The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-11 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11,1854.

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 185-1.

We freely admit that no political significance
is to be attached to the Ministerial speeches
at our Civic Banquet on the 9th of November
The Ministers attend as part of the pageant,
and we no more expect any revelation of State
secrets from their lips than we look for feats
of chivalry from the men in armour who take
part in the procession. Yet, when the public
mind is strongly excited upon any subject, it
is scarcely possible for a considerable body of
persons to assemble without some expression
being given to the ruling sentiment. There
have been times when the citizens of London,
at their annual festival, have been as noisy in
their manifestations as the undergraduates at
Oxford or Cambridge ; and, when the senti.
merit has been purely patriotic, Ministers of
the Crown have thought it not unbecoming
nor unwise to swell by their eloquence the full
tie of porlar fceli,pg, and to identify the po- '
t.cy of the Govermalpielryith the' throbbing of
every heart in the crowd to which they spoke.
It might have been supposed that the banquet
of Thursday would have furnished occasion
for one of those sympathetic outbursts which
more than any premeditated display reveal the
real temper of men's minds. For the first
time in the existing generation, the banquet
was held in the midst of European war ; the
alliance of France and England was signalised
by the mingled flags which adorned the hall,
and by the presence and speech of the Count
WALEWSKT, while the customary toasts could
not be given without some allusion to the
triumph of the allied arms at Alma. But, no !
These circumstances, so favourable to enthu-
siasm, failed to rouse the company. Lord
ABERDEEN was there, and his cheerless aspect
froze the spirits of the guests like the presence
of the Commandant iu stone at the feast of
Dos JUAN. Never before, on a like occasion,
did a Prime Minister of England express him-
self in such cold and disheartening words. He
dwelt still on the policy of the Government
having been a " policy of peace," as if peace
were the only thing desirable in national life,
and terrified his auditors by descanting on the
" horrors of war," and on the probable dis-
couragement of those who bad been eager for
hostilities, now that they experienced " the
" vicissitudes to which a state of warfare was
" proverbially liable." To judge from his
speech, the fate of the Crimea expedition must
be utterly hopeless. From his lips there fell
not a note of exultation for recent successes,
not a thrill of admiration for the gallantry of
our troops who have bled and are bleeding for
their country, not a ray of honour for the dead,
not a gleam of encouragement for the living,
not a single indication of resolute courage to
stir the spirit and animate the hope of the
country. His brief speech was as gloomy as
if he had studied how much discouragement
could possibly be thrown into five minutes'
after-dinner oratory. The banquet was in
consequence the dreariest ever known, and if
the national feeling is to be gauged by the pro-

