
 to be his future lot. 
 
 '''' D)\ Fergussons suggested remedij-' that the law 
 should require evidence not only of the attainment 
 of a certain age^ but also of the attainment of 
 such a degree of strength as the age might he taken 
 to wiijly — is based upon his belief that the parents 
 loould then be impelled by self-interest to take more 
 heed than at present to the physical development of 
 their children. It may be granted that such a pro- 
 vision would be of a salutary tendency, at least if 
 its enforcement were not materially impeded by the 
 differences which might exist between the standards 
 of different Inspectors. Perhaps this difficulty 
 might be met by certain fixed rules with regard to 
 weight and height. But it may still be questioned 
 Avhether the parents, in many cases, Avould have 
 sufficient knowledge to modify their conduct in 
 accordance with their interests ; and there is only 
 too much reason to believe that there is a great work 
 to be done by schools and by employers before the law 
 can be usefully appealed to. It mighty indeed^ 
 remove from the vicinity of the dwellings of the 
 artizan class the accumidations of filth against which 
 any single tenant is helpless.^ and ichich now sur- 
 
302 
 
 7'ound those dwellhicjs with a vitiated atmosphere. 
 In other resjjects^ and as regards matters of household 
 management which hear ii^on the question., the first 
 requirement is to teach the simple laws of health and 
 the necessary consequences of certain lines of conduct. 
 Mrs." Buckton, a member of the Leeds Scliool 
 Board, lias already done good work in this direc- 
 tion, by delivering, at Leeds and at Saltaire, lectm-es 
 to the wives and daughters of working men on the 
 elementary facts of physiology, and on their 
 application to the wants of men and animals. Her 
 lectm-es, which were models of perspicuity and 
 simplicity, have been eagerly attended by large 
 audiences, and appear to have led many who 
 heard them to renounce common practices, espe- 
 cially with regard to children, which they had 
 previously followed because such were the local 
 customs and they themselves knew no better. 
 In schools generally there is amjpile room for a hind 
 of teaching which would at least aim at making 
 children understand the effects of lohat they do., and 
 the inevitahle sequence of these effects from their 
 causes. We must not loonder that artizans should 
 attain only an imperfect physical development., so 
 long as they are exposed to all the insanitary 
 conditions incidental to great aggregations of man- 
 hind., and are left without instruction concerning 
 the means by which the evils associated with these 
 conditions may be guarded against." — Timcs^ 
 1th Jidy, 1875. 
 
It was gratifying to read in the address issued 
 by ]\Ir. Alfred E. Hardy, the second son of the 
 Minister for War, on the 25th February, to the 
 Electors of Canterbury, the following para- 
 graphs : — 
 
 "I am sincerely attached to the principles of 
 the Conservative party, and heartily opposed to 
 all sweeping and radical alterations of the existing 
 Constitution in Church and State. Should you 
 select me as your member 1 am prepared to give 
 a cordial and independent support to Her Majesty's 
 present Government. 
 
 " I am in favour of upholding and consolidating 
 our Colonial and Indian Empire, and keeping our 
 military and naval establishments in the highest 
 state of efficiency. 
 
 " With respect to the war in the East, I approve 
 of the policy of conditional neutrality hitherto 
 adopted by the Ministry, and the measures of 
 precaution taken by them to protect the interests 
 of the country. The present crisis demands the 
 utmost vigilance on their part, and ungrudging 
 and unhesitating confidence on the part of the 
 country. A policy of firmness without menace 
 and conciliation without weakness can best secure 
 the peace of Europe and maintain the honour and 
 interests of England." 
 
 The consolidation of our Colonial and Indian 
 Empire Avith the Mother- Country will render us 
 less dependent on foreign countries, and we shall 
 
 // 
 
 rr -VT tTT "KJ V 
 
304 
 
 find our reward not only by an increase of trade 
 without any appearance of selfishness, but by being- 
 prepared for any hostile tariffs of other nations. 
 
 At the dinner given by the Drapers' Company 
 on the 27th February, ''replying to the toast of 
 the Auxiliary Forces, Colonel Beresford said he 
 longed to see the day when the aimy would be at 
 its full war complement. We had lost nearly all 
 our old soldiers, and had a great number of young 
 men occupying their places, toJio had not the 
 stamina to support the fatigues of a long campaign." 
 
 Of the same weakness Lord Raglan complained 
 throughout the earlier part of the Crimean War. 
 We must then find some means of producing a 
 breed of men possessing such stamina. 
 
 The Condition of Ireland. 
 
 Can the article in the Times of the 9 th of 
 January be more relied on than what is asserted 
 in the following letters ? Eeaders will judge for 
 themselves, but it is all -important that legislation 
 be guided by facts, for truth will ever force itself 
 to the front, in spite of opposition. 
 
 " Sir, — In the Times of the 9tli inst., an article 
 appears on the state of Ireland^ which enlightens 
 me about some facts not generally recognized in 
 that country. 
 
305 
 
 " We are told at considerable length that the con- 
 dition of trade, lohen vieived in relation to the 
 failure of agricultural produce^ is remarkably good^ 
 and prosperous^ indeed, compared with that of 
 England; that the social state of the people has 
 undergone radical improvement; and that Eibandism 
 and agrarian crime are now extinct. 
 
 ''I was agreeably surprised to read of such a 
 Utopian condition of affairs, and must only con- 
 jecture, either that things in other districts than 
 my own are completely different from what I 
 experience, or that the writer of that article succeeded 
 in drawing from the fund of a benevolent English 
 imagination an elaborate picture of Irish affairs as 
 he woidd toish them to be. 
 
 " I am happy to admit that the state of trade 
 is such as to cause considerable satisfaction, but 
 that Eibandism and agrarian crime no more survive 
 I am obliged altogether to deny. The facts of the 
 Mitchelstown case, I should have thought, are 
 sufficient to refute the position assumed in the 
 article, as it is well known that Mr. Bridge, the 
 agent over the property, is obliged, at all times, 
 to go abroad attended by armed policemen, and 
 has been compelled to erect a formidable barrack 
 opposite his hall-door, as a residence for his 
 defenders. He has already within the course 
 of three years been twice fired at and twice 
 wounded. 
 
 " Another gentleman in my own neighbourhood 
 
 20 
 
306 
 
 is in constant danger of assassination. He dis- 
 cliarged a steward from his service, and employed 
 another, who had not been many months in his 
 employment when he was brutally murdered, and 
 the murderer was never brought to justice. Mean- 
 while, the master may at any moment share the 
 fate of his servant, and is obliged, to insure even 
 comparative safety, to have the attendance of 
 policemen. 
 
 " Were your space to permit I could multiply 
 many similar instances. 
 
 " It is a fact that the greater portion of land in 
 the possession of tenants is held at rents con- 
 siderably below its real value. For this reason — 
 in proportion as the market value of land has 
 increased, landlords have been afraid to raise the 
 rents. They naturally prefer security of life at a 
 reduced income to a larger one acquired with 
 considerable personal risk. 
 
 " It is a favourite subject of remark among 
 En^'lishmen that Irish landlords have no enter- 
 prise, that they spend no money in the improve- 
 ment of their land ; but Englislimen do not 
 consider that the real reason of the Irish landlord's 
 apparent niggardliness consists in the fact that, 
 were he to increase the value of his land to double 
 its original value, he could not in the majority 
 of cases increase his rental in proportion without 
 great danger to his life, or the life of his agent. 
 
 '-^ Far t] ten from a (jr a nanism being effete ., it has a 
 
307 
 
 potent influence in lessening the value of property^ 
 and checking prosperity in Ireland. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 " 21st January, 1878. '' Veritas." 
 
 The Times Dublin correspondent writes under 
 date February 27 : — 
 
 '' The Archbishop of Cashel has addressed the 
 folloTring letter to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, in 
 reply to a circular soliciting subscriptions for the 
 Turkish Eelief Fund :— 
 
 " ' Thurles, Feb. 23. 
 
 '^ ^ My Lord Mayor, — I beg to acknowledge the 
 receipt of a paper bearing your signature, and 
 purporting to be an appeal in favour of what is 
 called a " Turkish fund for the purpose of affording 
 assistance to certain non-combatants of every creed 
 in Constantinople, Adrianople, Philippopolis, and 
 surrounding districts." 
 
 " ' I sympathize, I believe, as much as most 
 men with all who are in distress, or who suffer 
 from bodily or other pain, especially if it be in a 
 good caiise^ and is not the result of any misconduct 
 or perversity on their part; but in the present 
 instance I cannot help thinking that the Turkish 
 fugitives, on whose behalf this appeal is made, 
 however worthy of being compassionated, are not 
 at all as much entitled to Christian support as the 
 poor., dotvji-trodden^ turnip -fed^ and ntterhj miser cd)le 
 Irish peasants who are being driven in desperation 
 
 20 * 
 
308 
 
 from their homes on the slushy slopes and wilds of 
 the Galtee Mountains. 
 
 '^ ' Yet I do not find that any one of the many 
 philanthropic personages lohose names figure on the 
 subscription list with ichich I have been favoured has 
 ever expressed a ivord of sympathy with those 
 starving mountaineer s^ ^''fugitives " and " non-cora- 
 bataiits" as they are, or subscribed a penny to 
 purchase for them either food or raiment, '' Caritas 
 bene ordinata incipit domi." 
 " ' I have the honour to be, 
 ^''My Lord Mayor, 
 
 '-'' ^ Your faithful servant, 
 " ' T. W. Croke, Archbishop of CasheL 
 ^'^TheRt. Hon.H. Tarpey, 
 
 " ' Lord Mayor of Dublin.' 
 
 " It is a hard measure to visit the sins of their 
 rulers on the poor Turks who have been driven 
 from their homes, and leave them to perish, while 
 at the same time it has not been thought neces- 
 sary to open a subscription list for the Galtee 
 sufferers." 
 
 '' Recruiting in Ireland. 
 
 ^'Sii-^ — Tlie gentleman who signs himself 'A 
 Resident in the County Clare,' in his letter to the 
 
309 
 
 Times of this morning, says I stated to the House 
 of Commons on Thursday last that ' in the event 
 of a war no recruits would be got in Ireland.' I 
 made no such statement. It would, in my judg- 
 ment, be inaccurate and absurd to say so. I said 
 that in England and in Scotland a patriotic fervour 
 and popular enthusiasm would respond to the call 
 of the Government in defence of the Empire, but 
 that no such popular enthusiasm or national feeling 
 would respond in Ireland as long as the present 
 unhappy state of things prevailed, I noticed in the 
 House of Commons what I considered an artifice 
 of debate in the endeavour to distort mg words and 
 my meaning ; but I declined to make any correc- 
 tion of even the most absurd misrepresentations. 
 No honest and courageous public man who knows 
 the tico countries dare assert that the same extent of 
 active support or national fervour would in such an 
 emergency just now he forthcoming in Ireland as in 
 England ; and he is no true friend of either country 
 who loould lure the Government into the belief it 
 would be so. I spoke neither in menace nor ill-wilL 
 Whether such statements are evil threats or evil 
 wishes, or whether they are honest warnings of 
 danger spoken in good faith and friendliness^ must 
 always in a large degree depend on the character 
 and general views of the speaker^ for I grant that one 
 loay of provoking an evil might be to propliesy or 
 suggest it. / must submit to take my chance of 
 how I may be classed in this instance — as a man 
 
310 
 
 with whom ' the wish is father to the thought/ 
 or one lolio honestly warns of a danger he ivould 
 heartily dejplore. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 ''A. M. Sullivan. 
 ^'January 29, 1878." 
 
 The Elementary Education Act. 
 
 Look upon that picture* and upon tlds — in 
 relation to education — as given in a letter in John 
 Bull of 9th March, 1878. 
 
 '' No Act of Parliament of late years has been 
 so loaded with praise, from all sides^ as Mr. 
 Forster's of 1870, and even now, with a great 
 number of people, it holds such a place that we 
 must speak with bated breath if we venture to find 
 fault with it, and many good Conservative papers 
 would refuse a place to a letter, which dared to 
 attempt such a thing as to question the Act of 
 1870. Why is this ? Because very few people 
 know much about the 'practical working of the 
 Public Elementary Schools Act, or of the schools 
 themselves. The Act of 1870 was in fact like the 
 Irish Church Act, a leap into the dark ; it took for 
 
 ■* See " Theory of Education," as shown by extract from 
 Mr. Fronde's History, vol. 1, p. 44. Sec ante, note, pp. 
 129 and 130. 
 
