Fear not, my son; these terrors are from GOD.

Hast thou not heard how, when Elijah stood

On Horeb, waiting while the LORD passed by,

Before the still small voice, there came a blast

That rent those ancient mountains? after the wind

An earthquake, after that again a fire?

Aye, when Christ visits first a sinful heart,

The devils that abide there shake with fear;

Who can abide his coming?

I remember,

(How could I not?) that, in his days of flesh,

We—even we, who called ourselves his friends—

As little knew him as dost thou to-day.

In a dark night we sailed upon the lake,

Alone, not knowing where our Master was.

The night was dark, and dark our lonely hearts;

A moon there was, but low, and blurred with clouds;

Only upon the horizon lay a line,

A level line of light, which, near and far,

Marked the black outline of the eastern hills.

Stern was our toil, with every art we had

To speed our vessel; for the breeze had sunk,

Or only came by snatches—till the rain—

Then flashed the incessant lightnings, then the hills

Rang, roared, as though the thunder shattered them;

Then surged the waves against the opposite wind,

Rattled our useless cordage, rent our sail,

Rent, flapping in the tempest, and his might

Seized on our boat, and drave it at his will.

No man was free from fear; we knew too well

Those treacherous waves; and He, whose master voice

Had laid them cowering at his feet, like dogs,

Where was He now?—In some lone mountain wood

He communed with his Father and the angels,

And knew not that we perished there alone.

Alas! far otherwise when in the stern

He slept, amid the hubbub of the storm,

As if on priceless couches, in the pomp

Of Herod’s palace; now He was afar,

Each of us felt the terror of the night,

And each one acted as his nature was.

One fell to prayer; one muttered instant vows;

Another lay and wept aloud; some few

Deemed that the gale was transient, and sate still

Watching their idle nets; some, bolder, strove

To save the canvass, and the labouring mast.

Amongst the band were two, forever first;

One was a reverend man, of ripening years,

Whose steel-grey beard fell on his fisher’s coat,

Even to his belt; the other was a youth,

Whose face, made ruddy by the genial suns

Of five-and-twenty summers, always shone

A God-wove banner of celestial love.

These two were working still, to save the ship,

When the cry rose, “A spirit!” There it walked,

Or seemed to walk, the waters, and drew near.

Then he that wore the fisher’s coat cried out;

“If not to be afraid be brave,” he said,

“When fear were preservation, be not bold;

What men could do we have done; now let be,

Lest haply we be found to fight with GOD.”

Thus spake he; but we lay down, motionless,

Struck by despair, and waited for our end:

Only the young man bared his trusting brow.

Then spake the Form majestic:

“It is I;

Be of good cheer;” and then we knew our Lord,

And took him up into the ship with us,

And fell before him worshipping, and said,

“Ah, doubt is dead; ah, blessed Son of God!”

Thus scant of faith were we, and ignorant

That he was with us, when we saw him not,

Or deemed him but some spirit of evil, sent

To make complete the horrors of the night.

Our hearts calmed with the waters, we were saved,

And knew our Master’s power, and blessed his love,

And, lo! were landed at the wished-for shore.

H. G. K.

THE EXTENT AND THE CAUSES OF OUR PROSPERITY.

TO THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.

The majority of the Legislature and of the great Conservative party

throughout the country have declared, either openly or tacitly, that our

present commercial policy cannot be reversed; and, in the present temper

of the people, such submission was almost inevitable. Whatever might be

the convictions of Conservative statesmen as to the working and tendency

of Free Trade, the expression of those convictions, and evidence,

however strong, in support of them, would have fallen idly upon the ear

of the masses, taught as they have been—and, indeed, are predisposed—to

jump to the nearest conclusion, when tracing effects to their causes.

They see the outward and visible marks of prosperity accumulating around

them on every side. Blue books and merchants’ and brokers’ circulars at

length speak the same language and tell the same story of a

widely-spread prosperity, which every man hears boasted of in his daily

avocations, whilst exulting Liberalism continually proclaims to the

world the coexisting fact of free imports. It is of no avail to remind

those men that the prosperity in question is not that which they

predicted or anticipated; that it is not the prosperity meant by the men

whose most loudly-urged inquiry was, “How can we compete with the

foreigner, whilst food is at war prices?” It is of no avail to remind

them that the foreigner has not, as was promised us, reciprocated our

generous policy, and that the tariffs of the world are still maintained

in their restrictive character; or to point to the palpable fact that we

have not even that “cheapness” of all the necessaries and comforts of

life, which was held up as the great boon to be achieved by Free Trade

legislation. The arguments, assumed to be conclusive, brought to bear

against those who still adhere to the principles which they have all

along maintained, are that the commercial and industrial enterprise of

the country is extending—that our population is fully employed—that the

revenue increases in elasticity—that property of every description

maintains its value—and that, through the length and breadth of the

land, there is scarcely a cry of suffering raised which is not at once

drowned by counter acclamations of satisfaction with the existing

condition and prospects of the great masses of the community.

Whilst statesmen, however, are forbearing, and refrain from active

opposition to the conclusions, be they founded on delusion or not, drawn

by the advocates of onward policy in the direction of Free Trade, it is

the legitimate province of the political essayist to investigate

_facts_, which lie below the surface from which ordinary inquirers

derive their arguments, and to take care that such facts are brought

with sufficient prominency before the public. The _suppressio veri_ has

ever been a favourite weapon of casuists; and when we see that a

precisely opposite result is admitted by all parties to have followed

the adoption of a given policy, it is reasonable to conclude that some

suppression of the truth has taken place as to the facts, or that they

do not legitimately lead to the conclusions drawn from them. We see at

the present moment high prices of every commodity prevailing, whereas we

were assured that low prices would bring them within the reach of the

mass of consumers. We have dear labour in every department of industry,

instead of the cheap labour which the capitalist made no secret of

expecting as the result of free imports of foreign food. We have high

freights for our shipping, both inwards and outwards, yet both

Free-Traders and Protectionists prophesied low freights as the result of

the repeal of the Navigation Laws. We have well-employed artisans,

notwithstanding the anticipated displacement of their labour by the

introduction of foreign manufactured articles. Lastly, the British

farmer is not ruined; a good Providence has protected the tiller of the

soil from the annihilation which was predicted for him; and he is

enabled indirectly, by high prices of certain portions of his produce,

to wring an ample reward for his industry from the consuming classes.

The obvious inference to be drawn from such a state of things is that

some circumstance or circumstances, previously unforeseen, have

interfered to derange and falsify the calculations of both the great

opposing parties in the country; and it is most desirable to know what

are those circumstances, and what their past and probable future

operation.

To arrive at the solution of these questions, we may be excused if we

refer to a notice of the industrial and commercial condition of the

country given in this Magazine in June 1851, or a little more than two

years ago. At that period, as admitted by the circulars of our leading

merchants, brokers, and manufacturers, we were in anything rather than a

condition of general prosperity. Importation of foreign produce was

unattended with profit, the export trade to foreign markets was equally

unprofitable, and the home demand, both for produce and manufactures,

was seriously restricted. With respect to the latter, an eminent

Manchester firm, Messrs M‘Nair, Greenhow, and Irvine, reported in their

circular of March 31, 1851—“The market is far from satisfactory.

Complaints to this effect are very frequent, and determined resolutions

_in favour of reducing the production of cloth of certain descriptions

are becoming general on the part of manufacturers, who assign, with

reason, their inability to render their manufactures remunerative.

