The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—At this time of the year, and in the pre-
sent state of political affairs, we may be excused if
we look rather wistfully at the usual sources of in-
struction and entertainment. It is not that we
want a new sensation, or any positive novelty in
affairs, for we should be quite content if the stream
of intelligence and amusement kept up to the mark,
and did not remind one of the entry in the old an-
nals that on such a day people walked across the
Thames dryshod. If we cannot make history and
command events, at least an anniversary, a celebra-
tion, a banquet, or an agricultural meeting ought
to be good for something. Accordingly we did
feel a sort of lighting up when we read at the head
of a column " West Huts Agricultural Society,"
and found under it an account of a dinner,
attended by many distinguished personages, who
proposed toasts and made speeches. It is true that
Lord Clarendon was remarkable, or at least re-
marked upon, for his absence, and the House of
Lords was represented not by its latest literary ad-
dition, but by Lord Ebury, who took the oppor-
tunity of expressing sensations which could be no
novelty either to himself or to his hearers. But
there were men there who could say something; if
they had a mind; but all that was said amounts to
this, that the society only met because it was
obliged to meet, and really was not aware of any-
thing particular to be said or done. Politics were
tabooed, or reduced to a little " chaffing" about in-
dividual statesmen, whom it was pleasant to mention,
and whose names compromised nobody. But one
does expect something more at an agricultural din-
ner than the most ordinary observations about the
House of Lords, the Church, the Fenians, the cattle
disease, and the improved prices of mutton and corn.
For any matter of real interest there was what may
be called an obstinate reticence. For once it cost
no effort to abstain from extravagant demands upon
Government. There was not a word about the Malt
Tax, though now, if ever, the Government might be
challenged on its pledges to deliver us from that
burden. Never was there less of politics or of party.
Indeed, the result is the same as in a very different
quarter, and for very different reasons. Mr. Bright
and his friends have proclaimed that henceforth he
shall never be made the tool of party in the vain hope
of assisting at some minor and partial Reform.
Neither will the agriculturists of West Herts be the
tools of party so long as Lord Derby is in power.
Of course, we are the sufferers, for •we have really
nothing to report and but little to say. But as we
have to cater for the public, and for the agricultu-
rists themselves, we don't intend to take easily..what
appears to us a plain dereliction of duty, and the
breach of a virtual engagement. The gentlemen
who conduct these societies, hold their meetings, and
eat these dinners undertake, to give farmers all the
advice and aid required by the emergency and pos-
sible in the existing state •of agricultural science.
But nobody can say that there is not an emergency,
for, indeed, there always is, and just now a rather
serious one ; and nobody can deny that the art of
agriculture has great and undeveloped resources.
One of the speakers at this dinner justly compli-
mented farmers on having contributed many inipor-
taut suggestions for the improvement of ploughs and
other implements and machinery. The praise was
great, because it really is easier for an intelligent
landlord or other observer to improve farm imple-
ments than the man who actually uses them. But
is there no opportunity just now for other improve-
ments, quite as necessary as those specified by Mr.
Surtees ? By the use of good ploughs, fine teams,
good manure, and other resources of high farming,
we have had fine crops this year ; but these crops are
still very partially got in, and in many parts, even
near the metropolis, they are spoiling on the ground.
Anybody may now see scores of acres—nay, if he goes
down the lines, hundreds of acres, presenting the
most melancholy spectacle of wreck and waste. The
loss must be enormous. No doubt it is often owing
to the penuriousness of the farmers, who did not
want to employ fresh labourers, and perhaps had
not the means. They trusted to the two or three fine
days, which have only just come, too late to be of
much service. It certainly, too, is not so easy to
procure extra hands as it was 30 years ago. But
here is a difficultg already upon us, and threatening
to be very much more serious. What is the use of
obtaining immense crops, at any cost, if we cannot
get them in? The system fails at the critical point.
We are threatened with the spectacle familiar to
many an ardent settler in the United States, who
stands with his two sons and a couple of " helps" to
contemplate with despair 100 acres of corn. Many
crops have been grazed, burnt, or left to rot under
the same circumstances. Matters threaten to be as
bad in this country, unless we surpass even the
Americans themselves in their reaping and threshing
machinery and other expedients. Labourisbecomino•
dearer. Emigration goes on. New industries compete
for hands, offer better wages, and even if they cannot
uniformly employ, at least spoil for the field. In the
event of war the army and navy will be obliged to
compete fiercely with the field for human sinew and
bone. At this very meeting the noble chairman
quoted with satisfaction Lord Carnarvon's announce-
ment that her Majesty's Ministers meant to bring
our forces up to the same efficiency in organisation
and equipment as the Prussian army. It is impos-
sible not to be reminded that in Prussia every man
is a soldier, and that she could not have what she
has without it. At present we cannot conceive this,
but in no country on the face of the earth has the
population undergone such great changes, and the
unit so increased in value, as in the British Isles. We
must face the possible difficulty of a real dearth of
labour, and if, on this sth of October, 1866, a con-
siderable proportion of our harvest is still spoil-
ing in the field for want of ready hands,
what may be our case by the end of this
century, even if we undergo nothing worse than
purely social changes in the interval ? If the anni-
versaries are to be something more than a sort of
harvest homes, or merely dry forms to be vivified
for the next political emergency, they are occasions
for ventilating any remedies that suggest themselves.
Lord Ebury congratulated the clergy on their revival
of harvest homes, bat he would have added
materially to the force of the compliment if he could
have mentioned that the attendants on these occa-
sions had got in their crops, and that they repre-
sented a large breadth of tillage. At many villages
the rejoicing would be very premature. As people
say in politics, " something must be done," and we
have a confident hope that something can be done.
If nothing can be done, and if we are to see year
by year an increasing want of hands, withbut any
machinery to supply their place, we shall eventually
have to apply to ourselves the cheerless advice we
have often given to Ireland,—to sow few white
crops, and go in more for green crops, pasturage,
grazing and dairy farms. We have taken steps in
that direction in many parts of England; but it is
not a pleasant prospect to those old-fashioned people
who think a people the strength of a country, and
who think tillage the best nursery of men. Nor is
this the only point on which an Agricultural Meet-
ing might have dropped a useful hint or two. The
Cattle Plague, the result possibly of a long drought
and short grass crop of last year, is dying away ; but
we hear of a great mortality among our cows from
the opposite cause, the great quantity of grass, and
the fulness caused by it, leading to fever after
calving. As we presume there is a proper treatment
for such a case, a word of warning would be very
useful, and would not have been below the dignity
of an Agricultural Dinner, reduced to talk about
the Fenians, the Prussian army, and the territorial
position of our House of Lords.