311 
 
 granted what any man who is acquainted with our 
 working classes and public elementary schools 
 knows is not the case ; it is believed that the 
 children of this country were^ or would be^ reli- 
 giously educated in their homes and at the Sunday 
 Schools. As a ride^ for the vast majority, they 
 have no religious instruction at liome^ and to trust 
 alone to Sunday Schools is trusting to a broken 
 reed ; they have neither time nor power. 
 Teaching is not a heaven-born gift, and an hour 
 on Sunday for tlie most important lesson of life is a 
 mochei^y ; hut t\iQ Puhlic Elementary Act of 1870 
 tried to do without religion — a thing impossible. It 
 is an Act idMcIi strikes a direct hloio at all religions 
 alike^ and one that is already being felt terribly, 
 A host of school literature is being put forth, 
 which for the purposes of this Act, are weeded of 
 all religion. It is the very aim of Infidelity to do 
 this : Don't fight Religion — she is too strong ; but 
 cut off Samson's hair lohilst he is asleep. And as 
 all pay depends w^ow secular subjects we are raising 
 an army of teachers who are taught daily by the 
 cogent argument of money ^ to lay aside the fear of 
 God 
 
 " Every year a new Code is issued from the 
 Education Department, which, iiioell-studied^ shows 
 there is in that department a terrible fear lest they 
 are dealing with rogues on every side. Such a 
 multiplicity of returns are required that a master in 
 a large school can scarcely be free from Education 
 
312 
 
 Departmental work half of his school hours. Sur- 
 prise visits of inspectors and of managers — all tell 
 a tale. And this with a people's education. Had 
 our Senators truly learned the old proverb — " Si 
 vis fugere a Deo, fuge ad Deum" — they never 
 would have passed an Act which, in practice says, 
 and is teaching J '' There is no God and so we do not 
 fear Him." I do not hesitate to say I can prove the 
 Act of 1870 to be a failure in all it proposed to do, 
 and 1 believe it to have failed for the reason that 
 it denied the axiom, which all nations except 
 England and her tributaries have admitted, that 
 " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 knowledge." 
 
 " Already our gaols are filling with young people 
 who can read and lorite icell^ and drunkenness, 
 gambling, and other sins increase. Let us, before 
 it is too late, seeh to retrace our steps^ and insist 
 that, in all public elementary schools, the will of 
 the managers and of the parents shall be alone 
 consulted as to the time for religious instruction ; 
 that under the fourth schedule, special subjects — 
 instruction in the Holy Scriptures — for Protestant 
 schools in the authorized version, and for Koman 
 Catholics either in the Douay or the Latin Vulgate, 
 at the will of the managers, but subject to 
 parental refusal, be included, and that such sub- 
 ject shall have its place. 
 
 '^ The effect will be, of course, that Her Majesty's 
 Inspectors, if requested, will examine in Scripture, 
 
313 
 
 and the Government will pay a modicum for its 
 teaching, and thus remove a fearful blot from our 
 Statute-book. 
 
 " In the case of Ireland I hope the Government 
 will propose to pay for all more liberally, and 
 especially if they would give an extra grant for 
 Scriptural Instruction, to be taken or not at will. 
 We should find, ere long, benefits unnumbered 
 arise to Ireland. 
 
 " I am sorry to trespass so far on yom- space, but 
 the subject is one which is indeed Imperial in 
 interest. 
 
 •'H. Knight Eaton, 
 " Vicar of Christ Church, Stafford/' 
 
 Indirect Taxation. 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of the 3rd 
 May, 1860 :— 
 
 A treatise on taxation, written for the eighth 
 edition of the Encyclopoedia Britannica by Mr. 
 McCulloch, has recently been published in a 
 separate form.* It comes opportunely to assist to 
 dispel some of the sophisms attempted in defence of 
 the income-tax^ and of the cry for a wholesale 
 abandonment of indirect imposts. After quoting 
 the four maxims of Adam Smith, — 1. That each 
 
 * Adam and Charles Black. 
 
314 
 
 subject of a kingdom should contribute in exact 'pro- 
 portion to his revenue^ just as the expense of 
 management is divided^ pro rata^ among the joint 
 tenants of a great estate ; 2, that the mode of 
 taxation should be such that each may know 
 exactly what he has to contribute, so as not to 
 be liable to fraud or extortion from the collectors ; 
 3, that all imposts should be levied in the most 
 convenient manner for the contributor; and 4, 
 that the expense of collection should be brought 
 to a minimum — Mr, Mc Culloch proceeds to show to 
 lohat extent these requirements have been met in the 
 various plans hitherto adopted. With regard to 
 Smith's first proposition, it is pointed out that 
 practically it is not possible to attain to anything 
 like perfect equality in taxation. This difficulty, 
 however, is more nominal than real. In a country 
 whence emigration is free and lohere Poor Laws 
 exist^ all taxes^ except those lohich involve a principle 
 of confiscation^ adjust themselves to the question of 
 wages. The grand object, therefore, should be 
 not to seek a super ficicd equalitg of incidence., for 
 this is a matter that loill come as loater loill find its 
 level; but to select those articles that can be touched 
 with the greatest certainty of not checking commerce.^ 
 or injuring the public health or morals. Among the 
 best in these respects are malt, spirits, wine, and 
 tobacco. As regards necessaries, such as tea, 
 sugar, &c., the amount of duty should be guided so 
 as not to reach a point that would limit their rational 
 
315 
 
 use^ or lead to the employment of substitutes less 
 loholesome. The doctrine that duties of this deserip- 
 iion are mainly paid hy the poor is a delusion. If 
 a rich man builds a house, the cost of that house 
 comprises the cost of the beer, tea^ sugar, tobacco, 
 &c., consumed hy those who were employed in the 
 work. Unless they can obtain lohat they consider a 
 fair supply of these articles in return for their 
 labour^ people will go to the Union^ or emigrate to 
 the Colonies. Their withdrawal from the field 
 increases the occupation for those that remain, 
 and the next bidder for hands must offer more 
 money than ever ] that is to say, must give the 
 equivalent of more tea^ sugar j cfcc, than lo as previously 
 demanded, " No doubt, therefore," observes Mr. 
 McCulloch, " there is a vast deal of fallacy in the 
 statements so frequently put foi^th in regard to the 
 operation of taxes on the articles principfally con- 
 sumed by the working classes. Their mischievous 
 influence has been grossly exaggerated^ sometimes 
 through ignorance^ and sometimes^ and more fre- 
 quently perhaps^ from less excusable motives!''' Want 
 of providence and dissipated habits are rightly 
 designated as the real sources of the destitution 
 and misery that prevail among the poor. " It is 
 mere drivelling, or worse, to ascribe them to taxes 
 on gin, tobacco, or beer, or even to those on tea 
 and sugar." It must be remarked, however, that 
 although wages invariably adjust themselves to 
 taxation it is always a slow process, and that 
 
316 
 
 consequently one of the ^i-eatest evils in tlie 
 government of a country arises when the taxation 
 is unstable. So long as they are not on a scale 
 to affect consumption, to interfere with personal 
 liberty or public honour, or levied at an expense 
 disproportionate to their value, all taxes have 
 nearly equal merits, and in due time will diffuse 
 their pressure with mathematical honesty on every 
 contributor in exact proportion to his means and 
 expenditure. But the income-tax fulfils not a single 
 preliminary condition^ and comes out as the worst 
 that call he conceived. In the manner in which it 
 has been levied for eighteen years it has comprised.^ 
 not only the principle of confiscation.^ hut also the 
 highest degree of uncertainty. Let it continue for 
 twenty, thirty, or forty years, with the under- 
 standing that it will never be changed, and the 
 natural movements of the labour-market and the 
 general freedom of contracts would go far to 
 counterbalance and destroy even its most gross 
 inequalities ; hut laid on as it is from time to time at 
 varying rates, and with a solemn assurance that in a 
 few years it will terminate^ it is impossible for 
 persons who may enter into stipulations with regard 
 to their future income.^ or whose revenues may depend 
 upon fixed professional fees, to insist upon con- 
 ditions which shall meet their case. This is an 
 irrefragable argument against its capricious use. 
 But no degree of certainty respecting its duration 
 would mitigate its other vicious characteristics. 
 
317 
 
 In the first place, the principle of exemptions and 
 of subjecting one class to a higher rate of charge 
 than another, involves incurable injustice as well 
 as constant distrust. The exemption of all persons 
 under £100 a-year is not only in direct opposition to 
 Adam SmithJs first maxim^ hut it operates as a bribe 
 to the whole of that large class to remain silent 
 against the general evils of the impost^ and also 
 accustoms them to the idea of insisting that the 
 national burdens shall be placed on any shoidders 
 but their own. At the same time, the rating of 
 incomes ranging from £100 to £150 at a lower 
 scale than those above that limit establishes a 
 precedent which^ loith equal justice^ may be carried 
 through a variety of gradations^ until in the case of 
 the millionaire nearly his whole income may be 
 confiscated. If the person with less than £150 is 
 . to pay a smaller percentage than the recipient of 
 £200, why may not the recipient of £200 claim 
 an advantage over his neighbour with £500 ? 
 The latter may apply the rule to one with £1000, 
 and so on indefinitely, until in the case of the 
 receiver of £100,000, the percentage reaches a 
 point which may scarcely leave him the enjoy- 
 ment of a tenth part of his lawful acquisitions. 
 The moment individuals or classes are singled out 
 for specicd contributions^ loe are thrown bach to the 
 old Turkish and Indian systems of spoliation.^ and 
 as the variations in the scale must depend solely upon 
 the arbitrary fancies of the multitude in lohom poioer 
 
318 
 
 may happen to he vested from time to time^ no one 
 can ever calculate as to what may he the proportion 
 of his earnings he will henceforth he permitted to 
 enjoy, Even^ hoicever^ if all exemptions loere 
 removed^ the income-tax would still figure as the most 
 ''''enormously immoraV device that can he resorted to 
 for fiscal purposes. '' Though theoretically equal/' 
 Mr. McCulloch boldly and correctly affirms, " it is 
 in its practical operation the most unequal, oppres- 
 sive, and vexatious of any that it is possible to 
 imagine." Owing to the impossihility of estahlishing 
 inquisitorial proceedings that looidd enahle it to he 
 levied loith accuracy., '' it operates as a tax on honesty 
 and a hounty on and an incentive to perjury and 
 fraud^^ and has prohahly in recent times done more 
 to weaken the foundation of national prohity than 
 any other ohjectionahle influence loith which vie have 
 had to contend. Of its effect upon the good faith 
 and consistency of statesmen the examples have 
 already been painful, and the glaring instance 
 of the disregard of every consideration but that of 
 mip-ht in the treatment of the holders of terminable 
 annuities would in itself have aroused the indigna- 
 tion of the entire country if the exemption clauses 
 had not suborned the masses to look on with 
 indifference. Happily., as there are no more free 
 trade changes to he worked out., such as have hitherto 
 induced the hetter part of the puhlic to suhmit to any 
 sacrifice that might hasten the end in view.^ the 
 income-tax question will in all future Budgets prove 
 
319 
 
 the prominent one^ and must be argued on its 
 intrinsic merits. Although m a House of Commons 
 returned by £6 householders, all of whom will 
 enjoy immunity, the prospect of the doctrines of 
 abstract morality proving triumphant will perhaps 
 be even less encouraging than at present, it may 
 yet he hoped there is sufficient integrity among us to 
 cause this impost to he a stumhling-hloch in the loay 
 of every Chancellor of the Exchequer who may 
 henceforth endeavour to continue it as it stands^ or 
 to evade the recognition of its real features. 
 
 The Six Millions — How to Raise Them. 
 
 To the Editor of the " Times.'' 
 