Vitality is wanted, and the absence of anything approaching to a demand

for the country trade contributes necessarily to aggravate and deepen

the dissatisfaction._” The Shipping Interest was at that time in a most

disastrous condition, freights being reduced in many cases fully 50 per

cent, and far below the remunerative point. Such was the condition of

the country five years after the repeal of the Corn Laws, and two years

after the repeal of the Navigation Laws. With respect to the latter

interest, it is important to bear in mind that the low freights in

1851—particularly for long voyages—were very generally attributed to the

competition of the American shipowner, who, having a valuable passenger

and carrying trade secured to him by the new conquests of his countrymen

in California, could afford to bring return cargoes from India, China,

and the markets of the Pacific, at much lower rates than British

shipowners. The changed fortunes of the latter class afford striking

testimony of the fact that _their_ prosperous position, at all events,

is not attributable to Free-Trade measures, or to legislation of any

kind. A few months after the ruinous period to which we have referred,

the country was electrified by intelligence of the discovery in our

Australian possessions of wealth equal in amount, if not even superior,

to that which was being gathered by the adventurers in California; and

although at first doubts were expressed of the correctness of the

intelligence, a large emigration to those colonies at once set in, which

has continued to increase up to the present time. We ceased to hear of

shipping lying idle in the docks of our leading seaports. We ceased to

hear of our seamen entering into the service of rival countries. Our

building-yards, both at home and in the American colonies, became scenes

of unprecedented activity; and every branch of industry connected

directly or indirectly with shipping, was placed in a prosperous

condition. To enable the reader to form an idea of the amount of tonnage

employed in this new trade, it may be stated that the amount of shipping

which sailed from the port of Liverpool for Australia, since the first

of January 1852, to the end of July 1853, was 175 ships of 138,500 tons

register. These were exclusively passenger-ships. If we add 40 more as

the number taking cargo or cabin passengers alone, which are not

mentioned in the Government officer’s returns, we have in round numbers

215 ships with a tonnage of 170,000 tons, from the port of Liverpool,

engaged in this new trade. The departures from London and other ports,

of which we have not at hand correct returns, but which very materially

exceed those of Liverpool, will swell the amount of tonnage to about

500,000 tons. Of the shipping from Liverpool, 52 vessels—in all, 46,000

tons—have been chartered by Government for the conveyance of Irish and

Scotch emigrants chiefly, sent out by the Emigration Board. There were

loading in Liverpool, on the 8th inst., 48 ships, with an aggregate

tonnage of 33,369 tons. Moreover, from the nature of the trade, and the

peculiar temptations which present themselves to our seamen to desert

when they arrive in the colony, and proceed to the diggings, the wages

paid them have been nearly double the average paid for other voyages.

Here, then, we have the prosperity of one great interest in the country

distinctly accounted for, with which Free Trade has manifestly no

connexion. Australia has saved the British shipowner from ruin; and it

has done more. An increasing population, attracted to the colony from

every quarter of the globe, have become large consumers of British

products, and promise at no distant date to be still larger consumers.

In the first six months of 1851 we exported to Australia 3,003,699 yards

of plain calicoes, and 3,611,751 yards of printed and dyed calicoes. In

the corresponding period of 1852 the exports were 1,453,079 yards of

plain, and 5,683,822 yards of printed and dyed calicoes; and in the six

months just ended they have increased to 6,856,010 yards of plain, and

5,751,431 yards of printed and dyed. This is in addition to the large

quantity of these goods taken as outfits by emigrants, and the stocks

which may have gone from our Indian and other markets. The hardware

trade of Birmingham has been largely benefited by the consumption of

Australia; and, in fact, there is scarcely a branch of industry in this

country which it has not stimulated. Even the farmer owes to it much of

his present position. The absorption of agricultural labour by the

diggings of Australia, from which colony we derive the finest wools used

in the manufacture of broadcloth, has, by raising the price of those

wools, encouraged the substitution of an inferior article. This cause,

and the great increase in the home consumption, a portion of which

increase has been taken by emigrants in the shape of slops, blankets,

&c., has contributed materially to raise the value of our own produce.

The extent of this advance is thus stated by a leading firm in the wool

trade in Liverpool—“The advance in the value of the various kinds of

British sheep’s wool, from August 1851 to August 1853, varies from 30 to

40 per cent. Production has not decreased, but perhaps the contrary,

while consumption is very much increased.” Farm produce of all

kinds—butter, cheese, bacon, &c.—have found in the colony a new market,

which has greatly contributed to produce the high prices existing at

home.

If we turn to the manufacturing interest, we suspect it will be found

that much of its present boasted prosperity is attributable to other

causes than our Free-Trade policy. We have had a considerable increase

in our exports of cotton manufactures during the first six months of the

present year; but when we inquire to what countries this increase has

gone, we find that nearly the whole has gone to four—viz., the United

States, China, Australia, and the coast of Africa. The three last we may

certainly exclude from the countries whose increased dealings with us

are at all distinctly traceable to Free Trade. We have therefore to

examine how far those of America can properly be so considered. The

exports of cotton goods to that country, as given in _Burn’s Monthly

Colonial Circular_ for the first six months of 1851, 1852, and 1853,

were as follows:—

Plain Calicoes. Printed and Dyed.

First six months of 1851, 6,580,713 yds. 21,078,887 yds.

„ „ 1852, 8,928,610 „ 22,144,002 „

„ „ 1853, 26,428,896 „ 49,478,800 „

The shipments to that country are still being made on so extended a

scale that, whilst every sailing vessel which can be secured is promptly

filled up at high rates of freight, the steamers are actually compelled

to shut out goods, although the rates have lately been advanced to £5

per ton for those chiefly of the class called “fine,” which they are in

the habit of carrying. It is calculated that there are at present lying

in Liverpool for shipment by the “Cunard” line of mail boats, more cargo

of this description than can go for three weeks to come; and the

consignees of the American or “Collins” line had recently a lottery in

their office, to decide whose goods were to go by the steamer then

loading. To what cause, then, can we attribute this amazing increase of

our exports to America? It cannot be the operation of Free-Trade

measures in this country which has enabled America to take from us, in

the first six months of 1853, twenty million yards of plain, and nearly

twenty-eight and a half million yards of printed and dyed calicoes, more

than in 1851. We have not extended to _her_, in particular, any material

concessions since the latter year. We have not been greater importers of

her bread-stuffs, or of any other article of her production, with the

exception of cotton. Of this great staple the clearances from all the

ports of the Union to this country, from 1st September 1852 to 5th July

1853, were 1,617,000 bales, against 1,577,160 bales in the corresponding

period of 1851–2, and 1,285,173 bales in that of 1850–51; showing an

excess this year of 39,840 bales over last, and 331,827 bales over 1851.

This may account in part for the increased purchases of America from the

British manufacturer; but, on the same grounds, she must also have

increased her purchases from other countries; for we find that, whilst

her excess of exports to Great Britain was 331,827 bales last year, as

compared with 1851, the excess to “_all_ countries” was 533,386 bales,

showing that other countries had also received increased supplies to the

extent of 201,559 bales: and we are not aware that any of those

countries have been legislating of late in the direction of Free Trade;

The conclusion which it strikes us as most likely to be correct, as to

the cause of our increased exports to America, is that something has

occurred to improve the condition and enlarge the consuming power of

that country. Such, on inquiry, we find to have been the case; for with

the comparatively light import of British fabrics in 1851, what was the

state of the American market for those fabrics? We have it thus stated

by the _New York Courier and Enquirer_ of the 16th of April in that

year, as quoted in the article to which we have before referred—“The

very heavy sales made of domestic light prints have put an end to all

inquiry for the foreign article; and _we do not know a case of English

prints that will bring prime cost, whilst the majority must suffer a

heavy loss_...... Nor is the prospect better for ginghams; _few, if any,

bring cost and charges_.”

It is true that reference was made by the American writer to accidental

causes, which were alleged to have produced this unprofitable state of

business in 1851; but it is tolerably clear that there must have been

besides a want of the power to buy—and it is the fact that there was

such a want—compared with that which exists at present. The American

planters have had, since 1851, two crops of cotton, in succession,

larger than were ever raised before, which have been sold, especially

the last, at higher prices than those which prevailed in 1851—a year of

short crop, as will be seen from the following table, made up to the

30th ult.:—

Mobile Fair. Orleans Fair. Crop to July 5.

1853, 6¾d. to 6¾d. 6⅝d. to 7d. 3,172,000 bales.

1852, 5⅝d. to 5⅝d. 6⅜d. to 6⅜d. 2,963,324 „

1851, 5¼d. to 5⅜d. 5¾d. to 5¾d. 2,273,106 „

The American farmer also has had this year considerably enhanced prices

of grain of all kinds—cheese, butter, pork, beef, and other produce—for

which large markets have been opened in California and Australia.

Emigration has greatly swelled the number of the population, and thus

increased domestic consumption. Employment throughout the Union is

ample, every fresh body of labourers, as soon as they are landed, being

sought out and engaged at good wages for the various railways, canals,

and other public works, which are constructing in almost every state.

