GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



379 



fish do not run and their little patches of oats 

 fail to ripen, they have to endure periodical 

 starvation. Among the suggestions of the 

 royal commissioners was a proposition to re- 

 store the communal character of the pasture- 

 lands, which were taken from the people and 

 bestowed upon the loyal chiefs as a reward 

 after the insurrection of the Pretender. The 

 restoration of the Highland township or village 

 community, the construction of harbors and 

 piers for the fishing population, loans for the 

 purchase of boats and tackle suitable for deep- 

 sea fishing, improved means of transportation 

 to the markets, and subventions in aid of emi- 

 gration, are the remedies suggested by the 

 royal commission for the distress in the west- 

 era Highlands. 



The Employers' Liability Act. The act holding 

 employers liable for accidents occurring to 

 workmen from the lack of proper precautions 

 for their safety, or other negligence, was de- 

 cried at the time of its passage, in 1881, as 

 a measure that would embitter the relations 

 between workmen and employers, and greatly 

 nc rease the financial risks in the manufactur- 

 ing branches. The effect of the act has been 

 insignificant, except in inducing masters in 

 dangerous employments to look somewhat 

 more carefully to the condition of their ma- 

 chinery, and supply the precautions required 

 by law. The courts decided that it did not 

 destroy the doctrine of " common employ- 

 ment," to the great disappointment of the work- 

 ing-men. The number of suits brought in three 

 years was only 443, the total amount of dam- 

 ages awarded 18,124. The principal reason 

 why the effect of the act has been so insignifi- 

 cant is that employers induce their workmen 

 to sign away their rights under the act. On 

 this account the trade-unionists demand that 

 the law should be amended so as to prevent 

 employers from contracting themselves out of 

 their statutory liability. 



Industrial Depression. The year 1884 was 

 marked by an increasing depression in the 

 manufacturing trades that in some branches 

 amounted to almost complete stagnation. The 

 ship-building and subsidiary trades had long 

 been idle, and the iron and coal industries, de- 

 pending largely on this branch and on foreign 

 orders for iron, which have been few since the 

 decline of railroad-building in the United States 

 and the development of the iron industries of 

 the Continent, were greatly depressed. In the 

 ship-building districts most of the working-men 

 were out of work, and the reserve funds of 

 their trade-unions were nearly exhausted at the 

 approach of winter. The engineering branches 

 in Lancashire resorted to shcrt time, and the 

 cotton-trade was dull. In South Wales some 

 of the largest mining establishments closed 

 down altogether. In the industrial districts 

 of the metropolis, about 30 per cent, of the 

 wage-earning classes were estimated to be out 

 of work. The depression of the sugar indus- 

 try in East London threw many out of employ- 



ment. It was reported in the autumn that 

 11,000 men were out of work in Sunderland, 

 4,000 at Glasgow, 25,000 on the Tyne and 

 Wear, 10,000 in Monmouthshire and Glamor- 

 ganshire, and that, of the 60,000 men employed 

 on the London docks, one third were idle, and 

 one third employed only four days in the week. 

 Half-time was becoming the rule in Lancashire, 

 Staffordshire, and the other great industrial 

 centers. The depression in the sugar-trade, 

 and the crisis in the sugar-growing industry of 

 the British West India Islands, led to an agita- 

 tion for countervailing duties to offset the for- 

 eign bounties. Such duties, it was argued, 

 would not be opposed to the doctrine of free 

 trade. The ministry inclined to the view that 

 if the Germans were willing to furnish the 

 people of England with sugar for less than it 

 cost, it would not be to the general interest of 

 the nation to refuse it for the sake of a limited 

 class. 



The Crisis in the Sugar-Trade, The West India 

 sugar-planters were reduced to sore financial 

 straits by the competition of beet-sugar in the 

 English market. They were threatened with 

 total ruin from the loss of the American mar- 

 ket also, in consequence of the Spanish-Ameri- 

 can treaty. They demanded that the English 

 custom should be restored to them by means 

 of countervailing duties for their protection, 

 and, when the home Government turned a deaf 

 ear to their complaints, declared that the Brit- 

 ish connection was worthless to them, and an- 

 nexation to the United States their only hope. 

 Annexation to Canada was also discussed, but 

 with less favor, because the Canadian market 

 is too small to consume their sugar. In a 

 report drawn up for the Board of Trade, 

 Mr. Giffen said that the production of sugar, 

 omitting China, India, and other outlying coun- 

 tries, had increased from 1,423,000 tons in 

 1853-'55 to 3,564,000 tons in 1880-'82, and 

 over 4,000,000 tons in 1883. British cane-su- 

 gar increased from 261,000 tons in the former 

 period to 419,000 tons a year in 1880-'82 ; for- 

 eign cane-sugar from 972,000 to 1,499,000 tons. 

 Beet-sugar constituted 14 per cent, of the total 

 production in 1853-'55, and 46 per cent, in 1880 

 -'82, the proportion of British cane-sugar de- 

 clining from 18 to 12, of foreign cane-sugar 

 from 68 to 42 per cent. Since 1868 the prod- 

 uct of the British planters has held its ground 

 in proportion and in quantity. The consump- 

 tion of cane-sugar in Great Britain increased 

 from 389,000 to 647,000 tons, that of refined 

 beet-sugar in a much greater proportion. From 

 the British possessions the imports declined. 

 The total consumption amounts to 1,083,000 

 tons, equal to 68 pounds a head of the popu- 

 lation, valued at 30,000,000. The reduction 

 in price due to foreign bounties was computed 

 at 5,000,000, exceeding the total production 

 of the British West Indies and British Guiana, 

 and twice the capital invested in English re- 

 fineries. For a long time the British Govern- 

 ment took no steps to satisfy the wishes of the 