 " Sir, — Now that the country, propelled by the 
 ridicule of united Europe, has very properly at 
 last granted the six millions credit required by 
 Her Majesty's Government towards the probable 
 expenses of maintaining our interests and our 
 honour in the present Eastern crisis, and in view 
 of other no less important though secret foreign 
 complications, which may at no distant period 
 entail even larger demands upon the public purse, 
 the following very incisive questions will not be 
 thought out of place at this moment . — 
 
320 
 
 " How are we to find the money ? And out of 
 whose pockets is it ultimately to come ? 
 
 '^ The answer to the first question has already 
 been given by Her Majesty's Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer; the answer to the second is much 
 more difficult, and comes home to each one of us 
 individually. 
 
 ''• Is it to come out of the pockets of the freehold 
 householders or of the landowners, most of whom 
 are reducing their rents and unable to let their farms 
 at any price, and who are enjoying the grim pros- 
 pect of a diminished income with increased neces- 
 sary expenditure? Or,is itto come out of the pockets 
 of the ratepayers and the tenant farmers of the 
 country, who are nearly ruined by three successive 
 bad seasons, by universally high local rates, by the 
 sensible diminution of good and the present high 
 price of bad labour, and lastly, by huge foreign 
 importations, the result of our one-sided Free 
 Trade ? Or, is it to come from the large merchants 
 and tradesmen, or the small shopkeepers whose 
 limited profits are the result of the like cause ? 
 Or, from the great manufacturing industries, the 
 iron and coal owners, the cotton, the woollen, the 
 shipping, and all the other various great commercial 
 interests in the kingdom, many of whom are 
 working on short time or shutting up altogether, 
 turning thousands of poor operatives adrift upon 
 the rates, reducing their wages, contracting their 
 operations, everywhere and in every branch of 
 
321 
 
 trade, from one cause or other depressed and 
 discouraged, but chiefly by reason of their sheer 
 inability to continue a ruinous competition with 
 the unrestricted importations of foreign countries, 
 without any reciprocity on their part to counter- 
 balance them? 
 
 "" When I add to these the great moneyed interests, 
 the members of the various professions, and the 
 persons of both sexes in receipt of limited incomes, 
 I think that the above will pretty fairly represent 
 the greater part of the usual taxpayers of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 " Sir^ if this sum of six millions is to be eventually 
 met by doubling or trebling our present income- 
 tax or by any other approved mode of direct 
 taxation, the burden will chiefly fall upon the 
 overloaded shoulders of the classes above men- 
 tioned, and this will be hard enough to bear. But 
 if it is to be raised by any mode of indirect taxation, 
 we shall have to come lower down, and the burden 
 will have to fall with increased pressure on those of 
 the masses and of the still poorer public, and this 
 will be harder still. Which, then, is it to be ? 
 The first will be most unpalatable, the second will 
 be positively distressing ; but one or the other 
 course will be inevitable, unless some other mode 
 of dealing with the difficulty can be devised which 
 shall extricate us from this necessary, but un- 
 welcome incubus. 
 
 "Now, Sir, in the face of this threatened increase 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 of taxation, wliy should we not look elsewhere for 
 the means of providing it when they are readily 
 and legitimately at hand ? 
 
 " For upwards of thirty years past we have been 
 undergoing the experiment of what its apologists 
 are still pleased to call " Free Trade," with varied 
 and doubtful results. It was confidently expected 
 (and any doubts on the subject were instantly ridi- 
 culed and scoffed down) that so universally 
 beneficial a measure would be universally adopted 
 and that a new cera of universal reciprocity and 
 prosperity, and a mutually beneficial system of 
 exchange would be immediately and triumphantly 
 inaugurated. 
 
 "How vain has been the hope, how delusive these 
 grand expectations our present commercial position 
 but too plainly demonstrates. We find ourselves 
 at the end of this long period with a gradual 
 annually-increasing expenditure which has to be 
 met by a proportionately large annual demand for 
 funds to balance it ; with no apparent prospect 
 of any tangible diminution in taxation, but witli 
 the exact opposite apparently imminent at this 
 moment. 
 
 '' We are now undero-oino; a crisis of almost un- 
 exampled commercial depression in every branch 
 of trade and home manufactures, with an Exchequer 
 which will hardly be able to make both ends meet 
 at the end of the financial year, with thousands of 
 operatives literally starving, enterprize everywhere 
 
323 
 
 languishing, and with imports from other countries, 
 paying no duty whatever, overstocking our markets 
 with cheap manufactured articles, and almost 
 double in value to the exports of our own. 
 
 '^ Such an alarming state of things cannot much 
 longer be quietly submitted to, and even among the 
 cotton interests, as evinced by their several different 
 deputations, there is already a considerable and 
 anxious discussion. 
 
 " Great Britain stands totally alone in its own 
 Free- trade theories, for, as I stated in a former 
 letter last November on this subject, ' not a single 
 country in Europe, beginning with France and 
 Germany, and ending with Spain and Switzerland 
 (to say nothing of the United States of America 
 and our own Australian Colonies), can be cajoled 
 by the most specious temptation into following our 
 example of free importations or of opening their 
 ports to the commerce of Great Britain and of the 
 world unrestricted by safeguards in the shape of 
 duties framed to protect their own native industries/ 
 
 " I now ask. Sir, why should we not do likewise ? 
 What more ready or more legitimate means of 
 relief could possibly be devised than to make 
 the too-intelligent foreigner who for so long a 
 period (and none more so than 'holy Russia') 
 has profited by our one-sided Free-trade policy 
 without any reciprocity on his part, contribute, 
 in the shape of a limited protective duty as a toll 
 or an octroi on his imports to this country, his 
 
 21 - 
 
324 
 
 quota to our already enormous taxation? Why 
 should we, with such a means of relief at once 
 obvious and apparent, obstinately persist in this 
 isolated policy ? 
 
 " We do not find foreign countries who profess 
 to be in alliance with us rushing to the front and 
 eagerly proffering their assistance to us in such times 
 of difficulty as the present. We are to all intents 
 and purposes apparently isolated in our foreign as 
 well as in our commercial policy, and, although it 
 pleases some of us to think differently, are being 
 diplomatically duped. 
 
 " But that does not prevent them from taking 
 advantage of our commercial liberality. They can 
 button up their own, but they do not scruple to 
 put their hands pretty deeply into our pockets, and 
 under the specious misnomer of Free Trade they 
 rob the manufacturer of his legitimate profits, the 
 working classes of their employment, undersell us 
 in our own markets, take millions yearly out of the 
 country, and leave us nothing behind but the option 
 of re-exporting their surplus manufactured articles. 
 
 '' It is well known^ Sir, that the value of the im- 
 ports to this kingdom from all countries during the 
 year closing the 31st of December last amounted 
 to the enormous sum of nearly 394 millions, while 
 our own exports were something over 198 
 millions. Only calculate for a single moment 
 what a Customs-duty, or^ let us say, a toll or an 
 octroi of 20 or even 10 per cent, on this sum of 
 
325 
 
 394 millions of imports from foreign comitries 
 would bring to the Exchequer of this kingdom, 
 hitherto and at present totally lost to us. 
 
 " Let us even deduct from this grand total the 
 sum of 150 millions, which may be said to represent 
 the food supply of the people, and a further sum of 
 120 millions representing raw materials, and there 
 will yet remain a sum of 124 millions, made up 
 of foreign manufactured articles, tobacco, wine, 
 spirits, and other luxuries, on which a toll might 
 be fairly imposed, and which would produce a sum 
 of 12 millions per annum at 10 per cent., and six 
 millions per annum at even the moderate figure of 
 only 5 per cent., an amount amply sufficient for 
 all we want. 
 
 " So simple, so fair, so natural a source of revenue 
 and relief from the horrors of increased taxation 
 mast commend itself to every taxpayer without 
 distinction. 
 
 '' Believe me, Sir^ I do not stand alone in my 
 views on this question ; they are shared, and I 
 know it, by multitudes of my countrymen and 
 countrywomen^ and though it may please the 
 theorists and politicians of the Birmingham and 
 Manchester school to scoff at these suo^o:estions and 
 to ridicule my supposed ignorance on such matters, 
 thank Heaven we are not all of that school nor 
 of that class of politicians who shut their ears to 
 argument and their eyes to facts^ and who refusing 
 to be convinced out of their own pet theories, 
 
326 
 
 accept tliem as infallible and endeavour to impose 
 tliem as facts upon other people. 
 
 '^ There is a pulse in this England of ours which 
 is not always wholly governed by the fluctuations 
 in the cotton market, and it is this healthy, this 
 steady pulse of the British public that I wish to 
 animate, and it is to their calm reflection and to 
 their attentive perusal, in whose interest I write, I 
 have the honour to submit this letter. 
 " I remain. Sir, 
 
 '' Your obedient humble servant, 
 
 '' Bateman. 
 " Shobdon-court, Leominster, 
 
 '' Herefordshire, March 7th, 1878." 
 
 The Causes of the Present Depression of 
 Trade. 
 
 On Monday, the 4th February, Mr. Edmund 
 Ashworth, President of the IManchester Chamber 
 of Commerce, '^ entered into a critical examination 
 of the causes of the present depression of trade, 
 and the prospects of a revival," and on the 6th 
 February the following appeared in the Times : — 
 
 '-'• The Manchester Chamber of Commerce. — 
 At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce 
 on Monday^ Feb. 4, the President, Mr. Edmund 
 Ashioortli^ entered into a critical examination of 
 the causes of the present depression of trade and 
 
OC 
 
 27 
 
 tlie prospects of a revival. He had endeavoured^ 
 he said^ to ascertain^ loitli at least approximate 
 correctness, tlie proportion of the increase of spinning 
 mills and loeaving sheds during the last feio years^ 
 and^ as tlie prosperity of a trade was mainly 
 dependent on the production having some fair 
 relation to the demand^ the facts he had collected 
 mighty in a great measure^ account for the depression 
 under which they loere suffering. During the last 
 ten years the building of spinning factories by private 
 firms., and more especially by joint'Stoch companies.^ 
 had been in the nature of a mania. He found that 
 no fev^er than 7,228,305 spindles had beeji added 
 to the p'oductive poioer between 1865 a7id 1875, 
 representing a capital of nearly £11,000,000. So 
 large an addition to the producing power in so short 
 a time is calculated to derange the ordinary course of 
 trade., and cotton spinning had suffered severely from 
 an over-production of yarn beyond the ordinary 
 requirements for many years past. The number of 
 looms also had increased from 399^992 to 463,118^ 
 and even the extension had been unequal to the 
 quantity of yarn s'pun. Doicbtless those who thus 
 converted their capital expected a profitable return^ 
 but they had not given due consideration to the pro- 
 babilities of over-production. He urged that more 
 control should be exercised over undue enterprise in 
 cotton manufacture., for these abnormal extensioits 
 promoted competition., which at last cidminated in 
 these periodical visitations of depression. Another 
 
328 
 
 aspect of the question was that of foreign competition, 
 Germany, Austria, Italy, and Holland had lessened 
 their imports of woven goods, lohile Belgium teas 
 so nearly our equal that it had imported both looven 
 goods and yarns into Great Britain for several years, 
 and America also gained yearly upon us^ her exports 
 of cotton goods to this country having increased from 
 £15,830 in 1870, to £451,876 in 1876. The 
 president also dealt with the labom- question, and 
 said that when the mill workers obtained the 
 passing of tlie Act limiting their hours of labour to 
 nine-and-a-half per day, they did it without 
 having a proper regard to the advantage thereby 
 obtained by foreign competitors. The fact was 
 incontestable, that, whatever superiority of manu- 
 facture or power of production we might have, it 
 was to a considerable extent thrown away^ since 
 the English production of nine-and-a-half hours 
 per day had to compete wdth the day's work of 
 eleven or twelve hours abroad, with lower wages. 
 At present the English weaver was undoubtedly 
 superior to the foreign ; but as the latter would in 
 due time become more expert with experience, this 
 distinction would gradually disappear. He regretted 
 to say that he could see little or no immediate hope 
 for a revival of trade. A discussion on the question 
 of the Indian im'port duties followed.^ and it icas 
 resolved to call a special meeting in order to consider 
 'what steps should he taken to impress upon the 
 Government the necessity cither of repealing these 
 
329 
 
 duties^ or of placing an excise duty on goods manu- 
 factured in India'!'' 
 