California, with its vast mineral wealth, is exercising an almost

inconceivable influence throughout the entire continent, enlarging and

rendering more secure its monetary resources, stimulating domestic

enterprise, and furnishing that which a new country most urgently

requires—the means of extending its foreign commerce. It is not the

Free-Trade policy of Great Britain _per se_, if indeed at all, which has

rendered the United States better customers of Great Britain, but mainly

the increased and unparalleled prosperity of the American people—a

prosperity which, it should ever be borne in mind by the statesman, is

coexistent with a strictly protected domestic industry.

In addition to the effect produced upon the industrial portion of the

community in our own country by the increased demand for British

productions to supply the wants of America and Australia, we must not

omit to notice some other important circumstances which have been in

operation during the past three or four years. We have recently been

sending away to our North American Colonies, to the United States, and,

for two years past, to Australia, large numbers of our population, and

particularly of that portion of them whose position at home may be

termed one of struggling for the means of living. Large tracts of land

in Ireland, once thronged with this class, are at present almost

literally unpeopled; and from England and Scotland many thousands of

able-bodied labourers, skilled artisans, and small farmers, have swelled

the tide of emigration. It may be said, with truth, that this is not a

sign of prosperity at home. These classes confessedly left their native

soil because it no longer afforded remunerative employment for their

industry. Yet, indirectly, an increased prosperity has been the result

of their departure, especially in our large towns and in the

manufacturing districts. We feel no longer the pressure upon the labour

market of continual immigration from Ireland to this country of a

semi-pauper class, ready to accept employment at the very lowest rate of

wages upon which life can be supported by the coarsest description of

food. The visits of Irish agricultural labourers are now decreasing year

by year; and although many still come to settle amongst us, and to

partake with our own working classes of the advantages of continuous

employment, they are no longer satisfied with that low scale of

remuneration for which they were formerly content to labour.

The comparative dearness of what used to be their staple article of

food—the potato—has driven them, during the past few years, to the

adoption of a higher scale of living. They have imbibed, even in their

own workhouses, the taste for aliments similar to those upon which the

English labourer is fed. In proof of this change, which has been taking

place in Ireland during the past few years, we may point to the fact of

that country having ceased almost entirely to supply the British markets

with cereal productions, and to its diminished exports of other

descriptions of farm produce; for it is not true that this has been

altogether caused by diminished production. The result is felt upon

their arrival in this country, by the Irish emigrants speedily falling

into the scale of living, and demanding the same wages, as our own

labouring classes. To the causes referred to is, in a great measure, to

be attributed the improved condition of those classes generally in every

department of industry. Labour is no longer in excess of the demand for

it, and commands a higher rate of remuneration. An additional portion of

the working masses, too, have become consumers of both foreign and

domestic produce and manufactures, and hence some of those marks of

prosperity which political economists see in increased imports and

customs, and excise receipts, and attribute exclusively to the operation

of Free Trade. We have got rid of the surplus portion of our labouring

masses; and, as the result, those who remain to us are better employed

at better wages.

The operation of this change, so far as regards the revenue, the

importing merchant, and the manufacturer, is much greater than is

generally supposed. Below a certain scale of wages the working classes

contribute almost nothing to the revenue, or to the profits of the

importer, and comparatively little to those of the manufacturer; and the

bulk of the population of Ireland had ever been hitherto below that

scale, where they were in receipt of wages at all. Any addition to such

wages, half of which at least is expended upon customable or exciseable

commodities, tells immediately upon revenue and upon the profits of

imports; whilst the remainder is probably expended upon the consumption

of home productions, and thus further stimulates the prosperity of the

producing classes. The comforts of life are sought for, instead of the

mere necessaries being endured; and, virtually, an improvement in the

condition of the labourer becomes a real increase in the numbers of the

population. The United States are experiencing this fact in the immense

consumption of every description of produce and manufactures by her

prosperous gold miners in California; and Great Britain is experiencing

it also in the consumption of the settlers in the gold regions of

Australia. Our merchants had paused in their shipments to that colony.

They feared that they might have glutted its markets. In doing this they

had simply overlooked the fact, that a highly prosperous community

consumes ten times the quantity of commodities of all kinds, which

suffices for the wants of the same number of individuals prohibited by

their position from indulging the tastes and desires natural to them. A

few hundred thousand of diggers in Australia, with Anglo-Saxon habits,

gathering each their ounce of gold per day, are equal to as many

millions of rice-eating Hindoos in India, or opium smokers in the

Celestial Empire.

Since these remarks were written, they have received a very striking

confirmation from the circular of Messrs W. Murray, Ross, and Co.,

commission merchants of Melbourne, dated 20th May. After referring to

the high prices existing in Melbourne, and the rapidity with which the

supplies of goods which had arrived up to that date had been taken off,

the writer proceeds, with respect to the apprehended glut to be created

by the large shipments known to be on the way—“Great though the quantity

of goods to come forward may be, it is yet equally evident that

consumption will keep pace with, if it do not exceed, the import. The

fact, moreover, must not be omitted out of the calculations of operators

at foreign ports, that the exorbitant rates current in Melbourne have

attracted such large importations from all the other Australian

colonies, that the markets of every one of them are more bare of

commodities than our own. The consequence will be, that as Melbourne and

Sydney will be the principal recipient ports for foreign merchandise,

large transhipments must be made to fill up the vacuum which our

extraordinary demand has created. _The European population of the

Australias is estimated at 600,000, the consuming power of whom is equal

to at least three times as many in England. Therefore, the wants of a

population, equivalent to 1,500,000 at home, have to be provided for._

The immense addition which will also be made to these numbers by the

rapid immigration which is, and will continue flowing from the mother

country and elsewhere, must also be taken into account. The average

immigration has latterly been about 3000 souls per week. No diminution

is expected; on the contrary, an increase is expected. Some idea of the

probable increase of the population during this year may be formed from

knowing the increase which took place during the last year in Victoria

alone, namely, 100,000. _As respects our power of consumption, nothing

need be feared by the foreign shippers; all the goods that come forward

will be wanted._” When it is borne in mind that the bulk of the

population, described to be thus rapidly increasing, have Anglo-Saxon

tastes, and consume principally British articles of the best

description, we need scarcely be surprised if present prices at home,

especially of agricultural produce, are not only maintained, but very

materially enhanced. We find, from the same circular, that Australia is

diverting from this country a large portion of our usual supplies of

flour, cheese, &c., which we should otherwise have received from the

United States, thus accounting for the advance in prices in the British

market already experienced. All other commodities, whether of British,

colonial, or purely foreign production, are bringing enormous rates in

that country. English products, however, such as butter, cheese, hams,

bacon, &c., are those most materially increased in value; and large

quantities must go out to meet the demand, thus trenching still more

upon the amount of the necessaries and comforts of life which are at

present within the reach of our consuming classes.

That, under all these circumstances combined, we have a high range of

prices of produce existing, is scarcely to be wondered at; but, whilst

we must decline to admit that such high prices are attributable to our

adoption of a Free-Trade policy, we are rather doubtful of the fact that

they are altogether the result of the undeniably-increased consumption

of our population. Other causes are operating, which account, in part,

for such high prices, irrespective of those which are urged by the

advocates of that policy, and of those who attribute them to the

prosperous condition of the country. We have had, during the present

year and a portion of the last, decreased imports of some of the leading

articles of foreign produce. Thus we have received in the ports of

London, Liverpool, Bristol, and the Clyde, during the first seven months

of 1853, only 100,080 hhds. and 13,065 tierces of West India sugar

against an import of 122,300 hhds. and 15,685 tierces during the

corresponding months of 1852. We have received of Bengal and Madras

sugar 401,970 bags, &c. against 526,345 last year. From the Mauritius

our receipts have been 777,900 against 708,730 mats, &c.; and from Java,

and our other East Indian possessions 62,360 bags, &c. against 88,915

last year. Decreased stocks and advanced prices naturally follow such a

state of things. On the other hand, we have both increased imports and

stocks of Havana, Brazil, and other foreign sugar—which, however, being

chiefly used for refining purposes and for export, is not so correct an

index of the consuming power of our home population. We have a slightly

increased import of colonial molasses, and a considerable decrease of

stocks. Our imports of colonial rum have been 19,330 puncheons only

against 23,450 puncheons last year, whilst the stocks are only 15,530

against 25,695 last year. The causes of this decline in the

productiveness of our West Indian possessions, as well as in our imports

from the East Indies, need scarcely be glanced at; and, as a just

retribution, we find that the exports of cotton manufactures to the most

important of the former—Jamaica—have fallen off from 2,413,611 yards of

plain cottons, and 2,036,598 yards of printed and dyed, in the first six

months of 1851, to 874,382 yards of plain, and 888,565 yards of printed

and dyed in the corresponding period of 1853. Of another important

article—tea—our imports during the first seven months of the present

year have been less than in the corresponding months of last year, viz.

