happiness of one hundred millions of subjects, of sentiments like these
implanted in so pure a soil? The actor's province is not far distant
from the preacher's. A happy time, if it should ever arrive, when this
unity of purpose will be acknowledged by both, when the "reverend
gentleman" will think it no part of his calling to rail upon the stage;
and the actor will not find a strong inclination to retort by
accusations of Mawworm and Tartuffe. But an objection is made in many
quarters more to the theatre than to what is represented there. A play
in a drawing-room is very different from a play at the Haymarket. One is
all correct and proper; the other wicked and intolerable. This objection
must therefore arise either from the different characters of the
performers or of the audience. An officer of the Guards, who is great at
theatricals, is an edifying sight in the part of Joseph Surface in the
hall of a great country house in the Christmas week; and the same part
is revolting and dangerous in the hands of poor Bob Finings on the
regular stage. And yet the Honourable Captain Muff has been before the
Consistory Court, has also made a brilliant appearance in Basinghall
Street, has shot his kindest friend at Chalkfarm, and is an authority in
the betting-ring second only to Mr Davis. Bob Finings is a steady, dull,
respectable man, who has seen hard times, and struggled manfully against
them; has brought up his children to honest callings, and totters
through the part with the most helpless and reassuring imbecility. Is
there danger there? But if the cases were reversed, and poor Bob Finings
were the _roué_, and the honourable captain the respected
_pater-familias_, why should that interfere with our appreciation of
their dramatic skill? Surely most inoffensive would the wildest of Bob's
transgressions be to the morals or feelings of the spectators in the
boxes, pit, or gallery, who were never brought into contact with him in
any other character than that of Joseph Surface, and neither sup with
him after the play, nor waltz with him after the supper, as might
possibly be the case with the gallant Lothario Muff. Then it must be the
miscellaneousness of the company assembled in a theatre. Less select,
certainly, than in the county gathering to the private play; but surely
quite as safe. Is there a magnetic sympathy with vice that makes one or
two sinners, locked up, we will suppose, in a private box, the
electro-biologists of the whole assembly? Insolent faces will
occasionally be turned to where we sit, hair-covered faces, and eyes
that are uncomfortable to look upon; foreign-looking men dressed in the
extremest fashion of Paris or Vienna, but whether British imitation or
the real article is quite immaterial;--to this vulgar and audacious
stare we shall certainly be exposed. But not more than in the street, or
in the park, or in the Crystal Palace, or occasionally in a Belgravian
chapel of ease to Rome, where we have observed the rosaried nun by no
means inconvenienced by the unmistakable glances of those whiskered
pandours. But let us, for the satisfaction of all squeamish spinsters,
and for the honour of the Haymarket lessee, announce a small fact which
we think redounds greatly to his honour. Brazen-faced men in elegant
apparel, it is, of course, impossible to exclude, but the moment the
royal patronage was extended to the theatre, most rigid orders were
given to the door-keepers and attendant police to exclude every
brazen-faced personage of the other sex, however elegant might be her
apparel. This holds good, not only on the evenings on which royalty
condescends to share the gay or sad feelings of loyalty, but on all
nights and on all occasions. This is a sacrifice to propriety and
decorum, which persons acquainted with the interior workings of a
theatre have stated to us to amount to several thousands a-year.
Independent of the five-shilling payments made every night by forty or
fifty of the Jezebels who used to flaunt in the upper circle, it is a
moderate calculation to assume that the attraction of their presence
allured to the theatre at least double that number of Tittlebats, and
the other pillars of Mr Tagrag's establishment; and if any person with a
competent knowledge of arithmetic will find out the sum total of a
hundred and fifty crowns, and multiply it by six, he will find out the
weekly effect on the treasury, of this very noble and praiseworthy
conduct. The royal box brings in about two hundred a-year, and can never
be let for the benefit of the theatre on the most crowded nights. Go,
therefore, in perfect safety to the Haymarket. If wickedness is there,
it is completely in eclipse. Go, and the farces will improve in humour
and refine in plot; Buckstone will be as ridiculous as ever, and give
full scope to his wit and drollery without the slightest touch of the
buffoon.
In all the theatres of London, a race is run in the variety and beauty
of the decorations. If actors have fallen off, the scene-painter and
machinist are in the ascendant. Now, this is far from a good sign, or,
in the end, of any good effect in the advancement of the drama. A decent
amount of illustration is indispensable--a proper attention to
truthfulness of costume is highly commendable; but truly absurd is it to
see the length to which this zeal is carried. In the Elizabethan time,
the spectator was informed of the scene of the play by a board with the
name of the locality suspended from the roof. Side-scenes then crept in;
appropriate dresses were introduced at a later period; and now there is
not a button wrong, not a single anachronism in the shape of a shoe, or
ribbon of a cap; gorgeous landscapes are presented to the eye; noble
chambers open their treasures of furniture and vertu; and in the midst
of all this internal improvement, the histrionic, art diminishes day by
day. "Man is the only plant that dwindles here." Thus we find that
almost every manager plumes himself on restoring Shakspeare when he
surrounds the play with gorgeous accessories--when the balcony scene is
painted by Stanfield, or the hall of Macbeth's castle by David Roberts.
This is the mode of decoration adopted by the warriors of old, when they
covered the Roman traitress with their ornaments of silver and gold.
This is to smother Shakspeare, not to illustrate him. This is to bury
Cæsar, not to praise him. Let us assure those enterprising caterers for
the public, that a play well acted is worth all the correct dresses, and
all the befitting scenery in the world. Half the money wasted on these
expensive accessories would tempt men of talent and education once more
to look to the stage as a profession. Rather give us Burbage as
Coriolanus in Sir Philip Sidney's clothes, than a modern declaimer in
the most faultless of togas. But when scenery, dresses, and decorations,
from being the casual accompaniments of a noble tragedy, which they only
encumber with their help, form of themselves the staple commodity with
which an appeal is made to the favour of the town, the matter becomes of
very serious importance, and is probably more injurious to the dramatic
taste than anything that can be named. Nothing has so depreciated the
drama as the frequency, during late years, of burlesques--a contemptible
species of entertainment, where parody is substituted for wit, and
glitter and show for interest or language. A fairy tale, that enchanted
our childhood, is chosen for a theme, and soon stript, by the ruthless
playwright, of all its poetry and romance. Aladdin makes puns about the
Crystal Palace. Camaralzaman and Badoura are witty about the electric
telegraph; and all the time their miserable jargon is illustrated by the
scenery of men of genius--with landscapes that Poussin would not be
ashamed to own, and wing-covered nymphs that would have been the
astonishment of all the glowries. Why vulgarise the fairy mythology by
mixing it up with the oratory of the cabstand? Why not leave it as they
find it?--and if they are determined to lavish ornament on whatever
they produce on the stage, why not give us, from end to end, a real dear
old fairy story, with scenery as gorgeous as they please--strange
apparitions of power or beauty--clothing the tale in language fit for
the fairy interlocutors; and show us all the spouting waterfalls, and
ticking clocks, and chattering pages, and lovely companions, of
Tennyson's "Sleeping Beauty?" In this the airy dances, and splendid
robes, and marble palaces, would all be in keeping. The eye would be
pleased without the taste being offended; and there would be no
tremendous burst of human passion cast into the background by the
predominance of hats and feathers. "King John" at the Princess's, we
pronounce, on this ground, to be a great success as a spectacle, but a
failure as a play. Mr Kean has great merits; quick appreciation, sound
intelligence, and occasionally a burst of something which, if it is not
genius, is describable by no other word; but he is certainly mistaken in
relying so much on the resources of his painter and _costumier_. The
chivalrous audacity of Wigan is sufficient of itself to attract
attention, which is too likely to be distracted by the magnificence of
the scene in which it is displayed by that versatile and accomplished
actor. John himself ceases to be the human centre figure in a group of
other men--with passions, fears, remorses, all chasing each other along
his cruel and haggard countenance--and becomes the centre figure of a
noble historic tableau, where the words even of Shakspeare grow
subsidiary to colour and effect. But let us go into that prettiest of
theatres in Oxford Street, ascend the handsome steps into the dress
circle, and see what entertainment is provided by the present bearer of
the name of Kean. The playbills tell us the name of the drama to-night
is the "Corsican Brothers;" so with vague reminiscences of old Madame
Mère, and the four young Buonapartes in the attorney's mansion in
Ajaccio, we wait for the drawing up of the curtain. The house is quite
full. The stage is admirably commanded from all parts of the building;
the boxes are most comfortable and wide; a thousand expectant faces are
all turned towards the scene; a great crash takes place among the
fiddles; a little bell rings, and we are in a room in the house of the
Dei Franchis, a poor but noble family of Corsica. A maid is singing at
her wheel--a song which was evidently not the composition of either
Burns or Moore--and is interrupted by the entrance of a traveller, who
brings a letter of introduction from Paris from Louis Dei Franchi, a son
of the house, who has resided there for some time. The countess comes in
and receives him graciously. Fabian Dei Franchi, the stay-at-home
brother, also is very kind, and inquires anxiously after Louis's health.
He is well, and happy; but the stranger has not seen him for three
weeks! Fabian makes a motion of disappointment. "I have heard of him
more recently."--"How?--when?" exclaims the mother.--"Last night,"
replies Fabian; "and he is ill." He takes the stranger apart; hurriedly
tells him not to be incredulous, or, at all events, disdainful, of their
old Corsican superstitions; informs him that he and his brother are
twins, and so like each other as to be almost undistinguishable; that
from their birth, absent or united, a strange sympathy exists between
them; that one cannot experience joy or grief that is not in this
mysterious manner shared by the other; and, seeing a smile on the gay
Frenchman's countenance, he relates an anecdote of a similar case which
occurred three hundred years before, and in the very house in which they
then stood. A strange wild story it was, and prepares us for what is to
come. To prepare us also for the bitterness of a Corsican vendetta, a
tumultuous scene is introduced of the compulsory reconcilement of a
quarrel between two peasants, which, in a few years, had cost nine
lives, and took its origin from some indignity offered to a hen of the
Orlandos. Colonna makes the _amende_ by presenting his adversary with a
white cock; and Fabian is again left alone. The stage grows dark;
something wild and unearthly is felt in the sudden hush of the dim hall;
he sits down at the side to write to Louis. "Brother," he says, "I feel
so miserable, that I am certain you are in pain. Write--write!" While he
is setting down these words, a pallid, dreadful countenance rises from
the boards at the other end of the stage--rising gradually and without
sound--neck, shoulders, body--and advancing at the same time towards the
table at which Fabian writes; it reaches its feet when it comes within
touch of his shoulder. The features of the brothers are the same; the
height, the figure, even the dress--for Fabian has taken off his coat
before he began to write,--and all the difference is a speck of blood on
the left breast of Louis' shirt; and gazing on the group before him,
(for the mother has entered in the mean time,) he slowly sinks. But this
is not the end. The window at the back of the hall opens, and through
that vista, what do we see? The brother exactly as we saw him a moment
before, lying dead beneath the stump of a tree, supported in the arms of
his seconds--a gentleman in his shirt sleeves wiping his sword--two
other gentlemen in attitudes of watchfulness: it is the Bois de
Boulogne; a duel has been fought. Louis dei Franchi is the victim, and
the drop-scene falls, leaving the Countess and Fabian transfixed with
horror at this wondrous sight.