 What ]\Ir. E. Asli worth said tends to confirm 
 what is r.aid by ''Mechanician" — the correspon- 
 dent of the Times at the International Exhibition 
 held at Philadelphia in 1876 — in the paragraph on 
 the Title page of this work. 
 
 On the 7th February, Mr. Bright wrote a letter, 
 it appears, remonstrating against the course taken 
 by some of his friends of the Chamber of 
 Commerce in the matter of the Indian import 
 duties. 
 
 Manchester and India. — The following letter 
 has been addressed by Mr. Bright to Mr. Benjamin 
 Armitage^ of Manchester : — '' London^ Feb. Itlij 
 1878. — My dear Armitage, — / am surprised at the 
 line taken hy some of our friends of the Chamber of 
 Commerce in the matter of the Indian import duties. 
 It seems dictated by passion and disappointment 
 rather than by reason and a sound judgment, India 
 has an interest in the question as loell as England. 
 If the people of India could speak and act as we can 
 in England they toould oppose to the last degree of 
 resistance any attempt to impose an Excise duty of 
 five per cent..^ or of any amount, on the produce of 
 their factories. If they were in theory Free-traders 
 and wished to be so in practice.^ they would oppose 
 any such tax.^ and in my opinion most rightly. They 
 wonld say, as we ought to say, an Excise duty on 
 the produce of the mills is odious on every ground^ 
 and cannot be permitted. They would look for the 
 
330 
 
 power to remove the import duties to greater 
 economy in tlie public expenditure, or tlie 
 regular growth of the public revenue, or the 
 imposition of some new tax which might raise the 
 needful £800^000 a year. The grievance com- 
 plained of in the Chamber can only be remedied 
 in one of these three ways, for I feel very confident 
 the House of Commons loill never comjgel the Indian 
 Government to adopt the odious and intolerahle 
 proposition which seems strangely to have found 
 favour luith some of the members of your Chamber, 
 I see in the same discussion in tlie Chamber objection 
 is made to anything being done there which may be 
 termed politiccd. What is more 'political than a 
 question of revenue and taxation ^ This drecid of 
 all serious questions is the cause of the feebleness 
 and genercd uselessness of Chambers of Commerce. 
 I suppose the Excise proposition is merely a 
 weapon to use against the Government and to 
 compel it to act against the import duties. It 
 must fail, for it is impossible to defend it. It 
 would be much more wise to put pressure on the 
 Indian Government to lessen its expenses, to 
 reduce its English and native forces by the amount 
 required, which surely may be safely done if our 
 Indian Government is so intelligent and so just as 
 it constantly declares itself to be. I write this 
 rather hastily after reading the report of the 
 proceedings of the Chamber. I am not a member 
 of the Chamber, but I shall be very sorry to see it 
 take a course lohich must lessen its character for 
 
331 
 
 Kisdoiii^ and therefore lessen its influence. If you 
 tliiiik any one will care about my opinion, you 
 need not conceal it. / a7n sorry to he com;pelled to 
 differ from anij of our friends on this question. — 
 Believe me always sincerely yours, John Bright.'' 
 A special meeting of the Mancliester Chamher of 
 Commerce icas held yesterday for tlie purpose of 
 determining the course to be pursued for obtaining 
 tlie abolition of tlie Indian import duties on cotton 
 fjoods and yarns. Mr. B. Armitage presided, and 
 there was a large attendance of members. Mr. John 
 Slagg moved, *' That^ in the opinion of this Chamber 
 the trade of this district is entitled to a distinct 
 pledge on theimrt of the Government as to the im- 
 mediate repeal of the duties on the importation of cotton 
 goods and yarns into India.^ and that if the condition of 
 Indian finance does not permit of such a pledge 
 being given, it is the duty of tliis Chamher to press 
 for the imposition of an Excise duty and the removal 
 of the protective character of the import duties'^ Mr. 
 E. E. Jackson seconded the resolution. Mr. G. 
 Lord moved as an amendment that the latter part 
 of the resolution referring to the Excise be omitted, 
 and this was seconded by Mr. N. S. Symons and 
 Mr. Jackson^ icho condemned Mr. BrigMs letter as 
 ill-timed and in had taste. He denied that the pro- 
 moters of the Excise duty were actuated by passion, 
 but said tltey tcere moved hy justifiable disappoint- 
 ment. After a long discussion the debate was 
 adjourned for a week. — Times.^ 13th Feb., 1878. 
 
332 
 
 Yet notwitlistanding tliis very jast remonstrance 
 on the part of Mr. Briglit, on the 12th February, 
 a special meeting of the Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce was hekl for the purpose of determining 
 the course to be pursued for obtaining the abolition 
 of the Indian import duties on cotton goods and 
 yarns, and at that meeting Mr. Bright's letter was, 
 as will have been seen, condemned " as ill-timed 
 and in had taste ; " and the result of that meeting 
 of the 13th February, was probably the deputation 
 from the associated committees of employers and 
 loorhmen representing the public meetings held in 
 the cotton manufacturing districts, to secure the 
 abolition of the " Indian import duties," who, on 
 the afternoon of the 14th of February had an 
 interview with Lord George Hamilton, at the India 
 Office, in the absence of the Marquis of Salisbury, 
 who, at the last moment, was summoned to attend 
 a Cabinet Council. As a summary of, and well- 
 deserved comment on what transpired on that 
 occasion, the leader in the Times of the 16th 
 February, 1878, is here given : 
 
 " ' It is simply impossible/ says Lord Macaulay, 
 ^ to get Englishmen to interest themselves about 
 Indian finance.' The thing has, nevertheless, been 
 done. The large and important dejputation loliicli 
 attended on Thursday at the India Office to state 
 their vieics about the taxation of Indian cotton goods 
 is sufficient ])roof of this. There was scarcely a 
 town in our cotton manufacturing districts ivhich was 
 
333 
 
 not represented. Lancash're en masse had turned 
 out for the occasion., 'personally or by deputy., and the 
 speakers to loliom Lord George Hamiltoyi gave a 
 hearing on Thursday may be fairly taken as 
 expressing the fixed opinions of some hundreds of 
 thousands of Englishmen. On this occasion there 
 was a charming mianimity between the sentiments 
 of the masters and of the men. Private disputes 
 were sunk for tlie moment in face of a great 
 question in Avhich the earners and the payers of 
 wages were equally concerned, and Lancashire, for 
 once in a way, was in perfect harmony in all its 
 sections. We must confess., however., that the interest 
 of all these intelligent persons in Indian finance ivas 
 not as unselfish as toe could loish. It loas not so much 
 the effect of taxation on India as its after effect on 
 Lancashire loith lohich they icere all busying them- 
 selves. There was no concealment on this point, 
 and scarcely, indeed, the affectation of any. 
 Colonel Jackson, one of the largest cotton manu- 
 facturers in Lancashire and the chief spokesman of 
 the deputation, stated his opinions with perfect 
 candour, and explained, moreover, the process of 
 thought which had led to them. His view, and 
 the view of those for whom he was speaking on 
 Thursday, is that the Lidian import duties on 
 cotton ought as speedily as possible to be abolished. 
 If they are not to be got rid of at one stroke, they 
 might at least be brought down by degrees to the 
 vanishing point. A reduction at the rate of one 
 
334 
 
 per cent, per annum will be accepted as flist enough. 
 The worst of the matter Is that this, or something 
 like this, is what the Indian Government has been 
 promising for some time past, wdiile the chances 
 that it will be able to keep Its word are becoming 
 smaller every year. This puts off indefinitely the 
 change which Colonel Jackson and his fellows are 
 desirous of seeing accomplished. In the mean- 
 while India Is learning to supply herself with 
 cotton goods from her own mills, and Is even 
 invading foreign markets which were not long ago 
 in the undisputed possession of Lancashire. AVhat 
 Is to be done, Colonel Jackson asks, In so alarming 
 a state of affairs ? He is anxious for justice and 
 fair play both to India and to England. The only 
 question is how these are to be secured for both 
 countries. His key to the difficulty, pending the 
 abolition of the import duties. Is the Imposition of 
 an excise duty on Indian manufactured cottons. 
 The first effect of this would be to enable English 
 cotton to contend on equal terms with Indian cotton 
 within India, and It would have the further result of 
 reducing the area of competition outside India. 
 Colonel Jackson's wish is not only to be allowed to 
 supply India with cotton goods ; he wishes also to 
 be made secure in Japan and China. It is India, 
 just noio^ irldcli is threatening liim in hotlt these 
 countries^ and he claims^ accordingly^ the same 
 protection abroad ichich India has been receiving 
 at home. 
 
3;^5 
 
 There is one point, and one only, on which, as 
 it seemed to the deputation of last Thursday, 
 their position could be open to attack. They are 
 themselves Free-traders, and the excise duty they 
 were asking for on Thursday was not easily to be 
 brought into agreement with Free-trade principles. 
 One of its avowed objects was to restrict the ex- 
 port trade of India, and so to rid English manu- 
 facturers of a rivalry icluch theij are beginning to 
 find trouhlesome. It was to the produce of the 
 cotton mills of India, moreover, that the proposed 
 restrictive measure was to be limited. The hand 
 manufactures luere to escape untaxed; hut from the 
 English point of vieio these are of small account^ so 
 only that the mills can he kept loell loithin hounds. 
 The sufferers would be the large Indian cotton 
 manufacturers, who would be placed at a disad- 
 vantage both in their own markets and in those 
 wdiich they have more lately ventured to invade 
 abroad. Unless loe assert that free trade is to 
 prevail only lohere it happens to he suited to English 
 interests ., and that in other cases it is to he set aside as 
 710 longer of any use^ we cannot go far towards 
 solving the difficidty loith which the Lancashire 
 deputation of Thursday found themselves. Mr. 
 Hibbert's suggestion is that some part of the import 
 duty goes into the pockets of the Indian cotton 
 manufacturers, whereas an excise duty would go 
 wholly into the pocket of the Indian Government. 
 It is not clear on what principle he leases the 
 
38G 
 
 distinction. Colonel Jackson sets to work more 
 boldly. He does not even affect to doubt tliat the 
 excise duty lie is asking for is contrary to Free- 
 trade principles. But it is no worse, lie urges, in 
 this respect than our ow^n excise duty on spirits or 
 our stamp duty on silver goods manufactured at 
 home. If these restrictions can exist in England, 
 he suggests, they can be imposed just as well in 
 India without offence to Free-traders. The effect 
 they are intended to produce is, however, not quite 
 the same in the two cases. An excise duty which 
 is intended to check trade is not to be defended bv 
 reference to another excise duty which is imposed 
 only for revenue purposes, and which would not 
 be tolerated for a moment if it had the kind of 
 -effect expected from an excise on Indian manu- 
 factured cottons. If the people of India toere self 
 cfoverning^ can we suppose they would submit to 
 
 THE TREATMENT THE LANCASHIRE DEPUTATION 
 
 SUGGESTS FOR THEM? The import duty on cotton 
 goods would certainly not he the first burden fromi 
 zchicli the Indian taxpayer icould seek relief He 
 would place tlie salt duty far higher on his list of 
 grievances. The fact is that as long as English 
 cotton manufacturers were content to appeal to 
 trade principles which we all recognize as true, 
 they had a good-standing ground for demanding 
 the abolition of the cotton, duty. The new 
 attitude they have taken puts them in a wholly 
 different position in this respect. Their wish to 
 
preserve a fureiyn market for their goods is natural 
 enough^ and, loitJiin decent limits^ praisewortliy 
 enougli. We can scarcely say as much for tliem 
 when they ask not only that Indian finance shcdl he 
 regulated for their convenience^ but that the export 
 trade of India shall he kept icithin the hounds they 
 wish to assign to it^ and shall he crushed out of 
 existence when it introduces itself as their rival. 
 It was nothing less than this that the deputation 
 of Thursday were asking for, and with scarcely a 
 disguise as to their real meaning. Whatever they 
 may find to say about the old grievance of the 
 import duty, it would have been hard for them to 
 make out that India was likely to be suffering by 
 the extension of her foreign trade with elapan or 
 China or any other country, and there is a charming 
 frankness in the request that this trade shall be 
 knocked on the head because it is beginning: to 
 interfere with the trade of Lancashire. We wish 
 well both to the operatives and manufacturers of 
 that important county, for whose difficulties just 
 now much sympathy must be felt, but we fancy 
 that the i^est of the world exists for some other 
 purpose than for Lancashire cotton- spinners to make 
 their fortunes in^ and that the fine names of Justice and 
 Fair Flay point to conclusions somewhat different 
 from those which they have heen endeavouring to 
 draio from them. 
 