30,086,000 lb. in 1853 against 32,867,000 in 1852; and prices have been

enhanced in part by the civil war going on in China, and by the effect

of the reduction made in the duty by Mr Gladstone’s Budget. Dried fruit,

which was cheapened by the Tariff of 1841–2, has advanced enormously in

price; but the principal cause of such increase has been a blight, which

has occurred during the past two years. The supply of many articles of

home produce, too,—such as butchers’ meat, butter, bacon, &c.—has been

limited by the wet season at the beginning of this year, which was

unfavourable to every description of agricultural produce. All these are

distinctly exceptional causes of apparent prosperity, as shown by high

prices of commodities, and have nothing whatever to do with the question

of Free Trade v. Protection.

It is not our intention here to enter into an inquiry as to the effect

which the increased production of gold in California and Australia has

produced, in inflating prices by enlarging the basis of our monetary

circulation. Political economists of our modern school persist in

treating the question of the currency as a bugbear; and in maintaining

that the price of gold, irrespective of its increased supply, must

remain, unlike that of all other commodities, _fixed_. It is useless to

direct their attention to the effect upon prices which an enlarged

currency, sustained by the golden treasures of California, has produced

throughout the length and breadth of the American continent. It is

useless to attempt to show them, although such is the fact, that the

increased banking facilities gained by that country during the past two

or three years have enabled her growers of grain, of cotton, and other

produce, to maintain prices above what European and other countries

could afford to pay, and to liquidate an almost continually adverse

balance of trade. This much, however, the most strenuous advocate of the

bullionist theory will perhaps admit: The mercantile community of this

country, notwithstanding their imports have in the aggregate very

largely exceeded their exports—thus inducing of necessity large exports

of specie—have not during the present year, as we might have expected,

been incapacitated by the position of the bank from holding their stock

of produce. Money for commercial, and even for speculative purposes, has

been abundantly afforded; and even in the face of a somewhat high rate

of interest, advances on mortgage and for permanent investment have been

readily procurable at reasonable rates. But for this circumstance, we

could certainly not have sustained prices of imported produce; and our

merchants, having been compelled to submit to the inflated ones of

foreign countries, must have been utterly prostrated. The same reasoning

applies to the internal industry of the country. Had money not been

cheap, and easily procurable on _bona fide_ security and for investment,

the vast amount of enterprise which has recently been manifested in the

erection of new buildings, and new works of every description, in the

drainage of our soil, in the beautifying of our large towns, and the

health-producing improvement of their sanitary regulations, must have

been checked, until, by a restriction of our imports, and something

approaching to a general commercial bankruptcy, we had wrung back the

limited amount of truant specie, upon which our currency is based, from

the hands of the foreigner. We are not at all certain, however, for what

period this pleasant state of things may last. For many weeks

successively we have seen the stock of bullion in the Bank of England

decreasing, notwithstanding the large arrivals from Australia and other

quarters; and although this may in part be accounted for by the

increased amount required to conduct the enlarged internal trade of the

country, there can be no denial of the fact, that we are experiencing a

serious external drain, required to meet our increased imports. For

three or four months past the fear of a considerably tightened money

market, as the result of such drain, has very greatly tended to repress

speculation, which would otherwise have run into excess; and at the

present moment anticipations of an advance in the rate of interest by

the Bank of England and the large discounting houses are beginning to be

seriously entertained.

We have, then, the following facts established with tolerable

clearness—viz., first, that nearly all the most important commercial

interests of the country have been placed during the past two years in a

condition of great prosperity; and, in the second place, that our

industrious classes are now fully employed, at good wages. But it cannot

be admitted that the cause of such a beneficial change is altogether, or

even mainly, the Free-Trade policy which we have recently adopted.

Notwithstanding this fact, we are perfectly ready to admit that we

cannot at present disturb that policy, or retrace our steps. A large

majority of the public believe that the change in question has been

produced by Free Trade. They cannot perceive the exceptional causes

which have been in existence, or these are sedulously kept from their

eyes. A large portion of our working masses, during the temporary

cheapness which followed the first adoption of the system, which

cheapness was increased by the commercial sacrifices caused by monetary

paralysis in 1847, 1848, and 1849, became acquainted with luxuries to

which they had ever previously been strangers. A population, whose

staple food had been oatmeal in its various forms of preparation, became

acquainted with wheaten bread, with tea, coffee, &c., and were enabled

to resort more frequently to butchers’ meat. They found themselves

enabled to be better housed and better clothed, as well as better fed.

The change in this respect, which took place throughout the

manufacturing districts especially, was most striking, and was dwelt

upon as affording ample proof of the successful results of Free Trade

policy, so far as regarded these classes, at a period when it was

manifest that they were consuming every description of foreign and

domestic commodities at prices which were ruinous alike to the importer

and the home producer. It was only reasonable to expect that those

classes, thus substantially benefited, would resolutely refuse to listen

then to any proposal for the reversal of measures to which they were

taught to attribute the increased comforts they were enjoying; and the

same indisposition to do so continues to prevail now, with prices of all

the necessaries of life materially enhanced. Any return to protection,

however modified, is regarded by them as, so far, a return to their old

diet, and to the discomforts of their previous condition. For any party

to insist upon such a retrograde policy, would be to throw them once

more into the hands of the political demagogues, from which they have,

during the past few years, happily emancipated themselves. Without any

legislative interference with Free Trade, however, the position of these

masses is just now becoming materially changed for the worse; and

notwithstanding the fact, which we have admitted, that employment is

more abundant than at any former period, it is very questionable whether

we are not threatened with serious difficulties and social

disorganisation, arising from the efforts of the labouring classes to

maintain themselves in that position which they have been taught was

their right, and was the natural result of Free Trade. For some months

past the temper of these classes has been in a state of almost universal

ferment. With continuous employment superseding the intermittent

employment of a large portion of them, demands have been made for

increased wages, and have in most cases been conceded. We have had

strikes of our dock labourers and porters for rates which were never

heard of previously, even when three or four days’ work in a week was

considered as affording a fair amount of the means of living. The same

classes, on our railways and other public works, have given evidence of

dissatisfaction with their position by similar proceedings.

Handicraftsmen of every description have joined in the movement; and

even the police of our large towns have shown a disposition to seek

other avocations than those of wielding a truncheon for from 18s. to

21s. per week, with a livery. Throughout the manufacturing districts

there has been, during the past three months, a large suspension of

labour, the hands in one branch after another seeking advances of from 5

to 10 per cent, and in some instances attempting to impose conditions

upon their employers. Turn-outs, of short duration, resulting in

concessions to their demands, have served to show the operatives that

they are now the most powerful body, and to lay the foundation of

further aggressive efforts. Next only in importance to the increase thus

caused in the cost of manual labour, the manufacturer has had to submit

to a large increase in the cost of his fuel, to the extent, in some

districts, of 15 to 20 per cent—the miners in most of the small-seam

collieries, and in several of the deep pits, having successfully stood

out for higher rates of remuneration. The iron-miners, especially in

Wales, have followed the example of their brother operatives in other

branches of industry; and in one district in South Wales it is expected

that upwards of 20,000 of the working population will shortly be

deprived of the means of living by the blowing out of furnaces by the

masters, in the endeavour to resist the demands of their men.

There are two or three rather important questions which offer themselves

for solution connected with these aggressive movements of the working

classes. Are they the result of a confidence, on their parts, of power

to coerce their employers? Is capital being compelled to relax its gripe

upon industry? Or are these movements merely the defensive ones of men

who feel that the comforts, which they have been recently enjoying

through a factitious cheapness, are being withdrawn by high prices of

the various articles of consumption? We believe that we must attribute

them to all these causes combined. To this important part of our subject

we entreat the earnest attention of our readers.

