Imports,Market Value.Exports,Declared Value.British and Irish produce.1845,£84,054,272£60,111,0811846,89,281,43357,786,8751847,117,047,22958,971,1661848,92,660,69953,099,011[21]
Thus, while there has been an enormous increase going on during the last three years in our imports, there has been nothing but a diminution at the same time taking place in our exports. The foreigners who sent us, in such prodigious quantities, their rude produce, would not take our manufactures in return. They would only take our gold. Hence our metallic treasures were hourly disappearing in exchange for the provisions which showered in upon us; and this was the precise time which the free-traders took to establish the monetary system which compelled the contraction of the paper circulationin direct proportion to that very disappearance. It is no wonder that our commercial interests were thrown into unparalleled embarrassments from such an absurd and monstrous system of legislation.
Observe, if the arguments and expectations of the free-traders had been well founded, the immense importation of provisions which took place in 1847 and 1848, in consequence of the failure of the potato crop in Ireland and the west of Scotland, should immediately have produced a vast rise in our exports. Was this the case? Quite the reverse; it was attended with a decline in them. The value of corn, meal, and flour imported in the following years stood thus:—
1845,£3,594,2991846,8,870,2021847,29,694,1121848,12,457,857[22]
Now, in the year 1847, though we imported nearly thirty millions' worth of grain, our exports were £1,200,000lessthan in 1845, when we only received three millions and a half of subsistence from foreign states. Can there be a more decisive proof that the greatest possible addition to our importation of grain is not likely to be attended with any increase to our export of manufactures?
But if the great importation of grain which free-trade induces into the British empire is not attended with any increase of our exports, in the name of heaven, what good does it do? Feed the people cheap. But what do they gain by that, if their wages, and the profits of their employers, fall in the same or a greater proportion? That effect has already taken place, and to a most distressing extent. Wages of skilled operatives, such as colliers, iron-moulders, cotton-spinners, calico-printers, and the like, are now not more thanhalfof what they were when the corn-laws were in operation. They are now receiving 2s. 6d. a-day where, before the change, they received 5s. Wheat has been forced down from 56s. to 44s.: that is somewhat above a fifth, but wages have fallen a half. The last state of those men is worse than the first. The unjust change for which they clamoured has proved ruinous to themselves.
The way in which this disastrous effect has taken place is this: In the first place, thebalanceof trade has turned so ruinously against us, from the effect of the free-trade measures, that the credit of the commercial classes has, under the operation of our monetary laws, been most seriously confused. It appears, from the accurate and laborious researches of Mr Newdegate, that the balance of trade against Great Britain, during the last three years of free trade, has been no less than £54,000,000 sterling.[23]Now, woful experience has taught the English people that the turning of the balance of trade is a most formidable thing against a commercial nation, and that the practical experience of mankind, which has always regarded it as one of the greatest of calamities, is more to be regarded than the theory of Adam Smith, that it was a matter of no sort of consequence. When coupled with a sliding currency scale, which contracts the circulation of bank-notes in proportion as the specie is withdrawn, it is one of the most terrible calamities which can befall a commercial and manufacturing state. It is under this evil that the nation is now labouring: and it will continue to do so, till folly of conduct and error of opinion have been expiated or eradicated by suffering.
In the next place, the purchase of so very large a portion as a fourth of the annual subsistence—not from our own cultivators, who consume at an average five or six pounds a-head of our manufactures, but from foreign growers, who consume little or nothing—has had a most serious effect upon the home trade. The introduction of 12,000,000 or 13,000,000 quarters of grain a-year into our markets, from countries whose importation of our manufactures is almost equal to nothing, is a most dreadfully depressing circumstance to our manufacturers. It is destroying one set of customers, and that the very best we have—the home growers—without rearing up another to supply their place. It is exchanging the purchases by substantial yeomen, our own countrymen and neighbours, of our fabrics, for the abstraction by aliens and enemies of our money. It is the same thing as converting a customer into a pauper, dependent on our support. It was distinctly foretold by the protectionists, during the whole time the debate on the repeal of the corn laws was going forward, that this effect would take place: that the peasants of the Ukraine and the Vistula did not consume a hundredth part as much, per head, as those of East Lothian or Essex; and that to substitute the one for the other was to be penny wise and pound foolish. These predictions, however, were wholly disregarded; the thing was done; and now it is found that the result has beenmuch worsethan was anticipated—for not only has it gratuitously and unnecessarily crippled the means of a large part of the home consumers of our manufactures, but it has universally shaken and contracted credit, especially in the commercial districts, by the drain it has induced upon the precious metals. These evils, from the earliest times, have been felt by mercantile nations; but they were the result, in previous cases, of adverse circumstances or necessity. It was reserved for this age to introduce them voluntarily, and regard them as the last result of political wisdom.
