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63$ THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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WHOLESALE £BO$PER1TY AND RETAIL BANKRTJP...
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THE YENERABLE LOUD AND HIS FAIR CIRCASSI...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Lord Derby's Title Deeds. Loud Djesby Li...
top ^ vnege render more efficient , fcr , ' $ he public service ; when , they establish svgn , ai * hereditary tenure , "because fche affection ? for themselves extends to their progeny . But an aristocracy which can show no title to : its , possessions except those advantageous to . itself has a flaw in its tenure .
A Peer who can only sav , I have a right to my positicifiajbecause : it is beneficial to me " while in . services to the public he doea . xio more than ; any other man , and pays but a proportionate income-tax , contributes but . a proportionate mite to charity-r-that matt has no real right and title to his position . 3 ie has forfeited it . He has forfeited , it the
more , since opportunity redoubles obligation * The man who : can serve his countryLwithper ? sonal influence and wealth , but neglects to do so , offends his country , and deserves to bd brought to a stern account r Lord Derby talks about being " degraded , by being sent before the constituencies of the Commons . If the constituencies of the
Commons tuicberstaad the ^ insult implied in the remark , they would « all IJord Derby before them , and ask him what he does- for his place ? They would tien learn ^ that he , and Peers Hke himi are useless encuinbranees , are fit only to share the fate of theiiegislative Council of Upper Canada—to be abolished . And the constituencies could do
that , if they were to take pains to eleet proper servants , and would give their servants proper instructions . The safety of the Peers lies in the supineness of the People .
63$ The Leader. [Saturday,
63 $ THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Wholesale £Bo$Per1ty And Retail Bankrtjp...
WHOLESALE £ BO $ PER 1 TY AND RETAIL BANKRTJP ^ CT . The state of . frade , national as well as wholesale and retail , is so peculiar as to attract repeated remark on all aides ; and it appears to us to be most important to note some of } ts anomalies . There is a kind of freshness in the constant success which perseveres through every trial , and at every new proof of that success , constantly as it has . peen noticed , , w & receive the fact as a novelty . It is true that the success . evinces itself in the
very broadest results , and that we lose the conception of it as we approach to the minuter details . It is wfcen we look , to the exports und imports , to the prices o £ -the ? public funds , or to the state of the national . revenue ^ that we have proved to us tjie general prosperity , not ^ only of . thei state ,. Tmt . of the community which forms the Jivjlpg ; body of that state . , -, For a state may be comparatively proswhile the people that formit vv iujiv muo uits buuii luriu
perous , are j ^ Dj . uuo jyo ^ . % o are p . dor ; , as wretched Russia is sacrificed , to extol the magnificent Czar and his armies . ' 3 ? ar different is it with 113 . The people are really richer than the state ; , the revenue is a test , not a measure of , th e r , esQur , c , es of £ Ue > people . ,, We collect \ ftnQually , spin © sii ^ y i millions . for : the public expenditure , besides local-expenditure j . and that is really but-ijfit : skali portion of ; the inpofrie of tho 13 ' eople .
Our exp o ^ r ^ the . swpiiigi sojf pwr , . produce which rwe exchange > with other , qauntoriesrsr 1 have magnified immensely , even within the > last two years , constant as the increase Shad been previously . We take , tf * e $ b 6 rt haft of tjie three Met y . ears , T-ntUWfiys ) b five xwrntihs'of each , T ~ and wo find that while tho exports of 1852 amounted to more than twenty-seven millions tU /> se for 1859 exceeded thirty-five iT ^ lions ,, and > those for , 3 , 8 . 154 exceeded last yioar by nearly ; half a million . i
' There 'is , ' indeed , this difference between 1854 i artft 1 186 ^ , ^ -that laqt year sliowe ^ an increase fin © v . ejcy . jnpnth over tho montfi of the prevwua . yiear , AYhereas , taking the separate months , . 1854 i shoVe both decrease and mcreaae . Tlmt ia natural in a time of greater disturbance , and misgiving ; but tho general
result is . as we have stated it , proving that notwithstanding the sounds of alarm for the commercial mind , the increase of 1853 is sustained in 1854 . The reasons for this success , are apparent . One has been pointed out , in . the fidelity of the Administration to the principles of ; Freetrade ; but to a certain extent it . may be said that the . principle of SVee-trade in commerce * has become independent of- any -Ministry for
the time being . The Derby-Disraeli Government was obliged to acquiesce , and a glance at the . mere list of exported and imported , goods will show how innumerable are the alliances which have been established , and how impracticable it would ' "be at tnis day for any Government , desiring its own existence , to attempt the intercepting of those alliances . ¦ '" - '' .
When , however , we pass from , the condition of national and general prosperity to the condition of individuals , or of particular sections of trade , we shall find a very different tone . At present almost the universal , complaint is that " business is bad . " Hot only are profits declining , but demand is falling off . People begin to ask where the fall will stop ? In vain you point to the sustained amount of export and imports , of the public funds , of the public revenue , of the property and income tax s tradesmen answer that their
receipts are falling off by one-half . Now , in the first place , we believe there is gross exaggeration in the statement . Let half the margin of a man ' s receipts be cut off , and it looks as bad as if half the entire amount were
expunged . There is , however , some truth in the complaint : there is a serious decline in business ; but this we believe also to be an exaggeration , not in statement but in fact . It is sL practical result of an exaggerated fear that the interruption of war to commerce , and the claims of the tax-gatherer , may at no distant date put a check upon trade . In anticipation of that possibility , trade has put a check upon itself ; unnecessarily , since commerce is not interrupted , or is very partially so . The war , which has not yet made the claims upon us that it may-make , will nfever be permitted to repeat the improvident demands which characterised Pitt ' s time .
