The de cline of British trade with the East, probably a far more important item. In New England the mills are principally run by water power against steam in Lancashire, and the relative price at which this power is obtained will go far to decide which country can manufacture cotton the cheapest. If the decision is in favour of steam, the American factories will have to be built in closer proximity to the coal fields than at present.' The falling off in the aggregate exports of British cotton manufactures in the last two years is confined to the trade with the East, and is mainly attributable, as it has already been said, to the collapse of a certain number of commercial houses, which have been engaged for years in carrying on an illegitimate trade. Goods were purchased, not to meet a demand from abroad, but in order to obtain temporary advances from the Glasgow Bank and elsewhere. The most extensive purchases were made from manufacturers, with reckless disregard of the prices which consumers might be willing to pay. The following table was published in the 'Statist' in February last : Exports of Cotton Piece Goods to the East. [000's omitted.] Straits Settle- 1,891 198 1,295,400 14,082 1,446,500 15,973 151,100 China and Japan. 382,420 4,634 394,490 4,832 12,070 Java 58,800 876 81,270 1,300 22,470 424 Total 1,736,620 19,592 1,922,260 22,105 185,640 2,513 M. Leroy Beaulieu, in an article lately published in the Economiste Français,' is at no pains to disguise the feeling of satisfaction with which he views the failure of a number of commercial houses, which have been enabled, by means of a fictitious system of credit, to transact business on an enormous scale. He sees in the cessation of this unfair competition the surest means of restoring the trade with the East to a sound and wholesome condition. table to cial and reckless ness. From the point of view, from which the present attribuwriter has examined these questions, it is important to commerremark that the collapse of our Eastern trade has been financial caused not so much by the indolence and incapacity of the workmen as by the unprincipled and reckless administration of reckless merchants and pseudo-capitalists. I was at Edinburgh during the trial of the City of Glasgow Bank directors, and I shall not easily forget the melancholy spectacle presented by that row of hoary heads, awaiting their sentence of condemnation. I came away with the impression that the prisoners gave no external indication of the mental and moral qualities, which should be sought for in men entrusted with many millions of deposits. Are the shareholders to blame for laxity in the appointment of directors? Are the salaries of the directors proportionate to their responsibilities? To employ both profitably and safely resources, computed by tens of millions sterling, is a task that should be entrusted only to men of the highest character and ability. It demands, in a high degree, both commercial experience and prescience. The market value of the services of competent men is considerably higher than the salaries generally awarded by narrow-minded shareholders to their most responsible officers. Our productive power. Quality of our textile fabrics. French rivalry in woollens. While the textile manufactures have grown in a more rapid ratio in foreign countries, in which they have been but recently established, we retain an undisputed ascendency in the aggregate extent of our industry. We possess thirty-nine and three-quarter million spindles, against a little more than thirty and threequarter millions possessed by the United States, India, and the Continent of Europe. In other words, our potential producing power exceeds by one-fourth that of all our competitors combined. That we have lost nothing of our former excellence of workmanship was abundantly proved at the recent Exhibition in Paris. The Economist' concludes an able paper on the textile products exhibited with the reassuring assertion that there can be no doubt about the sterling character of all the goods exhibited, and we may look in vain for any serious rivalry, as regards these productions, either in quality, colour, or finish.' The Economist' speaks in a less confident tone of the comparative excellence of our woollens. Here we are threatened with a serious competition by the French manufacturers. In the class of merinos, 'the technical power, which the French designer and weaver has obtained over these materials, and the perfection to which the dye and finish has, for years past, been brought, is a lesson, which the English manufacturer of mixed fabrics appears only now to have taken to heart; whilst the French have for nearly three generations systematically and continuously educated their foremen weavers and dyers in the application of mechanical and chemical science to their special industries.' ness of I see no present indication that our textile indus- Needlesstries will be overcome by foreign competition. Our alarm. manufacturers have at their disposal an ample supply of cheap capital. Their industrial and administrative faculties are an inherited gift. They are not deficient in ingenuity, and they are enterprising to the point of rashness. During their past and present trials, the operatives have exhibited many admirable qualities. It is but natural that they should be found less docile and tractable in good times than in bad times, when labour is scarce than when it is superabundant. But they have been good workers, and on equal terms can still defy the world. 'I son's for the Mr. Raynsford Jackson, whose name has been so Mr. Jackprominent in the recent trade disputes in Lancashire, apology in his speech at Blackburn, expressed a highly favour- Lancashire able opinion of the powers of the workmen. operatives. take this opportunity of saying that, notwithstanding all that has passed, I still have confidence in our Lancashire operatives. I believe that they are right at heart. I believe they are hard-working, tractable, and intelligent. I believe that their confidence is easily won, and we have evidence that it can be easily abused. We have been placed in an extremely difficult position. You must recollect that we are face to face with a generation which has not seen much depression excepting during the American War, and that was regarded as an exceptional state of things which was borne with wonderful fortitude in these districts. We have not seen much of adversity in this generation, and our young people have grown up seeing improved Importance of technical improvements. Adulteration. machinery, increased occupation, growing prosperity, Relying on the impartial opinion of Mr. Redgrave, and on the assertion so often repeated of foreign employers, that the labour at their command is inferior to our own, I do not accept it as proved that the English operatives have executed less work, in proportion to their wages, than their Continental rivals. I see more ground for apprehension lest our master manufacturers should confine their attention too exclusively to the commercial aspects of their business. Quality, taste, and design must not be regarded as matters of subordinate importance in comparison with mere cheapness. In mechanical ingenuity American manufacturers are our serious rivals. In taste and design we are hard pressed, perhaps not unfrequently surpassed, on the Continent. It has been said that we are losing our reputation as manufacturers by adulterating our cotton goods with a dressing of china clay. The practice has been |