It is natural to conclude that the working classes must feel somewhat

confident of the fact that, to a great extent, the pressure upon the

labour market, caused by immigration of fresh hands into the large

manufacturing and other towns, has been withdrawn. The surplus

population of the agriculturists have either sought, or are seeking, new

spheres for the exercise of their industry in other lands, which offer

to them a surer prospect of permanent prosperity; but there is this

striking difference between the present movement of our operatives and

those of former years, that the opportunity for it has not been seized

upon in a pressing emergency of the masters—that it is not confined to a

particular class, or a particular district. It is, in fact, universal,

and apparently unprompted. No demagoguism has been required to bring it

about; and, with a few rare exceptions, we have observed characterising

every conflict for higher wages the best possible feeling between the

employers and the employed. So long as the latter remained in the

enjoyment of cheap food, they were quiescent; and in the majority of the

strikes which have recently occurred, the plea most prominently put

forward has been the advanced price of all the necessaries of life. In

some few cases only has a scarcity of labourers appeared to warrant a

demand for advanced wages; and it is a remarkable fact that these have

resulted from causes distinctly unconnected with Free-Trade policy. The

carpenters in our shipbuilding yards, and other branches of industry

connected with the shipping interest, have been enabled, by the

increased demand for ships for the Australian trade, to command higher

rates of remuneration, irrespective of the advance in the prices of

food. The men employed in building trades generally—masons,

house-joiners, bricklayers, &c.—have been placed in a similar position

by the internal improvements, and the increase of public and private

works, which a more plentiful currency has stimulated throughout the

country. But the main inducing cause of the aggressive attitude of the

industrious classes, as a body, has been the fact that employment, at

the wages paid from 1845 up to within the past few months, was

insufficient to enable them to keep up to the standard of living which

the cheapness prevailing in the greater portion of those years had given

them a taste for. The following comparison of the present prices of a

few of the leading articles, which form the consumption of the working

classes, with those existing in the corresponding period of 1851, will

enable the reader to draw a tolerably accurate conclusion with respect

to their condition in the respective years. We take the prices from the

authorised Liverpool data, as this port may be said to regulate those of

the manufacturing districts:—

│ 1st August 1851. │ 1st August 1853.

│_s._ _d._ _s._ _d._│_s._ _d._ _s._ _d._

Good beef, per lb. │ 0 4½ to 0 5│ 0 5¾ to 0 6¼

(carcase), │ │

Good mutton, per lb. │ 0 5½ to 0 6│ 0 6¼ to 0 6¾

(carcase), │ │

Good American flour, │ 20 0 to 21 0│ 28 0 to 29 0

per barrel, │ │

Wheat, imp. average, │ 40 0│ 52 7

per qr., │ │

Butter (best brands),│ 74 0│ 93 0 to 95 0

per cwt., │ │

Butter low qualities,│ 65 0 to 66 0│ 84 0 to 86 0

Butter American, duty│ 32 0 to 40 0│ 80 0 to 87 0

paid, │ │

Bacon, best Irish, │ 44 0│ 60 0 to 63 0

per cwt., │ │

Bacon, American, per │ 38 0 to 44 0│ 46 0 to 52 0

cwt., │ │

Pork, American, per │ 55 0 to 63 0│ 72 0 to 85 0

200 lb., │ │

Cheese, American, │ 34 0 to 39 0│ 40 0 to 48 0

middling, 200lb., │ │

Cheese, Cheshire, │ 50 0│ 65 0

middling, 200lb., │ │

Sugar, good dry brown│ 36 0 to 37 0│ 36 0 to 37 0

colonial,[11] │ │

Tea, good congou, in │ 0 11│ 1 0½ to 1 1

bond, per lb., │ │

Tallow, per cwt., │ 37 9 to 38 0│ 52 0

Coffee, fine ord. to │ 44 0 to 58 0│ 45 0 to 84 0

good mid., per │ │

cwt., │ │

Oatmeal, Irish, per │ 25 0 to 26 0│ 23 6 to 24 6

sack, │ │

There has obviously been upon the bulk of these articles an advance of

from 25 to 30 per cent; and this advance has been most signal upon the

articles which the working man’s family chiefly consumes—bread,

butchers’ meat, cheese, bacon and pork, butter, &c. With respect to tea,

which has recently formed an important item in their expenditure, we

have had within the past few weeks a reduction of the duty. This,

however, has been nearly met by the increase in price which it now

commands in bond. We had in July last a reduction of 1s. per cwt. in the

duty upon sugar, and since 1851 the total reduction is 2s. This also has

been more than met by increased price, in the average, at least, of the

period between 1851 to 1853, for we find that the price of “good dry

brown” was, in 1852, only 35s. 6d. per cwt. The reduction of duty on

soap is neutralised by the high price of the materials. In order to

ascertain, or at all events to approximate to, an idea of the extent to

which the working classes have been affected by the changes of the past

two years, we shall take the instance of an average family, composed say

of a man and wife and three children, earning the advanced wages of 24s.

a-week. Such a family would consume at present, according to the scale

of living enjoyed by them two years ago, when commodities were cheap, as

follows:—

Bread, produce of 21 lb. flour, 3s. 0d.

Tea, 2 oz., 0s. 6d.

Coffee, 4 oz., 0s. 4d.

Sugar, 2 lb., 0s. 9d.

Butter, 1½ lb., 1s. 3d.

Candles, 1 lb., 0s. 7d.

Coals, 1½ cwt., 0s. 10½d.

Soap, 1½ lb., 0s. 7½d.

Butchers’ meat, 5 lb., 2s. 11d.

Bacon, 1 lb., 0s. 8d.

Cheese, 1 lb., 0s. 8d.

Currants, &c., 1 lb., 0s. 8d.

Potatoes, 20 lb. (average price of 1853), 1s. 3d.

Sundries, 0s. 2d.

Rent, water, &c., 3s. 6d.

———— —————

17s. 9d.

We have thus an expenditure of 17s. 9d. a-week for food and rent out of

an income of 24s., leaving only a balance of 6s. 3d. for clothing, malt

and other liquors, medical attendance and casualties. Such a scale of

living may appear a high one to some parties, who have been in the habit

of gauging the human appetite for the purpose of getting up statistics

for union workhouses, model prisons, or model conditions of society. It

will be found, nevertheless, to be pretty nearly that into the enjoyment

of which our able-bodied working classes, pursuing moderately healthful

though laborious avocations, rushed with eagerness during the period of

cheapness resulting from the early operation of Free Trade. The cost of

such a scale in 1851, calculated according to the prices of that period,

would be about as follows:—

Bread, produce of 21 lb. flour, 2s. 0d.

Sugar, 2 1b., 0s. 8d.

Butter, 1½ lb., 1s. 0d.

Candles, 1 lb., 0s. 5½d.

Coals, 1½ cwt., 0s. 9d.

Butchers’ meat, 5 lb., 2s. 3½d.

Bacon, 1 lb., 0s. 6d.

Cheese, 1 lb., 0s. 5½d.

Currants, Mr 1 lb., 0s. 4½d.

Potatoes, 1s. 0d.

Articles in which no material reduction has taken place, 5s. 1½d.

including rent,

———— ————

Total week’s consumption, 14s. 7½d.

Thus the working man’s family in 1851 were enjoying the same scale of

living for 3s. 1½d. less than it now costs them; and would have had 9s.

4½d. left for clothing, &c., out of 24s. per week, if the same range of

prices which were then existing had continued. Their present wages,

however, have only been gained by them during the last few months. The

utmost advance realised by any class of workmen has been 6d. per day;

and such a family as we have instanced were called upon, by the

increased prices to which their food has risen since 1851, to adopt one

of these alternatives: Their wages of a guinea a-week, with 17s. 9d. of

expenditure for food and lodging, leaving them only the insufficient

margin of 3s. 3d. for clothing, medical attendance, malt liquor, &c.,

they must either have gone back to their old scale of living, or

insisted upon an advance of wages. The allowance of wheaten bread must

have been curtailed and oatmeal substituted; a less comfortable dwelling

must have been submitted to; their consumption of butchers’ meat must

have been stinted; and they must have resigned altogether the whole, or

a portion at least, of the luxuries contained in their dietary—tea,

sugar, currants, &c., to the serious loss of the revenue. They

preferred, and happily for them they have been able to obtain, the

latter alternative, an increased remuneration for their labour. It is

clear, however, that large as this increase has been, it has not placed

the working man’s family in any better position than they occupied in

1851. They have at present 3s. per week more to live upon; but their

living costs them 3s. 2d. more.

