The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-05 00:00:00

MR. BRIGHT ON DEPRESSION IN
TRADE.

The following letter from Mr. Bright, in reply to one
asking him to support Mr. Chaplin's motion for a Com-
mission to inquire into the present depression in agricul-
ture, has seen published ;-
132, Piccadilly, London, June 26, 1879.

Dear Sir,—Mr. Chaplin is about to move for an
inquiry by Royal Commission into the existing agri-
cultural distress, and I do not see how or why such an
inquiry should be granted without including in it a
more general inquiry as to the present depression in
other branches of industry. Some people still have
faith in Parliamentary Committees and Royal Com-
missions on matters of this kind. I confess that I
have none. A few years ago we had a panic about the
scarcity and the price of coal, and a Parliamentary
Committee sat upon it and about it. The Committee
came to nothing. More recently we had a Com-
mittee on the fall in the value of silver, and the
inquiry led to nothing. Just now we have a Com-
mittee on Co-operative stores, and it will lead to
nothing, except to show generally the uselessness of
such inquiries. If Mr. Chaplin gets his Commission
or Committee, it will•lead to nothing except to prove
that-with free imp3rts of 'corn. -bad harvests are bad
for farmers, and that the omnipotence of Parliament
fails when it seeks to control the seasons; and that,
therefore, Parliaments cannot step in by legislation
materially to mitigate the admitted sufferings of
the farmers. 'As to the present depression of trade,
we owe some of it to the bad harvests which have
impoverished Many farmers, who are not an
inconsiderable portion of our home trade cus-
tomers. We owe much of it to famines in India
and China, and to the commercial and manufacturing
distress which has prevailed in almost every country,
and not least in those countries which have sought to
secure themselves by high protective duties. If our
harvest this year is unfavourable, I fear the recovery
we all hope for will be delayed. If it is abundant,
which seems not probable, we shall soon see, not
symptoms only but proofs of revival. In the United
States, with a great harvest last year, trade is
reviving. We followed them in their depression,
but not to so deep a depth, and we shall follow
them in their recovery. These great changes are not
in the power of Congresses or Parliaments; they are
in the ordering of nature; and we must accept
them, always endeavouring not to aggravate them
by our own follies. There. is one great consolation
In our present condition—viz., the food of our people
Is cheap ; but for the free imports the price of bread
would be more than double, the price of sugar would
be three times its present price, and the price of cheese
and bacon Would be double or nearly so; and of the
price of labour it-may be said that it would be much
lessened by a greater prostration of every industry in
the country not immediately connected with the
growth of food. The freedom of our imports will
enable na to pass through the present time of
depression with less suffering than at any former
period of disastrous seasons. As to Parliament
and its inquiries, I have keen much of it and of them.
If Parliament would keep out of foreign broils—if it
would conduct the government of the country at an
expenditure of 60 millions instead of 80 millions in
the year, if it would devote its time and labours to
guestions of home interest rather than to those which
involve the sacrifice of the blood and treasure of our
people in remote lands, we might have hope and faith
that Parliament could serve ,the nation in times of
depression, sihd we should find that such times of suf-
fering would visit us more rarely. If any inquiry such
as you refar to is granted, I hope it may do some good,
if it only shows once more how useless such icquiries
are. I need not tell you that the friends of Free Trade
can have no objection to commission or committee, it
the Government wishes to appoint one.
lam respectfully yours, JOHN BRIGHT.
Ur. Frederic Blood, 32, Charlotte-street, Birmingham.