Feb. 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



12: 



Rural depopulation which Mr. Wallace regards as a 

 cause, seems to us to be more appropriately viewed BtS an 

 effect of commercial depression. It acts doubtless, as all 

 effects act, in turn, as a cause. But it began with the 

 falling off in trade, of which it was a direct effect. How 

 it operates, however, let it have been brought about as it 

 will, may be seen when we note that the importation of 

 bacon and pork rose from 863,000 cwt. in 1870 to 

 5,007,000 cwt. in 1883; potatoes from 127,000 cwt. to 

 4,034,000 cwt., and eggs from 430 millions to 814 millions. 

 Unfortunately such results as tliese, rightly apprehended, 

 tend to show how long-lasting must be the effects of such 

 depression as has affected our trade during the last ten 

 years. The rural population, driven into the cities by 

 want, will not be restored to rural districts when 

 commerce begins to revive. 



In regard to agricultural depression and its causes, Mr. 

 Wallace is in favour of small lioldings free from risk of 

 change. He holds with Mr. Barclay that with continuity 

 of occupation and fair rents fixed for long periods and 

 never to be raised on account of improvements effected 

 by the occupier, our land is capable of well repaying the 

 expenditure of labour and capital in its cultivation. The 

 trouble is, that if rents are to be fixed for long»periods, the 

 determination of the amount becomes a matter of specu- 

 lation : and there must inevitably be serious loss either 

 to the tenant or to the landlord in a great number of 

 cases. This may be a less serious mischief than the 

 trouble arising from the unwillingness of the tenant to 

 introduce improvements for which he will eventually 

 have to pay an increased rent, or from the readiness 

 of too many landlords to take to themselves 

 the profits which the tenant is justly entitled 

 to obtain from his own improvements. The whole 

 subject is full of difficulties ; and unfortunately 

 the method which seems suo-gested as the only fair 

 way of meeting the chief difficulty, i.e., enabling all 

 who will to become pni-chasers of land in perpetuity, 

 at reasonable rates, savours too much of communism to 

 commend itself to general approval. Legislative enact- 

 ments have proved too often delusive, if not injurious, to 

 be regarded as hopeful means for improving the state of 

 affairs. But the mischief is serious r.nd pres.sing. So 

 long as a few wealthy landholders have absolute command 

 over a large proportion of the Ip.nd available for agricul- 

 tural purposes, with rentals so large as to be free (if 

 they prefer it) to convert crop lands to grass lands, or 

 even grass lands to waste, there will be an ever- 

 growing feeling that there is wrong done to the many. 

 It is manifestly no longer a sound answer to say that 

 because it is the interest of every great landowner to 

 make the best use of his land, room will always be found 

 for a rural population. This is no more true than the 

 argument that slavery is on the whole beneficial 

 because it is the interest of the owners to treat their 

 slaves well. A man who might obtain £200,000 a year 

 from agricultural tenantry on the larger portion of his 

 land, maj- prefer to sacrifice half this amount in order to 

 have the best portion of his estates free from all signs 

 of agricultural labour. He may regard the money so 

 lost as money devoted to his own special gratification, 

 and the satisfaction accruing to himself as worth the 

 sacrifice. Many certainly do so view the question ; and 

 though when this purely selfish way of considering the 

 matter is pushed to an extreme point, as by a wealthy 

 American pa n'e?!!t now dishonouring the old country (and 

 his own) by his presence among us, the community is 

 disgusted, it may be feared that the less obviously 

 displeasing examples afforded by many of our own large 



landholders are not viewed with the disapproval they 

 merit. 



Mr. Wallace considers the existence of millionaires in 

 increasing numbers as among the causes of the general 

 depression of trade. We have here a cause correspond- 

 ing in some degree in character to the last. The man 

 who has made an immense property by trade (for 

 millionaires of this class are chiefly to be considered, as 

 the only body greatly increasing at present) has free 

 power to use his property as he will, to let it lie idle if 

 he so pleases, to use it in trade with power to wait 

 always for the most profitable markets and to take fullest 

 advantage of the necessities of the many with whom he 

 has to deal, and in other ways to affect mischievously 

 the general progress of trade, either at his own cost 

 (which he can easily afford) or at the expense of others. 

 It cannot be doubted that many millionaires in this 

 country, and still more in America, do thus check the 

 diffusion of wealth; while further by the amount of 

 money devoted to pleasures or luxuries they diminish, 

 directly and indirectly, the amount available for the 

 consumption of the necessaries and comforts of life, and 

 thus seriously help to bring about and extend the depres- 

 sion of trade. 



Mr. Wallace dwells justly on the mischievous increase 

 of speculation and finance. It would be difficult to say 

 of how many millions the middle and lower classes of the 

 community in this and other countries are annually robbed, 

 through the temptations held out by the financiers of 

 bubble companies. The effects of the " Limited Liability 

 Act " intended to save those classes from ruin through 

 speculative investments, illustrate admirably Mr. Spencer's 

 argument against kgislative interference ; for so far from 

 diminishing the evils it was intended to prevent, the Act 

 has intensified them a hundredfold. And if the Act be 

 now repealed hundreds of innocent persons, as well as 

 promoters, directors, and other agents for swindling com- 

 panies, wiU suffer from the change. There can be no 

 doubt, however, that mischievous though some of the 

 effects of the repeal of this unwise Act would probably 

 be, they are not to be compared with the mischievous 

 effects "resulting from the maintenance of the law un- 

 changed. Hundreds of thousands have been mined by 

 this piece of so-called protective legislation. 



That lastly trade has suffered seriously from adul- 

 teration and dishonesty no one can doubt, though this 

 particular cause is by no means new. Builders and con- 

 tractors were many of them rascals in Norman days, as 

 our old cathedrals testify ; and we cannot wonder if 

 among the representatives of British trade to-day are 

 many dishonest men. The adulterator asserts that there 

 is a demand for his villanous merchandise ; but possibly 

 if he were obliged to describe his commodities as they 

 actually are, he might not find a very great demand for 

 them. Goods marked " Calico, UO per cent. China-clay, 

 lime, and size " ; " dyed calicoes, warranted not to stand 

 one washing " ; " wool, four-fifths shoddy " ; " silks, 50 

 per cent, dye stuff " ; " cutlery, warranted not to cut," 

 and so forth, — would possibly not have the satisfactory 

 sale obtained when, as now, the same goods are called 

 "superfine," "all wool," "best Sheffield steel," and so 

 forth. 



That in other countries, and especially in America, pro- 

 tection hr.s had much to do with trade depression is no 

 doubt true ; but we have enough within our own control 

 to which we may attribute the badness of the times 

 without looking outside, or endeavouring to set matters 

 right by injuring cm-selves further through retaliatory 

 tariffs. 



