178 REPORT— 1869. 



Justly, then, in our statistical inquiries we take note, not only of the progress of 

 England proper, but of all parts of the great British empire ; and this you will 

 observe in looking to the Tarious collections of information which Parliament is 

 annually making for us, — that year by year f idler statistics are produced with relation 

 to om- colonies and dependencies. That valuable 'Fifteen Years' Abstract,' which 

 has now reached its sixteenth number for tJie United Kingdom, has been adapted 

 to the British colonies for four or fire years past, and to India for two or three. 

 We have, in addition to these compendious handbooks, several more voluminous 

 collections of tables relating both to our colonies and to foreign countries, enume- 

 rating not only their areas, populations, amounts of revenue, expenditure, and debt, 

 and the extent of their trade ; but in the cases of many of oui- colonies giving most 

 useful information as to their moral and social condition, the state of education, of 

 crime, of immigration, of wages, of prices, of land sales, mortgages, savings' banks, 

 and an immense variety of other matters. All these are a testimony to the extended 

 character of our transmarine connexions and interests, and may be taken at once in 

 explanation and in justification of our position as a colonizing power. In spite of 

 all that may be said as to the alteration of the relations between England and her 

 dependencies, she need hardly be called on to abdicate her proud title of the " Mo- 

 ther of Nations," while she can point to these effects of her influence in every 

 quarter of the globe. 



Another reflection which occun'ed to me when I dwelt on those statistics of our 

 shipping just now was this, — oiu- population continues to increase ; but it increases 

 far less rapidly than our wealth. That is a fact which, if it stood alone, would in- 

 dicate that in the struggle between capital and labour the advantage was likely to 

 be on the side of labour, for that the demand would be in excess of the supply. 

 But this advantage is to a considerable extent corrected by the increasing economy 

 of labom- indicated by the figures whicli Mr. Lefevi-e gives us for a single trade, 

 and which are no doubt equally applicable to other trades. 



It is sufficiently obvious that such economy nmst in the main be advantageous ; 

 at the same time we must not forget that the displacement of labour is often the 

 cause of suffering, and sometimes, when it occurs suddenly, of very severe suffer- 

 ing. It may produce, not only individual disti-ess, but, imder certain circumstances, 

 even political danger. If it were possible so to reconsti-uct society as to give every 

 individual member of it a direct share in every gain made by society as a whole, 

 this particular danger would of com-se vanish. But this is the theoiy of Socialism ; 

 and we have no evidence that, if socialism were in the ascendant, society would 

 make these gains at all. Reasoning leads us to the conclusion that it would not ; 

 and the time is probably {av distant when England will accept a system which has 

 so obvious a tendency to discourage private and individual enterprise. 



Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Englishmen are beginning to look to 

 Government for assistance, and to disti'ust individual action, to a much gi-eater ex- 

 tent than foiinerly. 



Some years ago it used to be thought to be the duty of the Government to foster 

 private entei-prise by protective laws, monopolies, bounties, and differential duties. 

 The great Free Trade movement overthrew this theory, and left upon us the im- 

 pression that the more private enterprise was left to itself and the less the Govern- 

 ment interfered with it the better. But of late the tide of public opinion has 

 seemed to be setting in a somewhat different direction. Not that we are going 

 back towards the protective system ; but that, on the one hand, we are beginning 

 to invite or to urge the Government to take upon itself work for which a few years 

 back we shoiUd ha-\e deemed it utterly incompetent, and which we should have 

 jealously reserved for private hands; while, on the other hand, our private enter- 

 prise is becoming more and more dependent on the assistance of the Government 

 for its own proper organization and development. Thus, in this matter of our 

 Merchant Shipping, while we have been repealing our navigation laws and sweep- 

 ing away every vestige of a differential duty, we have been creating a code of al- 

 most Brobdignagian dimensions for the regulation of every detail of our marine 

 affairs. The choice of proper masters and mates is no longer left to the discretion 

 of the shipowner ; he must employ men who have passed a Government examina- 

 tion, and who hold certificates which the Government may cancel in case of any 