In the third place, the reduction of prices, and diminution in the remuneration of industry, which has taken place from the introduction of free trade, and the general admission of foreign produce and manufactures, raised in countries where production is cheap, because money is scarce and taxes light, to compete with one where production is dear, because money is plentiful and taxes heavy, cannot of course fail to be attended—and that from the very outset—with the most disastrous effects upon the general interests of the empire, and especially such of them as are engaged in trade and manufactures. Suppose that, anterior to the monetary and free-trade changes intended to force down prices, the annual value of the industry of the country stood thus, which we believe to be very near the truth:—
Lands and minerals,£300,000,000Manufactures and commerce of all sorts,200,000,000Deduct taxes and local burdens,£80,000,000Interest of mortgages,50,000,000130,000,000Clear to national industry,£370,000,000
But if prices are forced down a half, which, at the very least, may be anticipated, and in fact has already taken place, from thecombinedeffect of free trade and a restricted currency, estimating each at a fourth only, the account will stand thus,—
Land and minerals,£150,000,000Manufactures,100,000,000Total,£250,000,000Deduct taxes and rates,£80,000,000Interest of mortgages,50,000,000130,000,000Clear to national industry,£120,000,000
Thus, by the operation of these changes, in money and commerce, which lower pricesa half, the whole national income is reduced from £370,000,000 to £120,000,000, orless than a third. Such is the inevitable effect of a great reduction of prices, in a community of which the major and more important part is still engaged in the work of production; and such the illustration of thetruth of the Marquis of Granby's observation, that, under such a reduction, the whole producing classes must lose more than they can by possibility gain, because their loss is upon theirwholeincome, their gain only upon that portion of their means—seldom more than a half—which is spent on the purchase of articles, the cost of which is affected by the fall of prices.
The most decisive proof of the universality and general sense of this reduction of income and general distress, is to be found in the efforts which Mr Cobden and the free-trade party are now making to effect a great reduction in the public expenditure. During the discussion on corn-law repeal, they told us that the change they advocated could make no sort of difference on the income of the producing and agricultural classes, and that it would produce an addition to the income of the trading classes of £100,000,000 a-year. Of course, the national and public resources were to be greatly benefited by the change; and it was under this belief adopted. Now, however, that the change has taken place, and its result has been found to be a universal embarrassment to all classes and interests, but especially to the commercial, they turn round and tell us that this effect is inevitable from the change of prices—that the halcyon days of high rents and profits are at an end, and that all that remains is for all classes to accommodate themselves the best way they can to the inevitable change. They propose to begin with Queen Victoria and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, from whom they propose to cut off £11,000,000 a-year of income. But they consider this perfectly safe, because, as the aspect of things, both abroad and in our colonial empire, is so singularly pacific, and peace and goodwill are so soon to prevail among men, they think it will be soon possible to disband our troops, sell our ships of war, and trust the stilling the passions and settling the disputes of nations and races to the great principles of justice and equity, which invariably regulate the proceedings of all popular and democratic communities. We say nothing of the probability of such a millennium soon arriving, or of the prognostics of its approach, which passing and recent events in India, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sicily, and Ireland, have afforded, or are affording. We refer to them only as giving the most decisive proof that the free-traders have now themselves become sensible that their measures have produced a general impoverishment of all classes, from the head of the state downwards, and that a great reduction of expenditure is unavoidable, if a general public and private bankruptcy would be averted.
In truth, the proofs of this general impoverishment are now so numerous and decisive, that they have brought conviction home to the minds of the most obdurate, and, with the exception of the free-trade leaders or agitators—whose fanaticism is, of course, fixed and incurable—have produced a general distrust of the new principles. A few facts will place them in the most striking light. The greatest number of emigrants who had previously sailed from the British shores was in 1839, when they reached 129,000. But in the year 1847, the sacred year of free trade and a fettered currency, they rose at once to 258,270. In 1848 they were 248,000. The number this year is understood to be still greater, and composed almost entirely, not of paupers—who, of course, cannot get away—but of the better sort of mechanics, tradesmen, and small farmers, who, under the new system, find their means of subsistence dried up. The poor-rate in England has now risen to £7,000,000 annually—as much in nominal amount as it was in 1834, when the new poor-law was introduced by the Whig government, and, if the change in the value of money is taken into account, half as much more. Aseventhof the British empire are now supported in the two islands by the parish rates, and yet the demands on private charity are hourly increasing. Crime is universally and rapidly on the increase: in Ireland, where the commitments never before exceeded 21,000, they rose in 1848 to 39,000. In England, in the same year, they were 30,000; in Scotland, 4908; all a great increase over previous years. It is not surprising crime was so prolific in a country where, in the preceding year, at least250,000 personsdied of famine, in spite of the noble grant of £10,000,000 from the British treasury for their support. We extract from theStandard of Freedomthe following summary of some of the social results which have followed the adoption of liberal principles:—
"State of England.—One man in every ten, according to Sir J. Graham, a short time ago was in receipt of parish relief in this country; but now, it appears, from a return up to June last, it is not 10 per cent, but 11 per cent of the population who receive parochial relief; for the persons so relieved amount to 1,700,000 out of 15,000,000. £7,000,000 was raised annually for the relief of the poor in England, and £500,000 in Scotland; and, taking the amount collected for and raised in Ireland at £1,860,957, it makes a total of £9,460,957, as the sum levied annually in the British empire for the relief of the poor, or three times the cost of the civil government, independently of the cost of the army and navy. Besides the regular standing force, there is the casual poor, a kind of disposable force, moving about and exhausting every parish they go through. In 1815, there were 1,791 vagrants in one part of the metropolis, and, in 1828, in the same district in London, they had increased to 16,086. In 1832, the number was 35,600, which had increased, in 1847, to 41,743. Moreover, there is a certain district south of the Thames, in which, for the six months ending September 1846, the number was 18,533, and which had increased, during the same six months in 1847, to 44,937. And, in the county of York, in one of the first unions in the West Riding, in 1836, one vagrant was relieved, and, in 1847, 1,161. This affords a pretty strong, dark, and gloomy picture of the state of destitution prevailing in this country."—Standard of Freedom.