.POST.—To educe future prosperity out of past
distress is certainly Tone of the highest achievements
of practical wisdom. It is sometimes done by indi-
viduals, but rarely by communities. Nevertheless,
the enterprising citizens of Coventry have attempted
the task, and, if we may infer anything from the
proceedings on the Ist inst., there is a very fair pro-
spect of success.' It is one of the inevitable conse-
quences of any great change in commercial legisla-
tion that some particular branch of industry suffers
severely at first. When the corn laws were repealed
in 1846 the immediate effect upon the agricultural
interest was, for a time, most disastrous. Accus-
tomed to rely upon a certain price for their grain,
farmers were completely thrown out of their calcu-
lations by the reduction in the price of corn. An
immediate reduction of labourers' wages followed,
and the consequent privation and depression of
trade were most serious. All this was distinctly
foreseen, but it was felt by the advocates of free
trade that the benefit to the country at large and
for all time would so far exceed the temporary in-
jury to the farmers and their dependents that the
repeal ought to take place. Subsequent events have
justified that conclusion. The country has been
largely benefited—the farmers have quite recovered
their short-lived depression, and land was never of
greater value than at this moment. The promoters
of the French Treaty were guided by the same
principles. It was foreseen and stated in the de-
bates on the subject that the importation of French
ribbons would be ruinous to Coventry. But it
did not seem right to deprive the whole country of
the benefits, commercial and political, of that
treaty, for the sake of affording an exceptional
protection to a local trade, and to a trade dependent
mainly upon fashion. So the treaty was signed
and Coventry was unavoidably left to stagna-
tion and starvation. Very grievous were the suffer-
ings of that large population, and very bitter its
feelings against the promoters of the treaty. But
poverty begat energy. When operatives were sitting
idle and looking in blank dismay at one another,
and masters were at their wits' end to save a mode-
rate competence out of the wreck of their past pros-
perity, the much reviled landed interest came to the
rescue, and not only relieved existing distress with