This, however, it will be said, is only the position of a family

provided with constant work both in 1851 and at present. We readily

admit that there is a class below this who are very materially better

off now than they were in the former year. The condition of the working

man who has now four or five days per week of employment, where he had

formerly only three days, is materially improved, notwithstanding the

recent advance in prices of commodities. But this is precisely the class

which has been most materially benefited by the emigration of their

competitors in the labour market, and by the activity which has been

imparted to the internal enterprise of the country by our discoveries in

Australia, and the enlargement of the currency resulting from them.

It must be tolerably clear to most men that no portion of our working

classes will readily submit to a reduced scale of living, either as the

result, or the fancied result, of legislation, or from known ordinary

causes. There is a further source of social danger in the circumstance

that, having been taught that legislation had realised whatever benefits

have accrued to them since the adoption of Free-Trade policy, they will

be inclined to look to further legislation in the same direction for a

remedy, whenever, through an advance in the price of the necessaries and

comforts of life, or circumstances at present unforeseen, anything may

occur to injure their position. They have tasted of those comforts; and

they will insist upon enjoying them whatever other interests or

institutions may have to be prostrated in order to bring about that

result. Indeed, the Ministry of Lord Aberdeen, as shown by their policy

during the whole of the past session, have impressed upon the minds of

the working classes the fact that nothing will be permitted to stand in

the way of further progress of the policy upon which the country has

entered, or of cheapness for the consuming classes. With a view to

relieve those classes, we have just witnessed an impost, which may be

almost called one of spoliation, authorised to be levied upon the owners

of our soil; and, ludicrous though its failure has been, the operation

of the Chancellor of the Exchequer upon the interest of the National

Debt may be only a prelude to what the fundholder may expect from a more

unprincipled minister. We are not at all assured that even the national

honour will be permitted, without a struggle, to stand in the way of

cheapness of the necessaries of life. Happily society is at present

undisturbed by the efforts of the political demagogue. Our Brights and

Cobdens, and their “peace progress” associates, are at present too small

a minority to dare embarking in an attempt to persuade the

highest-souled nation on earth to embrace degradation. But signs and

portents have not been wanting during the past two months, whilst we

have been upon the verge of a collision with Russia, which, combined

with the temporising course of her Majesty’s Ministers, ought to be

seriously weighed by every patriotic man. The world at large, reading

the tenor of our trade circulars, and looking at the same time at our

tedious protocolling and negotiations with an aggressive power, may well

draw the conclusion that England is more anxious for uninterrupted

supplies of grain from the Black Sea than for the maintenance of her

prestige as the leading power in Europe; and reflecting men may

seriously ask the question—how long, in the present temper of the

consuming masses, would a state of warfare be tolerated with patience?

Unprincipled persons there are sufficient amongst us, who, although at

present their bad passions are without a profitable sphere for their

exercise, would willingly emerge from obscurity to undertake the task of

inflaming the minds of our working masses, and who might probably do so

successfully if they could point to dear food as the result of a manly

and consistent foreign policy.

Whatever may be the future price of food—and we are satisfied that it

must maintain its present, if not a higher value, as measured in

gold—there is another reason why we may look for a prematurely

advanced rate of wages in this country. The great American continent

is now bridged over, as it were, by a constant succession of

passenger-ships—“clippers,” whose voyages rarely average above

eighteen to twenty days, and of which eight or ten sail every week

from the port of Liverpool, in addition to those which go from other

ports of the United Kingdom. The postal arrangements between the two

countries are as regular as those between London and Edinburgh. A

month’s time suffices to exchange communications between this country

and the Far West of the United States; and £5 or £6 will suffice to

convey the British labourer or artisan to the prairies of the

Mississippi, the Ohio, or the Western States of our North American

colonies. Moreover, it is no longer to a new land, or amongst

strangers, that the Celt and the Saxon now go to push their fortunes,

and find new scope for their industry and enterprise. A hearty welcome

awaits them in these countries from friends and relatives who have

preceded them; and, in a majority of cases, it is the success of these

pioneers which furnishes their connexions at home with the means of

emigrating. Whilst high wages and prosperity prevail in new countries

situated as the United States and Canada are, and must continue for

years to be with respect to the old countries of Europe, it is sheer

folly to imagine that low wages in those old countries can ever be

secured. The cost of a passage across the Atlantic for an adult

operative is insignificant, compared with that of a strike of even a

few weeks’ duration; and the dangers and hardships of the voyage are

regarded now, as compared with those contemplated by the emigrant a

few years ago, very much like those attending modern railway

travelling as compared with that by “the heavy stage,” which our

great-grandfathers patronised, when the journey from Edinburgh to

London was advertised to be performed in a fortnight—“God willing.” To

a far greater extent than our statesmen imagined we are committed to

the fortunes, and bound by the rate of labour, enjoyed by the working

classes of the American Republic. If Free Trade, as was boasted, has

placed Manchester alongside the valleys of the Mississippi, the

increased facilities now afforded for emigration have also placed our

operatives in closer proximity to their highly-paid American brethren.

Those classes in Great Britain will never again succumb to the

dictation of the capitalist, whilst there is afforded to them a way to

the prosperity enjoyed by their fellow-labourers in the United States

and Canada. And here a serious question arises for the consideration

of those politico-economical schemers who have built up their

expectations of manufacturing prosperity and enlarged foreign trade

upon the basis of cheap production in this country. Great Britain

cannot spin and weave for the world whilst her labouring population

have the wages of new countries thus easily open, as we have seen, to

their acceptance. We may command for a time the trade with our own

colonies. The abundant capital of our merchants may maintain our

commercial predominance for a time. But colonies situated as Australia

and Canada are—the resort of the enterprise of every nation—will seek

to be independent. Capital, the Free-Traders reminded us, owns no

allegiance, and may command the cheap labour of countries differently

situated to our own. It is worth the while of our manufacturing

interest, whose selfishness has been manifested in our Free-Trade

policy, to ponder upon the probable future operation of those signal

events, which Providence seems to have thrown in the way of the

realisation of their ambitious designs.

But the middle classes—the men who exercise the franchise—surely these,

it will be urged, are, and have been for some time past, in a condition

of unqualified prosperity. The retailers in our large towns and

boroughs, as distributors of commodities between the merchant, or the

producer, and the consumer, must have been benefited materially by the

enlarged consumption of the country. The assumption is a natural one,

and yet it may be only partially true. The business of the retailer is

one of which we possess no statistics. We have no means of gauging the

results of his dealings. A larger amount of money may be passing through

his hands now than formerly. Enhanced prices of every article in which

he deals, independently of increased consumption of those articles, will

account for his receipts being larger. But the great question to be

solved is—are his profits increasing in the same ratio? It would be a

healthy sign if we could find that the increased consumption of the

country had operated to put an end to that ruinous competition which has

for years past been going on amongst these classes;—a sign that the

consumers, being in possession of increased means to buy, were willing

to afford to those from whom they buy a fair remuneration for their

industry and their capital. It would be most gratifying to find that

puffery and clap-trap were declining amongst our shopkeepers; that

frauds were less rife than formerly; that adulteration was no longer

practised, and just weight and measure were universally meted out. We

observe, however, none of these healthy signs of a profitable trade. On

the contrary, we have evidence around us on every side, that the

retailer has for some months past been placed, as it were, in a vice

between two opposing conditions of the community, by whose custom he has

to live. He has to fight against rising markets and dear labour on the

one hand, and the determination of the consumer to insist upon cheapness

on the other. For every purchase which he makes, he has to pay higher

prices; and he can only extort these from the community after a severe

struggle. He is, in fact, in the position of the traveller, who has no

sooner surmounted one hill than he sees another on the path before him.

It is notorious that this is always the case in rising markets. Every

advance in the price of raw materials or other commodities is followed

by a period of business without profits. Traders are withheld, by mutual

jealousy and the fear of competition, from the necessary efforts for

self-protection. Doubts intervene as to the permanency of such advanced

prices. And when at length the step is resolved upon of demanding a

corresponding advance from the consumer, it is frequently found that a

further upward movement has taken place in the wholesale markets, which

once more compels the retailer to resign the gain which he ought to

derive from his industry. This has been the position of these classes

during the whole of the past twelve months; and it is one in which

capital is rapidly exhausted, especially in the case of men whose

dealings are from hand to mouth, and whose means are limited. The

tradesman of large means and extensive credit may buy a stock in advance

of his consumption; and thus for a time protect himself from the loss

which rising wholesale markets, unattended with higher retail prices,

would occasion; but the small capitalist has no such resource. He is

continually reversing the principle extolled by the Free-Trader, by

buying in the dearest market and selling in the cheapest.