The next act takes us into the actual events of which these are but the
shadowings. It is a masked ball at the opera in Paris. There are
waltzes, gallops, and polkas, with shouts of demoniac revelry; women
career from end to end of the enormous salle, dancing, singing,
shrieking; they are dressed in all costumes--as men, as mountebanks--but
in all the unmistakable presence of wild enjoyment and a spirit of
depravity, worthy of the orgies of Circe. Some gentlemen come in. Among
them, M. de Chateau Renaud, whose ambition it is to be considered the
greatest _roué_ in Paris; when he fails to triumph over female virtue,
he withers a woman's reputation with a lie. He is accused of having
boasted, without foundation, of his intimacy with Madame de Lesharre. He
bets he will bring her that very night into the supper-room, where there
has been prepared a symposium for the prettiest of the _debardeurs_, and
wickedest of the men. Louis dei Franchi is of the party, for Madame de
Lesharre has been the object of his love before her marriage, and he has
heard of her reported _liaison_ with Chateau Renaud. He invites himself
to the supper--is cold, abstracted, severe--and keeps his eye on the
boaster's face. The ball is over; the supper-room is gorgeously lighted;
the clock strikes four--the appointed hour at which Chateau Renaud had
betted he would introduce Madame de Lesharre. Her he had inveigled
hither, under the false pretence of restoring to her some letters which
she had imprudently, but innocently, written to him before her wedding,
and before she had discovered the character of her admirer. He blinds
her still; and as the last sound of the clock dies upon the ear, he
walks in with Madame de Lesharre upon his arm. There is a shout of
derision from the women assembled; a shrug of surprise from the men; the
wager is acknowledged to be lost; but Madame de Lesharre, perceiving the
shameful trick that has been played, indignantly pours forth her scorn
on the pitiful scoundrel who had been guilty of it; recognises her old
lover, Louis dei Franchi, and throws herself on his protection. He steps
forward, accepts the charge, and is challenged of course by Chateau
Renaud, who is the best swordsman in France. Madame do Lesharre retires
supported by Louis, and a laugh of contempt and hatred resounds through
the room. We are now in the Bois de Boulogne. The scene we had seen in
the first act is exactly reproduced here: Louis is lying under the tree;
Chateau Renaud is wiping his sword; the seconds are in attitudes of
expectation--suddenly the wood opens at the back, and we see Fabian and
his mother in the old hall in Corsica, gazing with rigid eyes on the
scene before them; and we have now arrived at the exact position we
attained half-an-hour ago. The whole of the third act passes in a glade
in the forest of Fontainbleau. Chateau Renaud, flying with his second
from justice, is upset on the high-road; comes into the wood in search
of aid; sends a peasant for a blacksmith to repair the carriage; and
sits down, depressed and feverish, on the stump of a tree. Suddenly he
looks round, and recognises the scene. It is the place where, five days
before, he had had the encounter with Louis dei Franchi, and he is
anxious to leave the spot. He is met by Fabian dei Franchi, in form and
semblance so exactly similar to Louis, that it amounts almost to
identity; a similar accident has happened to his carriage. He looks
around, and he also recognises the scene presented to him in the vision.
On that intimation, and no other, he has hurried from Corsica, in search
of Chateau Renaud; he has found him here. He is calm; there is no room
for human passion in a mission so evidently laid upon him by fate. He
challenges the murderer. The challenge is refused; he twits him with his
crimes--with cowardice--with falsehood--with assassination; and the
bravo is compelled to fight. They fence long and warily; they rest by
mutual consent. In trying the sword preparatory to the next bout, it
breaks in Chateau Renaud's hand. The second declares the combat at an
end, for the weapons are unequal. "No!" said Fabian quietly, and breaks
his across his knee. They muffle their hands in their handkerchiefs, and
seize the broken weapons. The fight is renewed. One must die. Which?
They hold the fragments of their blades like daggers, point downward,
and at one lucky opening Fabian strikes the blow, and Chateau Renaud
falls unpitied, unforgiven--a sacrifice to Corsican honour. "Now I can
weep for you, dear Louis," says the conqueror, and covers his face with
his hands. Again the murdered Louis crosses the stage in the same
mysterious manner as before. The brothers recognise each other;
vengeance is obtained, and the curtain falls.
The language contained in this play would occupy about twenty minutes;
the duration of the piece is two hours. It is a ghost story put into
shape--a chapter of Mrs Radcliffe, done into _tableaux vivants_. The
company at this theatre comprises Mr and Mrs Kean, Mr Wigan, Mr Meadows,
Mr Ryder, Mr Bartley, and last, not least, Mr and Mrs Keeley. There is
not a barn in England that could not furnish quite good enough
representatives of any person in the drama. The speeches are vapid and
commonplace; the situations, as regards the development of character,
very weak; and it possesses no strength whatever but the admirable stage
management of the supernatural and the frightful verisimilitude of the
carnival ball. Are these legitimate means of support to a theatre like
this? Should the Princess's be reduced to a _salle de spectacle_--
"Where from below the trap-door demons rise,
And from above hang dangling deities?"
But, more than all, it certainly is no place for the production of so
revolting a scene as the open license of the ball, or the more quiet but
quite as offensive supper-party after it. Real water, real horses, and
real elephants have been banished from the stage, it being found that
the real things interfere essentially with the truthfulness of the
scene. A great distinction should always be taken between mere
representation and identity--a difference clearly established and
rigidly preserved between the fiction and the fact, or why not have a
real fight with true swords? Why not go back at once to Thurtell's gig
and Weir's pistol? Now, in the instance of the carnival ball, the
resemblance is carried beyond all bounds. It ceases to be an imitation,
and becomes a reproduction. We will be bound to say, at no saturnalia in
the opera ball-room of Paris was there ever exhibited a wilder scene of
revelry and debauch--women, indelicately clothed in male attire, whirl
in fantastic attitudes to a noisy crash of music--their voices in the
mad excitement of the moment are joined to the noise of the orchestra;
petticoats, where preserved at all, assume the dimensions of kilts; it
is evidently the crowning hour of the night's festivity--modesty,
decorum, propriety, all laid aside, and a grinning buffoon in white
gown, with chalk-covered face and ludicrous contortions, adding a new
feature of disgust to the display, which is sickening enough already. We
can easily imagine that this vivid scene may have injurious
effects--that it may be even more hurtful than a visit to the original
meeting would have been; for there is probably here a heightening of
the attractions of the show, in as much as the dancers are chosen for
their beauty, and the dresses selected for the very purpose of
captivation and allurement. If such a scene was required at all, it
should, certainly, have been produced in a less attractive form. We
should not have been so severe on this subject if we did not feel that
no theatre in London less needs to depend on such displays for success.
No theatre in London has it so completely in its power to show to what
noble uses a stage may be applied; for on none is there so near an
approach to the ancient glory of the drama in the skill and _ensemble_
of the actors. Exercising talents like these on ghosts and festivals is
a mere waste of power. It is turning a steam-engine to the manufacture
of pins--of pins that are useless in spite of their polished heads, and
poisonous if they penetrate the skin. Let not this one departure from
taste be urged against theatrical amusements in general, or the
entertainments at this house in particular. It is a French
importatation--this ghostly melodrama, this unmeasured ball. But
Shakspeare is here with his English heart, and "empire absolute" over
the feelings. The poetry of "Twelfth Nigh" alternates with the wondrous
picture in the "Merry Wives of Windsor." The gentle Viola speaks in
tones that never die away from the memory. Mrs Ford answers smile for
smile and grip for grip to Mrs Brook--Caius, for the first time, is the
perfect gentleman which only Wigan can depict; and scene after scene
floats away before us, till it is only by an effort we wake from a dream
of Herne the Hunter's Oak to the harsh realities of eighteen hundred and
fifty-two.
In some future communication we will extend our Commissionership to the
other theatres, and to various places of amusement not often brought
forward 'neath the glimpses of the moon. Beware, then, ye managers and
caterers of public shows; be conscious of the importance and
responsibilities of your position. When we see talent, enterprise, and
skill, not slow shall we be to give the word of cheer; but where we
observe the smallest deviation into the coarse or the insipid, remember
you have nothing to expect but rebukes sharper than swords.
"A chield's amang ye takin' notes,
And, faith, he'll print it."
THE COMMERCIAL DISASTERS OF 1851.
(TO THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.)
SIR,--The country is shortly to be called upon to decide the important
question whether the policy, under which it has for the last few years
been governed, is, or is not, susceptible of some modification; and, as
one portion of this question, the soundness of our present commercial
policy must undoubtedly be discussed. Indeed, it seems to be taken for
granted on all hands that this must be the case; and in a great empire
like our own, whose main source of strength has been conceived to rest
upon the pre-eminence of its mercantile and industrial character, it
would be singular if it could be otherwise. And it would be lamentable,
too, and little calculated to inspire the hope of peace for the future,
and confidence in the stability of our institutions, should that portion
of the question at issue be discussed in any other spirit than that of
an anxious and careful desire to arrive at the truth. No policy not
based upon the truth has ever long prevailed in any civilised country.
No Christian man, conscious as such a man ought to be of the
imperfections of merely human judgment, could ever set himself up above
his fellows as infallible. We have surely a perfect right to appeal to
past experience in order to discover what has been the effect of our
policy upon the different interests of the country; and in the following
pages I shall endeavour to examine dispassionately what has been that
effect upon our mercantile and trading classes, and particularly upon
those engaged in conducting our large importing and exporting
operations.
It is, of course, an acknowledged principle, that an increased import of
foreign commodities, to be a profitable one, must be attended by
increased means of consuming in the importing country, and be balanced
ultimately by increased exports, at paying prices to the producer. The
question, then, so far as the mercantile body is concerned, is simply
this,--Have the transactions of the past year been satisfactory to that
body, or not? I do not hesitate to say in reply, that, with the solitary
exception of the year 1847--if indeed it be an exception--there has been
no such disastrous epoch in the annals of British commerce for the past
quarter of a century as the year 1851. If the year 1847 was more
disastrous, it was because it was one of monetary revulsion, of potato
rot, and of the collapse of absurd railway speculation. During the past
year we have had nothing of this kind to encounter. We entered upon 1851
with prognostications, all but unanimous, of a coming year of prosperous
business. During the course of the year we had neither civil commotion
nor foreign embroilment to trouble the even tenor of our way. Yet we
have closed the year with the mercantile and trading interests of Great
Britain poorer than they commenced it, by, I am satisfied, at least
_twenty millions sterling and upwards_. During the whole of the past
year, the reports of our commercial circulars have told an unvarying
tale of declining prices and unprofitable imports. Scarcely a single
foreign product has remunerated the merchant, or even realised the cost
at which it was purchased abroad; and stocks of all kinds, not only in
our seaports, but in every retailer's shop or warehouse throughout the
country, have been every week deteriorating in saleable value. In no
single commodity of importance has the consumption kept pace with the
increase of importations; and had we at any period of the year been
visited with monetary difficulty, had the Bank of England not been full
of specie, and anxious to extend its accommodation to the public, the
losses upon our accumulation of stocks would have been sufficient to
prostrate one-half of the mercantile community.