ceedings on this occasion at Guildhall, the
Czar may well take heart of grace, and rely
with more confidence than ever on the vacua-
lation and timidity of our Bourgeois spirit.
The danger of discouraging the commercial
mind of a country must always be great, as it
is particularly sensitive to apprehension ; and
fears of calamity may be attended with conse-
quences altogether as disastrous as calamity
itself. We enter on this war under circum-
stances materially different from those attend-
ing any war which preceded it. By a change
in our representative system, the great body of
the people exercise a much greater and more
direct influence than formerly on our Legisla-
ture and Executive, and for this reason alone,
if for no other, we can imagine that foreign
Governments must regard our course with
especial vigilance. Will the England of 1854
be as firm and consistent in her policy, as un-
yielding in her resolution, as the England of
the last great war? That is a question fre-
quently discussed on the Continent, and we
shall be much mistaken if the proceedings at
the Civic Banquet be not thought very unfa-
vourable to a reply in the affirmative.
The fact is unquestionable, that since the
close of the last war we have made prodigious
progress in our wealth and trade. Our mate
real resources have received amazing develop-
ment, and the commercial interest has gained
largely upon every other interest. But is this
material progress in manufactures, in shipping,
in exports, in revenue, and in every branch of
trade all strength, or is there weakness min
Bled with it? In 1794 the land was in the
ascendant. In 1854 trade predominates. Our
character may be in no degree enfeebled by
this change in our social condition. We may
be no less equal than formerly to steady effort
and sustained sacrifice. But it is the duty of
a statesman to recognise the fact of this change,
and to resist with all his energy any attempt
at commercial discouragement, not himself to
take a leading part in promoting it. Lord
ABERDEEN probably hopes, by still protesting
his zeal for peace. to obtain the support of the
commercial community. But a country has
higher objects yet than its trade to consult ;
and, if its patriotism be a living active prin-
ciple, will gather and combine all the forces of
the State in resistance to that submission to
material interests which is the sure and in.
variable prelude to national degradation.
The Premier might possibly be able to jus-
tify his lugubrious tone by private information
he is possessed of. He refers to the " vicis-
" situdes" of the war as the best defence of
his pacific policy, when, in truth, they are the
direct consequences of it. Why was our army
detained at Varna, with the cholera raging in
its ranks, whilst the time for action was rapidly
passing away? Because the siege train had
not arrived, or, in other words, because the
Government " did not think we should really
" have to fight." The "vicissitudes" we now ex
perience are naturally consequent on the half
measures pursued, and our gallant soldiers
have been made, and continue to be made, the
victims of Ministerial vacillation. Every re-
solution adopted by the Government bears the
marks of compromise on its face,—a Baltic
fleet without troops or gun-boats,—troops sent
to Malta with estimates for their conveyance
there and back,—a force at Varna without ar-
tillery,—an army at Alma without cavalry to
enable it to take advantage of its successes.
The Crimea might have been invaded in sum-
mer,—winter is now at hand. Sebastopol

might have been attacked when denuded
troops ; the garrison is now as numerous aa
the allied armies.
Can it be doubted that this a policy well
calculated to produce vicissitudes, and to
make the war as unpopular as Lord ABARDMIN
desires it should be ? The Crimea expedition
was undertaken at a period when most ra-
tional persons decided that it would be aban-
doned for that year, and we now know how
frightful has been the loss of life resulting
from the delay. In eight weeks nine thousand
of our men have been disabled. Of the
splendid forge which from first to last left our
shores for the seat of war, only sixteen thou-
sand men are now fit for service before Sebas-
topol. Russia triumphs in our losses, and
day after day sends her bulletins uncontra-
dieted through Europe, announcing that
" nothing decisive has occurred."
We have to deal with the strength of an
empire arrived at that stage when its arms
are most dangerous. To barbaric force it
unites the aids and resources of civilisation.
Its head is all intellect ; its body all iron. It
has none of those scruples on the lawfulness
of warfare which disturb certain persons
among ourselves, with the Premier at their
head ; it cares nothing for carnage in com-
parison with conquest ; it laughs at our hu-
manity as a weakness not to be understood;
scoffs at our ships anchored idly before its
unharmed ports ; and carelessly leaves our sol
diers to bury the dead of its flying armies;
and our surgeons to tend the wounded of do ;1
battle-field.
In such a crisis as that which has now
arisen, the safety of a nation does not rest,
as we too long have flattered ourselves, in
material development. Our danger may rather
spring from that source. Individually, a peo-
plc may be too wealthy, selfish, or refined to
consent to the sacrifices necessary to their
safety as a nation. Private fears and interests
may prove too strong for public duty. When
that time arrives the star of empire has passed -
its zenith, and circumstances, apparently the
most opposed, contribute in a marvelloul
manner to its decline. On the conduct of
this war must depend the question whe
forty years of social and political change
impaired our spirit or weakened our arm.
is a reflection to excite some misgiving that
our destiny is at present in the hands of a
Ministry totally destitute of English spirit.
A Government reflecting the high principl
and sentiments of the national charac
would shake the power of the Empe
NICHOLAS more than any defeat inflicted ..
our arms. With an instinct superior to
wisdom, he knows that, whatever expedition
may be sent forth against him, his work i A
being silently done and his designs advanced,
while England continues to submit to the
rule, equally shameful mid disastrous, of the
Coalition.