The severity of this operation of rising markets has been very greatly

increased on the present occasion by the prevailing temper and opinions

of the consuming classes, especially throughout the manufacturing

districts. They have been taught that free imports were to bring about a

permanently low range of the prices of all commodities; and they are

disposed to regard and to resist high prices, as the result of

speculation on the part of the capitalist, or undue extortion on the

part of the retailer. When being charged 8d. for a pound of beef or

bacon, which a year ago was only worth 6d., or 10d. for a pound of

butter, which a year ago was sold at only 7d., they have regarded the

extra charge as something approaching to a fraud. It is of no use

reminding those persons that they are themselves demanding from the

community a higher price for their labour; and that dear labour involves

dearness of every product of labour. They are deaf to such appeals to

their reason, and resolutely ignore every fact which tends to account

for the high prices of which they complain. The prosperity which they

contemplated, and believed that they had secured by free imports, was

one which the consumer could monopolise. Each class seems to have

imagined that the remainder were to be prostrated for their own

particular benefit.

It is perfectly natural that, during such a struggle between the

distributors and the consumers of commodities, and whilst competition

was unabated amongst the former, no effort would be left untried by them

to secure business and profit. The great object to be achieved was to

induce a belief on the part of the consumer that he was not paying

advanced prices, and was still in the enjoyment of the idol “cheapness.”

This could only be done by the aid of adulteration, and deception of

every kind; and never were these dishonest practices of traders more

rife, throughout the manufacturing districts especially, than they have

been of late. The price of flour began to rise towards the close of last

year. From an average of about 21s. for the best quality of American, it

has gradually risen to 28s. Was the price of bread advanced, in

proportion, to the consumer? It was not—at least apparently. A less

profit was submitted to by the baker and retailer; and wherever it was

possible, just weight was withheld. For example, the small loaves,

nominally of two pounds weight, with which the small shopkeepers are

supplied for retailing amongst that portion of the working classes in

the manufacturing districts whose payments are usually weekly ones, were

not very perceptibly advanced in price, but decreased in weight. Twenty

pounds of bread contained in such loaves were manufactured into twelve

or thirteen, nominally of two pounds each, instead of ten. The price to

the consumer of each loaf remained the same. Although tallow has risen

in price at least thirty per cent, the price of the candles principally

consumed by the working classes remained mysteriously almost the same.

We have had this accounted for by the fact that dishonest manufacturers

have been supplying equally dishonest tradesmen with the article in

quantities, purporting to be pounds in weight, but, in reality, two or

three ounces less. Thus, candles sold as twelve, fourteen, or sixteen to

the pound, contain still _the number_ represented; but, as the buyer

never asks to have them weighed, as he does beef or mutton, they are

short of the proper _weight_. This practice has lately been shown to

prevail throughout a great portion of the manufacturing districts,

especially of the north of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

The adulteration of coffee with chicory, it is well known, has prevailed

so long, and the tastes of the consuming classes have become so

accustomed to the mixed article, that the Legislature has had to submit

to its permanent practice. Cheatery of every description, in short, has

been resorted to by the dishonest trader, to disguise from the consumer

the fact of dearness, and to wring a profit from the low range of prices

which alone the public are disposed to tolerate; whilst the honest

trader, who is not willing to descend to such arts, has been carrying on

a continually losing business, and contemplating in despair the gradual

absorption of his capital.

Unfortunately there are not in existence the requisite data to enable us

to arrive at the precise position of these classes as compared with that

which they formerly occupied. The humbler portions of them—the small

retailers in our large towns and manufacturing districts—were never in

the habit of attaining a place in that truth-telling and widely-read

record, the _London Gazette_. They embark in their petty course of

ambition, trusting to the enterprise which they feel stirring within

them for a successful result; and when the reverse comes, and

disappointment is their lot, they retire from the struggle, disappear

amongst the classes from which they rose, and are forgotten. The other

sources of information, with respect to the condition of these classes,

have been so altered recently, since the extension of increased powers

to the County Courts, that the means of an accurate comparison of any

two periods are wanting. Moreover, the resort to legal proceedings, in

cases of insolvency, is less now than in former years. Compositions and

amicable private arrangements between creditors and debtors are found to

be cheaper, and more satisfactory in their results, than the ordinary

formal modes of proceeding. Hence the statistician, who would fain

persuade mankind that nothing of ill exists in the world save that which

such records reveal, can prate glibly of prosperity to classes, who,

knowing the reality of their own position, must feel such prating to be

a bitter mockery. The facts which we have shown above, as to the

tendency of rising markets to decrease the profits of the retailer’s

trade, are sufficient of themselves to prove that he cannot, at the

present moment, be in the enjoyment of a satisfactory position; and we

have the further fact to adduce, that at no previous period was credit

more reluctantly extended to that class than at present. The merchant

and the wholesale dealer are well aware, and watch well when the

retailing classes are doing business without profit. They are aware when

those classes are living upon their capital. And that a large portion of

them are doing so at this moment, and have been so for many months past,

is clear, not only from the increased jealousy of the wholesale dealer,

but also from their almost general exclusion from the benefits of a

money market which, up to within the last few weeks, might be fairly

described as “easy” to most other classes. The extensive merchant who

has produce in his hands to pledge, or the speculator who can raise

capital of his own equal to cover the probable margin of loss to arise

from his temporary investment, can command almost unlimited pecuniary

accommodation, on tolerably reasonable terms. But the same facilities

are not open to the retailer, who may for a time require an increase of

his means. To this class money is always dear. It is to be had by the

bulk of them only upon usurious terms. The retailer cannot command a

capital by paying in to his banker small bills drawn upon his customers.

He must resort to the Loan Society, to the Insurance Office, or to the

moneylender, whose terms are even more ruinous than those of the

previously mentioned parties; and it is a sad fact that such modes of

raising money are more practised amongst tradesmen of the present day

than formerly. We can scarcely glance over the columns of a newspaper

published in any of our large commercial towns, without observing one or

more advertisements of societies professing to lend money on personal

security, repayable by instalments, the interest of which is seldom less

than ten per cent; or of insurance companies, whose directors hold out

to parties in want of money the inducement that life policies may be

pledged, and the provision which might have been made, through the

beneficial medium of insurance, for a widow or an orphan family,

anticipated, for the purpose of bolstering up perhaps unprofitable

speculations. There is known to be existing amongst the trading classes

an underground ramification of involvements of this description, which

would startle the world if it could be brought to light, as it is seen

occasionally in the schedules of insolvents in our Bankruptcy and our

County Courts. The most profitable business would not suffice to

maintain a man who is paying ten to twenty per cent for every money

accommodation which he may require in temporary emergencies, and is

besides compelled from time to time to make up the defalcations of

friends, between whom and himself a mutual system of guaranteeship for

loans is constantly existing. The evil is not by any means confined to

the small trading classes, but prevails as well amongst our working

classes. We have loan societies whose accommodations range from £3 to

£10 or £15, which the working man too frequently avails himself of to

enable him to expend upon excursion trips, and other extravagancies

scarcely justified by his station in life. We have, too, modes of

anticipating the incomes of the working classes even less legitimate

than the legalised loan societies. During this very week we find

recorded, in a Manchester paper, the existence, throughout a large

portion of the manufacturing districts, of clubs, the parties engaged in

which pay small weekly instalments, as low even as a shilling or

sixpence, and gamble with the dice, or draw lots for the privilege of

having the whole sum—say of forty shillings or five pounds, for which

they are responsible—advanced on personal guarantee. Another festering

sore in the body politic is the present amazing increase, especially in

the manufacturing districts, of what in the metropolis is called the

“tally system,” but is elsewhere better known as dealing with

“Scotchmen,” or “weekly men.” It argues little in favour of the

provident character of our manufacturing operatives, that thousands of

hard-working and industrious families amongst them purchase the bulk of

their clothing from these men, at prices ranging from 40 to 60 per cent

above the fair value of the articles, not only to their own manifest

injury, but also to that of the legitimate trader. These men are to be

seen in every manufacturing town and village, yard-stick in hand, and

parcels of patterns and collecting-books protruding from their capacious

pockets, perambulating the small streets and courts inhabited by our

working classes, too often to wring their gains from simple-minded

wives, whose husbands are unconscious of the indebtedness incurred,

until made aware of the fact by a summons from the county or some other

petty court of law. Not above twelve months ago _one_ of these Scotchmen

in a manufacturing borough in Lancashire had no fewer than fifty cases

for hearing in a single fortnightly session of the County Court there;

and it is not uncommon to find upwards of one-half of the cases tried at

these courts, in the manufacturing districts, to consist of actions for

debts incurred in the manner we have described. So largely has the

number of this class of traders increased of late, that they have become

a distinct _power_, and, in some of our boroughs, can determine the

result of an election—in favour of Whig-Radicalism, by the by; for your

travelling Scotch draper is invariably attached to “liberal” politics.