In endeavouring to form an estimate of the actual losses of the year
upon imports, I shall commence with the important article COTTON. We
entered upon 1851 with a stock, according to Mr Burn's _Commercial
Glance_, of 581,120 bales in the entire kingdom, in the hands of
importers, spinners, and speculators, spinners being estimated by Mr
Burn to hold 60,000 bales. Messrs G. Holt and Co. of Liverpool,
calculate the quantity at 100,000 bales in the hands of _spinners and
dealers_. The bulk of this stock had been purchased at the high prices
which had ruled during the last four months of 1850; and, in the first
week of January, the price of "fair upland," which may be taken as a
standard, was 7⅞d. per lb. Such were the rates ruling in the
countries of its growth, it could not have been bought there within at
least ¼d. per lb. of that price. Although such stock would naturally
find its way gradually into the market, and its place be supplied by
fresh imports, and as there was a nearly similar one--estimated by
Messrs Holt at 594,000 bales--left at the close of the past year, it
will simplify the process of calculation, and at the same time be
correct as to the general result, if I treat the stock of January 1851
as having borne the fall of the entire year. The price, then, of fair
uplands having been, in the last week of December, 4⅞d. to 5d., and
other sorts in nearly that proportion, there would be a reduction of
from 2⅞d. to 3d. upon those American sorts which form the bulk of the
consumption, and 2⅛d. to 2¼d. upon the next in importance. Bearing
in mind that the prices on the 1st of January were not remunerative to
the importer, I believe I am within the mark in fixing the loss at £5
per bale of 400 lb. average weight, which, upon the stock of 581,120
bales, amounts to the large sum of £2,905,600 sterling. We now come to
the imports of the year, which were, of all kinds, into the United
Kingdom, 1,903,506 bales. With respect to these, the first striking fact
which presents itself, on a comparison of the prices current in this
country and the cotton-growing countries, is that, throughout the whole
of the year, the foreign purchases of our importing merchants were made
at a large advance over the prices which could be realised on their
arrival here. I have gone carefully through files of the most
authoritative foreign circulars, and, with respect to American cotton
particularly, the unvarying result has been to find prices considerably
higher than in the British market. Thus, on the 4th of January, I find
"middling to fair" cotton from the Atlantic ports, corresponding with
our Liverpool classification of "fair upland," quoted in New York at
13⅞ to 14 cents per lb.; on the 15th, at 14 to 14¼ cents on the
22d, the same; and on the 29th, 13⅞ cents. Assume the average of the
month to have been 14 cents, and allowing a penny per lb. for freight,
commission, landing charges, &c., which I am assured is too little, the
cotton shipped in that month would cost in Liverpool fully 8d. per lb.
Prices here, however, began to decline after the first week in January,
when fair upland was quoted at 7⅞d.; and on the 31st of that month
the quotation was only 7½d. to 7⅝d. On the 14th and 21st of
February they were quoted at 7d. to 7⅛d.; and in all March, when the
purchases of the month of January would be reaching us, the average was
about 7¼d.--showing a loss on importation of ¾d. per lb. In
February, prices in America commenced at 13 cents to 13⅛ cents; but
on the 1st of May they had fallen to 11 cents to 11½ cents. The early
purchases of February, which would cost, landed in Liverpool, about
7⅝d., would probably arrive about the middle of March, when prices
here averaged about 7¼d.--a loss of ⅜d. per lb., or nearly 10s. per
bale. Those of the closing week of the month--about a week's
transactions--might possibly save themselves, if sold in the beginning
or middle of April. Throughout March prices rallied in America; and were
sustained until nearly the middle of April at from 11¾ cents to
12¼ cents--about 7⅛d. here. Prices in Liverpool, however, had been
falling rapidly; and a portion of these purchases arrived in Liverpool
in the middle of May, to be sold at 5¾d. to 5⅞d--a loss of above
1¼d. per lb., or £2, 5s. per bale. By the end of April, prices in
America had receded slightly; but in the beginning of May there was
another attempt to rally them--the quotations being, on the 7th, 11⅜
cents to 11⅝ cents, or about 6¾d. to 6⅞d. here. In the whole of
June, however, when the cotton bought at these prices would arrive
here, the average in Liverpool was little over 5⅞d.--showing a loss
of from 30s. to 35s. per bale. From this point a gradual decline took
place in all May, June, July, and August, reaching the lowest
point--8¾ cents to 9 cents--on the 9th of the last month. The decline
in America, however, never overtook that experienced here--the bulk of
the transactions of these months resulting in a loss. A slight rally
again took place in September, and prices were forced up to an average
of about 10 cents, or 6d. laid down in this country. No corresponding
movement, however, took place here; and the average losses of September
shipments would be nearly 25s. per bale. An unprofitable result, less
disastrous, however, attended the remainder of the year's arrivals.
The loss has been nearly as serious in our transactions with the East
Indies, the length of the voyage operating to aggravate the unhappy
position of the importer. Thus cotton orders, transmitted by overland
mail in the first three months of the year, whilst prices of Surat were
about 4d. to 6½d., would arrive here in June, July, and August, when
the quotations were from 1¼d. to 1½d. per lb. less, or from 45s.
to 50s. per bale.
The question then arises, At what are we to estimate the loss on imports
for the year? And the following circumstance appears to me to have an
important bearing upon its solution. The bulk of the arrivals during the
year--1,212,377 bales--took place from the beginning of March to the end
of August, the period in which the greatest decline below cost price
occurred. Taking this and other circumstances into consideration, I
cannot consider that I am exceeding the truth in averaging the loss on
importation during the year at ¾d. per lb., or 25s. per bale, upon the
whole quantity received, deducting the stock on hand at the close of
1851--594,500 bales. This will give upon 1,409,046 bales a loss of
£1,761,307, which, with £2,905,600, previously ascertained as the
difference between the value of the stock on hand at the commencement of
the year, and the same quantity of the article at its close, makes up a
total loss upon cotton of £4,667,000. Of this, at the very least, the
British merchants' share is _four millions sterling!_
A large sum might fairly be added to this as the manufacturers' and
spinners' share in the loss sustained upon their stocks from the
declining prices of the raw material during the whole of the year's
operations. I will not, however, enter into detail with respect to this
part of my subject; but glance at it briefly when I come to estimate the
losses, sustained by holders of produce generally, whilst _in transitu_
from the importers' hands to the marts of its final consumption.
Next in importance to the article of cotton is that of SUGAR, a great
staple of food, which it has been the express object of our recent
legislation to cheapen, regardless whether or not in doing so we
inflicted ruin upon the colonial proprietor. It is not within the limits
of the inquiry which I have prescribed to myself to trace the course of
that legislation which, from whatever motives prompted, bids fair
ultimately to reduce our once flourishing tropical possessions to their
pristine condition of waste and jungle, and to throw back their coloured
population into the barbarism from which, a few years ago, it was the
pride of every lover of his kind to see them rapidly emerging. A brief
reference to that legislation, however, is necessary, in order to render
intelligible the mode in which I have calculated the extent of the past
year's losses upon our imports of the article. At the period of
emancipation, (1834,) our West Indian colonies, producing for British
consumption 3,844,244 cwt. of sugar out of a total import of 4,743,415
cwt. for the year, were owned by a distinct class of proprietors, partly
resident, but chiefly consisting of capitalists in this country. Up to
that period the "West Indian Interest," as it was termed, was one of the
most powerful in Great Britain, and afforded, through its import and
export transactions, a most profitable source of employment to our
merchants at home, as well as to their numerous branch establishments
in the colonies. The measure of that year--exchanging compulsory labour
for the apprenticeship system in the first instance, and shortly
afterwards for free labour--precipitated the whole of this class into a
fearful struggle, required from them to maintain production up to the
wants of the home consumer. It was found necessary to import additional
labourers to supply the place of those who, on receiving their freedom,
had betaken themselves to other avocations than those of the sugar
plantation; and every effort of science and improved culture had to be
resorted to, in order to keep down the cost of production, and increase
the yield of the soil. Whilst immersed in this struggle--a most
unprofitable one, as it proved--the Free-Trader stepped in, and
introduced the new element of competition with the foreign slave-grown
article. The result of the much too sudden rate of reduction of the
differential duties then adopted has been to render cultivation utterly
unprofitable; and, so far as the original proprietors of the West Indies
are concerned, the last measure directed against these unfortunate
colonies may be justly termed one of direct confiscation. Under these
circumstances, the bulk of the West Indian sugar and other estates have
virtually lapsed to mortgagees--principally merchants in this country,
who have advanced money upon them for the increased outlay required to
keep up and cheapen production; and hence, so far as the West Indies are
concerned, it is necessary to treat the importer and planter _as one_ in
such an inquiry as the present. There can scarcely be said to be a price
at all in the West Indies--the bulk of the exports coming to the British
market on the planter's and merchant's account. The same remark applies
to coffee, rum, and every other description of West Indian produce. With
respect to the produce of the East Indies and Mauritius, there does
exist a price at the port of shipment, the articles being bought for the
British markets in the ordinary way; and the result of the importation,
as a purely mercantile transaction, can therefore be more correctly
ascertained.
The importation of sugar during the past year was, in round numbers,
400,000 tons against 330,000 in 1850, and 340,000 in 1849. Of this
quantity 270,000 tons consisted of colonial, (two-thirds of which was
West Indian,) 110,000 tons of foreign, and 20,000 tons of foreign
refined. In a general summary of the year's proceedings, the editor of
the _London New Price-Current_--an authority of high standing--of
Tuesday, Jan. 6, remarks:--
"The excess in stock of all sorts is 57,000--viz., 157,000 tons
against 107,000 at the close of 1850. Prices are lower by 7s. to 9s.
per cwt. for low to mid prices of colonial, and 5s. to 6s. per cwt.
for good to fine."
Another authority, Messrs Littledale & Co., of Liverpool, remark upon
this article as follows, in their circular of the 1st January:--
"Great indeed has been the disappointment during the past year of
importers and holders of nearly every description of produce; but to
no parties has it been so severe as to those interested in the
article of sugar, cotton excepted. The year 1851 opened with high
prospects--moderate stocks, an average supply, and a largely
increased consumption, arising from the satisfactory condition of
the manufacturing districts, and the great prospects which were
generally entertained of the approaching _Exhibition_; but these
hopes were soon dissipated, the imports of foreign continuing on an
unusually large scale, and the consumption, instead of increasing,
barely supporting that of the previous year. _The increased
production of sugar from beetroot on the Continent is fast
displacing all foreign, and the latter, in turn, displacing our
colonial_, or forcing it down to so low a figure that its production
will be unremunerative. In little more than two years the duties
will be equalised; and we can see no salvation for our colonies but
a complete change, both in the manufacture and curing of this
article, as it is quite evident that the taste of the large
consumers in the country is changing year by year more in favour of
crushed refined.... The decline in the value of sugar throughout the
past year has been gradual, though marked; and prices now rule 5s.
to 6s. per cwt. lower on better descriptions, and 8s. to 10s. on
the common and low brown sorts."
With respect, then, to that portion of the supply of sugar derived
from the West Indies, the only question which can arise is--Can the
grower have succeeded during the past year in reducing the cost of
production so far as to have allowed the _Gazette_ _average_ of
British plantation to fall from 29s. 2d. nett in February of last
year, to 20s. 2d. in the February of this year? We know that during
this period no economising of labour has been achieved to warrant a
decline of 9s. per cwt.--nearly thirty per cent; and the conclusion
is obvious, that the bulk of this saying to the British consumer has
come out of the pockets of the colonial proprietor and the British
colonial merchant. The price at the commencement of the year, it is
admitted, was a barely remunerative one; and every shilling of
reduction since has been positive loss.