 '' Lord George Hamilton, in the reply he made 
 to the deputation, acquitted himself exceedingly 
 
 22 
 
338 
 
 well. His task was in some respects a difficult 
 one. He has been so long assuring the House of 
 Commons that the finances of India are in a 
 very flourishing state that he could not fairly take 
 objection to the rose-coloured view of them pre- 
 sented by the deputation. His actual line was 
 chosen with great discretion. He still held out 
 the hope that the obnoxious import duty on cotton 
 might, before long, be dealt with. With this 
 change in prospect, it was clearly not necessary to 
 impose new taxes on cotton. Moreover, to impose 
 an excise duty would, Lord George Hamilton 
 declares, have the result of postponing indefinitely 
 the abolition of the import duty. It is a strange 
 ihing^ we cannot help i^emavMng^ to observe the new 
 quarters from ichich ]c>roceed^ in the case before us^ 
 the attack on Free Trade and the defence, Lanca- 
 shire and a good many staunch Lancashire liberals 
 make up the assailing party. The deputation of 
 Thursday was collected together from all regions, 
 from all strata of society, and from all political 
 camps. Opposed to it, and strong chiefly in the 
 rectitude of his cause, was Lord George Hamilton, 
 a Conservative placeman, and by some freak of 
 destiny, a defender for the nonce of Free-trade 
 principles against the assault of united Lancashire. 
 In such an assaidt it woidd be unjust to find nothing 
 beyond proof of the ease loith lohich convictions,, 
 however sound,, hoioever deeply rooted,^ may be set 
 aside tchen it becomes convenient not to hold them. 
 
339 
 
 Yet political cynics will not fail to say that this 
 must be the view taken about ii. A direct 
 proposal to tax India for the benefit of Lancashire 
 would have been less plausible than what actually 
 toas proposed, bid it mighty perhaps^ have been 
 agreed to loith less mischief Tlie contention that 
 India and England meet as rivals in the Eastern 
 markets^ and that the dependency ought, therefore^ 
 to be made to give way to the governing country ^ does^ 
 in fact^ sound a little cynical lohen it is thus baldly 
 stated. It toas this in substance^ and a good deal 
 more of the same hind^ that the Lancashire depu- 
 tation loas urging last Thursday^ and loith no 
 seeming consciousness that there loas anything un- 
 reasonable in the demand. With persons thus 
 minded, Lord George Hamilton did the only thing 
 that could be done pleasantly. He did not get rid 
 of them by telling them, as Mr. Bright has done in 
 a letter we published last Wednesday, that their 
 request teas such as no decent Government could 
 listen to for an instant^ and that they ought to 
 be ashamed of themselves for making it. He 
 brought the interview to a more agreeable close by 
 making promises of something else than what 
 his visitors were asking for, without fixing any 
 precise date for its fulfilment. His trust, no 
 doubt; is that in the meanwhile trade may 
 revive elsewhere, or that Lancashire, with or 
 without a trade revival, may come back to its 
 sober senses." 
 
 22 * 
 
340 
 
 There was one passage in Lord G. Hamilton's 
 reply to the deputation, not touched upon in the 
 Times^ just and able articlej to which it is im- 
 portant to call attention. He said " As to the 
 depressed condition of the cotton-trade, to which 
 Mr. Whalley had referred, he might observe that 
 he had before him some figures that during the 
 first eight months of fMs year the imports in 
 India icere 13 per cent, over the corresjponding 
 period of the 'preceding year^ the value heing 9 
 per cent, greater. Mr. Jackson* had, no doubt, to 
 a certain extent, accounted for that increase, but 
 
 * In concluding his address, Mr. Jackson observed : — 
 *' It misrht, however, be said that the Manufacturers of 
 Lancashire were coming before the Government with an 
 unnecessary complaint, when it was borne in mind that the 
 exports to India had increased of late ; but it so happened 
 that our Trade to all parts of the world had been for some 
 time past in a most unsatisfactory state. But there were very 
 few markets which took goods of the same staple character as 
 India, and when there was a large accumulation of those 
 goods in stock it became necessary to force them forward at 
 any price. He might state as a fact that he could not stop 
 his own works at a less cost than £10,000. per annum ; so 
 that if he could by shipping goods lose under that amount, 
 and keep his work-people together, it would be more to his 
 advantage to do so then than to stop the works altogether. 
 He could assure the Government the Trade in Lancashire was 
 extremely bad." 
 
 Whether inundating India with such goods at any price 
 was quite fair towards the Indian Manufacturer may be a 
 question. At least such practices afford an additional 
 justification for the maintenance of the 5 per Cent. Import 
 duty for tlie present. 
 
341 
 
 it loas^ never tltehss^ lie tliougld^ dear that the- 
 depression spoken of teas not so mucli due to a 
 falling off in the imports to India as to a decrease 
 
 of CONSUMPTION ELSEWHERE." 
 
 As will have been seen in the earlier part of 
 this volume, Mr. Hoyle, a great cotton spinner, 
 himself told us that this '' decrease teas in the 
 Home Marhet^'^ which he ascertained by inves- 
 tigating, in the year 1869, how it happened that 
 at the time our exports were higher than they 
 had ever been, there was such distress in the 
 manufacturing districts. (See pp. 69, 70, 71.) 
 
 In the Times of the 27th February the following 
 appeared : — 
 
 ''Associated Chambers of Commerce. — Yes- 
 terday the delegates from all the Chambers of 
 Commerce in the United Kingdom assembled at 
 the Westminster Palace Hotel to discuss the steps 
 which should be taken by the Associated Cham- 
 bers in various matters affecting commerce, trade, 
 and manufacture. Mr. Sampson Lloyd, M.P., 
 presided, and among those present were Mr. 
 Samuel Morley, M.P., Mr. Monk, M.P., Mr. 
 Whitwell, M.P., Mr. J. S. Wright, of Birming- 
 ham, and representatives from all the great towns 
 in the United Kingdom. The Chairman, in his 
 opening speech, reverted to the matters which 
 occupied the particular attention of the Chambers 
 last year — the Bankruptcy Act Amendment Bill 
 and the Bills of Sale Bill — and pointed out that 
 
342 
 
 if tlie Chambers desired steps to be taken on these 
 and other measures in Parliament, the members 
 for the various localities must be requested to 
 direct attention to them, and the Chambers must 
 present petitions on the subjects. The annual 
 report stated that the usefulness and activity 
 of the Association had been fully maintained. 
 The report discussed the various questions brought 
 before Parliament in the last Session, and in 
 regard to the Railway Commission the Council 
 suggested that it Avould be desirable to recommend 
 the continuance of the Commission. It also 
 called attention to the new treaty between this 
 country and Italy, the proposed alterations in the 
 Austrian tariff, and the hopeful signs of change in 
 the American system of protection* It was stated 
 that the question of the Swiss tariff would be de- 
 cided in the next Session of the Swiss Parliament. 
 The report was unanimously adopted. The first 
 subject discussed was the question of the amend- 
 ment of the law respecting patents for inventions. 
 Mr. J. S. Wright, of Bii'mingham, proposed a 
 resolution to the effect that in the opinion of the 
 Chambers the Patent Law should provide for a 
 considerable reduction in fees ; that any pre- 
 liminary examination should not go further than 
 the point of novelty; that no patent should be 
 granted to foreigners unless with the condition 
 that licences be granted to manufacturers in 
 England ; that provisions should be made for 
 
cases of infringement being brought before local 
 magistrates, as provided by tlie Merchandise 
 Marks Act^ 1862 ; and that a memorial on the 
 subject should be forwarded to the Government. 
 Mr. Bartlett seconded the motion, which was 
 adopted. Mr. Longdon^ of Derby y proposed " That 
 loliile fully approving the principles of Free Trade 
 loliicli have for some time past mainly guided the 
 commercial policy of this country^ measures he at 
 once adopted by this association to enforce upon Her 
 Majesty's Government the inadvisability of signing 
 Treaties of Commeixe loith those foreign nations 
 lohich have imposed^ or intend to impose, higher 
 import duties upon English manufactures than 
 those existing under the previous or present 
 treaties or tariffs, or which exclude Great Britain 
 from the mostfavoured nation treaty,''^ Mr. Edge, 
 of Burslem, seconded the motion, which was 
 carried. Mr. Britain^ of Sheffield., moved a reso- 
 liition to the effect that the attention of the Colonial 
 Office should be called to the ''''heavy duties lohich 
 British colonial manufactures are liable upon their 
 importation into France., and to suggest that in case 
 the treaty negotiations with France be renewed., an 
 effort be made to secure for our colonies the same 
 treatment as that accorded to the Mother- Country ^ 
 Mr. Wilson seconded the motion, which was 
 carried. The representative of the Newcastle and 
 Gateshead Chamber moved, " That this association 
 urge on Her Majesty's Foreign Secretary., by 
 deputation or otherwise., the necessity of taking 
 
344 
 
 immediate action in such way as he may deem besf^ 
 with the ohject of getting the recently promidgated 
 Spanish tariff modified— at any rate^ to such an 
 extent as shall place English goods on the same 
 footing as the goods and shipping of any other 
 nation as regards import duties. Mr. Ripley, ]\I.P., 
 seconded the motion, and said that the association 
 ought to express its strong disapprohation of the 
 system in Spain of having more favourable terms for 
 the admission of goods from countries other than 
 Great Britain, The motion was carried and a 
 deputation appointed to seek an interview with 
 Lord Derby upon the subject. The subject of the 
 Governmental management of commerce in this 
 country was discussed at y^Tj great length, and 
 there was a decided expression of opinion that 
 commerce should he under a separate Department of 
 the State, presided over by a Minister of Commerce. 
 The Chambers then adjourned until to-day. 
 
 The writer of these pages was very pleased to 
 find that the resolution embraced the suggestion 
 that in case the treaty negotiations with France be 
 renewed, an effort be made to secure for our 
 Colonies the same treatment as that accorded to the 
 Mother- Country. "Such sentiments will tend to 
 promote that all-important measure, the con- 
 solidation of our Colonies with the Mother- 
 Country."* 
 
 * Foreign and Colonial Trade.— At the Rojal Colonial 
 Institute on Tuesday night, the Duke of Manchester in the 
 chair, the hon. secretary, Mr. Frederick Young, in the 
 
345 
 
 On tlie 2 7 til February the Yorkshire Chamber 
 of Commerce and the Associated Chambers of 
 Commerce held an interview with Lord Derby 
 
 author's unavoidable absence through sudden indisposition, 
 read a paper by Dr. Forbes Watson, Director of the Indian 
 Museum, on " The Character of the Colonial and Indian 
 Trade of England contrasted with her Foreign Trade. Our 
 colonial trade was, he said, distinguished from our foreign 
 trade by certain characteristics which considerably enhanced 
 the importance it already possessed. Dr. Watson grouped 
 the colonies as — 1, Trading and military stations ; 2, planta- 
 tion colonies ; 3, agricultural, pastoral, and mining. Taking 
 first these last, such as Australia, Canada, and the Cape, he 
 found that while English trade with the United States, our 
 best foreign customer, would be £2. 5s per head, that with 
 Canada was three-fold greater, with Australia seven-fold 
 greater, and that with a colonist at the Cape fifteen- fold 
 greater. In the plantation colonies, such as the West Indies, 
 Ceylon, and Mauritius, the trade per white inhabitant 
 amounted to £310, of which £165 was English. In the case 
 of the trading stations, such as Honkong, Singapore, and 
 Malta, the few European residents were but the intermediaries 
 of a vast trade with the adjacent foreign countries, so that the 
 amount of total trade for each white inhabitant was £10,000, 
 of which £2000 was English. The returns for 1876 placed 
 India ahead of every other country in the absorption of 
 British produce and merchandise, whereas in 1869 it ranked 
 third only, standing behind the United States and Germany. 
 He stated that between 1869 and 1876 the exports of British 
 home-produce to the British possessions had increased 
 £17,000,000 while the exports to foreign countries sunk 
 £6,000,000. Foremost among the leading export trades of 
 England, constituting about one-third of the whole, was the 
 cotton trade, and in 1876 the British possessions absorbed 40 
 per cent, more cotton manufactures than in 1869. In 1876 
 the colonial demand for our cotton wares rose to two-fifths of 
 our whole export, while against its increase during the eight 
 
346 
 
 at the Foreign Office on tlie subject of treaty 
 arrangements with foreign countries. In his 
 reply, Lord Derby evinced the same wisdom, 
 acumen, and prudence as has marked his answers 
 to deputations which have sought him and ques- 
 tioned him in relation to that most difficult of all 
 questions for the Foreign Minister to trust himself 
 to speak on — the Eastern Question. Much credit is 
 due to him for his answering at all times with 
 candour and good temper, though reticence, to 
 a certain extent, was imposed on him in relation 
 to the latter, by a due regard to the national 
 interests involved. 
 
