Mr.
Morley;

6

an essay by Mr. Wells, entitled, How shall the Nation regain Prosperity?' 'In 1874 Chili imported from Great Britain more than 55,000,000 yards, and from the United States only 5,000,000 yards, of cotton cloth. This little State, one of the smallest among the nations, with a population of about 2,000,000, imported more cotton cloth, to supply her wants, from Great Britain in 1874, than the United States exported that same year in the aggregate to all foreign countries combined.'

the

6

In 1874 the export of cotton goods to the Argentine Republic was in excess of 40,000,000 yards, while for year 1875-6 the export from the United States of the same fabrics was officially reported at 155,000 yards. Mr. Morley may not be accepted as an impartial witness, but his testimony will be accepted on matters of fact. They are turning out,' he said in a recent paper, ‘a greater quantity of work in Lancashire for each spindle and loom per week than at any previous period in the history of the trade, and more than they are doing in any other country in Europe, however many hours they may work.' He reminds us that it was admitted by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in 1876, when trade was still profitable to employers, that the price of calico was lower than in any year save one in the history of the cotton trade. Again, as he most fairly argues, if it were true that it is the action of the workmen that disables us in foreign competition, then we should expect that the more labour entered into the cost of production, the greater would be our disadvantage in the competition. But in the

cotton trade, at all events, exactly the contrary of this
is true. The articles in the production of which labour
is the most expensive element, are just those in which
competition is least formidable. A common shirting,
sold, say, at 78., and which has cost only 2s. in wages,
is exposed to competition. But a piece of fine cambric,
sold, say, at 9s. 3d., has cost 4s. 6d. in
wages, and yet
in this description of goods, in which labour is the
main element of cost, we have complete command of
the markets.'

Econo

The Economist,' in reviewing Mr. Courtney's The papers in the Fortnightly Review,' gives a more mist.' sanguine, and, as I believe, a truer view of the capabilities of the British workman than we have been accustomed to hear expressed by those, who find an easy explanation of the present condition of trade in the increased wages and diminished energy of our work

At this moment industries cleave to particular places in spite of equally favourable or more favourable conditions existing in other spots. No reason, for example, in the way of " cheap power" retains the alpaca trade of Bradford in that town. There is quite as much "power" in Creusot, as is shown in the iron industry of that place; wool and cotton are as easily procurable, and the market, Paris, is, if anything, more accessible. Yet the mixed wool and cotton manufacture does not go there, but remains in Bradford. There are ports in the United States which are better fitted in all respects for the shipbuilding trade than any ports in England, and yet shipbuilding flourishes here and does not flourish across the Atlantic. We do not know of

any sound reason in economics why Nottingham should beat Genoa in the manufacture of its special fabrics. Genoa can obtain cotton as easily as Nottingham, and silk more easily; its artisans are probably the more adaptable of the two; and the difference in the cost of the fuel used must, if we consider the minute cost of coal-carrying, and the small amount required, be nearly imperceptible. Nothing in the cheapness of coal can enable English manufacturers to import silk from Japan, manufacture it, and then sell dresses in Yeddo of a fabric with which no Japanese can hope to compete. There must be something in the English character, in its strenuousness, its love of order, and its fidelity to work, which gives it a superiority; and we see no reason why this character should in any degree deteriorate. Certainly it will not deteriorate because we are nearly at the end of our resources in easily obtained coal. We incline to believe that our countrymen have been injured, if at all, by a superiority too easily acquired, and that continued adversity would develope in them an energy, industry, and power of combination, with which no nation can compete, not even America, where a stimulus is lacking which is always present in England. This stimulus is want of choice. Mr. Courtney forgets that the option of working on the land, which is present to the American and the French handicraftsman, is wanting to the English. He cannot take a farm, or grow grapes, or do anything else but manufacture. He is shut up in an island so small, and cultivated on so peculiar a system, that he must manufacture or go away, and acquires of necessity

the hereditary skill which in India appertains to the man, who is forced by caste or opinion to continue an hereditary trade. Even if he has to import coal-and the transit of coal across the Atlantic would not greatly increase its price he would find in his own energy the means of compensating for that outlay, as he already has done for his outlay upon food. His great competitor, the American, though quite as full of energy, has not the same inducement to expend it upon work, and, as a matter of fact, does not expend it. He has, for example, as Mr. Hussey Vivian says, coal and iron as ready to his hand as the Englishman. He has quite as much knowledge, and perhaps, on the whole, rather greater inventiveness. He is no further from Asia for commercial purposes, and ought, therefore, to obtain a monopoly of the Asiatic trade in small steel goods. Yet he does not, his only preference being in the axe, which, residing in a half-cleared country, he has been compelled by immediate necessity to make decidedly better than his English rival. The Englishman may of course, like the Cornish miner, be induced to emigrate, but if he does not he will retain, we conceive, a manufacturing faculty akin to his political faculty, which will still give him a fair chance in the markets of the world.'

habits of

The opinion has gained wide acceptance that a large Drinking proportion of the earnings during the period of pro- our operasperity, which preceded the present crisis, was wasted tives. in intemperance. We learn from Dr. Farr's report to the Registrar-General that, during the three years of high wages in 1871-73, the consumption of spirits in the United Kingdom was 36,000,000 gallons a year.

Prodi

gality of

miners.

During the three subsequent years of idleness the average consumption was 42,000,000 gallons. Dr. Farr conjectures that the hours formerly spent in the workshop were passed idly in the public house, and that this is the reason why a larger consumption took place in a period, during which a very considerable reduction of wages had taken place.

6

chief modes of

"buggy

buggy" and

Complaints of the misconduct of their workmen are American at least as frequent in America as in this country. Describing the cost of mining in the Lake Champlain district, Mr. Harris Gastrell states: The labourers are largely foreign, Irish and others. The miners do not, as a rule, save. One of their spending is to keep a horse and drive about. The vehicles in a miners' village were certainly astonishingly numerous. A library, provided for the men at a cost to each of 1s. a month, has been given up on account of the men objecting to the payment, and a former condition of work, that their children should be sent to the free school provided, has been abandoned.

Drunkenness in France,

In 1860 the standard of wages was 87 cents a day. It then rose to 2 dollars in 1872, and was, in 1873, 2 dollars 25 cents for common labour. It was believed that the men saved more when paid at the rate of 87! cents a day, than they did when the great rise in their wages had taken place.

M. Favre admits in his report to the Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier's Commission that drunkenness, though still rare in the south, had become a threatening scourge in the north, the east, the west, and the centre of France.