With respect to East India sugar, which is actually purchased in the
country of its growth, the loss has fallen directly upon the
importer--the fact being notorious, that prices throughout the year have
ruled higher in the colonial markets, and in China, Java, &c., by from
4s. to 5s. per cwt. than it could be sold for on its arrival here.
Messrs Littledale & Co. quote the prices of Bengal, Madras, and
Mauritius, best and good descriptions, in bond, from 6s. to 6s. 6d.
lower in January this year than in January last year, and common and
inferior descriptions as much as 8s. to 9s. lower. Upon China and
Manilla the fall has been from 3s. to 4s. 6d.
The same authority to which I have before referred--the _New London
Price Current_--remarks of Mauritius sugar, that the "rates are 5s. _to_
8s. _per cwt. lower_, the difference being most apparent on brown and
inferior qualities;" and of East India, "Stock is 6950, (in London,) and
in 1850 it was 5500 tons. _Prices range_ 4s. _to_ 8s. _per cwt. under
that period_, the difference being more apparent on brown and inferior
qualities, of which there is a loss upon importation."
With respect to foreign sugar, a few preliminary explanations are
necessary. As is the case with East India produce, the sugar which we
draw from foreign countries--the bulk from Cuba and the Brazils--is
purchased by British merchants at a price in the country of its growth,
regulated of course by the cost of production, and the probable market
price in Great Britain. The foreign planter, however, is seldom more
than a nominal proprietor, working with borrowed capital, for which he
pays an interest of from fifteen to twenty per cent, and living, in all
respects, only like a superior servant or agent. With the question,
whether of late he has been enabled to reap a profit on his cultivation,
I have here nothing to do, although it is most probable that he has not
done so, even at the prices which he has been able to secure from the
British purchaser. He has had labour foisted upon him beyond his
requirements, and at an exorbitant price, the slave-dealer being in many
cases the party supplying capital for sugar cultivation, and the virtual
proprietor of the soil and stock. So far as regards the operations of
British merchants in the produce of Brazil, Cuba, and other foreign
tropical produce, the result has been almost equally disastrous with
that attending the trade with our own possessions. Prices in these
countries have, throughout nearly the whole of the past year, been from
3s. to 5s. above those which could be realised in this country; and the
loss upon the entire importation has been little, if at all, less than
that upon British colonial produce. The _London New Price-Current_ sums
up its remarks upon the trade in foreign sugar by saying,--"Prices,
compared with this date last season, exhibit a decline of 3s. on the
better, and 4s. to 6s. per cwt. on the brown and inferior qualities." A
comparison of the prices in the country of production, with those
realised here, will prove this part of my case. From the _Pernambuco
Price Current_, of the 24th of February 1851, I find that the following
were the prices of Brazilian sugar, free on board; and I have set
opposite to the figures the price which it would command in bond, on its
arrival here, as furnished by one of our leading brokers:--
IN BRAZIL, 24th February, 1851. IN LIVERPOOL, April 1851.
First white, 25s. 3d. to 26s. 3d. }
Second and third do. 20s. 7d. to 24s. 3d. } None in stock.
Fourth do. 18s. 9d. to 19s. 8d. }
Fifth and sixth do. 16s. 7d. to 17s. 5d. } 21s. to 22s. 6d.
Muscovado, yellow, 15s. 2d. to 15s. 8d. 19s. 6d. to 20s.
Brown, 14s. 8d. 16s. to 19s.
The first qualities of the above are not imported into this market; and
adding to the other, for freight at 60s. per ton, 3s.--buyer's
commission in Brazil, 3 per cent--insurance, interest, brokerage, and
other charges, say 4s. 6d. to 5s. per cwt.--there would be a small loss
upon the importation.
I select a later date, in order to ascertain the cost of the stocks on
hand at the commencement of this year. On the 29th November last the
quotations were--
IN BRAZIL, November. IN LIVERPOOL, January.
First and second, 24s. to 24s. 4d. }
Third, 22s. 4d. to 23s. 8d. } None in stock.
Fourth, 20s. 9d. to 21s. 6d. }
Fifth and sixth, 17s. 1d. to 19s. 4d. } 17s. 6d. to 19s. 6d.
Muscovado, yellow, 15s. 7d. to 16s. 6d. 16s. to 17s. 6d.
Brown, 14s. 7d. to 15s. 1d. 13s. 6d. to 15s.
At this period freights ruled low, 35s. to 40s.; and, as is always the
case when there is an abundance of shipping seeking cargo, the foreigner
advanced his rates for produce. Adding 3s. 6d. to 4s. for charges upon
imports, there would be a loss of, say 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. upon white;
3s. 6d. upon yellow; 5s. 6d. upon low brown, and 3s. 6d. upon the better
quality. The same result is found to have resulted upon Cuban and other
foreign sugars.
The reduction in this article has not been so sudden as to entitle us to
put down more than a portion of it as loss to either importer or
producer. Bearing in mind, however, that, from the commencement of the
year to the close, it has been arriving in this country at a cost
considerably over what it would realise, and that we had a good stock to
begin the year with, which has kept accumulating, I believe I am
justified in assuming the result of the year's business to be a loss,
upon the whole of our sugar imports, of at least £5 per ton; which, upon
400,000 tons of all descriptions, amounts to the sum of £2,000,000
sterling. In this I am borne out by some of our leading authorities,
whose names I hand you for your own satisfaction. Having in this
calculation merged the stock in hand at the commencement of the year,
(107,000 tons,) which was imported at extreme prices, and lost much more
than I have taken as an average, it is but fair to add something for the
depreciation of the _increase of stock_ held at the close of the year,
50,000 tons, (the total stock having been 157,000 tons against 107,000
at the commencement.) If I estimate this depreciation at £3 per ton--it
fell nearly £1 in the beginning of January, and has since been quoted
lower--I am satisfied that I am within the mark. This will make the
_total loss on sugar_ £2,150,000 _sterling_.
In the important article of COFFEE there has also been a serious loss
upon the year's transactions; and this notwithstanding the fact that the
import was lighter in 1851 than in either of the two preceding years,
having been 22,100 tons of all descriptions against 22,700 in 1850, and
27,000 in 1849. The prices at the close of the year are stated by the
_London New Price-Current_ to have been "from 8s. to 16s. per cwt. below
this date last season." Messrs Littledale's annual circular shows a
fall, in "native ordinary Ceylon" of 16s., and of 15s. in "middling
plantation." The fall is less in some of the scarcer sorts. The greatest
reduction, however, was in the middle of the year, "good ordinary native
Ceylon," which was worth 57s. per cwt. in January, having fallen to 37s.
in June. The total loss to importers, I am advised, cannot be estimated
at less than £10 per ton, which, upon the total import of 22,100 tons,
makes up an amount of £221,000 sterling. It is worth while remarking
here, as an instance of the blindness of Whig legislation, that although
the duties on coffee were reduced last year from 6d. on foreign, and 4d.
on colonial, to a uniform rate of 3d., to the serious injury of colonial
interests, and apparently with no other object in view, the consumption
was very little increased, having been 31,226,840 lb. in 1850, and only
32,564,164 lb. in 1851. The actual vend by retailers of _what is called
coffee_--the adulterated article--is, however, known to have largely
increased; and the grocer and fraudulent dealer, by the use of chicory,
the admixture of which with coffee the Chancellor of the Exchequer
refused to restrict, and of other worse ingredients, have been enabled
to put far more than the amount of the duty remitted into their own
pockets. The stock held over from 1850 was 19,300 tons; and as this was
very little reduced in December 1851, and the bulk of it was bought at
even higher prices than those ruling at the commencement of the year, it
will not be unfair to estimate the loss upon it at £10 per ton, the same
as that upon the importations. I will, however, assume it to have been
only, in round numbers, £150,000. This will make the _total loss on
coffee_ £371,000.
In another important article--TEA--there have been very heavy losses. We
commenced the year with prices of _congou_, the leading article of
_black tea_, at 1s. to 1s. 0½d. for "ordinary to good ordinary," and
better sorts proportionally higher. The year closed with the same teas
at 8d. to 8½d., and a proportionate fall in other descriptions of
black. In some sorts of _green_ there has not been so great a fall; but
upon all kinds (two excepted, of which the consumption is not large) I
find the decline estimated by Messrs Littledale & Co. _at_ 25 _to_ 35
_per cent._ The fall _per lb._ may, with tolerable safety, be set down
at 4d. It has not been so gradual as in the case of other descriptions
of produce, having, on the contrary, occurred rather suddenly towards
the middle and close of the season; and this fact has an important
bearing upon the amount actually lost by importers. In the first four
months of the year prices gave way a little; but the demand was good,
and no serious disaster in the trade was expected. Imports, however,
flowed in freely, beyond the requirements for consumption; and the new
crop arriving unusually early by the clipper ships, now engaged between
this country and China, a sort of panic ensued, and reductions of 2d. to
4d. per lb. were submitted to. With a view to render my calculations
with regard to this article perfectly intelligible, I subjoin the state
of imports, stock, and consumption, as given in Messrs Littledale's
_Circular_ of _Jan. 3_:--
The imports for the year
will be about 72,000,000 lb. against 48,300,000 in 1850.
Deliveries, do. 59,000,000 " 56,400,000 "
Stock, do. 48,000,000 " 34,500,000 "
Thus, although the deliveries in 1851 exceeded those of 1850, there was
an increased stock, caused by the unusually early arrival of the new
crop. Under these circumstances, I find that I am fully justified in
taking the loss upon the entire imports at 2d. per lb., which, upon
72,000,000 lb., will be £600,000. The stock on hand at the commencement
of the year, 34,500,000 lb., may be estimated as having lost 4d. per
lb., or £575,000, leaving in its place an accumulation of 48,000,000 lb.
at the close of the year, upon most of which there is a farther loss
upon the price at which it was imported, even assuming that it was well
bought, according to the range of prices here in November and December,
when the bulk of the new crop reached us. I do not take into account,
however, any loss upon this stock, or even upon its excess over that of
the preceding year; and only set down the result as above, at _a total
loss of_ £1,175,000 _for the year_.
Even in the import of FOREIGN GRAIN the transactions of the year have
been of a most unsatisfactory character, and the general result has been
a loss, estimated at a very moderate computation to amount to, at the
least, £500,000. The whole of this, however, has not fallen directlyi
upon British merchants, who are regularly engaged in the trade, but in
part upon foreign houses; and upon speculators who, having been misled
by the miscalculations of the Free-Trade press, and by an over-sanguine
temperament, to anticipate a considerable revival of prices during the
close of 1850 and the beginning of 1851, were induced to become holders
of the article. In the most favourable cases, however, up to the slight
revival which took place at the close of the past year, the importer has
been unable to secure more than a bare brokerage, except upon French
flour; and taking every redeeming circumstance into consideration, I am
warranted in setting down _the loss of the year at_ £500,000, as above
stated.
Upon a number of other important articles, the loss has been very heavy
throughout the year, both to importers and holders of stock. Amongst
these, I may mention many kinds of American provisions, colonial
molasses, silk, indigo, jute, hides, linseed, and other seeds, linseed
oil, gums, madder roots, dyes, dye-woods, spices, foreign fruits, &c. I
shall only trouble your readers with a few, and give, in doing so, the
stock and total decline during the year, not being able to give the
aggregate loss in detail:--
Stock. Decline.
Indigo, 60,000 cwt. 9d. to 1s. per lb.
£280,000
Molasses, 10,897 tons. (London) £3, 10s. per ton.
38,000
Jute (imports, Liverpool), 86,450 bales. £3, 0s. per ton.