"State of England.—One man in every ten, according to Sir J. Graham, a short time ago was in receipt of parish relief in this country; but now, it appears, from a return up to June last, it is not 10 per cent, but 11 per cent of the population who receive parochial relief; for the persons so relieved amount to 1,700,000 out of 15,000,000. £7,000,000 was raised annually for the relief of the poor in England, and £500,000 in Scotland; and, taking the amount collected for and raised in Ireland at £1,860,957, it makes a total of £9,460,957, as the sum levied annually in the British empire for the relief of the poor, or three times the cost of the civil government, independently of the cost of the army and navy. Besides the regular standing force, there is the casual poor, a kind of disposable force, moving about and exhausting every parish they go through. In 1815, there were 1,791 vagrants in one part of the metropolis, and, in 1828, in the same district in London, they had increased to 16,086. In 1832, the number was 35,600, which had increased, in 1847, to 41,743. Moreover, there is a certain district south of the Thames, in which, for the six months ending September 1846, the number was 18,533, and which had increased, during the same six months in 1847, to 44,937. And, in the county of York, in one of the first unions in the West Riding, in 1836, one vagrant was relieved, and, in 1847, 1,161. This affords a pretty strong, dark, and gloomy picture of the state of destitution prevailing in this country."—Standard of Freedom.
General as the distress is which, under the combined operations of free trade and a fettered currency, has been brought upon the country, there is one circumstance of peculiar importance which has not hitherto, from the efforts of the free-traders to conceal it, met with the attention it deserves. This is the far greater amount of ruin and misery they have brought upon the commercial classes, who supported, than the agriculturists, who opposed them. The landed interest is only beginning to experience, in the present low prices, the depressing effects of free trade. The Irish famine has hitherto concealed or postponed them. London is suffering, but not so much as the provincial towns, from its being the great place where the realised wealth of the country is spent. But the whole commercial classes in the manufacturing towns have felt them for nearly two years in the utmost intensity. It is well known that, during that short period,one-halfof the wealth realised, and in course of realisation, in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Glasgow, has perished. There is no man practically acquainted with these cities who will dispute that fact. The poor-rates of Glasgow, which, five years ago, did not exceed £30,000 a-year for the parliamentary city, have now reached £200,000; viz.
Glasgow parish,£90,000Barony,70,000Gorbals,40,000£200,000
The sales by shopkeepers in these towns have not, during three years, been a third of their average amount. All the witnesses examined before the Lords' committee on the public distress, describe this panic of autumn 1847 as infinitely exceeding in duration and severity anything previously experienced; and the state of matters, and the intensity of the shock given to public credit, may be judged of by the following entries as to the state of the Bank of England in June 1845 and October 1847, when the law was suspended:—
June 1845.
Issue Department.Banking Department.Date.Notes Issued.Gold and Silver Bullion.Notes in Reserve.Gold and Silver Coin.June 7£29,732,000£15,732,000£9,382,000£779,000— 1429,917,00015,917,0009,854,000696,000— 2130,051,00016,051,0009,837,000587,000— 2830,047,00016,047,0009,717,000554,000
October 1847.
Issue Department.Banking Department.Date.Notes Issued.Gold and Silver Bullion.Notes in Reserve.Gold and Silver Coin.Oct. 2£22,121,000£8,121,000£3,409,000£443,000—  921,961,0007,961,0003,321,000447,000— 1621,989,0007,989,0002,630,000441,000— 2321,865,0007,865,0001,547,000447,000— 3022,009,0008,009,0001,176,000429,000
Commercial Crisis, 2d edition, 132-133.
Thus, such was the severity of the panic, and the contraction of the currency, consequent on the monetary laws and the operation of free trade in grain, that the nation was all but rendered bankrupt, and half its traders unquestionably were so, when there were still eight millions of sovereigns in the issue department of the bank which could not be touched, while the reserve of notes in the banking department had sunk from nearly £10,000,000, in 1845, to £1,100,000!
So portentous a state of things, fraught as it necessarily was with utter ruin to a great part of the best interests in the empire, was certainly not contemplated by the commercial classes, when they embarked in the crusade of free trade against the productive interests. It might have been long of coming on, and certainly would never have set in with half the severity which actually occurred, had it not been that, not content with the project of forcing down prices by means of the unrestricted admission of foreign produce, they at the same time sought to augment their own fortunes by restricting the currency. It was thedouble project, beyond all question, which proved their ruin. They began and flattered themselves they would play out successfully the game of "beggar my neighbour," but by pushing their measures too far, it turned into one of "beggar ourselves." It was the double strain of free trade and a fettered currency which brought such embarrassment on the commercial classes, as it was the double strain of the Spanish and Russian wars which proved the destruction of Napoleon. It would appear to be a general law of nature, that great measures of injustice cannot be carried into execution, either by communities or single men, without vindicating the justice of the Divine administration, by bringing down upon themselves the very ruin which they have designed for others.
The free-traders say that there is no general reaction against their principles, and that the formation of a government on protectionist principles is at present impossible. We shall not inquire, and have not the means of knowing, whether or not this statement is well founded. We are willing to accept the statement as true, and we perceive a great social revolution, accompanied with infinite present suffering, but most important ultimate results, growing from their obstinate adherence to their principles in defiance of the lessons of experience.The free-traders are with their own hands destroying the commercial classes, which had acquired an undue preponderance in the state.They must work out their own punishment before they abjure their principles. Every day a free-trading merchant or shopkeeper is swept into theGazette, and his family cast down to the humblest ranks in society. They go down like the Fifth Monarchy men when expelled from the House of Commons by the bayonets of Cromwell, or the Girondists when led to the scaffold by the Jacobins, chanting hymns in honour of their principles when perishing from their effects:—
"They are true to the last of their blood and their breath,And, like reapers, descend to the harvest of death."
"They are true to the last of their blood and their breath,And, like reapers, descend to the harvest of death."