OUR HOME SUPPLIES OF CORN.
WE called the attention of our readers last
week to the serious fact that, under our pre-
sent system of indiscriminate importation, our
home supplies of grain have materially dimi-
nished. It is to this cause that we attribute
the unexampled circumstance of a rapid rise
of prices immediately after the completion of
an excellent harvest. Our experience of
favourable seasons in times past furnishes no

1058

precedent for rso remarkable an occurrence,
and we are, therefore, driven to the conclusion
that, under our present commercial policy,
we must always look to foreign countries for a
large portion of our food, whethor our own
crops happen to be sooty or ahimiant.
former years a good harvest rendere4 in 49,
pendent of foreign supplies, and gave us a
cheap loaf into the bargain. It now does
neither the one nor this other; fur, in spite of
an excellent season, and a opntinued, though
diminished, importation, wheat has attained a
price the double of that which Mr. COBDEN
assured us it would never exceed after the
corn laws were finally swept away.
As the question of our home production of
corn is of the greatest practical interest at all
times, but more especially at the present, we
shall lay before our readers some additional
facts which are well worthy of attention. Mr.
lla‘Cuttocti has very recently made an esti-
mate of the average quantity of grain grown in
the United Kingdom during the last four
years, and, confining our attention for the
present to wheat, he furnishes us with the
following results. He sets down the quantity
of wheat raised for home consumption as
follows

Qll9.

In England 9,42,8.57
In Ireland
In Scotland

11,590,774
We imported of the same article from
abroad in 1853 no less than 6,235,860 quarters,
so that, if Mr. M'Cuttocii approximates to the
truth, the relative proportions of our home
and our foreign supplies of food under free
trade may be readily estimated. Let us
now compare these calculations respecting our
borne growth of grain with those made by
another great statistical authority previous to
the adoption of our present commercial
policy.
The late Mr. G. R. PORTER, of the Board of
Trade, in the edition of his work on " The
Progress of the Nation," published in 1847,
estimated the average quantity of home-
grown wheat in Great Britain alone at upwards
of 16,000,000 of quarters. The difference be-
tween this calculation and that of Mr. M.Cct-
LOCH is very striking ; but, although for the
reasons already stated we have no doubt that
the production of wheat has declined in
England in consequence of foreign competi-
tion, we are by no means prepared to believe
that it has diminished to the extent that these
figures would seem to indicate. Yet the cal.
culations of both the gentlemen we have
named are worthy of all attention. Mr.
PORTER had a high and merited reputation for
statistical knowledge, and the authority of
Mr. M'Cuttocu upon such matters is recog-
nised by all parties ; and it must be admitted
that the two estimates bear with great signifi-
cance upon the point in question. If we give
credit to both estimates we must conclude
that the production of British grain has of
late years diminished to the full extent of our
foreign imports. In any case we must admit
that they furnish strong corroborative evidence
of the alarming fact of a great and permanent
decrease, to which it is high time that public
attention should be awakened.
If any doubt could exist upon this subject,
we have only to consider for a moment what
would have been the condition of this country
had the late harvest been a bad, or even an
indifferent, one. There can be but one reply
to this question. We must have been visited
with a famine, which would have told, per-
haps, with fatal effect upon the national
energies in our present gigantic struggle. We
should have had to contend at once with the
horrors of war abroad, and of scarcity at home.
Thanks to the bounty of Providence, we have
escaped for the present the latter infliction ;
but who will answer for another season in the
present troubled aspect of the world?
To return to the calculations of Mr. M'Cut-
4ocif, we are not aware whence he has derived
his materials for his estimate of the produc-
tion of Scotland, as the Highland Society have
not yet completed their agricultural researches
in that country. But with respect to Ireland
no difficulty exists, as the exact quantity of
land under cultivation is ascertained in each
year. We have now befbre us the Govern-