Linseed (Do.), 115,600 bales and pkts. 4s. to 5s. per qr.
Linseed oil (Do.), 516 cases. £4 to £5 per ton.
Cochineal, 9,040 packages. 9d. per lb.
Raw silk, 5 to 7½ per cwt.
On dye-woods the loss has been fearful, cargoes imported having in many
cases not realised more than actual freights; and foreign fruits have
been a drug throughout the year, and have perished, or else been sold at
ruinous reductions from import cost. The total loss upon the import of
these articles, added to what I have already estimated, will make up a
gross amount of _ten millions sterling_.
I have already stated that, in addition to the loss in first hands,
there must have been a very serious one sustained by manufacturers,
dealers, and retailers, throughout the country. In all cases of falling
markets of either raw materials or produce, the cheaper import presses
upon previously made purchases, and compels a sacrifice of a portion of
stock in hand. The manufacturer who is consuming cotton bought at 7d.
per lb., finds, when he has converted the raw material into goods, that
he has to compete with his neighbour, who is willing to make a contract
for the same article with cotton at 6d. per lb. The calico printer and
dyer finds a competitor who has bought his dyes ten per cent below him.
The grocer and tea-dealer has in the same way to accommodate his prices
to those which happen to rule in the wholesale market. With respect to
the cotton manufacturer, we have been told that his business has been
satisfactory; that he had made contracts in advance, which paid him a
profit upon the raw material purchased for the purpose of fulfilling
them. Suppose this to have been the case, which is only partially so,
the loss must have fallen upon _the buyer_, who would have to take his
goods into the home or the foreign market, in competition with more
recent and cheaper purchases. Every speculative holder of produce, and
every dealer, must have been similarly affected. I conceive, then, that
I am not exaggerating the loss sustained by these parties, by estimating
it at one-fifth of that which I have traced to importers, and adding
another two millions sterling to the previous amount of ten millions.
And now, let me ask, at what are we to estimate the loss sustained by
the shipping interest during the past year?
The amount of British tonnage entered inwards during the year ended 5th
January 1852 was 4,388,245 tons, against 4,078,544 tons in the preceding
year; the entries outwards were 4,147,007 tons against 3,960,764 tons;
making a total, inwards and outwards, of 8,535,252 tons in 1851,
against 8,039,308 in 1850--an increase of 495,944 tons. I refer to
these returns with a view to base upon them my estimate of loss
sustained; and certainly am not inclined to follow those superficial
observers who are in the habit of taking the increase of tonnage, shown
by them from time to time, as evidence of increased prosperity of the
shipowner. It is well known that our steamers engaged in the foreign
trade have enormously swelled the entries, both inwards and outwards,
during the last two years. From this port alone we have now a fleet of
five vessels of 300 tons and upwards, making fortnightly and monthly
trips to the North of Europe and the Mediterranean, each trip of which
counts for as much in the entries as the long voyage of a sailing
vessel. The Cunard Line to the United States has been augmented; and we
are establishing other lines to the Brazils, to Australia, &c. Our West
Indian and Oriental Fleets have been similarly augmented. As a further
cause of the apparent increase of sailing tonnage, the more rapid
passages made by vessels of the clipper build may be mentioned--some of
which, it is well known, have during the past year made the voyage out
and home to China, the East Indies, &c., in from eight to ten months;
whereas ships of the ordinary build and rig would have occupied above
twelve months, and thus have come once only, instead of twice, into the
returns. Deducting the steam and clipper ships, a correct return would,
I believe, show a decrease instead of an increase in our mercantile
marine; for it is well known that a large amount of British tonnage has
during the past three years been rotting in the waters of California.
Far better would it have been for some of the remainder, if, instead of
contributing to swell these returns with a tale of delusive prosperity,
it could have been laid up in dock, saving the cost of unprofitable wear
and tear and of wages. But our New Navigation Laws have rendered such a
course of no avail to the British shipowner. If a portion of our
mercantile navy had been laid up for a time, the foreigner would have
promptly assumed its place, and benefited by the advance in freights
which would have resulted from competition being withdrawn. As it is,
during the whole of the past year, the British shipowner, in carrying on
the struggle which has been forced upon him by our Free-Trade policy,
has been injuriously met by this competition in every foreign port, and
especially in the ports of our Eastern possessions and their
dependencies, the carrying trade of which, formerly secured to the
shipping of this country, afforded such a valuable source of
remuneration to the British shipowner. In the ports of China we have
been met with the same depressing competition. There is not, in fact, a
country on the surface of the globe to which a ship could be sent, in
cargo or in ballast, with any certainty of earning a return freight
which would pay even ordinary expenses of wages and port-dues--necessary
repairs being out of the question. In the attempt, which I propose to
make, to form an estimate of the losses sustained upon shipping during
the past year, it must be borne in mind that the year 1850, with which I
shall have to compare it, was notoriously one of severe suffering to all
parties interested in shipping. We had then begun to feel the effects of
the ruinous policy upon which we had embarked; and the amount of loss
sustained in that year had been previously unparalleled in the annals of
our commerce. There was a decline, for example, of the rates current in
1848, of the extent of which the following figures, taken from the June
number of _Blackwood_, furnishes a correct idea. The figures in
question, I may remark, were based upon actual transactions:--
Calcutta, March 1848, Jute, £5 5 0 December 1850, £3 5 0
" " " Sugar, 7 0 0 " " 3 0 0 and £3 5 0
Bombay, March 1848, Rice, 3 5 0 May 1850, 1 12 6
Valparaiso, Oct. " Copper, 4 0 0 March 1851, 3 7 6
Other freights bore a similar ratio of decrease. During the past and
present year we have had sugar brought from Calcutta at as low as 30s.
per ton, and cotton from Bombay at £2, 5s. From China we have had tea as
low as 40s.; whereas, in 1850, "The Oriental," American clipper, got £6
per ton, an ordinary British ship being able to command about £4. From
the west coast of America we have lately had guano brought to this
country for as low as 30s. to 40s. per ton. In March last the freight
actually realised was £3, 12s. per ton. These, however, it will be said,
are extreme cases. I give, therefore, a more general statement, although
it is almost impossible to arrive at a fixed rate of freights for any
portion of our long-voyage trade. Throughout the whole of our Eastern
ports, and of China, as well as in the ports of the west coast of
America, the rates have depended, as they did in 1850, upon the number
of American vessels arriving in ballast from round Cape Horn in search
of freight, after having earned a very ample remuneration from their
previous voyage from the Atlantic ports of the United States--a voyage
in the benefits of which British shipping is not allowed to
participate;--and these have been most arbitrary and uncertain in
amount. As a rule, I find that I may safely put down the long-voyage
freights, both from the East and West, as having fallen 30 per cent
during the past twelve months. This is the case even with regular
traders; and with transient ships it is much more. With respect to
Mediterranean and other European freights, the reduction is over 10 per
cent for British vessels. In Canadian timber freights there has been an
average fall to large ports of from 33s. to 30s. per load in 1850, to
about 25s. in 1851. With respect to these ships, the bulk of the tonnage
is taken up by timber-importers, some of whom are also owners; and the
result of the voyage, so far as the profit to the ship is concerned, is
mixed up with the result of the sale of the freight. The Australian
voyage has been a set-off against the general loss on shipping.
Emigrants and goods for these settlements have been in abundance, but
ships' expenses have been increased. Only for great and costly
precautions, these settlements threaten to be the grave of as large an
amount of shipping as that which is now rotting idle in the waters of
San Francisco.
In endeavouring to arrive at an estimate of the gross amount of loss to
British shipping during the past year, I avail myself of a calculation
made by a gentleman who occupies the position of secretary to the
Underwriters' Association--the Lloyd's--of Liverpool. In an estimate of
the amount to be put down as the freight paid to British shipowners upon
the imports of 1850, that gentleman considered that a fair average
earning of freight upon long and short voyages would be £2 per register
ton. The total entries inwards of 1851 have been 4,388,245 tons, the
freight upon which, at the estimated rate of the year 1850, would have
been thus, in round numbers, £8,776,490. Bearing in mind that a large
portion of British shipping goes out in ballast, and that the earnings
outwards are considerably less at all times than inwards, I shall not
estimate the outward freight in 1850 at more than 25s. per register ton.
Taking the tonnage outwards of 1851--4,147,007 tons--at this rate, the
amount would be £5,183,750--making a total, inwards and outwards, of, in
round numbers, £13,900,000. I have already said, and shown from its
antecedents, that the year 1850 was a year of heavy sacrifice of British
shipping. It is much if the bulk of our shipping during that year earned
more than would pay for necessarily-occurring repairs, which in many
cases were postponed until better times--which were hoped for--should
arrive. Taking all things into account--the actual reduction of
freights, and the necessity which has accrued for executing those
repairs--I cannot set down the loss to the British shipowner during the
past year at less than 20 per cent upon his freight, or £2,700,000
sterling. In addition to the shipping engaged in the foreign trade, I
have to estimate as well the loss sustained upon our coasting tonnage,
which amounted, in 1851, to 12,394,902 tons inwards, and 13,466,155 tons
outwards. Upon the earnings of this class of vessels there was a
reduction, in 1850, of fully 30 per cent. In fact, during that year, it
brought to the owners only loss and annoyance. During the past year it
cannot be said that the freights earned have been materially reduced;
but they have been earned only whilst the vessels were in rapid course
of being thoroughly worn out, repairs bestowed upon them, being felt to
be hopeless outlay. I take, as the basis of my calculation, a tonnage
about half of the aggregate "inwards and outwards"--viz. 13,000,000; and
estimate the freight both ways--and it is not much over the average of
one way--at 5s. per ton. We have thus a gross amount of freight earned,
of £3,250,000. I might treat the whole of this sum as absolute loss; for
it is notorious that, as compared with former years' earnings, it is so.
Not one in a hundred of our coasters are paying interest and wages. Cost
of necessary repairs they do not pay; and, in fact, they are only sailed
either in the fallacious hope of better days to come, or until _they go
to pieces_, and are destined to be broken up for the timber and the
copper and iron bolts which they contain. I shall only estimate them,
therefore, at the probable amount of their deterioration, which cannot
be less than £2,000,000, making _a total loss upon British shipping of_
£4,700,000 _sterling_. This may appear an extreme amount of loss to
those who do not take into consideration the peculiar nature of shipping
property, its constant deterioration, and the large proportion which
expenses upon it ordinarily bear to the freights earned. With respect to
the estimate which I have made of the loss upon our coasters, it will
probably be exclaimed against as very vague and incapable of being
proved. It must be borne in mind, however, that this class of property
has been injuriously affected by a combination of causes, some of which
it is only fair to refer to, as, to a certain extent, removing it out of
the scope of my general arguments. Our coasting vessels have had to
encounter severe competition with steam craft, particularly with respect
to the traffic in merchandise and produce capable of bearing the higher
rates of freights. Our internal railway communications have also
interfered seriously with their traffic coastwise. A considerable amount
of our coal and iron carriage has been abstracted from the small vessels
formerly employed by it. For example, I heard within the last few weeks,
of a government contract for engine-coals from the northern coal-fields
having been entered into, such coals to be laid down at one of our
dockyards for a little over 16s. per ton _per rail_--if I remember
right, the Great Northern. Still, much of the deterioration in this
property is attributable to our new system, which virtually hands over a
portion of our coasting trade to the foreign shipowner. Cargoes of
Baltic timber, grain, and other produce from Europe, are constantly
arriving in the Irish and the British Channel, to be ordered thence to
whatever port they may be required, and be most marketable at, rendering
a portion of the voyage to all intents and purposes a coasting voyage.