The inconvenience no doiibt is aggravated h y the fact that capitalists are to some extent diverting their means from ordinary trade to larger enterprises , and particularly to xrail-, waysy and , we suspect , to a prospective specu- ^ lation in Government loans . Many a man is preparing -for'that too soon . As to railways , ' we observe that the calls for this present
month of July amount to 8 , 500 , 000 ? . against 6 , 830 , 000 ? . in the same month of 1853 . ^ hese last events alone remind us again that the principle of Free-trade is grossly violated by ? those who once thrust it down the throats of the agricultural Protectionists—tho great men of : commerce . They are for upholding the restriction against the combination of ¦ ¦ ' / ¦ ¦¦ , : - i ¦ ¦ , . ' . : _ * Wo speak of Free-trade as a principle absolutely sound . Themistake of : econefnist 3 has ' consisted in suppoaingthnt trqdinff . cominorco . represents all the gelations between man apd ' inan outside the family circle . Reasons of friendship . Mw- ' ovor , ' . may sanction whafi would otherwise bo violations ofatriot economy , with » substantial benefit ns tlio result , ^ . p ^ aropjle , by lining kept my cousiji going inaVakoy ' a business , instead of lotting him beconvo bankrupt and dependent upon mo , I may be better off at tho end of a year than I shoitfd bo if J left him to his f « to and eavod on my brand-Mil by , going to , « , el | oapor l >» Jwr . Again , ccpnomiata of the old school hayo supposed tlmt " division of labour" was tho only , true economy j whorodft , Edward Qibbon Wakoflold has sliown that tho proposition tthquM bo divided into two parts , that tho truo power of labour ia not got until " oomblnotijjn of labour" l ' urni , 8 hoa the moans of getting " division of einplnymonts ; " tind a writor in our own journal , redividing'tbja canon iato n third pnrt , baa inainti » ineil thafc tho divided ompbjments , fuoihtntcd by combination of lnbour , cannot atli & n tneir full produotivo power ' until they bo carried on in convert . There ib nothing , however , in this doctrine inopmpatiblQ withJiVoe-trado . It ia na neepasary to tho norfoot ; dovolopmont of Froo-trndo aa a correct orjor of planting 3 a Tiwonekry to tho Iwo development of coin or any other . grqgariquiij plant .
small capitals-, and thus a . large amount of capital which would just now be available ia actually kept out of use by that law whiofe will not allow a man to risk his capital unless he is prepared to risk with it himself and all that he has . The law is not so inconvenient to great capitalists as it is to small , and it helps to preserve a monopoly to great capitalists ; hence , they who clamoured -fco force Free-trade upon the agriculturists , now clamour for the breach of Eree-trade involved
in partnership " protection . " This restriction is now operating very severely upon the class , which is most complaining—small though more enterprising retail dealers . 'The actual state of trade , with its curious mixture of difficulty and prosperity , forces upon us another reflection , upon which to have ventured ia previous numbers . Mingled with the general soundness , there ia undoubtedly a considerable amount of uasdundness . Bankruptcy is abroad . We
could point to one trade , noted for its enterprise ^ in which we doubt whether , at this moment , with the exception of a few of tha > greatest capitalists , there is one solvent man j and why ? Because , although the property in which that trade deals has a permanent value , the immediate demand for it is checked * "We have already said that -this check is partly reasonable , and partly also a mistake m fact ; nevertheless , it " pulls up" those > who have been laying out their money on
speculation , since they are not supplied with the periodical returns upon which theie previous calculations had induced them to reckon . They had -indeed no right to reckon . It is nofc safe to calculate that , because men have been wanting boots , or coats , or joints of meat , in a certain ratio during the year 1853 , they will continue to want those things throughout 1854 or any
subsequent year . The political economist may calculate widely , because he does not trouble himself about mistakes in detail ; but the temporary errors that compensate each other in , the calculations of political economy are the ruin of the many small traders who are the units in his " round numbers . " 3 Tor reasons partly correct and partly incorrect , men do not feast , marry , or travel iusfc at
present at the continuous rate of 1853 . Lodgings , clothes , railway tickets , and house property do not go off so continuously ; and men who have got involved in the universal system in which no one man can see tho beginning or end of his own transactions , become living errors in . the sweep of the political economist . They are like men in the midst of a cavalry regiment careering at full gallop r they cannot see nor choose their path ; if they pull up through faint heart , or stumble
through accident , they fall , and are run over . Such sacrifices will continue to be made whilemen trade blindly ; they muBt trade blindly whOo the system of artificial credit prevents their seeing the beginning or end of their own transactions , because it involves everybody in an endless chain of pledges . At present , however , there could scarcely be found a dozen inon who would recognise the truth , that laws for the artificial enforcement of credit are as much a violation of Freetrade as they are of philology or of logic .
The Yenerable Loud And His Fair Circassi...
THE YENERABLE LOUD AND HIS FAIR CIRCASSIAN . Anotileu " exceptional case" has como boforo tho Court of Common Pleas—an action * by a lady , to rooover 14 . 50 / . from Mr . Petw Bett Holt , her friond . The caao foucos itself upon our notice , aa a disclosure of mtxnnova and customs amongst the upper classes of this country . We Bay the upper classes ia the plural , because move tlian one ola » a i & involved . And we caU the < jobo " excop-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 8, 1854, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08071854/page/14/
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