444 EEPOET — 1880 



metals and textile manufactures together to the value of twelve millions 

 more than in 1878-9. We have here a beautiful illustration of the way 

 in which Nature — rather let us say the Author of Nature's laws, the Divine 

 Ruler, who orders the course of Nature for the welfare of His creatures — 

 counteracts one disturbing element by the restorative jiower of another. 

 "When the fertilising influence of the sun's heat failed us last year, vege- 

 tation languished and our fields failed to yield their accustomed supplies. 

 From whence did relief come but from the latent heat, which ages back 

 became imjsrisoned in the depths of our coal-pits, being brought forth and 

 utilised for the production of those manufactures wherewith we purchased 

 com elsewhere ? Where can we look for a more convincing argument in 

 favour of free trade than is to be found in the blessings it pi'ocured for us 

 in permitting this unrestricted exchange of the commodities absolutely 

 necessary to our existence, and of special importance to our brethren in 

 America ? Whilst we sympathise with our agriculturists in the loss of 

 their Substance and the severe trials which they are enduring, let us rejoice 

 that the evil was stayed from spreading to our manufacturers and traders, 

 and thereby involving them in the like suffering. Let us not, however, 

 be led away by undue expectations for the future. A good harvest at 

 home — still more a succession of them, if combined with greater produc- 

 tiveness abroad — would so far depress prices as to lessen the purchasing 

 power of the food-growers at home, whilst we shall not need to buy so 

 lai'gely from abroad. Thus those who have latterly supported our markets 

 will fail to purchase as they have done, and if our maniifacturing industries 

 are to be sustained we must not rely on a repetition of the demands that 

 have latterly been made upon them. 



There is too much danger at present that we shall drawn into wild 

 speculations and expectations, such as led up to the fictitious prosperity 

 of seven years back, and culminated in the depression of more recent 

 years. Let us not delude ourselves with the belief that the inflation of 

 1871-3 is about to return — that fortunes are going to be made as rapidly 

 as then, or wages to rise to the same level. Let us not, however, give 

 way to gloomy fears. Cheap food will foster cheap production, and, 

 though our old customers may under its influence be enabled to supply 

 their own wants, there are new races of purchasers to be found or called 

 into being, and new homes to be founded by those who are cumbering the 

 ground here rather than tilling it in the distant parts of the Empire. 

 The judicious transferal of much of our capital and labour to places abroad, 

 where there is ample room for its profitable employment, together with 

 greater thrift — individual, family, and national — at home, are the true 

 sources on which to rely for the maintenance or restoration of our manu- 

 facturing and commercial supremacy. 