And it is much to be feared that, not only as respects this class of
shipping, but our ocean-going vessels as well, the British shipowner has
not seen the worst, and that he will have to regret the expenditure
which he is now making in the attempt, by increasing the sailing
qualities of his ships, to compete with his active and more favourably
situated rivals. The screw will shortly supersede the "clipper" in
carrying merchandise, as the paddle-wheel has superseded every other
mode of propulsion in carrying passengers and correspondence. And, in
the meanwhile, the latter neutralises the advantages of early arrivals
of merchandise, by preparing the consumer to expect it, and to make his
arrangements accordingly. A cargo of tea, advised of by steamer and
overland mail, although at a distance of two or three months' voyage,
exercises nearly the same influence upon the market price as if it was
already being landed in one of our ports. The building of expensive
vessels calculated for speed in carrying would be an undoubted good
under ordinary circumstances; but _it is not a paying speculation_.
Moreover, other countries are rivalling us in this effort to improve our
position; and in the mean time we are adding to a mercantile marine,
which is unprofitable enough at its present extent.
I shall not trouble your readers by referring to the condition of more
than one of the great internal trades of the kingdom--THE IRON
TRADE--the manufacture of which employs a vast amount of labour both in
England, Wales, and Scotland. On this article I find the following
remarks in the Circular, dated January 17th, of an eminent Liverpool
house, whose means of acquiring information are very great, and their
care in compiling it acknowledged. You will perhaps be inclined to
suspect, from the commencing paragraph, and you will be right in doing
so, that they are Free-Traders.
"Whilst the year 1851 has been one of peculiar misfortune to a large
section of the mercantile community, it has been generally one of
prosperity to the manufacturing interests of the country. The low
prices of produce of all kinds, which have entailed such serious
losses upon importers, have highly advantaged the manufacturer's
department, and contributed to the comfort of the operative classes,
whose condition was never better than at present. _The iron
manufacturing interest has not participated in the prosperity
referred to, the trade having been depressed throughout the year,
and totally unremunerative to those engaged in it._ The
anticipations of improvement which were indulged in at the beginning
of the year have been disappointed, and prices have declined to the
low rates stated in our accompanying quotations. It will be found
that, as compared with the rates current at this period last year,
the fall upon Welsh bars is about 10s. per ton; upon the inferior
makes of Staffordshire iron, 7s. 6d. to 10s. per ton; on Scotch
pig-iron, 5s. to 6s. per ton; and on tin plates about 4s. per box.
_The depression must mainly be attributed to the excessive
production, which the demand has not yet overtaken._"
I append the make of the year, and the number of furnaces in blast, with
the prices opposite, as given above, to show the total amount of the
decline during the year:--
Estimated
Furnaces make per Rate of Amount of
in blast. annum. decline. decline.
Scotland, 114 800,000 tons. 5s. 6d. per ton. £220,000
North and South Wales, 147 805,000 " 10s. 0d. " 402,500
Staffordshire, 127 720,000 " 8s. 9d. " 315,000
Other counties, 83 385,000 " say 7s. 6d. " 144,375
--------- -----------
2,710,000 "
Total decline in the year, £1,181,875
Of this amount, probably fully one-half would be the actual loss
sustained by makers and holders during the year. I am content, however,
to set it down at £500,000. Something ought to be added for the
deterioration of stocks throughout the country, the precise amount of
which it is very difficult to ascertain. As, however, there are on hand,
in Scotland alone, 350,000 tons of pig-iron, with no prospect of any
serious decrease in the quantity, or improvement in price, for some time
to come, unless the make is very materially reduced, I may very safely
set down in this account an additional £200,000 for the depreciation
throughout the kingdom--making thus _a total loss upon iron of_
£700,000.
It must be perfectly obvious that the _cheapness_ of all the necessaries
and the luxuries of life, so much boasted of by the Manchester school of
political economists, is not a healthy cheapness, or one which can
coexist with the well-being of the mercantile classes. The consumer has,
during the past year, been fed and clothed, to a considerable extent, at
the expense of that class. The importer of foreign produce, like the
farmer, has been living upon his capital; and, even under the most
favourable circumstances, must for years to come feel the consequences.
The inquiry, then, becomes an important one--what has been the cause, or
the combination of causes, which has brought about this disastrous state
of things? And another equally important inquiry follows this--What
interest in the country has been in fault? The Free-Trader will, no
doubt, tell us that the cause of our market for imports being glutted,
has been over-importations. Yet the very increase of these importations
is relied upon as the surest sign of the nation's advancing prosperity!
In part, I admit that the mercantile classes have imported too largely;
but, then, it was in anticipation of an increased power of the people to
consume, which has not manifested itself to the extent required. For
example, we imported, upon an already ample stock, 70,000 tons of sugar
in 1851, more than in 1850. We consumed, however, only 15,600 tons more;
and, as the result, we had on the 31st December last a stock on hand of
57,000 tons, or 50 per cent in excess of the stock of the preceding
year. In coffee we had no increase; but the stock with which we
commenced the year was equal to nine months' consumption, which ought to
have deterred importations. Of tea we increased our imports by
23,700,000 lb. We only increased the deliveries, however, for export and
home consumption 2,600,000 lb. Yet we had to commence the year with a
stock equal to seven months' consumption, which we have increased by
13,500,000 lb. It will be said that our merchants have bought abroad at
too high prices. I admit this too. Under the circumstances, as they have
turned out on actual experience, we have paid as much too high as we
have bought in excess of our requirements. This, however, is only a
natural result of our boasted new system. We have increased our exports
to nearly £69,000,000 sterling in 1851, against £65,750,000 in 1850;
£59,000,000 in 1849, and £49,000,000 in 1848, regardless of the known
fact that, in the long run, the whole of these vast sums would have to
find their way back to this country in the shape of imported produce,
which we had not, to anything like the required extent, increased our
power to consume. We have paid high prices for produce abroad, from the
very fact of our having so enormously increased our exports; for the
effect of every arrival of a cargo in any foreign port is to create a
demand for a remittance of some kind in return. If money is generally
preferred, the rate of exchange rises against the parties remitting; and
a demand is created for produce, as offering at least a chance of a
profitable result. If, on the other hand, produce is recklessly competed
for, the money remittance to the exporter is lessened, and the purchases
of the importer are bought high, and arrive at a ruinously losing
market. Messrs Littledale and Co., in their last annual circular, very
lucidly and briefly illustrate this, when referring to the business of
1849 and 1850. "These years," they remark, "were confessedly prosperous
to the merchant; and why? Simply because the disasters of '47, and the
long pending disturbances of '48, had so effectually checked operations,
that _supply and demand were fairly equalised_, both at home and abroad;
the foreign market, not being deluged with exports, gave a fair profit
on the outward goods, while _reduced competition for returns enabled
produce to be purchased at rates which again left a remunerating profit
to the importer_, and secured a ready sale." In another way, increased
exports, aided by the privileges which we have given to foreign
shipping, contribute to bring about a glut of imports. We have had
proofs of this fact during the past year, in which shipments have been
made to Great Britain from the East Indies, China, the Brazils, &c., at
high prices, in consequence of the inducements to speculation in produce
held out by a superabundance of vessels, both British and foreign,
competing for freights at the most ruinously low rates.
But I must expressly guard myself against admitting that the disasters
of the past year can be attributed to the misconduct of the British
merchant, properly so termed. Our old-established houses, both in the
home and foreign markets, have been elbowed at every turn by a new class
of men who have rushed into extensive operations with very little
discretion, and many of whom, during the past year, have paid the
penalty of their want of prudence and mercantile knowledge. Nor have the
manufacturing body themselves been guiltless in the matter. The home
consumption of the past few years has been unequal to the office of
taking off a fair portion of the increased products of our looms and our
forges; and hence the accumulation of stocks of every kind has been
poured without judgment, and far beyond their wants, into the markets of
the foreigner. This has been especially the case with manufactured
cotton goods, the quantity of which, exported in 1850, with fair boweds
averaging 7½d. per lb. was 1,472,324,000 yards, against 1,169,000,000
yards in 1848 when the same cotton was only 4⅜d. per lb. During the
past year, whilst a decline has been going on, which has reached nearly
3d. per lb., the exports have been 1,344,000,000 yards. Such a business
as this could only be productive of one result; and I have not the
slightest doubt that, if those who have been engaged in it would admit
the truth, it would be found that their export operations during the
past year have been the most unsuccessful on record. And not only to
themselves has this been the case, but to every merchant carrying on a
legitimate export business to foreign countries. Such merchants during
the past year have been unable to discover a single article capable of
being introduced into foreign markets with any reasonable hope of
profit. Their shipments, however well purchased, and however well
assorted to suit the wants of those markets, have arrived there when
they were glutted with unsuitable trash of all descriptions, which the
manufacturer had got rid of at any sacrifice to enable him to keep his
machinery going, and which the adventurer has bought to enable him to
keep his floating credit up, until a favourable turn in the price of the
raw material should enable both to reap a fair reward for their
enterprise. There is not a single market of importance--if, indeed,
there be one at all--to which I can point as having returned cost price
at home for the shipments of the year, taking them in the mass. If a few
cases of individual profit have taken place, it has been when some
favourable fluctuation in the rate of exchange has occurred to make up
for the loss which would have accrued under an ordinary condition of the
foreign money market. Such was the case last year with a small portion
of our East India trade in particular. This market, however, and that of
China, have been unremunerating generally during the whole of the year.
The American market has only been saved from being disastrous by the
impetus given to consumption by the Californian gold discoveries, and
their effect upon the American banking system. The Brazilian trade, and
that of the west coast of South America, have been losing ones, and
would have been worse, but for the same stimulus, which, combined with
that arising from the discoveries of gold in Australia, may be said to
have affected favourably the trade of the eastern and western
continents, and to have protected Europe and this country from--what
must inevitably have occurred--a widely-spread monetary convulsion.
It would be a task utterly impossible, to ascertain precisely the amount
of loss sustained upon our gross exports of the year, amounting to
£68,490,659; but it is not difficult to perceive that it has been a very
heavy one. In any case it must have been so, as far as regards our
exports of manufactured cotton goods, which have amounted to
£30,078,996; of metals, which have amounted to £8,905,894; of woollen
manufactures, which have amounted to £9,856,259; and of silk goods,
linens, &c., the export of which has confessedly been excessive, and
with respect to the bulk of which, there has been a decline in the price
of the raw material. The excess of our entire exports, however, over the
legitimate wants of the foreigner, will account for a more considerable
margin of loss--and that, too, upon all articles--than that which would
have taken place under a decline in one or two raw materials alone.
There has been a heavy loss sustained upon the labour and skill engaged
in the composition of manufactured products; and I feel satisfied that I
am not at all exceeding bounds in putting down the aggregate, from all
the circumstances named, at fully 7½ per cent upon the total quantity
shipped. This will make a loss to exporters of £5,250,000. It would not
be fair, however, to treat the whole of this sum as the loss to the
British merchant. I put down, therefore, the least I can do, viz.,
£2,500,000 _as his share of his loss_. In doing this, I know that _I am
much below the truth_. There are secrets, however, fast locked up in the
safes of too many of our importing merchants, to which I have not the
key; and of many articles, such as metal of all kinds, coals, &c., so
much is sent out on ship's account, the result of which is mixed up in
the freight balance-sheet, that I am not disposed to run the risk of
being accused of exaggeration, when no data are within my reach to
appeal to in proof of my statements.