noble munificence, but projected schemes of future
redress and gradual restoration of. trade. That
House of Lords which Mr. Bright has so often made
the object of his fluent abuse has furnished its con-
tingent of Coventry helpers. The country gentle-
men of Warwickshire—no less the subjects of the
member for Birmingham's evil speaking—have also
done their part. Coventry is to rise from its lowly
attitude of depression, and with new energy to pro-
secute a new trade, and to re-establish its prosperity
as one of our leading manufacturing cities. But let
it not be forgotten that this improvement in the for-
tunes of a long-suffering city is due—as to its coin- •
mencement at least— not to the merchants, the
bankers, and the millionaires of the manufacturing
districts, who, according to Mr. Bright, enjoy a
monopoly of all wisdom and philanthropy, but to
noblemen and gentlemen unconnected with trade,
but not indifferent to the responsibilities of wealth
and station—Lord Leigh, Mr. Adderley, Mr. New-
degate, Mr. Bracebridge, and Mr. Davenport Brom-
ley. The object of the friends of Coventry is to in-
troduce a new industry. For this purpose some
Coventry men have learnt the worsted trade at Brad-
ford, and, through the agency of Lord Leigh and
others, a company has been formed, a mill erected,
and a branch of the worsted trade actually com-
menced. There is no reason why this enterprise
should not be a great success. There are disad-
vantages, no doubt, in transplanting into the
Midland Counties a manufacture so essentially
northern, and singularly monopolised by one great
town in the north. But energy can do great things,
and accordingly great things are being attempted.
There is no reason why stuffs should not be as well
made at Coventry as at Bradford. The obstacles that
might once have existed—distance from the yarn
markets, from coal, and from the piece markets—are
annihilated by the railway. The raw material can
be brought to Coventry, and the manufactured ar-
ticle carried into the Yorkshire market, without any
disadvantage worth speaking of. And it is more
than possible that even the little disadvantages that
might accrue might be more than compensated by
the admirable central position of Coventry. It is
in communication with every place. It is near
everything it wants. It has but to employ its new
opportunities and a bright future is open to it.
If taste and ingenuity be combined with the
energy of the citizens and the capital of the county
gentlemen, there is no reason why Coventry should
not make a department of the worsted trade for
itself, and enter into healthy competition with
Bradford and Halifax. Coventry has all the
advantage of a long familiarity with mill-work. It
has good sites for mills, a good supply of water,
and a situation which, for centrality and acceAsi-
bility, is unrivalled. Let us then wish the Leigh
mills all possible success. May they be the pio-
neers of many others, which shall go on increasing
and prospering till the terrible sorrows of past ad-
versity are forgotten in a prosperity which, Lbesides
being unprecedented, shall have all the elements of
permanency and increase. Coventry citizens will
then have the benefits of the French Treaty, with
none of its disadvantages. They will, indeed, have
paid a heavy contingent towards its success, but
final experience of its good to the country at large
will obliterate the memory of temporary evil. But
Coventry and all towns similarly circumstanced
would do well to treasure up one golden sentence
uttered by Mr. Adderley, to the effect that that
city is most sure of continued prosperity which
is not dependent on any one trade. This, accord-
ing to the same authority, is the secret of the
prosperity of Birmingham. That great borough
comprehends a vast variety of manufactures, so that
however much any one branch may be depressed
the prosperity of the others suffices to maintain a
good average rate of success. While, therefore,
Coventry does well to attempt a new trade, it
would do better if it attempted more than one. The
worsted trade is, perhaps, one of the best that could
have been begun, but it is a trade subject to great
fluctuations. It has a vast variety of branches, and
one kind of stuff pushes out another from time to
time with unrelenting pertinacity. The Coventry
spinners must therefore keep their eyes open, or
they will not easily rival the flourishing depot of the
West Riding. But let them try, and let them turn
their hands to other trades too. Let a few other
capitalists imitate the example of Lord Leigh and
the Warwickshire gentry, and try what can be done
in other branches of industry. If the French treaty
has injured one trade, it has improved or created
others. Coventry, like the rest of the country, must
learn to adapt itself to the new conditions that
surround it ; and, now that it has taken up work
and ceased to look for eleemosynary help, we can-
not doubt that better times are in store for it. And,
should it turn its recent adversity to good account,
it will have set an example which is certain to-be of
great use to other manufacturing towns which may
at any time have the misfortune to suffer from the
overthrow of their special branch of trade.

COUNTRY MARKET 3.

-0--

31ANO RES TER.-THURSDAY.

Our market this morning •was not so numerously at-
tended as of late., and there was less disposition manifested
to buy either wheat or. flour, • but in prices no change oc-
curred. Ohl oats, being scarce; were fully as dear, but neW
were ld to. 2d per lb. cheaper. Oatmeal declined is per
load. Beans, peas, and barley ruled firm. Indian corn 1S
per qr. lower.