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    ENGLAND HEESELF AGAIN . " t should most humbly recommend the good citizens of London , " said Lord Combermere , in of war , " to rely more upon the swords and baronets of our troops than upon the infatuations of the Peace Society ; " a sentiment received with " much cheering and laughter" by the good citizens In truth , the Peace delusion , though its advocates have all the strength derivable from newness of doctrine , honesty , and zeal , possesses but little hold on the public mind ; . and the politicians who trade on the dislike to war will probably find that they hare allied themselves to a worn-out feeling now passing fast away . They are like the doctor ' s boy , hoping to filch a lift behind a coach , who finds that it is only goinginto the coach-house . The number of those who are beginning to understand the real pinch of the question is daily increasing , and will not recede . The most influential journals admit the necessity of being prepared to repel aggression , and the Times heads them ; the example of Switzerland , T ? ho has so long maintained her freedom in the very centre of despotic Europe , by favour of her familiarity with the use of arms , is expounded in

    one of the most experienced and discreet of our contemporaries ; the example of the Athenians , who retained their freedom and independence so long as they were in the habit of usnig arms , is the burden of Grote ' s forthcoming volume of his Eistory of Greece ; Home might be added , so long as the Romans were their oton soldiers , and did not employ mercenaries ; and the scientific statesman of the present Ministry has avowed the necessity of restoring the familiarity with arms to our own population :

    " This is the first attempt , " said Mr . Disraeli , speaking of the Militia Bill , " to habituate the people of this country to the use of arms , to which they are not at present generally accustomed . Circumstances , irresistible circumstances , have for a long time rendered such a policy necessary ; and if this bill should be adopted , though it is not a measure which would produce a disciplined army , able to encounter the veteran legions of the world , it would be the first step in a right direction , and would lay the foundation of a constitutional system of national defence . "

    This is not only a scientific , it is a just , a practical , and a generous view of the question . The tone contrasts favourabl y with Mr . Cobden ' s sli ghting mention of " vagabonds , " whom he would not trust with weapons ; and at least as favourably with Lord John Bussell ' s still more deliberate avowal , that he would not trust "the whole population of this country , " but only " men of respectable character . " Such is the " liberal "

    view taken by the late Premier of tho British nation : Lord John , Liboral-in-chief , will not trust the British nation as a whole ! Ho might bo asked if the recruiting sergeant who collects ttion . for the army refuses all out " men of respectable character P" Ho might be asked if tho respectables form so small a minority that they nood fear tho disrespectabloa , howovor armed P A no avowal is anti-national—it is wholly alien to a KOTiorous or patriotic feeling .

    -ino jargon which wo hoar at meetings of tho working classes , about " oppression , " is as idle fta it is weak . A brave pooplo cannot bo oppressed , oxcopt by tho union of many foreign . 7 against it . If u nation is oppressed by any mtorual tyrants , tho fact proves that the nation r . « either its bravery or its virtue The uut of our aristocracy is that ifc is not aristocratic cn ° v <) lt-—that i (; does not i ' cel tho ambition and oiiorny to recover its influence among the people , ^ ni uo country " tho lord" no longer has retainers Jj ^ nd . ium , bound by old . dependency and affec-M in tho town , tho public man no longer

    wms influence by sharing in the amusements of the people , or acting in their presence . To receive rents , to pass a shooting season in remote regions , to spend a London season between clubs , soirees , theatres , and Parliament—that is the life of the young gentleman- — -giving to the word " young , " indeed , a wide latitude of meaning . It is true , as Mr . Disraeli says , that an inevitable necessity calls upon " People to recover the familiarity with arms : but familiarity implies practice ; practice implies pleasure in the practice ; pleasure implies leisure—a periodical leisure . Now how much might be done by our aristocracy if its sons were to exert all their influence—and

    their influence is still sufficient for the opportunity—toobtain forthe working classes the national custom of a half-holiday on the Saturday , with open places for manly sports and military exercise ! How much might that influence be strengthened if the young men of the aristocracy were to go among the people on those halfholidays , to share in their sports—not de haut en bos , but in real chivalrous brotherhood ! There is no fear that , with the opportunities for cultivation , and the superior capacities of "blood , " the young men of family , as a class , would lose

    superiority in fair field ; there is no fear that they would fail to regain an immense amount of influence , socially , politically , and nationally available . To say that such an innovation would be impossible , would be to libel our countrymen in a way that we will not anticipate . " We do not for a moment believe that our gentry are so enervated , if they could but overcome that growing weakness of the Englishman , mauvaise horde . That some such custom / is essential to the process indicated by Mr . Disraeli , we hold to be evident . We heartily agree with him that the necessity exists ; and we believe that the opinion is daily gaining adherents among all politicians- —among all who are trul y Nationalist , truly Liberal , and truly Conservative .

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    THE CANKEB OF TRADE . While Competition is the accredited inspirer of trading activity , instead of Concert ^ the anomalies of the system will be perpetually re-appearing in the form of injury , waste , and manifold suffering . One result of that condition of things we pointed out last week , in the needless and therefore sterile subdivision of " employment ; " and we see that Mr . F . O . Ward has pointed to the same evil , in showing how the booksellers are damaging their trade by the needless multiplication of retailers . This ho illustrated by a parallel case : — " If tho number of retailers should remain undiminished , they will bo fain to replace the abolished restrictions by a tacit combination , or understanding with respect to prices , amongst themselves . " Such a tacit combination exists among tho London bakers , notwithstanding that their trado is nominally freo . For whereas in Paris , 601 bakers serve a million of people , we have in London 2800 bakers to a population of 2 , 300 , 000 ; or more than twice as many

    bakers as wo need . It is mainly in consequence of this fact that , whilo corn is only 5 per cent , dearer in London than in Paris , bread is from 35 to 40 per cent , dearer here than there . Not that tho London bakera get individually moro profit than their Parisian brethren , but that tho total profits of the London retail bread trade are divided among moro than twice as many traders ; or , in other words , are wastod in keeping up some twelve or fourteen hundred unnecessary establishments .