I think it will be admitted that I have pretty nearly substantiated the
assertion with which I set out, viz., that the mercantile and trading
interests were left poorer at the close of the year 1851, than they were
at its commencement, by twenty millions sterling, and upwards. Let me
recapitulate the items:--
Loss to British
importers on Cotton, £4,000,000
" " Sugar, 2,150,000
" " Coffee, 371,000
" " Tea, 1,066,600
" " Corn and Flour, 500,000
" " Dye-stuffs, Molasses, Silk, and }
other miscellaneous articles, } 1,912,400
" " Manufacturers of goods in }
course of perfection, and }
dealers and retailers of stocks } 2,000,000
of produce, &c., depreciated, }
" " Shipowners, 4,700,000
" " Iron manufacture, 700,000
" " by Exporters, 2,500,000
----------
Total, £19,900,000
===========
It would have been perfectly easy for me to have performed more than the
whole of my promise, had I not strictly guarded myself in every case
against assuming anything which could call forth denial which I am not
fully prepared to meet. My own conviction is--and there are many who
will _feelingly_ confirm it--that I have understated rather than
overstated the disasters of the year.
Where, in the face of these facts, can be the "_prosperity_" of which
the Free-Trader has been drawing such glowing pictures? It is not
gladdening the eyes of the merchant and importer. It has not rewarded
the enterprise of the shipowner. It has not filled the pockets of the
small trader or the shopkeeper. The millowner and the manufacturer have
not only not felt it, but I am confident that the majority of this class
have suffered severely, as the result of the year's operations. The
labourer and the artisan, with the men of fixed money incomes, have been
the only parties benefited by the cheapness of the past year. But it
will be said these losses have been exceptional, and will not occur
again. The importer has been taught to confine his operations within the
limits of legitimate demand; the manufacturer will produce no more than
he can sell to a profit; and the exporter will cease to glut every
foreign market. Prudence, indeed, suggests this course; but then, what
will become of the statistical proofs, furnished us every month, of the
nation's progress in well-doing? Our exports will no more be
triumphantly pointed to as affording such proof; and our imports will
cease to show that sort of prosperity, derived from the circumstance of
a portion of the nation being enabled to live in abundance upon the
losses of the remainder. If our exports and imports are reduced to the
level of our power to sell at a fair profit, and to consume without the
importer having to resort to sacrifice, the British shipowner, under our
present system of competition with the foreigner, may lay up the larger
portion of his ships in dock, and discharge his seamen to starve in our
streets. It is idle, however, to talk now of confining our business
within reasonable and profitable limits under our present system; and
the Free-Trader durst not at this moment even contemplate such a
course; for what would be its first results? If production of
manufactured goods is to be checked; if a portion of our looms and
spindles are to be stopped; if one-fourth of our iron furnaces are to be
blown out, the first result must be to destroy the boasted elysium at
present existing amongst our labouring classes engaged in manufacturing
processes. This should have been done last year to produce a really
healthy and remunerative trade; but then the operative classes would not
have been enabled to benefit by the ruinous cheapness of imported food
and other necessaries, which was existing around them. If imports are to
be checked, as they must be checked in a corresponding ratio with
exports; if the importing merchant is, by this course, to be enabled to
sell at a profit, we must have comparative dearness coexisting with
decreased means on the part of the labouring classes to purchase and
consume. This important view of our position is well worthy of the
serious consideration, not only of those who jump to the conclusion that
the mercantile interest has been over-trading, but also of those who
profess to see nothing but ruin and confusion as the result of the
slightest enhancement of the price of any commodity which enters largely
into the consumption of the people. Prudent trading during the past year
would clearly have checked the productions of manufactures and other
commodities, and with these the employment of labour. On the other hand,
imports restricted to a prudent limit would as clearly have tended to
raise prices against the home consumer.
We cannot, however, check our imports, for we have proclaimed that Great
Britain, with her mighty capital and resources, shall become the depot
of the merchandise of the world, and the foreign producers of that
merchandise will hold us to our contract. So long as our ports are not
closed against its admission; so long as the selfishness of capital
prompts its possessor to seek gain; so long as shipowners, foreign as
well as British, are under the necessity of earning freights, and
merchants and brokers throughout the world are eager to secure
commissions, the surplus produce of every clime will seek a
resting-place, though it may be only a temporary one, in the granaries
and warehouses of Great Britain. We had a proof of this fact last year
in the arrival here of several cargoes of tea, the surplus imports of
the United States, which were brought in American shipping, and thrown
upon our already depressed markets, to be sold at any sacrifice; and
this very transaction, by the way, exhibits in a very striking manner
the suicidal folly which we have committed with respect to the
Navigation Laws. The tea in question, brought from an American port, was
admitted into our markets upon the same terms as if it had been direct
from the country of its growth. If the same operation was to take place
from any port in Great Britain, an additional duty of 20 per cent would
be levied on the cargo in America, because of its having been imported
in a British bottom. It is, in fact, the very principle of Free Trade to
invite imports, and to bring about their cheapness. A low cost of the
raw materials of life and of labour is the great end and aim of their
policy. Every possible increase of our import of foreign productions,
they have proclaimed again and again, was good, inasmuch as it cheapened
those productions to the home consumer, and at the same time enabled the
foreigner to take more of the manufactures of this country. But these
men failed to perceive that they have not in themselves the control of
the tyrannous machinery which they have set in motion; that, whilst
seeking only their own selfish aggrandisement, they have placed in the
hands of a giant power a rod of iron to scourge their backs; that Ixion
was never bound more inextricably to his wheel, or Mazeppa to his wild
steed, than they are bound to the incontrollable workings of that
arbitrary power. These babes in political science omitted to consider
the overriding influence of an inflexible money system in counteracting
their short-sighted schemes of ambition and greed. The world, they
designed, was to throw its treasures--its products of necessity and of
luxury--at their feet, to be gathered by them at their own convenience,
and at their own price. But the system, which they had overlooked,
said, "No, you shall not do this: I must have _my bond!_" If, in
exchange for the increased imports poured in upon us, and which we have
no power to turn aside from our shores, we fall behind one step in the
task of producing and exporting an equivalent in the shape of
manufactured goods or British products, our entire monetary system
collapses, and brings down devastation and ruin upon our heads. The
producer of British commodities, heavily weighted as he is with
responsibilities--holding large stocks, or having his capital invested
in fixed property--can no more resist the tyranny of this system than he
can turn back the tide or arrest an avalanche. He must go on producing
and exporting--or his class, at all events, must--whatever be the price
of the raw material upon which he works, or the certainty that its sale
must result in heavy loss. He must go on, because a monetary crisis is
infinitely more disastrous in its results than the most disastrous
losses arising from glut in the foreign or the British markets.
There is gross indecency, and, indeed, impudence, displayed by those
parties who proclaim that a policy, which has produced such results as I
have detailed, is not even to be examined with a view to its possible
modification. All other monuments of the wisdom of mere man are found to
require occasionally the improving hand; but the policy dictated by the
Manchester school of economists is pronounced to be irrevocable, and not
to be reviewed by the light of experience. Although it has inflicted
ruin upon the great mass of our agricultural community; although it has
been pregnant with commercial and industrial disaster; although it has
falsified in its operations all the predictions of its authors; yet it
has produced "a cheap loaf" and "cheap imports;" and upon these it is
deemed sacrilegious for the statesman to impose his amending hand. But
the common sense of the community, I venture to predict, will not submit
to an imposture and injustice so gross. For the intelligent mercantile
classes, I can answer that they will not. These men know, from the
lessons taught by their every-day transactions, that the existing
miscalled system of Free Trade cannot be much longer persevered in
without producing widespread ruin, and ultimate disaffection and
anarchy. To enable us to increase our imports profitably, we must first
have a corresponding increase of the ability of our own people to
consume. To enable us to carry on a profitable trade in exports, we must
first render the home producer of manufactures and other products less
dependent than at present upon the foreign market; and this can only be
done by enabling the masses of our own population, whether employed in
agriculture or in other industrial pursuits, to consume more largely. To
enable us to hold the position of being the merchants and brokers of the
world, and the holders of its accumulated stores of wealth, we must
first have provided for us a more expansive monetary system. The
Free-Trader cannot, or will not, see the existence of these wants,
obvious as they are, and necessary to be supplied, if his favourite
policy is to be rendered a practicable one. The experience of the past
six years of continually recurring disaster, from a share in which he
has not been preserved harmless himself, appears to be entirely lost
upon him. But it has not been lost upon the intelligent masses of the
community; and I feel perfectly convinced that any attempt on the part
of the manufacturing interest to raise an ignorant clamour of opposition
to the efforts of the Earl of Derby's administration to snatch the
country, by sound and patriotic legislation, from its present
disorganised and suffering condition, will prove a ludicrous failure,
and very justly draw down upon its authors the indignation and disgust
of their fellow-countrymen.
Before concluding, I may be pardoned for addressing to the Public, and
to the Legislature, a word or two of caution against placing the
slightest dependence upon Board of Trade Returns, as affording evidence
of the real condition of the nation. It has long been known that the
principle upon which they are compiled is a most fallacious one; and
they have been rendered more so by our recent policy. Had these
elaborate statistical documents afforded anything like an index to our
condition, we ought, during the past ten years, to have been advancing
in prosperity at a rate more rapid than was ever achieved by any people.
They do not, however, form such an index, and, for all useful purposes,
are as valueless as the paper upon which they are printed. But this is
not all. Not only is the evidence afforded by them fallacious, but the
figures contained in them are incorrect and often fraudulent. The
entries at the Custom-Houses of merchandise shipped for foreign
countries, may be valued at anything that the exporter pleases. There is
no check whatever against such entries being falsified. It is the same
with our imports, those brought in duty free being now no longer weighed
by Government officers at the ship's side. A few dishonest men may at
any time combine to increase or to decrease the amount of the next
month's or year's return; and to exhibit growing prosperity, or the
reverse. It is only necessary, in order to effect their object, to add
fifty or a hundred per cent to the declared value of their shipments, or
to undervalue them to the extent wished to be shown. We have continually
been witnessing, during the past few years, the _extraordinary luck_ of
the late Whig Ministry in being always able, at seasons of emergency,
when pressed by their opponents, to produce some favourable return from
the Board of Trade; and it is not very improbable that, whilst in
opposition, they may be indulged by their Free-Trade allies throughout
the country with the figures required to prove decreasing exports under
a Conservative Government. But independently of such malpractices,
committed from party motives, there are other causes in operation which
render these returns utterly unworthy of credit. In a vast number of
cases it is certain that goods exported are _not entered at all_. A few
months ago it was discovered that an extensive forwarding merchant in
this port had been systematically omitting entries at the Custom House
for years past--no duty being chargeable--merely with a view to save the
payment of the Liverpool dock and town dues; and the extent of such
evasions may be conceived from the fact that--small as these dues
are--the dock estate is considered to have suffered to the extent of at
least £20,000 from the practice. During the past week, another case of
the same description has been discovered; and there is too much reason
to believe that this practice has become very prevalent on the part of
the inferior clerks of our merchants.
Under these circumstances, a complete change in the mode of conducting
the statistical department of the Board of Trade is imperatively called
for; and, until this is effected, the sooner that Board suspends the
issue of its delusive compilations, the better for the cause of truth.
