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to privilege them is to render them more efficient ibr the public service ; when they eatabliah even asx aereditsry tenure , because the affection for themselres 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 say , " I hare a right to my position , because it is beneficial to me , " while in services to -the public he does no more tban . any other man , and pays but a proportionate income-tax , contributes but a proportionate mite to charity—that xaan has no real right and title to his position . He has forfeited it . He has forfeited it the
more , since opportunity redoubles obligation . The man who can serve his eountry with personal influence and -wealth , but neglects to do so , offeads his country , and deserves to be brought to a stern account . Lord Derby talks about being " degraded " by being sent before the constituencies of the Commons . If the constituencies of the Commons understood the insult implied in the remark , they would call Lord "Derby
before them j and ask him what he does for his place ? They wotild then learn , that he , and Peers like him , are useless encumbrances , are fit only to share the fate of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada—to be abolished . And the constituencies could do that , if they were to take pains to elect proper servants , and "would give their servants proper instructions . The safety of the Peers lies in the supineness of the People .
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WHOLESALE PROSPERITY AND RETAIL BANKRUPTCY . The state of trade , national as -well as wholesale aad retail , is so peculiar as to attract repeated remark on all sides ; and it appears to us to be most important to note some of its 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 been noticed , we 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 when we look to the exports and imports , to the prices of the public funds , or to the state of the national revenue , that we have proved to us the general prosperity , not only of the state , but of the community which forms the living body of that state .
Eor a state may be comparatively prosperous while the people that form it are poor ; as wretched Russia is sacrificed to extol the magnificent Czar and his armies . Far different is it with us . The people are really richer than the state ; the revenue is a test , not a measure of the resources of the people . We collect annually some sixty millions for the public expenditure , besides local expenditure ; and that is really but a small portion of the income of the people
Our exports—the surplus of our produce which we exchange * with other countrieshave magnified immensely , even within the last two years , constant as the increase had been previously . We take the short half of the three last years , —the first fivo months of each , —and we find that while the exports of 1852 amounted to more than twenty-seven millions those for 1803 exceeded thirty-five millions , and those for 1854 exceeded lnst year by nearly half a million .
There is , indeed , this diffeionco between 1854 and 1853 , —that last year showed an increase in every month ovor the month of the previous yenr , whereas , taking the separate months , 1854 shows both deoreaso and increase : That is natural in n timo of greater disturbance and misgiving ; but the genera .
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 . Oxie has been pointed out , in the fidelity of the Administration to the principles of I > eetrade ; but to a certain extent it may be said that the principle of Free-trade in comraeree *
has become independent of any Ministry for the time being . The Derby-Disraeli Grovernment 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 Avould be at this day for any G-overnment , 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 . " l ^ ot only aie profits declining , but demand is falling off . People begin to ask where the fall will
stop r In vain you point to the sustained amount of export and imports , of the public funds , of the public revenue , of the property aad income tax : tradesmen answer that their receipts are falling off ty one-half . ! Nbw , in tie 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 m the complaint : there is a serious decline in tmsiness ; Imt this we "believe also to be an exaggeration , not in statement but in fact . It is a 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 lias not yet made the claims upon , us that it may make , will never be permitted to repeat the improvident demands which characterised Pitt's time .
The inconvenience no doubt is aggravated by the fact that capitalists are to some extent diverting their means from ordinary trade to larger enterprises , and particularly to railways , and , we suspect , to a prospective speculation 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 G , 83 O , 00 OJ . in the same month of 1853 . These 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—the great men of commerce . They are for upholding the restriction against the combination of
small capitals , and thus a large amount of capital which would just now be available is actually kept out of use fey'that law which 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 to force Free-trade upon the agriculturists , now clamour for the hreach of JYee-trade involved
m 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 we have ventured in previous numbers . Mingled with the general soundness , there is undoubtedly a considerable amount of unsoundness . 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 the greatest capitalists , there is one solvent man ; and why ? Becavise , 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 in factj nevertheless , it * ' pulls tip" those who have been laying out their money on speculation , since they are not supplied with the periodical returns upon which their
previous calculations had induced them to reckon . They had indeed no right to > reckon . It is not 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 tilings throughout 1854 or anysubsequent year . The political economist may calculate widely , because he does nofe 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 . " Por
reasons partly correct and partly incorrect , men do not feast , marry , or travel just 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 the
beginning or end of Ins own transactions , hecome living errors in the sweep of the political economist . They are like men in the midst of a cavalry regiment careering at full gallop : they cannot see nor choose their path ; if they pall up through faint heart , or stumble through accident , they fall , and are run over . Such sacrifices will continue to be made whilo
men trade blindly ; they must trade blindly while the system of artificial credit prevents their seeing the beginning or end of theae own transactions , because it involves everybody in an , endless chain of pledges . At present , however , there could scarcely bo found a dozen men who would recogniso tho truth , that laws for tho artificial enforcement of credit aro as much a violation of Freetrncle as they aro of philology or of logic .
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THE VENERABLE LORD AND HIS PAIR CIRCASSIAN . Another " exceptional case" has come before tho Court of Common Fleas—an action , l ) y a lady , to recover 14502 . from Mr . Potcr JJott Kolfc , her friend . The case forces itself upon our notice , as a disclosure of manners ami customs amongst tho upper classes of this country . AVo say tho upper clnaaea in the plural , because more than one class ia involved . And wo call the ca « o " excep-
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* Wo speak of Frco-trado « a a principle absolutel y sound . Tho mistaka of economists lifts consisted in supposing that trading commerce represents nil tho relations butween man nnd . man outside the family circle . Reasons of friendshi p , however , may sanction what would othonviso bo violations of strict economy , with a substantial benefit as tho result . For oxnmple , by having kept my cousin going in a baker ' s business , instead of lotting lum becomo bankrupt nnd dependent upon mo , I may be better ojF at tho < uul of 11 year than I should bo if 1 loft him to his fate uml saved on my bread-bill by going to a cleaner baker . Again , cennomintt ) of tho old aohool have supposed that " division of labour" was
tho only truo economy ; wlioroafl , Edward Gibbon Wakonold hft 3 shown that tho proposition should bo divided into two pn rtS j thnt the truo power ol' labour is not got until " combination of labour" iurninhes thu means of gutting " division of employments ; " and u writer in our own journal , redividing _ this canon into a Iliinl part , hns inalntnimri thnt tho divided omploymonlH , fuoiliutud by combination of labour , _ cnniiot , attain their full productive power until they bo carried on in concert . There is nothing , liowuvor , in thiH doctrine Incompatible with 1 ' roc-trade . It in as necossnry to tho perfect development of Frco-trado an n correct order of planting is accessary to the Iroo development of com or any other grognrioua plant .
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ms TIE LEADER . £ S&t * jbday 5
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 8, 1854, page 638, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2046/page/14/
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