But this constancy of individuals when suffering under the measures they themselves have introduced, however curious and respectable as a specimen of the unvarying effect of fanaticism, whether religious or social,on the human mind, cannot permanently arrest the march of events; it cannot stop the effect of their own measures, any more than the courage of the Highlanders in 1745 could prevent the final extinction of the Jacobite cause. Let them adhere to free trade and a fettered currency as they like, the advocates of the new measures are daily and hourly losing their influence. Money constitutes the sinews of war not less in social than in national contests. No cause can be long victorious which is linked to that worst of allies,Insolvency. In two years the mercantile classes have destroyed one-half of their own wealth; in two years more, one-half of what remains will be gone. Crippled, discredited, ruined, beat down by foreign competition, exhausted by the failure of domestic supplies, the once powerful mercantile body of England will be prostrate in the dust. All other classes, of course, will be suffering from their fall, but none in the same degree as themselves. It is not improbable that the land may regain its appropriate influence in the state, by the ruin which their own insane measures have brought upon its oppressors. No one will regret the lamentable consequences of such a change, already far advanced in its progress, more than ourselves, who, have uniformly foretold its advent, and strenuously resisted the commercial and monetary changes which, amidst shouts of triumph from the whole Liberal party, were silently but certainly inducing these results.
Confounded at such a series of events, so widely different from what they anticipated and had predicted from their measures, the free-traders have no resource but to lay them all on two external causes, for which they are not, as they conceive, responsible: these causes are, the French and German revolutions, and the potato famine in Ireland.
That the revolutions on the continent of Europe have materially affected the market for the produce of British industry, in the countries where they have occurred, is indeed certain; but are the Liberals entitled to shake themselves free from the consequences of these convulsions? Have we not, for the last thirty years, been labouring incessantly to encourage and extend revolution in all the adjoining states? Did we not insidiously and basely support the revolutions in South America, and call a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old? Was not the result of that monstrous and iniquitous interference in support of the rebels in an allied state, to induce the dreadful monetary catastrophe of December 1825, the severest, till that of 1847, ever experienced in modern Europe? Did we not, not merely instantly recognise the French revolutions of 1830 and 1848, but lend our powerful aid and countenance to extend the laudable example to the adjoining states? Did we not join with France to prevent the King of the Netherlands from regaining the command of Flanders in 1832, and blockade the Scheldt while Marshal Gerard bombarded Antwerp? Did we not conclude the Quadruple Alliance to effect the revolutionising of Spain and Portugal, and bathe both countries for four years with blood, to establish revolutionary queens on both the thrones in the Peninsula? Have we not intercepted the armament of the King of Naples against Sicily, by Admiral Parker's fleet, and aided the insurgents in that island with arms from the Tower? Did we not interfere to arrest the victorious columns of Radetsky at Turin, but never move a step to check Charles Albert on the Mincio? Did we not side with revolutionary Prussia against the Danes, and aid in launching Pio Nono into that frantic career which has spread such ruin through the Italian peninsula? Have we not all but lost the confidence of our old ally, Austria, from our notorious intrigues to encourage the furious divisions which have torn that noble empire? Nay, have we not been so enamoured of revolution, that we could not avoid showing a partiality for it in our own dominions—rewarding and encouraging O'Connell, and allowing monster meetings, till by the neglect of Irish industry we landed them in famine, and by the fanning of Irish passions brought them up to rebellion;—and establishing a constitution in Canada which gave a decided majority in parliament to an alien and rebel race, and, as a necessary consequence, giving the colonial administration to the very partywhom, ten years ago, the loyalists put down with true British spirit at the point of the bayonet? All this we have done, and have long been doing, with impunity; and now that the consequences of such multifarious sins have fallen upon us, in the suffering which revolution has at last brought upon the British empire, the Liberals turn round and seek to avoid the responsibility of the disasters produced by their internal policy, by throwing it on the external events which they themselves have induced.
Then as to the Irish famine of 1846, it is rather too much, after the lapse ofthreeyears, to go on ascribing the general distress of the empire to a partial failure of a particular crop, which, after all, did not exceed the loss of a twentieth part of the annual agricultural produce of the British Islands. But if the free-traders' principles had been well founded, this failure in Ireland should have been the greatest possible blessing to their party in the state, because itimmediatelyeffected that transference of the purchase of a part of the national food from home to foreign cultivators, which is the very thing they hold out as such an advantage, and likely in an especial manner to enlarge the foreign market for our manufactures. It induced the importation of £30,000,000 worth of foreign grain in three months: that, on the principles of the free-traders, should have put all our manufacturers in activity, and placed the nation in the third heaven. Disguise it as you will, the Irish potato-rot was but an anticipation, somewhat more sudden than they expected, of thefree-trade rot, which was held out as a certain panacea for all the national evils. And now, when free trade and a restricted currency have not proved quite so great a blessing as they anticipated, the free-traders turn round and lay it all on the substitution of foreign importation for domestic production in Ireland, when that very substitution is the thing they have, by abolishing the corn laws, laboured to effect over the whole empire.