LIVERPOOL, _12th March 1852_.
_POSTSCRIPT_.
[The revelations contained in the foregoing article are of a nature
eminently calculated to excite the astonishment of those who put
faith in the representations of the Free-Traders. Although fully
convinced of the accuracy of our esteemed correspondent, and the
extensive means of knowledge which he possesses with regard to
mercantile affairs, we considered it our duty, before publishing
this article, to institute inquiries of our own in other quarters,
and we are satisfied that it states the plain truth, without any
feature of exaggeration. Indeed, it is in entire accordance with the
tenor of the Trade Circulars, one of which, now lying before us,
dated so late as the 22d of March, and emanating from a well-known
Free-trading Manchester firm, refers to "the enormous losses
sustained upon the exports made in the early part of last year, and
the still greater losses on imports, many of which have been
sustained by the same parties." In Glasgow, during the last year,
the commercial disasters have been frightful; and we are not aware
that, up to the present time, there has been a symptom of the
turning of the tide.
We observe that Mr Cardwell, in a late speech delivered by him in
the House of Commons, reasserts, in pretty strong terms, his belief
in the prosperity of the country, and dwells especially upon the
cheering fact that the exports and imports have increased. Now, as
he is one of the representatives of Liverpool, and ought to know
something about mercantile matters, we beg to call his attention to
the foregoing article, which surely is specific enough to admit of
refutation, if it is not consistent with the truth. There has been,
of late, a great deal of babble about prosperity, but no proof of
its existence. This is an easy way, no doubt, of disposing of the
question; and it may succeed with people who are not accustomed to
watch the flux of public events, and the rise and fall of commerce.
It is not difficult to deal in general terms and rounded periods, or
to make broad averments, without substantiating them, in a
parliamentary speech; but it is full time that the public should be
led to discriminate between what is matter of fact and what is
matter of opinion. We submit a statement from Liverpool to the
notice of the member for Liverpool. It contains allegations which,
if true, show that the large and important mercantile constituency
which he represents is very far from sharing in that general
prosperity which he believes to exist somewhere. In the language of
a late eminent statesman, three courses are open to Mr Cardwell. He
can either deny the statement of our correspondent, in which case we
shall be glad to be furnished with a refutation; or, he may admit
the statement, in which case nothing more need be said on the
subject; or he may maintain a dignified silence, in which case he
must pardon us if we arrive at the conclusion that, in reality, he
knows very little about the matter--and so we commend him to his
constituents.]
THE MOTHER'S LEGACY TO HER UNBORN CHILD.
_The Mothers Legacie to her Vnborne Childe._ By ELIZABETH IOCELINE.
Reprinted from the edition of 1625; with a Biographical and
Historical Introduction. William Blackwood and Sons.
When we first saw this curious and deeply-interesting little volume, we
were disposed to turn from it as one of those fantastic pseudo-antiques
which came into vogue a few years ago, apparently, too, under high
auspices. We regretted to see an indication of the continuance of so bad
a fashion--namely, a professed reproduction of a work written one or two
centuries before, but, in reality, a spurious performance, with no other
recommendation than the very questionable one of a little petty
cleverness in assuming the tone of antique language, and the cast of
sentiment and observation belonging to a day gone by. And this,
moreover, in flagrant disregard of the maxim, _fiat experimentum in
corpore vili_, was applied to religious subjects! We were, however,
quickly undeceived as to the little volume before us, which we were
assured was a veritable reprint, "a fac-simile impression," of a small
work which had _bonâ fide_ made its appearance, under most affecting
circumstances, exactly two centuries and a quarter ago; and to that
reprint it seems that we are indebted to no less a personage than the
Very Reverend Dr Lee, the Principal, and the pious and learned head, of
the University of Edinburgh. We cordially thank the very reverend
gentleman for the great gratification which he has afforded us, and the
service which he has rendered the public, by bringing under its notice
once more, with every mark of genuineness and authenticity, and after no
small pains bestowed upon the task, an exquisite memento of tenderness,
piety, and love, in the _Mothers Legacie to her Vnborne Childe_. It is
exactly what it professes to be: in a word, a lovely young gentlewoman,
newly married, conscious of being likely to become a mother, and also
persuaded that, in giving birth to her infant, she herself would be
called away, set to work--sweet soul! now and long since happy in
eternity!--to frame a little manual of religious counsel for the
guidance of that infant as it grew up. Listen to her own words--"_It may
seem strange to thee to receive these lines from a mother that died when
thou wert borne_." If these few words are not full of moving tenderness
to the reader, he is made of different stuff from ourselves.
The "Mother," as we learn from the elaborate and learned "Introduction"
of Principal Lee, was Elizabeth Brooke, the granddaughter of Bishop
Chaderton, whose only daughter had married Sir Richard Brooke of Norton.
The exemplary old bishop survived his own daughter several years, and
"Bestowed the utmost pains to train up his only grandchild in the
most solid and serious, as well as the most elegant, branches of
learning in which, during the greater part of the sixteenth century,
no inconsiderable proportion of ladies of rank in England attained
high proficiency. Dr Goad's enumeration of the female
accomplishments in which she was nurtured includes languages and
other liberal arts; but, above all, that pious discipline of the
mind, which is both the beginning and the consummation of the wisdom
which is from above."[N]
[N] Introduction, p. 6.
The Dr Goad here mentioned was Dr Thomas Goad, of whom Fuller, in his
_Worthies_ of England, makes mention as "a great and general scholar,
exact critic, historian, schoolman, divine." He was chaplain to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and in that capacity possessed the power of
licensing books. He knew both Bishop Chaderton and his granddaughter;
and we shall now let him speak for himself in the matter; for he it was
whose official _imprimatur_ is impressed on this little book, which he
introduces to the reader in the following quaint but beautiful
"_Approbation_:"--
"Ovr lawes disable those that are vnder _Couertbaron_, from
disposing by Will and Testament any temporall estate. But no law
prohibiteth any possessor of morall and spirituall riches, to impart
them vnto others, either in life by communicating, or in death by
bequeathing. The reason is, for that corruptible riches, euen to
those who haue capacity of alienating them, bring onely a ciuil
propriety, but no morall and vertuous influence for the wel
dispensing, or bestowing them: whereas vertue and grace haue power
beyond al empeachment of sex or other debility, to enable and
instruct the possessor to employ the same vnquestionably for the
inward inriching of others.
"This truly rich bequeather, taking that care for the prouiding an
euerlasting portion for her hoped issue, which too many parents bend
wholly vpon earthly inheritance, by her death already hath giuen
vnto her Testament that life and strength, whereof the Scripture
speaketh, _A Testament is of force after death_--[Heb. ix. 17]--Now
remained the other validitie & priuilege of a Testament, that it bee
enacted in perpetual and inuiolable Record. Which in this was
necessary not so much for the security of the chiefe and immediate
Legatary, as for the benefit of all those, who, by the common
kindred of Christianity, may claime their portion in this Legacy,
left _in pios vsus_; whereout, whosoeuer taketh, yet leaueth no whit
the lesse for others in remainder.
"Wherefore vpon the very first view, I willingly not onely
subscribed my _Approbat_ for the registring this _Will_, among the
most publique Monuments, (the rather worthy, because proceeding from
the weaker sex) but also, as bound to do right vnto knowne vertue,
vndertooke the care of the publication thereof, my selfe hauing
heretofore been no stranger to the Testators education and eminent
vertues. Whereof, I here beheld reflection cleere enough, though
perhaps not so particularly euident to those that take knowledge of
them onely by this Abstract.
"In her zealous affection to the holy Ministry, thereto dedicating,
(if by sex capable) her yet scarce budding first fruits, I saw the
lineaments of her owne parentage: Shee being the onely offspring
deriued from a reuerend Grandfather, Doctor _Chaderton_, sometime
Master of _Queens Colledge_ in _Cambridge_, and publique _Professor_
of _Diuinity_ in that _Vniuersitie_, afterward Lord _Bishop_, first
of _Chester_, and thence of _Lincolne_: by and vnder whom shee was
from her tender yeeres carefully nurtured, as in those
accomplishments of knowledge in Languages, History, and some Arts,
so principally in studies of piety. And thus _hauing from a childe
knowne the holy Scriptures_, _which made her wise vnto saluation
through faith in Christ_, _how well shee continued in those things_,
_which shee had learned_,--[2 Tim. iii. 15, 16]--appeareth, as
otherwise to those that knew her, so here to all by the frequent and
pertinent application of them in these instructions.
"In her prosecution of the duty of obedience vnto Parents, I view
the deepe impression, long since, when shee was not aboue six yeeres
old, made in her minde by the last words of her owne Mother,
charging her vpon her blessing to shew all obedience and reuerence
to her Father (Sir _Richard Brooke_) and to her reuerend
Grandfather.
"In the whole course of her pen, I obserue her piety and humility:
these her lines scarce shewing one sparke of the elementary fire of
her secular learning: this her candle being rather lighted from the
lampe of the Sanctuary.
"In her commission of the office of an _Ouerseer_ to her husband,
what eies cannot behold the flames of her true and vnspoted loue
toward her dearest, who enioyed her about the space of six yeeres
and a halfe, being all that while both an impartiall witnesse of her
vertues, and an happy partner of those blessings both transitory and
spirituall, wherewith shee was endowed.
"Beside the domestique cares pertaining to a wife, the former part
of those yeeres were imployed by her in the studies of morality and
history, the better by the helpe of forreigne languages, not without
a taste and facultie in Poetrie: Wherein some essay shee hath left,
ingenious, but chaste and modest like the Authour. Of all which
knowledge shee was very sparing in her discourses, as possessing it
rather to hide, than to boast of.
"Among those her eminencies deseruing our memory, was her owne most
ready memory, enabling her vpon the first rehersall to repeat aboue
forty lines in English or Latine: a gift the more happy by her
imployment of it in carrying away an entire Sermon, so that she
could (almost following the steps of the words, or phrase) write it
downe in her Chamber.
"The latter yeeres of her life shee addicted to no other studies
than Diuinity, whereof some imperfect notes remaine, but principally
this small Treatise found in her Deske vnfinished, by reason either
of some troubles befalling her about a moneth before her end, or of
preuention by mis-reckoning the time of her going with this her
first (now also last) Childe: which Treatise, intended for her
childe, shee so leauing, recommended the same to her husband by her
letter to him, written and subscribed by her owne hand, as hereafter
followeth.
"The many blessings, shee enioyed, were not without some seasoning
of afflictions, which by the good vse shee made of them, bred in her
a constant temper of patience and more than womanly fortitude:
especially in her latter time, when as the course of her life was a
perpetuall meditation of death, amounting almost to a propheticall
sense of her dissolution, euen then when she had not finished the
27. yeere of her age, nor was oppressed by any disease, or danger,
other than the common lot of child-birth, within some moneths
approaching. Accordingly when she first felt herselfe quicke with
childe (as then trauelling with death itselfe) shee secretly tooke
order for the buying a new winding sheet: thus preparing and
consecrating herselfe to him, who rested in a _new Sepulcher wherein
was neuer man yet layd_. And about that time vndauntedly looking
death in the face, priuatly in her Closet betweene God and her, she
wrote these pious Meditations; whereof her selfe strangely speaketh
to her owne bowels in this manner, _It may seeme strange to thee to
receive these lines from a mother, that died when thou wert borne_.