The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-07-04 00:00:00

I.l3bscrtlcr.

SATURDAY, JULY 4, 10i74.

THE COURSE OF EMPIRE

An eloquent American writer, in descrile
the onward march of England', in•ogress, has
told us how her no ruing drum beat. keeping
company w ith the sun, and followieg the
hours, encireles the earth with a mutinous
and unbroken strain of the martial airs it
Britain. Westward, we have been told, the
rause of empire takes its way, but it is ob-
vious to all that the extention of British 110-
minion is not ;ill in one direction. Simulta-
neously with our being asked to undertake
the government a the Fiji hulnads, we have
disens,Mas in Parlianwat on the future tal-
i of the country with regard to the Gold
Coast. We nave, in truth, acquired a amain-
hut far wider, 11k1 we wealthy, and more pop-
ulous than that ruled over by ancient Rome.
Or that groaned under the despotism of Spain
in her proudest days. It is no figure of
speech to say that the sun never sets on the
Qlll.l.ll's possessions. -Midnight in one part,
is midday in another ; morning in the throes
a the east is evening upon the shores of the
western world. Her majesty's subjects are
said to number one-sixth of the human race.
No wonder that the wisest of our statesnien
declare that the time has arrived uu hen we
ought to place a limit upon the amp; isitions
ui tlic Empire, and refuse to assume fresh re-
sponsibilities. Yet new ditties areeonstantly
imposed upon us from which it is difficult, if
not impossible to escape. Whitening the
ocean with the sails of commerce, we send
tur traders into the ports of unknown and
savage nations; our subjects often enough
get into a contention with the uncivilized
peoples of those far-off lands ; British troops
are sent to protect their interests; and so we
find that we drift into a policy of annexation
Its certain US it is impereeptible.
There can be no question that the belief
that our empire is already sufficiently wide-
spread is obtaining an ircreased hold upon
the minds of our people, and that this con-
sideration has had its effect upon the recent
Parliamentary discussions concerning our
policy on the Gold Coast. Few ean regard
with anything like satisfaction our position
on the west coast of Africa. The climate.is
simply poisonous to the constitution of Euro-
peans ; our commercial intercourse is of an
insignificant character; the Fantees, our al- '
lies, and who claim our protectorate, are a
craven-hearted set of be ngs; while t Ile Ash-
antees, our late enemies, are a race who know
not only how to fight in the open field. but
to lay artful ambush for their foes. We •
have broken up their power, so that if we
withdrew from that pestilential climate, it
could not be said thst we :lid so through fear I
of those savages. It is useless cow to regret
that we ever made a settlement upon the
Gold Goast ; it is idle to deplore our misfor-
tune in having to remain there. But what
is to be (lone? Are we to confess ourselves
beaten by malaria, and are we to have the
worthless Fantees to the merciless vengeance
of their relentless enemies? There is no
doubt that the history of our rule upon that
coast is full of troublesome incidents,
and the wildest stretch of imagination would
not describe it as a paying one in a commer-
cial sense. Still, having once entered into
engagements, even with such worthless tribes •
as the Fantees, it is held by many that we
should keep our word as a nation, even
though the cost thereof he much money and
far more valuable life. That part of the
country has been truly spoken of as the white
man's grave, and we may as well make up
our minds to a high rate of mortality amongst
our administrative staff and our soldiers as
the penalty of maintaining one of those 4. en-
tangling alliances- spoken of by Mr. Glad-
stone iii his memetrableaddress to the electors
of Greenwich which preceded the dissolutit.n
of the late Parliament. The Colonial Office
being resolved to continue the settlement in
the pestiferous region which provtnl fatal
to our troops a few months ago, the hest
must now be auntie of what has proved a very
bad bargain. So deadly is the climate t hat
where it fails ttt slay outright, it lea vets stilt
injurious effects upon the et tustituthm ;is to
last for years, and naortunately they are
often felt as long as life lasts. When the
Highlanders and the Welsh Fusileers
marched through the iii rents iii Portsm.mth
on their return from the Ashantee compain.
their worn and ghost like a ppm ram, el iei e;
exelamatioesaa,t,,,,ishinent rrom

of the spectnt or. Their valid count enunees
shrunken tit 1,11 k 1.1111.11 frti int.,. :Ind
%Veit ga it, titi til lit M ilvtew
week's existenee itp.o Ow Gad co:ist 1.1
111, their NA,:vk 'rhey
I.r( ...I, it'

tt

flit. t rt.cs nilcr liosy sitailvt hey hatlii
1111.%1•1* gIVAV 101 tll( Itp;iling oi thi.lull

_ , ..,., .... ~
Rather they had pasaed thr,aigh the dark
shadows I.r it Va ICY which. if Hot ~r de:llit,
se,,iwa It. lead them swiftly. sileotly, and
Rarely to tile grave.