In one borough in Lancashire with which we are acquainted, it is

computed that they possess, amongst their own body, no less than eighty

or ninety votes; and at the last two elections those votes decided the

results of the contests.

Under such circumstances it would be most rash, at any time, to assert

the existence of great prosperity, either of the retail traders or of

our manufacturing operatives, merely from external appearances, or from

the ordinary tests of employment and increased consumption of the

necessaries of life. We know that at present there do exist all the

external appearances of such prosperity; but we know also that there is

a restlessness being manifested amongst those classes, which is

incompatible with a perfect satisfaction with their real position. We

have to bear in mind always, whilst speculating upon the state of the

small traders in particular, that they form a class whose numbers are

readily recruited during a period of actual or apparent prosperity.

Little encouragement suffices to induce the well-to-do operative,

disgusted with the arduous toil required from him in his legitimate

sphere, to embark in the apparently more easy avocations of the small

dealer; and since we have placed so large a share of the political power

of the country in the hands of these classes, it is most important that

we should not be misled as to their social condition, and the amount of

prosperity which they are enjoying. We have taught them to believe that

it is within the power of legislation alone to command that prosperity

for them; we have taught the working classes, too, that it is in the

power of legislation to bring about cheapness contemporaneously with

highly remunerated labour; yet we see abundant elements at work, which

point to dearness in prospect as the result. We see the prices of raw

materials and produce rising in every foreign market as the result, in

part at least, of an increase of the precious metals throughout the

world. We see foreign enterprise and industry everywhere stimulated by

increased monetary facilities afforded to the masses of the people,

whilst such increased facilities at home never extend below the

privileged classes, who are permitted to negotiate directly with the

banker and the capitalist. We see the bulk of the transactions of the

country, and especially the distribution of food and other necessaries,

falling day by day more extensively into the hands of those classes who

can avail themselves of cheap money; whilst all below them the very

nature of our existing banking system drives into the hands of the

usurious lender, unless they are contented to restrict their dealings to

little beyond the supply of their daily wants. What must be the course

of the great masses of our population, should their present doubtful

prosperity altogether disappear; or should high prices and reduced

profits press them further than at present towards the necessity of

curtailing their enjoyment of material comforts? It is not difficult to

perceive that a demand must arise for continual further reductions of

taxation, and consequent reductions of the public expenditure. We have

gone almost as far as we can go in dealing with those duties whose

removal is followed by such an amount of increased consumption as will

protect our customs’ revenue from exhaustion. The numerous small items

the taxation of which was well-nigh unfelt, although, in the aggregate,

it was productive, are being rapidly swept away; and there remain none

for the financier to operate upon save the few large imposts, the

removal of any one of which would be almost equivalent to national

bankruptcy. If interference with these is denied, a demand must arise

either for such a diminution of the public expenditure as is

incompatible with the maintenance of the national honour and security,

or for a decrease in the interest of the public debt. Mr Gladstone’s

financial abortions have shown us, with tolerable distinctness, that, in

the existing state of our monetary laws, a permanently reduced rate of

interest is inconsistent with increased imports and an enlarged trade.

Whilst the specie, which regulates the quantity of money which is

permitted to circulate, is constantly liable to be drawn away to meet

adverse balances of trade, such as we have now with almost every country

of the globe, a reduction in the pressure of our indebtedness is

impracticable, except by a stretch of power on the part of the

legislature, which must for ever stamp us as an unprincipled people.

With the important question of the currency, however, we repeat that we

have no intention of meddling in this article. Our object has been

simply to examine carefully the actual condition of our industrious

classes, and to endeavour to trace that condition to its true causes; we

leave to others to draw conclusions, and to point the way to a remedy,

should further experience prove that a remedy is required.

LIVERPOOL, _13th August 1853_.

_Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh._

-----

Footnote 1:

_History of Scotland from the Revolution, &c._ By JOHN HILL BURTON. 2

vols. London: 1853.

Footnote 2:

_Wanderungen durch London_, von Max Schlesinger. Two volumes. Berlin:

Duncker. London: Williams and Norgate. 1853.

Footnote 3:

_Curiosities of Modern Shakesperian Criticism_. By J. O. HALLIWELL,

Esq. 1853.

_Observations on some of the Manuscript Emendations of Shakespeare,

and are they Copyright?_ By J. O. HALLIWELL, Esq. 1853.

_J. Payne Collier’s alte handschriftliche Emendationen zum Shakespeare

gewurdigt von Dr Nicolaus Delius._ Bonn, 1853.

The original text of Shakespeare has obtained two stanch and able

defenders in the persons of these two gentlemen. Mr Halliwell’s

competency to deal with the text of our great poet, and with all that

concerns him, is, we believe, all but universally acknowledged—the

best proof of which is the confidence reposed in him by the

subscribers to the magnificent edition now publishing under his

auspices; a confidence which, we are convinced, he will not betray by

any ill-judged deviations from the authentic readings. Dr Delius’s

pamphlet contains a very acute dissection of the pretended evidence by

which Mr Collier endeavours to support the pretended emendations of

his MS. corrector. It is characterised by great soundness of judgment,

and displays a critical knowledge of the English language altogether

astonishing in a foreigner. He may be at fault in one or two small

matters, but the whole tenor of his observations proves that he is

highly competent to execute the task which, as we learn from his

announcement, he has undertaken—the publication, namely, of an edition

of the _English_ text of Shakespeare with _German_ notes. We look

forward with much interest to the publication of this work, as

affording further evidence of the strong hold which Shakespeare has

taken on the minds of Germany, and as a further tribute of admiration,

added to the many which they have already paid to the genius of our

immortal countryman.

Footnote 4:

The German translators Tieck and Schlegel adopt the reading of the

first folio, _tongue_, for “gown,” and translate,

“Warum soll hier mit _Wolfsgeheul_ ich stehen.”

Dr Delius concurs with his countrymen, and remarks that the boldness

of Shakespeare’s constructions readily admits of our connecting the

words “in this wolfish tongue” with the words “to beg.” Now, admirable

as we believe Dr Delius’ English scholarship to be, he must permit us

to say that this is a point which can be determined only by a native

of this country, and that the construction which he proposes is not

consistent with the idiom of our language. Even the German idiom

requires _with_ (mit), and not _in_, a wolf’s cry. We cannot recommend

him to introduce _tongue_ into his text of our poet.

Footnote 5:

_The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs._ By CHARLES DARWIN,

M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1842.

_The Structure and Classification of Zoophytes._ By JAMES D. DANA,

A.M. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard. 1846.

Footnote 6:

WILKES’S _United States Exploring Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 130, (ed.

1852.)

Footnote 7:

ELIS’S _Polynesian Researches_, vol. ii. p. 2.

Footnote 8:

_Kotzebue’s Voyage_, 1815–1818. Vol. iii. p. 333.

Footnote 9:

Mr DARWIN’S _Coral Reefs_, p. 142. The only supposed exception to this

remarkable coincidence, at the time when Mr Darwin wrote, in 1842, was

the volcano of Torres Strait, at the northern point of Australia,

placed on the borders of an area of subsidence; but it has been since

proved that this volcano has no existence. Sir CHARLES LYELL’S

_Principles of Geology_. 8th edit. p. 767.

Footnote 10:

This expression, as applied to many of the coral polyps, must be taken

in a somewhat qualified sense. Many of them are of a fleshy

consistence.

Footnote 11:

A reduction of duty of 2s. on foreign has taken place during these

periods.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.

● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last

chapter.

● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.