Then as to the state of Ireland, which has at length reached the present unparalleled crisis of difficulty and suffering, the conduct of the Liberals has been, if possible, still more inconsistent and self-condemnatory. For half a century past, they have been incessantly declaiming on the mild, inoffensive, and industrious character of the Irish race; upon their inherent loyalty to the throne; and upon the enormous iniquity of British rule, which had brought the whole misfortunes under which they were labouring on that virtuous people. Nothing but equal privileges, Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform, burgh reform, and influence at Dublin Castle, we were told, were required to set everything right, and render Ireland as peaceable and prosperous as any part of the British dominions. The conduct of James I. and Cromwell, in planting Saxon and Protestant colonies in Ulster, was in an essential manner held up to detestation, as one of the chief causes of the social and religious divisions which had over since distracted the country. Well, the Liberals have given all these things to the Irish. For twenty years, the island has been governed entirely on these principles. They have got Catholic emancipation, a reduction of the Protestant church, national education, corporate reform, parliamentary reform, monster meetings, ceaseless agitation, and, in fact, all the objects for which, in common with the Liberal party in Great Britain, they have so long contended. And what has been the result? Is it that pauperism has disappeared, industry flourished, divisions died away, prosperity become general? So far from it, divisions never have been so bitter, dissension never so general, misery so grinding, suffering so universal, since the British standards, under Henry II., seven centuries ago, first approached their shores. A rebellion has broken out; anarchy and agitation, by turning the people aside from industry, have terminated in famine; and even the stream of English charity seems dried up, from the immensity of the suffering to be relieved, and the ingratitude with which it has heretofore been received. And what do the Liberals now do? Why, they put it all down to the score of the incurable indolence and heedlessness of the Celtic race, which nothing can eradicate, and cordially support Sir R. Peel's proposal to plant English colonies in Connaught,exactly similar to Cromwell's in Ulster, so long the object of Liberal hatred and declamation! They tell us now that the native Irish are irreclaimable helots, hewers of wood and drawers of water, and incapable of improvement till directed by Saxon heads and supported by the produce of Saxon hands. They forget that it is these very helots whom they represented as such immaculate and valuable subjects, the victims of Saxon injustice and Ulster misrule. They forget that English capitalists and farmers would long since have migrated to Ireland, and induced corn cultivation in its western and southern provinces, were it not that Liberal agitation kept the people in a state of menacing violence, and Liberal legislation took away all prospect of remunerating prices for their grain produce. And thus much for the Crowning of the Column of Free Trade, and Crushing of the Pedestal of the Nation.
FOOTNOTES:[15]"No great state can long remain quiet; if it has not an enemy abroad, it finds one at home, as powerful bodies resist all external attacks, but are destroyed by their internal strength."—Livy.[16]"While each separately fights, all are conquered."—Tacitus.[17]Slavery Value.After Abolition.After Abolition of Apprenticeship.Since passing Sugar Bill of 1846.Name of the Estate.££££120,00060,00045,0005,000Windsor Forest.65,00032,00026,0005,000La Grange.55,00027,50023,0003,500Belle Plaine.80,00030,00020,0006,000Rabacca.70,00025,00017,0003,000Sir W. South.45,00020,00015,0005,000Richmond Hill.435,000194,500146,00027,500Slavery value,£435,000Estimated present value,27,500Depreciation,£407,500Or equal to 93½ per cent on original value.—In Re Cruikshanks, in Chancery,Times, June 6th, 1849.[18]Quantitiesimported into the United Kingdom in the month ending April 5, 1849:—Species of Corn, Grain, Meal, and Flour.Imported from foreign countries.The produce of, and imported from, British possessions out of Europe.Total.Qrs.Bush.Qrs.Bls.Qrs.Bush.Wheat535,0152535,0152Barley150,1775150,1775Oats146,149616146,1514Rye20,768420,7684Peas12,313612,3136Beans60,294560,2945Maize or Indian corn184,7724184,7724Buck-wheat123123Bere or bigg80008000Total of corn and grain1,110,3043161,110,3061Cwt.qrs.lb.Cwt.q.lb.Cwt.qrs.lb.Wheat meal or flour307,61707753311308,370318Barley mealOat meal24202420Rye meal1,571191,57119Pea meal10001000Indian meal10,70711010,707110Buck-wheat meal80008000Total of meal and flour320,010026753311320,76409Quantitiescharged with duty for Home Consumption in the United Kingdom in the month ended April 5, 1849:—Species of Corn, Grain, Meal, and Flour.Imported from foreign countries.The produce of, and imported from, British possessions out of Europe.Total.Qrs.Bush.Qrs.Bls.Qrs.Bush.Wheat559,6022559,6022Barley170,3435170,3435Oats149,7845149,7863Rye22,43211622,4321Peas17,782017,7820Beans59,546559,5465Maize or Indian corn183,6046183,6046Buck-wheat123123Bere or bigg80008000Total of corn and grain1,163,9083161,163,9101Cwt.qrs.lb.Cwt.q.lb.Cwt.qrs.lb.Wheat meal or flour353,79913250901356,30814Barley mealOat meal26282628Rye meal8253682536Pea meal10001000Indian meal10,6711710,67117Buck-wheat meal80008000Total of meal and flour365,412324250901367,921325—London Gazette, 20th April, 1849.[19]"Advenio supplex, non ut proculcet AraxenConsul ovans, nostræve premant pharetrata securesSusa, nec ut rubris Aquilas figamus arenis.Hæc nobis, hæc ante dabas. Nunc pabula tantumRoma precor. Miserere tuæ pater optime gentis,Extremam defenda famam—Satiavimus iram,Si quâ fuit. Lugenda Getis et flenda SuëvisHausimus: ipsa meos exhorret Parthia casus.Armato quondam populo, Patrumque vigebamConsiliis. Domui terras, urbesque revinxiLegibus: ad solem victrix utrumque cucurri,Nunc inhonorus egens perfert miserabile pacisSupplicium, nulloque palam circumdatus hoste,Obsessi discrimen habet—per singula letumImpendit momenta mihi, dubitandaque pauciPrescribant alimenta Dies."—Claudian,De Bello.Gildonico, 35—100.[20]In 1845, the Bank of England notes out with the public were about £23,000,000. Since the free trade began they have seldom been above £18,000,000, and at times as low as £16,800,000, and that at the very time when all the railways were going on.[21]Newdegate'sLetter to Mr Labouchere, p. 12-13.[22]Newdegate'sLetter to Mr Labouchere, p. 17.[23]Total Imports.Total Exports.Home and Colonial.Balance of Freight carried by British Ships.Balance of Trade against Britain.Exports and Imports.Deducting Freights.1845£84,054,272£70,236,726£12,979,089£13,817,446£838,357184689,281,43366,283,27013,581,16522,998,1639,416,9981847117,047,22970,329,67118,817,74246,717,55827,899,816184892,660,69961,557,19114,699,49131,103,50816,404,017£383,043,633£268,406,878£60,077,487£114,636,675£54,559,188—Newdegate, 12-13.
