The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-16 00:00:00

out of a state of prosperity. The case of Coventry
is remarkable at present. Her ribbon machinery
is equal, perhaps, to any in use for any textile
fabrics ; and the days of wretchedness of the hand-
loom ribbon weavers (ere, we hope, over for
ever—so fim,;y as the power-limp. :,„
As to ribbons, Coventry and her operatives will, no
doubt, have much the same fortune, and follow much
the same course, as Nlancheett'..: with its cotton fa-
brics, and Bra'Mali with its woollens. But the other
great branch of Coventry production, watchmaking,
is in an embarrassed state, from deficiency of labour. '
The Australians are all wanting watches, and the
Coventry men. seem to think they may as well make
the watches in the land of gold, where they are
wanted, rather than in their old town, NS here PEe.r-
ING Ton has not yet spied out any nuggets; so they
are gone with their tools ; and there is a most
perplexing scarcity of good workmen in a branch of
manufacture into which it does not appear that
machinery can enter any further than at present.
It is in such skilled operations as watchmaking that
we shall witness the new and curious spectacle of a
deficiency of labour and its effects—a spectacle which
the reformers of the Poor Law, twenty years ago,

little imagined would be offered within the century.
No feature of the present case is more striking than
the conduct of the Stockport employers. They have
instituted statistical inquiries within a certain cir-
cuit ; and have grounded their reply (which is a par-
tial refusal) on the returns thus obtained. This is away
of doing the business of controversy which would not
have been dreamed of in former times—in any times
but those which are restoring the primitive paucity
of labour without the primitive conditions of manu-
facturing skill and popular demand. Till within a
year or two, the employers had only to shut up their
mills and wait—certain that a hungering multitude

would soon be knocking at the gates entreating to
come in. The case is very different now. In case of
protracted dispute the men will be off. There is no
reason why they should not ; and the employers have
to be careful of their tone and temper, as well as of
their facts and reasonings. The Stockport em-
ployers seem to have been so; and we hope that

reasonableness on both sides will lead to a speedy
agreement. Meantime, we see much to rejoice over
in the cheerful industry and prosperity of manufar
turing towns where piecework is in favour, and
where pauperism is reduced—as in Birmingham,
fur instance, where it is little more than one.
fourth what it was five years since ; and in the
demand for more ltisure on the part of the working
men ; and in the much-improved tone of controversy
between the two great classes engaged in production.
We believe that the prosperity thus evidenced is
sound in its character, and we would fain see it re-
ceived and employed with a temper and judgment no
less sound.

MEAT is dear, and likely to be dearer. It would
be strange if it were not. The demand has increased,
an 3 the supply has fallen short. The two great pro-
phecies of the Protectionists have not been realised :
wages have not fallen, and we are not inundated with
foreign beef and mutton. The busy, well-paid mil-
lions of the manufacturing towns—the millions whom
DISRAELI described a few years ago in one of his
lately reprinted novels as declining from chops to red
herrings, and from herrings to potato fare, now
cat meat heartily, at least once, and in the ha, dware
districts thrice, a day. It is the additional half-pound
a day consumed by the manufacturing million that
tells so steadily on the demand. We may say safely that
an extra half-pound of meat a day on every
working man's table makes the difference between
indigence and competence to thousands. from the
herdsman on the hills to the butcher's boy in the
area. But in the midst of a measure of agricultural
prosperity, caused by the high price of every single
article of produce, except wheat, there is a black
cloud in the horizon, which if it does not justify the
chronic grumbling of the true bred farmers, at any
rate causes a certain degree of well-founded appre-
hension. Store stock of all kinds are scarce and dear.
In the absence of any system of agricultural statistics,
calculations of an agricultural character are founded
on mere guess-work, and reckless speculations and
still more reckless fancies succeed each other. At
present every grazier with a fair supply of
keep desires to buy stock. The consequence
is such a rise in price that tho cool
heads look forward and calculate that they
will want a serious additional rise in the
meat market to pay for the fattening of their
dear-bought stock in the next twelve months. This
is a serious evil ; for although workmen's wages are
good and rising, every rise in the price of meat be-
yond sixpence a pound checks the demand in
doubling ratio by every penny, per pound. We can
raise an additional crop of wheat in twelve months
if threatened by a short supply, or we can import
from every quarter of the world; but, even by mo-
dern improvement, it takes two years' feed to fatten
a sheep and three to fatten a bullock ; and there are
very few countries ready to send us live stock at a
paying price by sea voyage.
The rapid and complete communication between all
the cattle markets of the kingdom enables us to know
that the scarcity of live stock is no false alarm. We
have no longer that entire mystery which still prevails
about grain and other crops. There are not the un-
exhausted supplies of mountain sheep and cattle
which used to require a rise of threepence and oftea
of sixpence a pound before it would pay to
drive them the long journey to the fattening districts.
The railroad, the steam-boat, and tee electric tele-
graph, have gone far to equalise not only prices, but
supply and demand, all over the kingdom. In a few
hours the extremities of Scotland, Wales, and Eng-
land can be made to feed the midland and metropoli-
tan counties. The steady fall which took place in the
price of meat soon after railroads were extended to
Exeter on one hand and Aberdeen on the other was
due not only to,the commercial depression which
helped on the repeal of the corn laws, but to the in-
creased supply poured into markets which had pre-
viously depended on a limited circle of roads, and
also to the saving of meat and fat which, by the
road-driving system, was wasted. Before the opening
of the South Wales line, mutton, which now
fetches 7d., was commonly in the districts sold at
30. Under the most careful system of driving
with his own drovers, resting on the road on
his own pastures between Norfolk and Smith-
field, one of our most eminent farmers calcu-
lates that he lost in flesh and fat 18s. on every beast
and 4s. 6d. on every sheep. The railway saved this
loss. As long as the demand was slack, competition
gave a full share of this saving to the consumer.
But we have pretty well exhausted these rural sup-
plies: we have no more mountains of mutton or broad
marshes of oxen to draw upon. The utmost we can do
is to save a few pounds weight per train by per-
suading the railway companies to snake the cattle
trucks more comfortable trucks, or the graziers to
allow their beasts a tarpaulin covering in wet
weather.
No. Time, and nothing else, can anpply " the
never-to-be•sufficiently-deplored" blank in our meat
markets. We have learned at length that in live
mat the foreigner can do very little for us. The
circle of supply is narrow, and can only be increased
by the extension of northern railroads in continental
Europe, and by the slow process of improvement in
foreign cattle. It will take time to teach Holstein and
Denmark, North Germany and Hollar.d, to breed the
sort of stock which it will pay Norfolk and Lincoln-