    " It is a curious fact , tending , I think , to corroborate my view , that in 1807 there were 689 bakora in Paris , and thoir number ( which is regulated by law ) has since been reduced at thoir own solicitation—tho whole body subscribing to buy up , at a fair compensation , those of tho establishments whicli they considered superfluous , and consequently detrimental to tho ooconomical conduct of tho trado .

    "Now , though public opinion is certainly not ripe for such an organization of tho London trade , oithor in broad or in books , yet tho staunchest Freo-trador would hesitate , I think , to recommond that tho Parisian bread-trade , which now works so well , should bo thrown open , as in London , to a nmh of competition , involving tho nt'odless reduplication of oritabliHlnnonts , and thus entailing on tho public an increaso of prices , and on tho traders a reduction of . profits .

    " These considerations iiro tho moro important , as they apply not only to tho brotwl and book trades , but to retail trado in ovory kind ; so that in London alone several millions per annum are probably wastod on duplicate rotttil establishments . "'

    , It has been gratuitously supposed by some hasty reasoners , that Mr . Ward would reduce the size of London , and ship off the surplus dealers to Van Diemen's land . A far more imposing spectacle would be , that the surplus people , acknowledging their own needlessness , and confronting their fate with dignity , should sacrifice themselves like a legion of Curtii ; and a grand holiday might be made for the purpose of

    witnessing the funeral procession . Mr . Ward , however , said nothing of the kind , and is not to be charged with the wild confusions of his misinterpreters . Nor must we blind our eyes to an oeeonomical truth , because immediate extrication from embarrassment is not easy . That there are immense numbers of superfluous traders will be admitted confidentially b y all who labour , in each trade , under the competition of a market where the dealers outnumber the necessities of the

    customers ; and because the sudden removal of those superfluous dealers would leave a vast number of houses "to let , " and would withdraw customers from each branch of trade , the truth is not lesstrue . Those amongst our own readers who have honoured our oeeonomical theses with their attention , will be at no loss to solve the difficulty . The key is supplied by the fact , that this increase of numbers in secondary and ancillary employments does not increase production ; but actually diminishes it . Let us follow the case of the bakers a little further , and we shall see that their false combination—as

    different from concert as competition is from emulation—not onl y enhances cost , but positively checks production . In the north of England , a habit which pursues people even into towns is , to make their own bread ; but let a Yorkshireman come to London , and he will find great obstacles in his way . The flour is dearer—to say nothing of the difficulty of getting it good : he

    will pay 2 s . 4 id . to 2 s . G& . for a stone of fourteen pounds . But even at that price , he has it as a favour ; " for , " say the millers , "the bakers will not let us sell ^ flour under their price , or what is to become of themV So the bread-eater must pay the price of his flour , and also a tax upon it for the support of the bakers , whether the baker ' s labour be used or not .

    Now , at this very time , the bread-eater can obtain flour in Leeds at Is . 8 c ? . a stone ; and why P Because in Leeds there is an institution , which , regardless of trading necessities , and . devised expressly to bring the consumer into direct intercourse with the producer , sells flour at the price of its fair cost with a remunerative margin . At that institution , the People ' s Mill , you can now buy flour at Is . 7 d ., and not only " flour" so-called , but tho very finest in the kingdom , every grain of it .

    Tho People's Mill indeed is a Socialistic institution ; but we are not aware that the flour is any the less sweet for that . It is a great exemplar of honest and practical Socialism . And let the ooconomist who is not blinded by obsolete studies , look at the facts with the discerning eyes of an Adam Smith , and understand thorn . By favour of concert—that is , of a thorough understanding between tho parties to tho transaction , whoever they may be , —the purchaser of flour at the Leeds Mill buys what ho wants , without stint

    or adulteration , at its oxact cost , with liberal ajlowanco for all engaged in getting it to him ; but with no charge for superfluous persons " cmployed" in tho process , or not employed at all , but only taxing him for omitting them . In tho competitive London market ho is paving one-half more . But , to enhance tho cost of broad fifty per cent is to diminish tho consumption . Observe , further , thoreforo , that tho farmer is defrauded of his full proportion of trado in London , while , with tho single , necessary , and pledged in "

    tormediator of the People ' s Mill at Leeds , tho farmer is brought into direct contact with tho consumer , who takes his full " whack" for his monoy , without being hindered by any bolccr combinations , or fines or impediments of any sort . Wo have only stated facts : lot the reader unalyzo thorn . Now , as to tho " surplus population" in baking , book-selling , or any otnor department , would wo march thorn into the Thames , or my a single word that can load to that ondP Ood forbid . " Wo boliovo , indeed , that tho occupations for which a baker might find no small aptitude , would bo increased by that great principle which is now dawning in ooconomio philosophy - —concert . Lot us apply it to his case . If the

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    = > nothing so revolutionary , because there is There . is uaIiatuTal and convulsive , as the strain to ? £ flnnes toed when all the world is by the very law f ite creation in eternal progress . —Db . Aehoid .

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    v r ^ . SATURDAY , MAY 22 , 1852 .

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    May 22 , 18 S 2 . ] THE LEADEE , 489

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 22, 1852, page 489, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1936/page/13/