The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-07 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1878.

COMMERCIAL STAGNATION.
The dull December light does not shine upon
that onward movement in trade which has so
_ _

long been hoped for, and so earnestly anticipated.
It is not only this country which is suffering
from a depression which has been too long con-
tinued, but it has extended to other nations.
Manifold reasons have been advanced to account
for a paralysis which has proved to be so long-
lived, and so difficult of removal. Some years
ago, when our iron industry suddenly started
into such an extraordinary activity, which turned
out to be unhealthy and unreal, there was a fear
lest our coal-beds would become speedily ex-
hausted. The ceaseless workings of the blast
furnaces, combined with the enormous consump-
tion represented by our ever-increasing railways
and steamers, would it was feared, soon run out
our supplies of coal, and then it was asked in
some trepidation, what would Great Britain be.
? Coal was the mainstay of her wealth;
the principal support of her manufacturing
power. It would never do to become a burnt-
out cinder, and to bequeath a vast load of debt
to posterity without leaving them any means of
paying it. For pay it they never could if they
had lost their manufactures, as the result of a
great supply of coal. A Royal Commission of
Inquiry was appointed, which went carefully and
laboriously into the question, and found that,
making allowance for an augmented rate of con-
sumption, as centuries rolled on, we had coal
enough and to spare for the next eight hundred
years. So that, for a period represented by the
distance of time between the Norman Conquest
to-day, our collieries might go on yielding
up their treasures, our blast furnaces might work
day and night, the tall chimney-stacks in our
manufacturing towns might vomit forth dense
masses of smoke, and steam engines on land and
sea might assist in the consumption. England
was safe from coal exhaustion until the year
2600, and the ingenuity of that day might well
be expected to provide for any evils which could
possibly befall it. So the mind of the public was
set at rest; and none then looked forward to
the blight which has fallen upon our industry.
When in February, 1873, the best coals were
545. per ton in London, the man would have
been laughed at who predicted that before the
end of 1878 the quotations would fall to less than
half that figure, and that tens of thousands of
tons would be lying at the pit's mouth, with no
customers for a material as necessary to human
life as bread itself.
It is impossible to trace the existing and long-
standing depression to any one particular cause.
Probably there are several in combination, and
when one begins to dissolve, the whole will
probably melt away. But in connection with
the subject there is one topic undoubtedly of
great importance, more especially as:the unusual
step has been taken of summoning Parliament
for a winter session in consequence of our being
engaged in war. Into the policy or the impolicy
of that conflict; into its justice or injustice—we
do not propose to enter. These will be
thoroughly discussed in both Houses of the
T..waialjarirga 114,11. rinAnimUtorllyt Mc.
rive when the people will have to pretest more
emphatically than they have hitherto done
against the constantly increasing burthens they
are called upon to bear. In the year 1850, the
national expenditure was fifty millions per
annum; the expenditure in the very last Budget
presented to the House of Commons was eighty-
four millions. The defence of the country is
costing thirty-four millions every year more now
than it did eight and twenty years ago I No
particular political party is responsible for this
serious result, for all parties have had their turn
at the political wheel of fortune during that
time. And there has been the Crimea war to
assist in running up the taxation. Still, look at
the fact as people may, it is now costing us more
than the interest upon the whole of the National
Debt, in order to maintain our position amongst
the kingdoms and the empires of the earth, as
compared with a period less than thirty years
ago. Unfortunately, there is no present hope of
any reduction, and this at a time when the in-
comes of thousands are sefrering serious diminu-
tion.
Bloated armaments and huge standing armies
are unquestionably answerable for much of the
mischief which is now so painfully apparent.
Here again no one State can perhaps be held
primarily responsible for the existing gigantic
evil. One nation increases her army, then her
neighbour must at once do the same as a matter
of precaution. For years England and France
ran a rivalry in naval affairs and in fortifications.
The late Emperor Napoleon constructed vast
warlike works at Cherbourg, we did the same at
Alderney; the French built a powerful battle-
ship named La Gloire ; we responded to it by
constructing the Warrior. Prussia beats down
Austria at the battle of Sadowa ; and France,
ening a military rival becoming too powerful,
demands a rectification of frontier from the con-
quering State, which is refused. France then
prepares to seize by force what she was unable
to obtain by negotiation, declares war, and is
vanquished. The Italian people are even now
complaining that at the Congress of Berlin they
obtained no increase of territory, while Austria,
their old enemy, was allowed to occupy Bosnia
and the Herzegovina. Mistrust and suspicion
seem to possess the nations; and so every year
immense bodies of men are drawn from the
ranks of peaceful industry, drilled into vast
military battalions, leading unproductive lives at
the expense of the taxpayers so long as there is
no war, but too often being used as ready en-
gines of aggression. When a despotic ruler has
a great standing army ready to his hand, ha is
too often eager to seize a pretext for hostilities
which he would not otherwise have found—he
must adopt this way of finding employment for
his armed hosts, and of keeping them in good
humour. Europe is and has been for years an
enormous military camp, and while it so remains
it is almost hopeless to look for material reduc-
tions in the national burthens.

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