[15]"No great state can long remain quiet; if it has not an enemy abroad, it finds one at home, as powerful bodies resist all external attacks, but are destroyed by their internal strength."—Livy.
[15]"No great state can long remain quiet; if it has not an enemy abroad, it finds one at home, as powerful bodies resist all external attacks, but are destroyed by their internal strength."—Livy.
[16]"While each separately fights, all are conquered."—Tacitus.
[16]"While each separately fights, all are conquered."—Tacitus.
[17]Slavery Value.After Abolition.After Abolition of Apprenticeship.Since passing Sugar Bill of 1846.Name of the Estate.££££120,00060,00045,0005,000Windsor Forest.65,00032,00026,0005,000La Grange.55,00027,50023,0003,500Belle Plaine.80,00030,00020,0006,000Rabacca.70,00025,00017,0003,000Sir W. South.45,00020,00015,0005,000Richmond Hill.435,000194,500146,00027,500Slavery value,£435,000Estimated present value,27,500Depreciation,£407,500Or equal to 93½ per cent on original value.—In Re Cruikshanks, in Chancery,Times, June 6th, 1849.
[17]
Slavery Value.After Abolition.After Abolition of Apprenticeship.Since passing Sugar Bill of 1846.Name of the Estate.££££120,00060,00045,0005,000Windsor Forest.65,00032,00026,0005,000La Grange.55,00027,50023,0003,500Belle Plaine.80,00030,00020,0006,000Rabacca.70,00025,00017,0003,000Sir W. South.45,00020,00015,0005,000Richmond Hill.435,000194,500146,00027,500Slavery value,£435,000Estimated present value,27,500Depreciation,£407,500Or equal to 93½ per cent on original value.
—In Re Cruikshanks, in Chancery,Times, June 6th, 1849.
[18]Quantitiesimported into the United Kingdom in the month ending April 5, 1849:—Species of Corn, Grain, Meal, and Flour.Imported from foreign countries.The produce of, and imported from, British possessions out of Europe.Total.Qrs.Bush.Qrs.Bls.Qrs.Bush.Wheat535,0152535,0152Barley150,1775150,1775Oats146,149616146,1514Rye20,768420,7684Peas12,313612,3136Beans60,294560,2945Maize or Indian corn184,7724184,7724Buck-wheat123123Bere or bigg80008000Total of corn and grain1,110,3043161,110,3061Cwt.qrs.lb.Cwt.q.lb.Cwt.qrs.lb.Wheat meal or flour307,61707753311308,370318Barley mealOat meal24202420Rye meal1,571191,57119Pea meal10001000Indian meal10,70711010,707110Buck-wheat meal80008000Total of meal and flour320,010026753311320,76409Quantitiescharged with duty for Home Consumption in the United Kingdom in the month ended April 5, 1849:—Species of Corn, Grain, Meal, and Flour.Imported from foreign countries.The produce of, and imported from, British possessions out of Europe.Total.Qrs.Bush.Qrs.Bls.Qrs.Bush.Wheat559,6022559,6022Barley170,3435170,3435Oats149,7845149,7863Rye22,43211622,4321Peas17,782017,7820Beans59,546559,5465Maize or Indian corn183,6046183,6046Buck-wheat123123Bere or bigg80008000Total of corn and grain1,163,9083161,163,9101Cwt.qrs.lb.Cwt.q.lb.Cwt.qrs.lb.Wheat meal or flour353,79913250901356,30814Barley mealOat meal26282628Rye meal8253682536Pea meal10001000Indian meal10,6711710,67117Buck-wheat meal80008000Total of meal and flour365,412324250901367,921325—London Gazette, 20th April, 1849.
[18]
Quantitiesimported into the United Kingdom in the month ending April 5, 1849:—Species of Corn, Grain, Meal, and Flour.Imported from foreign countries.The produce of, and imported from, British possessions out of Europe.Total.Qrs.Bush.Qrs.Bls.Qrs.Bush.Wheat535,0152535,0152Barley150,1775150,1775Oats146,149616146,1514Rye20,768420,7684Peas12,313612,3136Beans60,294560,2945Maize or Indian corn184,7724184,7724Buck-wheat123123Bere or bigg80008000Total of corn and grain1,110,3043161,110,3061Cwt.qrs.lb.Cwt.q.lb.Cwt.qrs.lb.Wheat meal or flour307,61707753311308,370318Barley mealOat meal24202420Rye meal1,571191,57119Pea meal10001000Indian meal10,70711010,707110Buck-wheat meal80008000Total of meal and flour320,010026753311320,76409Quantitiescharged with duty for Home Consumption in the United Kingdom in the month ended April 5, 1849:—Species of Corn, Grain, Meal, and Flour.Imported from foreign countries.The produce of, and imported from, British possessions out of Europe.Total.Qrs.Bush.Qrs.Bls.Qrs.Bush.Wheat559,6022559,6022Barley170,3435170,3435Oats149,7845149,7863Rye22,43211622,4321Peas17,782017,7820Beans59,546559,5465Maize or Indian corn183,6046183,6046Buck-wheat123123Bere or bigg80008000Total of corn and grain1,163,9083161,163,9101Cwt.qrs.lb.Cwt.q.lb.Cwt.qrs.lb.Wheat meal or flour353,79913250901356,30814Barley mealOat meal26282628Rye meal8253682536Pea meal10001000Indian meal10,6711710,67117Buck-wheat meal80008000Total of meal and flour365,412324250901367,921325
—London Gazette, 20th April, 1849.
