778 BEPORT — 1895. 



Nor does the harm end here. The conditions which handicap English labour 

 advantage the Asiatic and encourage him to manufacture for himself. 



As the local value of the Japanese yen, for instance, has not changed, whereas 

 it has come to represent 2s. only, instead of 4s., to the English manufacturer, the 

 latter is obviously at an enormous disadvantage in the competition. The result 

 is that not only is Japan now manufacturing many things which it used to buy from 

 us but, having satisfied its own requirements, is beginning to export. It is begin- 

 ning to export cotton goods to China and the Straits at prices with which we can- 

 not compete. It already supplies Singapore with half the coal used at its wharves, 

 to the detriment of Wales and Australia. It supplies, not only to China, but to 

 the Straits, and even to India, numerous minor articles which we used to send when 

 the dollar represented 4s.. but which we cannot supply for 2s. And what has 

 been going on in Japan is beginning in China, where cotton mills are being erected 

 in turn. This competition is only in its infancy ; and we have here the obverse of 

 the picture of cheap prices upon which advocates of the gold standard love to 

 dwell. They may be pleasant for the consumer, but how about the producer ? 

 They may be good for the creditor, but how about the debtor who has to produce 

 two hundred sacks of wheat to repay the 100/. which he borrowed when it repre- 

 sented one hundred sacks ? The advantage, to the hypothetical labourer, of being 

 able to buy a loaf for ^\d. instead of 4^. is obvious, if he retains his former wage; 

 but how about the man whose wages have been reduced, or wliose occupation has 

 been lost through the change of arable land to pasture or by the close of a Lan- 

 cashire mill or a Cornish mine ? If low prices be a supreme good, to be pursued 

 at the cost of transferring English industries to the East, we have only to per- 

 severe in the boycott of silver which is ruining agriculture and saddling Lancashire 

 with a handicap too heavy to be borne. But it is well to realise that all this means 

 loss of work ; and to the workman who has less wages or no work cheap prices may 

 seem a questionable boon. The close of the mints against silver has practically 

 divided the world into two halves — one of which is prospering on a stable and 

 abundant silver currency, while the West is sufl'ering from financial stress and 

 fi-om hindrance to its commerce with the East. An agreement to join other 

 nations in resuming the free coinage of both metals at a fixed ratio would relieve 

 us from these disabilities by re-establishing parity of exchange, and replace our 

 farmers and manufacturers on even terms with the rest of the world. 



5. On the Preservation of the National Parochial Registers. 

 By H. Paton, M.A. 



The early parochial registers of births, marriages and deaths in England and 

 Wales and in Ireland are still located in the several parishes to which they relate. 

 This exposes them to the many risks contingent to the numerous and varied 

 forms and places in which they are kept ; often to the mercy of careless or in- 

 competent custodians ; and, on account of their being so widely scattered, renders 

 them practically inaccessible for either statistical or general or special historical 

 purposes. The valuable information they contain is accordingly almost entirely lost 

 to the country. This could easily be remedied by the adoption of the method which 

 has been followed in Scotland. There, by an Act of Parliament, in 1854, the cus- 

 todians of such parish registers were required to send them to the General Register 

 House at Edinburgh, where, under the care of the Registrar-General, they have 

 been carefully gone over, strongly bound, and are now preserved in uniform order 

 in fire-proof and damp-proof chambers. They are open daily for inspection to 

 those interested on the payment of certain fees, and when for purely literary work, 

 f/ratis. The passing of a similar Act of Parliament for England and Wales and 

 for Ireland, by which the present custodians of parish registers in these countries 

 shall be required to send all such registers (in the case of England and Wales) to 

 the Record Office or to Somerset House in London, and (in the case of Ireland) to 

 Dublin Castle, or other safe repository in Dublin, would secure the same benefits 

 to the rest of the British Isles as Scotland now enjoys. Besides, the registers 