 In the course of his reply to the deputation, 
 on the 27th February, he said: — 
 
 " If I were to look at the resolutions (2), which 
 
 have been put before me, in a critical spirit — 
 
 which is not at all my purpose — I might point out 
 
 to you some little discrepancies between the first 
 
 and the succeeding one. You began by impressing 
 
 upon me the unadvisability of signing treaties of 
 
 commerce with foreign nations which do not 
 
 give the ' most-favoured nation ' treatment, and 
 
 then you go on to contend, with considerable force, 
 
 that the ' most- favoured nation' treatment is not 
 
 nearly sufficient 
 
 years of £6,300,000 we liad to set a falling off in the foreign 
 demand amounting to £4,500,000. Similar observations 
 applied to most of the other trades, the foreign demand being 
 either stationary or declining, while the exports to the 
 British possessions were rapidly rising. 28^^ February , 1878. 
 
347 
 
 " It is one of tliose cases where it is very much 
 moTQ easy to 'point out the evil which you loish to 
 remedy than to apply a remedy which is efficacious j 
 because, to look at it in a broad point of view, 
 all commercial treaties wliicli are entered into 
 with foreign nations are matters, more or less, 
 of bargain and reciprocity^ and as I have had, 
 more than once^ to remind similar deputations, we 
 are not in a position in tchich we can enter into 
 transactions of the hind^ because we have not gone 
 upon a system of reciprocity^ and this brings toith 
 it the one particular inconvenience to which I 
 refer ^ for ice have not the means of insisting upon 
 reciprocity ; we have given aioay freely what ive had 
 to give, in the first instance^ and now we have nothing 
 left to bargain with. The strength of our position 
 was the commercial point of view^ and when we 
 come to matters of bargain and negotiation and 
 the large returns upon our manufactures^ that cir- 
 cumstance constitutes the weakness of our position." 
 — See report of Times^ 28th February. 
 
 This surely ought to convince Free-traders of 
 the hopelessness of gaining reciprocity.* Notwith- 
 standing, however, Lord Derby was again besieged 
 by members from the Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce, " to ask that in all further treaties with 
 foreign powers a fuller application of the principles 
 of Free Trade should be embodied in them/' 
 
 * Why seek it, as the Times has said it is not neces- 
 sary ?— Q. jE7. D. 
 
348 
 
 What could Lord Derby say but wliat he had 
 said only a few days previously to a deputation 
 seeking the same object ? 
 
 After what ]\Ir. E. Ashworth had said, on 
 Monday, the 4th February last, was the cause 
 of the depression of the Manchester cotton manu- 
 facturing trade, one cannot but feel surprised that 
 he should have been one of the deputation on the 
 7th March to Lord Derby. 
 
 Lord Derby on Commercial Treaties. 
 
 Yesterday, Messrs. B. Anxiitage, E, Ashworth^ 
 J. M. Bennett, C. P. Henderson, jun., and Thomas 
 Browning, from the Manchester Chamber of Com- 
 merce, had an interview wath Lord Derby, at the 
 Foreign Office, to ask that in all future treaties 
 with foreign powers a fuller application of the 
 principles of Free Trade should be embodied in 
 them. They pointed out that Continental nations 
 were making very unfriendly treaties with us, 
 and that our Consuls were somewhat under the 
 influence of the manufacturing classes abroad. 
 They asked that in making future treaties com- 
 mercial men should be consulted upon the subject, 
 so as to afford the Foreign Office information on 
 those points which would more immediately aifect 
 their interests; and they complained that Roumania 
 
349 
 
 had recently terminated a provisional arrange- 
 ment whereby our goods were suddenly stopped 
 in transitu, 
 
 Mr. Armitage and Mr. Ashworth having spoken 
 to this effect, 
 
 Lord Derby, in reply, said : Well^ gentlemen, 
 I am very glad you have come here. It is always 
 agreeable to me to discuss these matters with the 
 local representatives of our trades and manufac- 
 tures, and I hope that you will no longer have to 
 complain that questions of the kind with which 
 you deal are neglected or ignored at this office. 
 As to what has been said about our representatives 
 not being as active as they should be in the way 
 of securing advantages for their own country, / 
 am not aicare that there is any want of vigilance or 
 want of activity upon their part^ hut in the way in 
 lohich matters are actually arranged between Conti- 
 nental Poioers^ every tariff is^ more or less,, a matter 
 of bargain and arrangement. We have never 
 approved the system in this country. We have, 
 as a rule, disclaimed it, and gone to what I may 
 say is a much safer and wiser provision of making- 
 reductions in our own tariffs irrespective of those 
 of foreign countries. But you cannot eat the cake 
 and have it too, and^ having made these reductions 
 for our own country^ we are, as I said to a deputa- 
 tion the other day, not in the same position when it 
 is a question of bargaining for our advantage in 
 making up a tariff; %oe are not^ I sa?/^ in the same 
 
350 
 
 position as those states are ivJu'cJi have been and 
 are in the position to (jive^ and still do give^ a great 
 deal. There is not much gratitude among com- 
 mimities for ' past favours^ and in the very case 
 lohich has been referred to — the case of France and 
 Italy — / apprehend that if French goods have got 
 any advantage over ours — which I am afraid in 
 some cases seems to be so — the explanation is 
 simply this, that the Italians are extremely anxious 
 to secm-e the good will of the French Government, 
 in order to obtain some corresponding reductions 
 from France. They are perfectly loell aware that 
 we are not in any case likely to adopt differential 
 treatment^ and therefore they have not the same 
 inducement to treat liberally and generously with us. 
 At the same time, I think you will find whenever 
 representations have been made by the Chambers 
 of Commerce to this office, that they have been 
 immediately forwarded to our representatives in 
 those countries which were concerned ; and, where 
 it could be possible, that action has been taken 
 upon it. 
 
 But yet another deputation from the Manchester 
 Chamber of Commerce on the subject of the Cotton 
 Frauds Act and the Abolition of the duties on 
 Cotton goods and yarns into India, attended at the 
 India Office, and Mr. Ed. Ash worth was one of 
 the deputation. 
 
 In the course of his reply, Lord Salisbury (may 
 we not think in a spirit somewhat savouring 
 
351 
 
 of rebuke^ and if so, very properly) reminded the 
 deputation that — 
 
 Every penny added to the taxation in India 
 makes a very serious addition to the burdens upon 
 the people. For example^ when you increase the 
 Salt-tax in India^ you run the chance of making 
 salt so dear that the peasant cannot have that which 
 is absolutely essential for his health ; or if you go to 
 the source to which Indian legislators are naturally 
 tempted — (he might have added— and English 
 legislators also as regards the law of England) — 
 though they generally have the loisdom to resist 
 the temptation where they can, if you impose an 
 increase of burdens upon land, you run the risk of 
 making tens of thousands of poor ryots lose that 
 loretched margin of profit which to them now con- 
 stitutes the difference between existence and starvation. 
 Therefore, it is no easy matter to talk of raising 
 this £800,000 by additional taxation in India. 
 
 Just look at the difficulties arisen in the 
 finances of India. We have had two famines, 
 which for intensity and severity, have been 
 almost unexampled in Indian history; and we 
 have had another calamity, apparently not so 
 severe, which has disturbed and crippled the 
 finances of India; I mean the disturbances and 
 the fluctuations in the silver market^ which have 
 seriously affected the finances of India. 
 
 The deputation then alluded to the operations 
 of the Cotton Frauds Act^ and ashed that it should 
 
352 
 
 he rejpealed^ on the ground that it teas no prevention 
 of frauds^ that it harassed trade^ that it placed in 
 the hands of the officials in India a weapon which 
 they frequently used to the great inconvenience of a 
 legitimate trade^ and whicli not unfrequently pro- 
 voked animosity between the traders and the 
 Government officials. 
 
 Lord Salisbury. — The information that you have 
 been kind enough to give me is exceedingly inter- 
 esting, and I have listened to it with great atten- 
 tion. There is no doubt that matters have changed 
 of late years. I remember being at Manchester 
 some twelve years ago, and I saw a bit of iron 
 as big as my two fists, which had come over 
 inside a bale of Indian cotton. Matters, as you 
 say, have considerably improved since then, but 
 there is a considerable difference of opinion upon 
 these matters among persons whose opinions on 
 both sides are entitled to respect. For instance, I 
 think I am not breaking confidence in saying that 
 the able and experienced gentleman, Mr. Andrew 
 Cassels, upon our Indian Council here, and who 
 represents Lancashire interests, takes a different 
 view from what you do. 
 
 The Deputation. — He represented Lancashire a 
 long time ago. 
 
 Lord Salisbury. — Undoubtedly there is a certain 
 amount of opinion both in Lancashire and India 
 which is opposed to the view you take, but I think 
 the preponderance is the other way, and the 
 
353 
 
 Government of India, I think, have a distinct 
 leaning in opposition to the policy of the Act. 
 The matter is still under discussion between us, 
 and I should be sorry to pronounce a definite 
 opinion until I have their latest expressions upon 
 the subject. But you may be sure that the 
 greatest weight will be given to the representa- 
 tions you have made, and that we shall earnestly 
 strive to arrive at some result that may be best 
 for the interests botli of those in India and here. 
 
 The following letter, written by a Scotch gentleman, an 
 experienced agriculturist in England, or at least Scotland, 
 and a quondam Indian planter, is valuable, as showing there 
 are still measures wanting for the fuller development of the 
 resources of India. Though, since the Government was 
 transferred from the East India Company to the British 
 Crown, her resources have been greatly developed, as shown 
 by Dr. Watson in the following paper : — 
 
 Agricultural Prospects of Indl\. 
 
 To the Editor of the " Times:' 
 
 Sir, — Will you allow me to direct attention to the very 
 serious question of the miserable condition and melancholy 
 future prospects of agriculture in India, and, at the same 
 time, indicate such remedial measures as have been suggested 
 by my practical experience as an Indian planter. 
 
 As to the facts of the existing condition of Indian agricul- 
 ture, I may observe that they are too well known to require 
 my entering into any lengthened particulars, and may be 
 both briefly and accurately described by saying that, with the 
 exception of land irrigated by rich river water, and of certain 
 w^ooded tracts, where the feed for cattle is abundant, and the 
 agricultural area very limited, the people have been living for 
 a very long period, not on the interest, but very largely on tlie 
 
354 
 
 •capital of the soil. Nor does it require many words to show 
 how this must be the case ; for if, for instance, you go into 
 the interior of the Province of Mysore — a Province generally 
 admitted to be above the average of Southern India — and 
 examine the scanty manure heaps, you will find that they 
 consist almost entirely of the dung of lean cattle, and of the 
 ashes of such part of the dung as has been used for fuel ; and 
 the value of this manure may be estimated by stating that 
 oven the dung of grass-fed cattle only contains, out of every 
 1000 lb., about 111b. of valuable matter. Whence, then, 
 asks the practical agriculturist, is to be supplied the phos- 
 phoric acid, lime, potash, and nitrogenous matter, which is 
 carried off by the land, partly to be eaten by the farmer, and 
 partly to be exported to enable him to pay his rent, and 
 whence that vegetable matter which is entirely consumed by 
 cattle, but which is so necessary, not only for its constituents, 
 but for the effect it has in maintaining the texture as well as 
 the radiating and absorptive powers of the soil ? The 
 answer is, that there is no means of adequately supplying 
 them at all. The land, as we have seen, is deprived of its 
 matter, because that is needed to feed cattle, and from the 
 absence of trees there is no means of procuring leaves ; nor is 
 there any practicable means of supplying vegetable manure. 
 It is deprived of its phosphoric acid, lime, and nitrogenous 
 constituents, which are but very partially replaced by the 
 infinitesimal quantities of these substances to be found in the 
 dung of lean cattle, and it is deprived of its potash and other 
 mineral constituents, which can hardly be said to be replaced 
 at all. And what is true of the interior of Mysore is true 
 generally, as far as our information goes ; and were I not 
 afraid of wasting your space, I could easily bring ample 
 evidence to show that the soil of all India is, Avith few excep- 
 tions, bordering on exhaustion. 
 