[19]"Advenio supplex, non ut proculcet AraxenConsul ovans, nostræve premant pharetrata securesSusa, nec ut rubris Aquilas figamus arenis.Hæc nobis, hæc ante dabas. Nunc pabula tantumRoma precor. Miserere tuæ pater optime gentis,Extremam defenda famam—Satiavimus iram,Si quâ fuit. Lugenda Getis et flenda SuëvisHausimus: ipsa meos exhorret Parthia casus.Armato quondam populo, Patrumque vigebamConsiliis. Domui terras, urbesque revinxiLegibus: ad solem victrix utrumque cucurri,Nunc inhonorus egens perfert miserabile pacisSupplicium, nulloque palam circumdatus hoste,Obsessi discrimen habet—per singula letumImpendit momenta mihi, dubitandaque pauciPrescribant alimenta Dies."—Claudian,De Bello.Gildonico, 35—100.
[19]
"Advenio supplex, non ut proculcet AraxenConsul ovans, nostræve premant pharetrata securesSusa, nec ut rubris Aquilas figamus arenis.Hæc nobis, hæc ante dabas. Nunc pabula tantumRoma precor. Miserere tuæ pater optime gentis,Extremam defenda famam—Satiavimus iram,Si quâ fuit. Lugenda Getis et flenda SuëvisHausimus: ipsa meos exhorret Parthia casus.Armato quondam populo, Patrumque vigebamConsiliis. Domui terras, urbesque revinxiLegibus: ad solem victrix utrumque cucurri,Nunc inhonorus egens perfert miserabile pacisSupplicium, nulloque palam circumdatus hoste,Obsessi discrimen habet—per singula letumImpendit momenta mihi, dubitandaque pauciPrescribant alimenta Dies."
"Advenio supplex, non ut proculcet AraxenConsul ovans, nostræve premant pharetrata securesSusa, nec ut rubris Aquilas figamus arenis.Hæc nobis, hæc ante dabas. Nunc pabula tantumRoma precor. Miserere tuæ pater optime gentis,Extremam defenda famam—Satiavimus iram,Si quâ fuit. Lugenda Getis et flenda SuëvisHausimus: ipsa meos exhorret Parthia casus.Armato quondam populo, Patrumque vigebamConsiliis. Domui terras, urbesque revinxiLegibus: ad solem victrix utrumque cucurri,Nunc inhonorus egens perfert miserabile pacisSupplicium, nulloque palam circumdatus hoste,Obsessi discrimen habet—per singula letumImpendit momenta mihi, dubitandaque pauciPrescribant alimenta Dies."
—Claudian,De Bello.Gildonico, 35—100.
[20]In 1845, the Bank of England notes out with the public were about £23,000,000. Since the free trade began they have seldom been above £18,000,000, and at times as low as £16,800,000, and that at the very time when all the railways were going on.
[20]In 1845, the Bank of England notes out with the public were about £23,000,000. Since the free trade began they have seldom been above £18,000,000, and at times as low as £16,800,000, and that at the very time when all the railways were going on.
[21]Newdegate'sLetter to Mr Labouchere, p. 12-13.
[21]Newdegate'sLetter to Mr Labouchere, p. 12-13.
[22]Newdegate'sLetter to Mr Labouchere, p. 17.
[22]Newdegate'sLetter to Mr Labouchere, p. 17.
[23]Total Imports.Total Exports.Home and Colonial.Balance of Freight carried by British Ships.Balance of Trade against Britain.Exports and Imports.Deducting Freights.1845£84,054,272£70,236,726£12,979,089£13,817,446£838,357184689,281,43366,283,27013,581,16522,998,1639,416,9981847117,047,22970,329,67118,817,74246,717,55827,899,816184892,660,69961,557,19114,699,49131,103,50816,404,017£383,043,633£268,406,878£60,077,487£114,636,675£54,559,188—Newdegate, 12-13.
[23]
Total Imports.Total Exports.Home and Colonial.Balance of Freight carried by British Ships.Balance of Trade against Britain.Exports and Imports.Deducting Freights.1845£84,054,272£70,236,726£12,979,089£13,817,446£838,357184689,281,43366,283,27013,581,16522,998,1639,416,9981847117,047,22970,329,67118,817,74246,717,55827,899,816184892,660,69961,557,19114,699,49131,103,50816,404,017£383,043,633£268,406,878£60,077,487£114,636,675£54,559,188
—Newdegate, 12-13.