We. have aireadly referred to Rome and
to Spain. and to the vast sehemes of e4.mpiest
varied out by- each of these powerful empires
when their success stood at its zenith. A
thousand years intervened between he in it
of the one and the rise of the other: yet the
history of their collapse was the sane.. Both
had conquered the best part of the know
world : both never tired of extending their
dominions amongst all kindreds, anti natimis,
and peoples, and tongues ; both annexed one
remote territory after another; and so long
as the stronrth of the governing ventral city
remained unimpaired, all was well. But
when misfortunes came upon the people at
home, and signs of internal decay presented
themselves, one after another of flair
acquisitions hail to he abandoned. and instead
advancin,2,. or even of retaining what they
possessed, they were compel lei I to i•ei ire.
Mankind, as if by general consent. rose to
regain the liberty of which they had been so
I' ng and so unjustly deprived. Noone would
dream of eomparing the rule of Great Britain
with that of ancient kmie or of modern
Spain, nor is „t here any parallel between
their wars if subjugation and our taking
pOn ourselves the protectorate of
distant lands when called upon by the
people to It so. Still, it nifty be well worth
considering whether we have not sufficient
up 'ii or hands for any one nation to look
after. and v,lfether entangling engage-
nice, ~•; sav;!ge populations ought not to
be discoarigA.

THE II:0N TRADE.

WO/ VERHAMPTOX. Wednesday.

l'on, rug Ow quarter!) meet Mgs of the
trade. a IMII will he !mid next week, the ex-
tent of hu,:iness 11.1,111!. is unimportant. As
regards finished iron, the only noteworthy
feature is the demand for sheets, which is
maderntely well sustained at the slight ad-1
vance for Onlintiry ipmlities noted last week•
Messrs. 'Millington and Co. have brought
d win their standard of quotations to the
basis of £l2 for marked, thus following the
example set by Messrs. Thormycroft and
other leading Limns nearly three months ago.
The Earl of Dudley continues to quote .tl4
12x. (id., Messrs. Barrows £l4, and Messrs.
Bradley and Co.. £l3 for marked liars, with
proportionate rates for other classes of tin-
a:hed iron. Whetherany change indeelared

prices will be made next week must depend
upon tb.• sneers, or otherwise of the effoo-
leiing ii ttle liy the Mayor of Birmingham to
adjust the quarrel between the coalitutsters
and the miners. The result of the meeting
which is to he held in Birmingham to-morrov
(Thursday) will be awaited with much in-
terest. although the feeling on 'Change to-
day Was not very hopeful as to a settlement
being arrived at. It Was suited by sonic
coalmasters present that the men are steadily
returning to work in several it,. of the
'1 district, anil that the prestmt output of coal

--restricted as it is —l..s sufficient ior current
requirements. The general opon appears
to be that a still further reduction in wages
than that now proposed. accompanied by a
further substontialreduction in the price of
coal. will lie 111.1.USSII ry to restore the trade to
anything like a steady and satisfactory
conditiiiii. o of experience in the ism
trade assert. until marked bars are brought
down to £lO per ton as the maximum, no
decided improvement in business need be
looked for. It is no secret that, under exrst-
ing renditions, the production of finished
iron, even where it is not attended with
positive hiss. yields scanty profit, and it is in
the item of coal that the prinuipal source of
relief must be looked for by the iron mas-
ters. That this relief eannot much longer .
be delayed is lxwoming more abvious from
week to week, rind when the labour disputes
whieh are agitating the country are once
settled, the probability is that there will be
such a plethora of coal in the market that
prices will bc as low, if not lower, than the
tivcrage rate of the hist I years. This vii•w
prominently set forth at the recent
shareholders' meeting iti the Pelsall Coal and
Iron Company (Limited), in answer to a
proposition to close the ironworks for a time
and sell the coal. The pig iron market is
quiet. and the tendency of prices for all but,
best bra ils is easier. Common cinder irim
is quoted £3 11-Is. to Li per ton, the priee
varying for tap and flue tinder. All mint.
pig in iii is without alteration this week.
Cleveland and Derbyshire pigs are offering
in this district at somewhat easier rates, and
there is a marked disposition on the part of
holders to realise.

1111011\6 HAM, Thursday

The attendance on 'Change to-day • wits
numerous. but the business doing it as wily
of moderate extent, operations being res-
tricted by the micertainty as to the ciairse of
prices which may be determined at the ipuir-
telly meetings next week. In the finished
iron department sheets are in fairly steady
request, and the firmness in quotations re-
cently noted is snstained. The crisis in the
coal trade continues to absorb attention, and
until a very considerable reduction in the
price of fuel is declared, the manufacture of
iron must not only be unremunerative at
present prices, but ioust in many cases lie at-
tended with positive hiss. The t, Millet it i4it
on the part of Behrian firms continues, and
should the attempt now being made by Bel-
gian firms to dispense with intermediate
agents and trade direct with conumers in this
country succeed, the position of our rivals
will no doubt. be materially streng,thened.
We do not, however, share the gloomy views
entertained in some quarters with regard to
the permanent influence of Belgian competi-
tion on the South Staffordshire iron trade, if
only from the fact that the tiital producing
power of Belgium hears it small proportion
to that of this country. In addition to this
the quality of Belgian lii iii is declared by
local consumers who have tried it to be vari-
able, and not to be relied upon. Niimlii! it
to London merchants, whose rustomerslii
not order ally specific brand, the temptation
is great to send Belgian iron in the phiee of
Staffordshire. owing to the di fferenee in price
but there is nothing to warrent the belief
that the existing state of affairs can la. of
ingcoutinuance. Cleveland and Derbyshire
pigs were again fr.ely offered on 'Change to.
day,.at somewhat easier rates. The n geeral
opinion is that it considemble reduction in
the price of iron cannot be much birdie). de-
layed, wad holders of Staffordshire pies who
have been standing out for their•filll quota-
tions. are beginning to manifest an anxiety
to realise. Common cinder pigs are 10s.
to £43 Iss. per ton. Native ironstones are
in fairly sustained demand, at als itt late
rates.