 Now, let us look at the future agricultural prospects. We 
 have seen that the manure at command is both poor in quality 
 and small in qaantity ; but, as the population increases, even 
 these paltry resources must steadily diminish, for, as more 
 and more of the grazing lands are broken up, it is evident 
 that fewer and fewer cattle can be kept in proportion to the 
 
cultivated area. Even already complaints have been made 
 as regards that extension of cultivation, which, to persons 
 unacquainted with the agricultural circumstances of the 
 country, seems to be a sign of steady progress. And if that 
 is the case now with a population of only about 240 millions, 
 what will the state of things be in twenty years, when the 
 people will have increased to 293 millions, or, to look a step 
 further, in forty years, when we shall have a population of 
 357 millions ? It would seem ridiculous to look on to a 
 further period, but the question as to whether the Govern- 
 ment should take over the Indian railways now or eighty 
 years hence makes it worth while to point out that by that 
 time these exhausted soils will have to support about 530 mil- 
 lions of persons. 
 
 In conclusion, let me state what is practicable, in order, not 
 to raise Indian soils to a fair state of fertility — for unless 
 some undreamt-of manurial resources be discovered this 
 would be impossible — but at least to prevent matters going 
 from bad to much worse than they are at present. 
 
 In the first place, then, the grazing lands attached to or 
 in the vicinity of each village must not be encroached on, 
 unless it can clearly be shown that they are far in excess of 
 the requirements of the community. In the second place, 
 wherever it is practicable, each village should be compelled 
 to plant, fence, and maintain a considerable block of forest 
 trees, partly to improve the climate and the grazing by 
 sheltering it from drying w4nds, partly for wood for building 
 and firewood, but mainly for the supply of that great want in 
 the plains of India, a sufficiency .of leaves, which, by being 
 used as bedding for cattle, would absorb the most valuable 
 constituents of the manure, and especially of that liquid 
 portion of it which is now entirely lost. 
 
 One word more. It is grievous to see how much we have 
 failed to accomplish in India owing to the fact of our officials 
 knowing nothing about agriculture. Take Mysore, for 
 instance. We have governed it for about 43 years, and, if 
 some of our most intelligent Scotch factors — acting, of course, 
 in conjunction with the advice and co-operation of the most able 
 natives in the country — had been employed and allowed to 
 
 23 ^= 
 
356 
 
 have their way, the whole face of the country might now have 
 been altered, and its climate largely modified for the better. 
 At a very trifling expense it might have been studded with 
 woods and plantations, its manurial resources and grazing capa- 
 bilities largely increased, and its agricultural area kept well and 
 evenly within the bounds of its manurial resources. Does any 
 proprietor here allow moor and grazing land to be enclosed 
 and broken up without seeing that suitable plantations are 
 formed both for wood and shelter, that the cultivator has the 
 means of doing it justice, and that such restrictions are 
 imposed as will fairly protect him from having his land run 
 out and utterly destroyed ? Why then, should the greatest 
 landed proprietor in the world — Her Majesty the Queen — 
 have her Indian estates managed on principles exactly at 
 variance with those which are generally accepted here ? 
 
 Obediently yours, 
 
 ROBERT H. ELLIOT. 
 Clifton Park, Kelso, 
 
 Saturday^ 2nd January, 1875. 
 
 The second admirable letter of Lord Bateman, 
 '' The Six Millions— HoAV to Eaise Them," in the 
 Times of the 11th March, may well lead to grave 
 reflection as to whether we should continue to 
 ''give away all," as Lord Derby said, and get 
 nothing in retm'n. Also, how the Home Market 
 can be improved. 
 
 Twenty Years' Progress in India. 
 
 The official account of the products of India which were 
 shown at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 187G is 
 accompanied by a report prepared by Dr. J. Forbes Watson, 
 of the India office, on the progress of India in the last 20 
 years— namely, from 1858, when the Government was 
 transferred from the East India Company to the British 
 Crown, to the present year 1877. In those 20 years, he says, 
 
357 
 
 India lias undergone a profound transformation. Two causes 
 have mainly contributed to bring about this result — the 
 gradual progress of education, and the extraordinary develop- 
 ment of means of communication. The expenditure on 
 education, as far as the Government is concerned, has in- 
 creased fourfold, and now exceeds a million sterling in the 
 year, and the number of pupils has increased from about 
 200,000 in 1857, to about 1,700,000, and is rapidly increasing. 
 Small as this number may seem, it being below 1 per cent, 
 of the population, it shows extraordinary progress, and 
 proves that education is beginning to affect the masses. At 
 any rate, it compares favourably with the number in other 
 semi-civilized countries ; the school attendance in Russia is 
 about the same. The progress of education in India is also 
 shown by the increasing number of graduates of the Univer- 
 sities of the three Presidencies, and the large number of 
 pupils in the special engineering, art, and medical schools ; 
 and equally striking is the rapid growth of the native Press 
 and literature. But the results of the progress of education 
 are at present valuable chiefly as the promise of a better 
 future, when the present generation shall have grown up. 
 The changes wrought by improved means of communication 
 have been, on the other hand, almost instantaneous, and have 
 already transformed the whole face of the country. The 
 length of railw^ays open in 1857 was 274 miles; in 1876 it 
 had become 6497 miles. The passengers carried in 1857 
 were 1,825,000; there were 26,779,000 in 1875. The 
 miles of telegraphs increased from 4162 miles to 16,649 
 miles ; the letters and packets conveyed by post from 
 less than 29 millions to more than 116 millions in the 
 year. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 also 
 marks a turning-point in the trade of India and the East 
 generally. The revenue of India has advanced from 
 £31,691,000 in 1857 to £55,422,000, Imperial and provincial, 
 in 1877 ; the expenditure from £31,609,000 to (estimated) 
 £61,382,000 in 1877. The excess of expenditure over income 
 in 1877 is due partly to the famine and partly to the outlay 
 on remunerative public works. Adding together the cost of 
 public works, of education, and of surveys and other scientific 
 
358 
 
 operations, we find about £10,000,000 now yearly spent by 
 the Government in India for tlie permanent improvement of 
 the country and its people. The trade and shipping returns 
 show a vast increase in wealth and prosperity. The tonnage 
 entered and cleared in the foreign and coasting trade w^as 
 4,549,000 tons in 1857, and rose to 9,887,000 tons in 1875. 
 The value of the imports was £28,608,000 in 1857, and 
 £48,697,000 in 1877; of the exports £26,591,000 and 
 £62,975,000 respectively. These figures include treasure as 
 well as merchandise. The imports of treasure amounted in 
 the 20 years, 1858-77, to £267,582,677, but the exports of 
 treasure to only £28,804,567, showing an increase in the 
 precious metals to the amount of nearly £239,000,000, or 
 about £1 for every head of population in the whole of British 
 and Native India. The imports of merchandise have risen 
 from £14,000,000 to £37,000,000 in the 20 years, an increase 
 of 163 per cent. ; the exports of Indian produce and manu- 
 factures from somewhat over £25,000,000 to £59,000,000 an 
 increase of 133 per cent. ; the total of imports and exports of 
 merchandise showing an increase of 140 per cent. 
 
 While the trade of India has thus increased in volume, it 
 has completely changed in character. Many of the old staple 
 articles of Indian trade continue stationary, or are even 
 declining. This is the case with silk, and silk manufactures, 
 formerly such an important item in Indian exports ; in fact, 
 in the current year there have actually been more silk and 
 silk manufactures imported into India than exported from it. 
 A like decrease may be observed in the export of Cashmere 
 shawls and other woollen manufactures, and also in saltpetre, 
 another characteristic Indian produce. The export of sugar 
 also has largely decreased, India being beaten by Mauritius 
 and other plantation colonies in international competition; 
 but her internal consumption of sugar is enormous, and its 
 cultivation still hold the first rank in Indian agriculture as 
 the most valuable crop, the various grain crops alone excepted. 
 The best ground is devoted to it, and the total value of sugar 
 and molasses annually produced in India is probably not less 
 than about £20,000,000, or considerably more than the value 
 of the cotton crop. On the other hand, a gigantic trade has 
 
359 
 
 sprung up in articles wliich were formerly of very small im- 
 portance. They belong mainly to three classes. There is, 
 first, the bulky agricultural produce which, in consequence of 
 the improved means of communication, can now be thrown 
 upon the markets of Europe. The trade in grains and seeds 
 of all kinds sprang up about the time of the Crimean War, in 
 consequence of the closing of the Russian ports, from which 
 the main supply had been derived. The total trade in grains 
 and seeds increased in value from £3,885,000 in 1857 to 
 £13,560,000 in 1877, or about 274 per cent., and now 
 constitutes 23 per cent, of the entire exports instead of the 
 16 per cent, of 1857. The most extraordinary development 
 is shown in the trade in wheat, now approaching two millions 
 sterling. The export of hides and skins also shows consider- 
 able progress, and the export of opium has risen from 
 £7,057,000 in 1857 to £12,405,000 in 1877, but this last high 
 figure is due not so much to the prime cost of the articles as 
 to the duties placed upon it. A second group of articles 
 comprises raw textiles, the vegetable and animal fibres which 
 now form the most important item in Indian exports — namely, 
 cotton, jute, and wool. The exports of these have grown in 
 value from £2,027,000 in 1857 to £15,460,000 in 1877. Of this 
 last sum raw cotton accounts for nearly 12 millions. In 1865 
 the Indian exports of cotton shot up to above 37 milh'ons 
 sterling, and, notwithstanding the fall in value after the close 
 of the American Civil War, the quantity has been very fairly 
 maintained, and cotton holds its place as one of the most im- 
 portant articles of Indian trade. The trade in jute has been 
 entirely created within the last 30 years and has a great 
 future before it. The development of the wool trade is also 
 comparatively recent. The third group of the new growth of 
 Indian export trade — namely, exotic products recently 
 acclimatized in India by means of European capital and 
 enterprise — is perhaps the most interesting. The exports of 
 tea show an increase from £121,000 in 1857 to £2,607,000 in 
 1877, and of coffee from £133,000 to £1,346,000. The pro- 
 duction of tea in India in the past year is equal to the total 
 quantity consumed in the United Kingdom so late as in the 
 year 1840. Another exotic, the cinchona, promises to become 
 
360 
 
 important. Introduced by Mr. Clements Markliam so late as 
 1861, there are now nearly three millions of trees in the 
 plantations in India, and the Government sales of bark 
 amounted to £29,000 in the past year. Several other Indian 
 products, such as tobacco and india rubber, also begin to 
 attract attention, as showing how greatly the consuming 
 power of India has increased. The principal articles are 
 cottons (the cotton manufactures reaching nearly 16 millions 
 sterling in the last year), woollens, metals, and metal work, 
 machinery and mill work, railway materials, beer, wine, and 
 spirits, the increase ranging from 160 to 533 per cent. In 
 respect to several of these articles considerable progress has 
 been made in establishing manufactures for their indigenous 
 supply. A large and rapidly increasing number of cotton- 
 mills has been established in India, and successful attempts 
 have been recently made to manufacture iron on the European 
 method. The output of coal in the Indian ,coal mines has 
 considerably increased of late, and already supplies some of 
 the Indian railways with the whole of the fuel required. The 
 total area over which coal rocks may be presumed to extend 
 is above 35,000 square miles. Dr. Forbes Watson observes 
 that the statements thus made show that India, known 
 usually as the country of caste and immutable tradition, 
 shows herself possessed, under her present rule, of a remark- 
 able power of expansion as regards trade and commercial 
 development. It must also be remembered that the above 
 figures refer to the seaborne trade, and that of late years the 
 land trade with Central Asia and Thibet has been acquiring 
 some importance. If once the communication with these 
 countries and w^ith China is improved, we may expect a con- 
 siderable increase of trade in these directions. We may just 
 add that British India comprises an area of nearly 1,500,000 
 square miles, and contains about 240 millions of inhabitants. 
 The greater part of the country — three-fifths of the area and 
 nearly four-fifths of the population— is placed directly under 
 British administration; the remaining portion continues 
 under the rule of different native Princes, who, however, all 
 acknowledge the supremacy of the British Crown. 
 i^ovoahcr, 1877. 
 