The discussion on the Canadian question, in the House of Lords, has had one good effect. It has elicited from Lord Lyndhurst a most powerful and able speech, in the best style of that great judge and distinguished statesman's oratory; and it has caused Lord Campbell to make an exhibition of spleen, ill-humour, and bad taste, which his warmest friends must have beheld with regret, and which was alone wanting to show the cogent effect which Lord Lyndhurst's speech had made on the house. Of the nature of Lord Campbell's attack on that able and venerable judge, second to none who ever sat in Westminster Hall for judicial power and forensic eloquence, some idea may be formed from the observations in reply of Lord Stanley:—
"I must say for myself, and I think I may say for the rest of the house, and not with the exception of noble lords on the opposite side of it, that they listened to that able, lucid, and powerful speech (Lord Lyndhurst's) with a feeling of anything but pain—a feeling of admiration at the power of language, the undiminished clearness of intellect—(cheers)—the conciseness and force with which my noble and learned friend grappled with the arguments before him, and which, while on the one hand they showed that age had in no degree impaired the vigour of that power, on the other added to the regret at the announcement he made of his intention so seldom to occupy the attention of the house. (Hear, hear.) But I should have thought that if there were one feeling it was impossible for any man to entertain after hearing that speech, it would be a feeling in any way akin to that which led the noble and learned lord to have introduced his answer to that speech by any unworthy taunts. (Loud cheers.) His noble and learned friend's high position and great experience, his high character and eminent ability, might have secured him in the honoured decline of his course from any such unworthy taunts—(great cheering)—as the noble and learned lord has not thought it beneath him on such an occasion to address to such a man. (Renewed cheering.) If the noble and learned lord listened with pain to the able statement of my noble and learned friend, sure am I that there is no friend of the noble and learned lord who must not have listened with deeper pain to what fell from him on this occasion."—Times, 20th June 1849.
"I must say for myself, and I think I may say for the rest of the house, and not with the exception of noble lords on the opposite side of it, that they listened to that able, lucid, and powerful speech (Lord Lyndhurst's) with a feeling of anything but pain—a feeling of admiration at the power of language, the undiminished clearness of intellect—(cheers)—the conciseness and force with which my noble and learned friend grappled with the arguments before him, and which, while on the one hand they showed that age had in no degree impaired the vigour of that power, on the other added to the regret at the announcement he made of his intention so seldom to occupy the attention of the house. (Hear, hear.) But I should have thought that if there were one feeling it was impossible for any man to entertain after hearing that speech, it would be a feeling in any way akin to that which led the noble and learned lord to have introduced his answer to that speech by any unworthy taunts. (Loud cheers.) His noble and learned friend's high position and great experience, his high character and eminent ability, might have secured him in the honoured decline of his course from any such unworthy taunts—(great cheering)—as the noble and learned lord has not thought it beneath him on such an occasion to address to such a man. (Renewed cheering.) If the noble and learned lord listened with pain to the able statement of my noble and learned friend, sure am I that there is no friend of the noble and learned lord who must not have listened with deeper pain to what fell from him on this occasion."—Times, 20th June 1849.
And of the feeling of the country, on this uncalled-for and unprovoked attack, an estimate may be formed from the following passage of theTimeson the subject:—"This debate has also recalled to the scene of his former triumphs the undiminished energy and vigorous eloquence of Lord Lyndhurst. That it supplied Lord Campbell with the opportunity of making a series of remarks in the worst possible taste on that aged and distinguished peer is, we suspect, a matter on which neither the learned lord nor any of his colleagues will be disposed to look back with satisfaction."—Times, 22d June 1849.
What Lord Campbell says of Lord Lyndhurst is, that he was once a Liberal and he has now become a Conservative: that the time was when he would have supported such a bill as that which the Canadian parliament tendered to Lord Elgin, and that now he opposes it. There is no doubt ofthe fact: experience has taught him the errors of his early ways; he has not stood all day gazing at the east because the sun rose there in the morning—he has looked around him, and seen the consequences of those delusive visions in which, in common with most men of an ardent temperament, he early indulged. In doing so, he has made the same change as Pitt and Chatham, as Burke and Mackintosh, as Windham and Brougham, as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. There are men of a different stamp—men whom no experience can teach, and no facts wean from error—who retain in advanced life the prejudices and passions of their youth, and signalise declining years by increased personal ambition and augmented party spleen. Whatever Lord Lyndhurst may be, he is not one of them. He has not won his retiring allowance by a week's service in the Court of Chancery. He can look back on a life actively spent in the public service, and enjoy in his declining years the pleasing reflection, that the honours and fortune he has won are but the just meed of a nation's gratitude, for important public services long and admirably performed.
The Canadian question, itself, on which ministers so narrowly escaped shipwreck in the House of Peers (by a majority ofTHREE) appears to us to lie within a very small compass. Cordially disapproving as we do of the bill for indemnifying the rebels which the Canadian ministry introduced and the Canadian parliament passed, we yet cannot see that any blame attaches to Lord Elgin personally for giving the consent of government to the bill. Be the bill good or bad, just or unjust, it had passed the legislature by a large majority, and Lord Elgin would not have been justified in withholding his consent, any more than Queen Victoria would have been in refusing to pass the Navigation Laws Bill. The passing of disagreeable and often unjust laws, by an adverse majority, is a great evil, no doubt; but it is an evil inherent in popular and responsible government, for which the Canadian loyalists equally with the Canadian rebels contended. Let our noble brethren in Canada reflect on this. The Conservatives of England have for long seen a series of measures pass the legislature, which they deem destructive to the best interests of their country; but they never talked of separating from their Liberal fellow-citizens on that account, or blamed the Queen because she affixed the royal assent to their bills. They are content to let time develop the consequences of these acts; and meanwhile they direct all their efforts to enlighten their countrymen on the subject, and, if possible, regain a preponderance in the legislature for their own party. The Canadian loyalists, second to none in the British empire in courage, energy, and public spirit, will doubtless see, when the heat of the contest is over, that it is by such conduct that they will best discharge their duty to their country.
Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.