548 Notes on Victor Drummond's Report on the 
to enable them to supply not only their own people, but the Old 
World with food. At the same time I cannot imagine that 
there is any need for our own agriculturists to be in despair. 
The very question of freight alone, according to Mr. Caird's 
calculations, exercises an influence about equal to the rent of our 
English soil. The great depression in American trade is only 
just ceasing. Mr. Drummond remarks in the same Report, " All 
these things point to a change for the better in the condition of 
all classes, and after resumption of specie payments is a real 
fact, success and confidence will be felt by capitalists, their 
money Avill be again forthcoming for new undertakings. This 
will further a distribution of higher wages and a consequent 
diminution in the number of those who are now working for 
starvation wages ; for, in spite of the brighter state of affairs in 
trade, there are many workmen in the large cities who accept 
just enough of salary to keep them alive, hanging on in the 
hopes of better times and a consequent rise in their salaries. 
" The large cities and towns are overcrowded ; for every hand 
working in a mill there are a hundred ready to work for a 
minimum wage. The panacea, as a relief to this condition of 
things, must partly be afforded by the mechanics themselves, 
who must many of them emigrate to the agricultural districts." 
For some few years lately the conditions of labour in the 
United States and in Great Britain have been reversed. They 
have had a superabundance of cheap labour ; with us it has been 
scarce and dear. Their consuming powers have been seriously- 
impaired, and ours recklessly indulged. The mechanic and the 
artisan have been obliged to take to agriculture in America, 
while our country districts were depleted of their best bone and 
sinew by the coal and iron trades. Beef and mutton have 
been at so high a price, that our dairy farmers have neglected 
the natural produce of their country, and have allowed them- 
selves to be surpassed by France in the production of fresh 
butter, and by America in the quality of cheese. Men gave up 
breeding cattle, trusting to Ireland to produce lean stock to be 
converted into high-priced beef in England. Meanwhile, the 
quality of our manufactures in too many instances has djeterio- 
rated, from excessive competition ; and trade, which had been 
unnaturally stimulated by speculation and rash credits all over 
the world, fearfully collapsed. Steamship owners, having no 
other freight to carry, threw themselves zealously into deve- 
loping the American live-stock trade, and, tempted by high 
prices in England and reduced consumption in America, this 
business has been largely increased. But even now, in spite of 
the importation of American beef and the most terrible depres- 