361 
 
 Whilst the foregoing pages have been in the 
 press, " Senex" has found with great gratification 
 that our Home-supjply of food is likely next 
 year to receive that further consideration, and, let 
 us hope, stimulus, which it has been the earnest 
 desire and chief aim of '' Senex" to promote, and 
 w^hich alone induced him to commence and have 
 enabled him to carry through his labours. 
 
 On the 14th of March the Times announced that 
 a large and influential meeting had been held on 
 the afternoon of the previous day at the Mansion 
 House, at which it was proposed that an 
 Agricultural Exhibition should be held in London 
 in 1879. And on the 23rd of March there 
 appeared in the Times an admirable letter from the 
 Right Hon. the Lord Mayor inviting subscriptions 
 towards the expenses necessary to be incurred for 
 holding such an Exhibition. In that letter occurs 
 a passage justly calculated to excite the sympathy 
 and arouse the energy of the nation — of all who 
 recognize in Agriculture the basis of our national 
 wealth, greatness, and honour. 
 
 '' The food-supply of the people is continually 
 acquiring an increasing imj)OTtance in the large 
 centres of population^ and this holding of an Exhibi- 
 tion having for its objects the improvement of all 
 the means idMcIi can he adopted for stimulating the 
 Home supply cannot fail to be of great interest and 
 use to the consumer as well as to \\\q producer.''^ 
 
 A deep and strengthening conviction year by 
 
year during tlie last quarter of a century, tliat 
 stimulating the means of providing a much larger 
 Home supply for the people is the first and highest 
 interest of the nation — far, far higher than any 
 attempt to stimulate mutable foreign commerce, 
 though that too need not be neglected, trade would 
 certainly receive a great stimulus by the increased 
 demand in the Home Market arising from stimu- 
 lating the means of providing a much larger supply 
 from Home-cultivation of our soil — has alone 
 prompted this publication. 
 
 The following recent return tends further to 
 show the imperious necessity of lessening our 
 dependence on foreign nations for our supply of 
 food by using every exertion in our power to 
 increase our Home produce. 
 
 Imports of Corn. — The Custom-house accounts 
 show that in the six moatlis since last harvest — the 
 half year from September to February inclusive — 
 the imports of corn into the United Kingdom — 
 namely, wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, and 
 Indian corn, amounted to no less than 64,442,650 
 cwt., equal to 16,266,156 qrs. About half consisted 
 of wheat, which; including wheat flour, was im- 
 ported to the extent of 33,658,857 cwt., equal to 
 8,011,635 qrs. These figures will not be much 
 reduced by the accounts of the re-exports, which 
 in 1876 averaged about 100,000 cwt. per month 
 for corn of all kinds together. — Times^ 20 th 
 March, 1878. 
 
363 
 
 Whilst the late Sir Eobert Peel, alarmed at our 
 being dependent on foreign nations for five million 
 quarters of corn, justified the sliding scale, we now 
 find, that 8,011,635 quarters of corn have been im- 
 ported during the six months since last harvest, 
 being at the rate of 16,023,270 quarters for the 
 year. 
 
 In the Estimates for the Civil Service and 
 Eevenue Departments for the year ending the 31st 
 of March^ 1878, issued on the 12th of March, we 
 have another painful proof of the great and regular 
 increase of lunatics amongst the poor. 
 
 In Class 6 the vote for pauper lunatics in 
 England amounts to £380,000, an increase of 
 £40,000 ; for Scotland the estimate is £68,000, an 
 increase of £3000, and for Ireland £83,000, an 
 increase of £2700. In Class 7 there is an increase 
 of £1910 in the vote for temporary coinmissions. 
 The total amount of the grants in aid of local 
 taxation in Great Britain and Ireland is £4,961,594, 
 against £4,323,313 in 1877-78, an increase of 
 £638,281.— T'/mes, 13th March, 1878. 
 
 On the 12th of March the following appeared 
 in the Times : — 
 
 Consumption of Spirits. — In the year 1877 
 duty was paid on 29,888,176 gallons of home-made 
 spirits for consumption in the United Kingdom as 
 beverage, this quantity being less by 62,112 gallons 
 than in the preceding year. The 16,853,082 
 gallons for consumption in England^ show an 
 
364 
 
 itici 
 
 ^-ease of 414,947 gallons, and ^^Ae 6,987,189 
 gallons for Scotland an increase of 16^051 gallons; 
 hut these increases are more than counterbalanced by 
 a decrease o/ 493,110 gallons in Ireland^ where the 
 quantity fell to 6,047,905 gallons. The 10,618,504 
 proof gallons of imported foreign spirits (not 
 sweetened or mixed) entered for consumption in 
 the United Kingdom in 1877, were less % 883,176 
 gallons than the quantity in the 'preceding year, — 
 'Times, 12th March, 1878. 
 
 Let us remember here, that '' what to us seems 
 vice may, in very many cases, be but woe." And 
 lastly, the following letter in the Times of the 21st 
 March shows us why we have required such an 
 increase in our importations of foreign corn. 
 
 Modern Farming. 
 
 To the Editor of the Times. 
 
 Sir, — The opinion of Baron Liebig, quoted by 
 Mr. Mechi, as to the decreasing fertility of English 
 soil is strongly confirmed by the crop returns pub- 
 lished by the Mark Lane Express during the last 
 ten years. These returns are supplied each year 
 by more than 400 contributors^ who report sepa- 
 rately as to the wheat, barley, and oat crops, 
 whether they are average, over average, or under 
 average. For example, as to the wheat crop of 1877_, 
 only six out of 409 returns represented it as over 
 
3G5 
 
 average, and no less than 369 described it as below 
 average. 
 
 Four hundred or more reports, then, are sent in 
 each year after harvest as to the wheat crop, and 
 the total number sent in for the last ten years is 
 4577. Of these, 973 were over average, 1112 
 average, and 2492 under average. The barley 
 crop returns for the ten years were 592 over 
 average, 1855 average, 2003 under average, the 
 oat crop returns being 540 over average, 1746 
 average, 2032 under average. These figures show 
 at once that, in the judgment of these 400 
 observers, the crops for the last ten years have been 
 under average^ and that very considerably ; for if 
 not, the number of reports over average would 
 equal the number under average. Surely this is 
 strong evidence that our crops are not what they 
 used to be ; and, unless the result can be laid to 
 the charge of change of climate, it must be con- 
 cluded that the fertility of the soil is decreasing. 
 1 am. Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 March 19-21, 1878. H. J. 
 
 It may fairly be assumed that a want of due 
 cultivation of the soil (no doubt in a great degree 
 from a want of capital amongst farmers generally, 
 and a consequent rapid decrease of able-bodied 
 ao-ricultural labourers, till at last there are not a 
 sufficient number to cultivate the soil as it should 
 be cultivated), has been one cause of " the decreas- 
 
ing fertility of English soil during the last ten 
 years." But let us not forget that the seasons of 
 late years have not been propitious, and that we 
 have had frequent recurring diseases amongst our 
 cattle. 
 
 Let us, then, bear these alarming and painful 
 facts in remembrance, and humbly pray, in the 
 language of the Psalm Ixvii, used in the Evening- 
 Service of our Church. 
 
 " Let the people praise Thee, God ; yea, let 
 oil the people praise Thee. 
 
 ^* Then shall the earth bring forth her increase^ 
 and God, even our own God^ shall give us Hts 
 blessing." 
 
 Is this duly reflected on when sung or said 
 every Sunday, at least in our Churches. 
 
367 
 
 The writer of the foregomg pages cannot but 
 think that it augurs well for the future interests of 
 this country that one member at least of the pre- 
 sent Conservative Administration has become con- 
 vinced of the injurious effects of the one-sided Free 
 Trade — or rather the Free Imports — policy of 
 1846. 
 
 On the evening of Thursday^ the 2nd of May, 
 the Eight Hon. K. A. Cross, M.P., the present able 
 and indefatigable Home Secretary, the real friend 
 of the working- classes, addressed a large meeting 
 of Conservative working-men in the Corn Ex- 
 change, at Preston, " at which about 5000 people 
 were present," says the Times^ of the 3rd of May. 
 And after him, 
 
 Sir John Holker, ]\I.P., Her Majesty's At- 
 torney-General, having expressed the pleasure it 
 gave liim to find himself once more among his con- 
 stituents, said : — ^' He could not contemplate the 
 stagnation of trade — especially the cotton trade — 
 which had existed throughout the manufacturing 
 districts for some time, without feelings of the 
 deepest concern. The depression of trade had 
 entailed suffering upon the whole community — moi'e 
 especially of those whose livelihood depended upon 
 the prosperity of the industries affected. The dis- 
 tress, however, had been nobly borne both by the 
 employers and the employed. The masters and 
 men no doubt entertained different views as to the 
 most effectual mode of grappling witli the calamity ; 
 
368 
 
 but in the main the contending parties had put for- 
 ward reasonable arguments^ and without semblance 
 of heat or passion. He lioped that before long better 
 times iDould return^ and that the glut of the old 
 markets looidd be removed and new markets opened. 
 He kneio not lohethertlie evil had any political source^ 
 but he could not help saying^ even at the risk of 
 being pronounced for his declaration a stupid old 
 Tory, that much mischief had been occasioned by the 
 firm determination lohich had^ in recent years^ been 
 evinced to bind this country to a policy of Free 
 Trade'' (rather of Free Imports) " icithout taking 
 care that the principles of Free Trade should be em- 
 braced also by other countries loith which we had 
 Trade transactions. '' (Cheers.) See Times,, 3rd 
 May, 1878. 
 
 Let us hope that the sentiments here enunciated 
 by the Attorney- General as regards the results of 
 Free Imports policy are entertained by other 
 members of the Administration, as they assuredly 
 are by fast increasing numbers, both in the Mother- 
 Country and oiu' Colonies. Experience is the 
 test of a sound policy as it is of truth. To enforce 
 which has been the sole object of the writer of 
 these pages. He has been pleased to find from the 
 following recent paragraphs which have lately ap- 
 peared in the Times,, that the measures he has so 
 strongly urged as the surest means of alleviating 
 distress, and at the same time of ultimately in- 
 creasino- the wealth of the countrv, and our breed 
 
369 
 
 of labourers, are of necessity being partially 
 adopted. May they be generally — though gradually 
 — adopted throughout the United Kingdom — or 
 Empire ! 
 
 Eeclamation of Waste Lands in Cornwall. 
 — In consequence of the distress prevailing and the 
 dearth of labour through the stoppage of several 
 mines in the district, the Guardians of Helston, 
 Cornwall, have addressed the local landowners on 
 the subject of improving their waste lands. Several 
 of these gentlemen have stated that, owing to their 
 lands being out on leases which are unexpired, 
 they are unable to act as they would wish ; but the 
 Duke of Leeds has written in a different strain, and 
 set an example which it woidd he well for others 
 similarly situated to follow. He has issued instruc- 
 tions for an immediate outlay of £400 in labour on 
 waste lands in the parish of Breage^ hnown as 
 Godolphin Warren, Lord John Thymic has also 
 applied to the Lands Improvement Company for a 
 loan of £10 fiOO for improving lands in the parishes 
 of Morwenstow^ Stratton, and Poughill^ in Corn- 
 wall^ and two parishes in Devonshire. — Times^ 7tli 
 May, 1878. 
 
 May the example set by Lord John Thynne be 
 followed as early as possible by others, encouraged 
 by the feeling that, as years roll on, they will have 
 done their best 
 
 To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 O. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTKRS, MAIDEN LANE, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY