The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-22 00:00:00

THE CORT FAMILY.

Parliament has just voted £5,000 as a compensa-
tion to Mr. Barber for the mistake which was made
in transporting him, and no one can possibly object
to the arrangement. But it certainly seems strange
that a Parliament which can show itself so just in a
case of purely individual importance, can do nothing
to cancel the effects of that great act—of villainy,
one is tempted to say—by which the family of the
great Cort was impoverished. Hear, reader, once
more the simple tale :—" In bringing his inventions
to perfection, Henry Cort expended a considerable
private fortune, and even sacrificed one half of his
patent rights, after which the remaining half,
with all his other 'property and contracts, were
confiscated by the naval authorities in 1788, for the
debt of a partner (a Government servant who be-
came a defaulter), not equal in amount to one-tenth
of the sum afterwards produced from them. The
family of this man, who thus nobly enriched his
country to the ruin of himself, have, we most
respectfully submit, higher claims upon the nation
than any Government has ever yet recognised,
although several Ministers of the Crown
have, from time to time, aided them, 'none
more promptly or more liberally than your
lordship (Lord Derby) and Lord Palmerston ;
some, it is true, have received small pensions,
and all have been participants of the very
limited funds dispensed by the Royal bounty ;
bat not one has been raised a single step from in-
digence, nor is one at this moment above want."
This is the language of a memorial which has been
signed by 130 of the foremost manufacturers and
men of science of this age and nation, addressed to
two Prime Ministers in succession ; yet nothing
but donations from the Bounty Fund, infinitesimal
pensions, and promises of suitable recompense here-
after, can be elicited from those noble-blooded per-
sonages.
But we must not be too severe upon Ministers of
the Crown when we find that those men of princely
fortunes, the great ironmasters, who have been
made princes by Henry Cort's inventions, and by
them alone, show no gratitude to the man who
made them. Not long since Mr. Fairbairn, moved
by the long neglect which Henry Cort's children
have had to suffer, offered £lOO in the columns of
the Times as the commencement of a subscription
for the family. That generous and disinterested
offer elicited, we are ashamed to say, not a single
response. It is true that small subscriptions
have of late years been given by a few iron-
masters towards a Cort Testimonial Fund ; but
these deserve no mention side by side with Mr.
Fairbairn's noble letter, or in the presence of the
great wealth which Henry Cort's inventions have
created. The money value of the exported iron,
iron machinery, and other articles made from iron,
which was nothing in 1783, was, for the one year,
1857, no less than £22,994,671 sterling ; and the
whole gain which this country has derived from
the said inventions during the last 70 years. is esti-
mated, in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," to amomit
to £600,000,000 sterling, as was stated in a memorial
signed by 25 of the most eminent authorities, sup..
ported by 60 members of Parliament, including two
Cabinet Ministers, presented in 1857 by Lord
Stanley to Viscount Palmerston. This enormous
addition to the wealth of the nation is quite inde-
pendent of the collateral advantages resulting from
the joint development of engineering, mining, agri-
cultural, manufacturing, and every other branch of
industry in which iron is largely employed. No
ironmaster can therefore mention the £5 which he
gave a year or two since as an excuse for not fol-
lowing up in a worthy spirit the lead which Mr.
Fairbairn held out.

But the Cort family is even yet, we believe, des-
tined to see brighter days. The whole of the facts
of the case have been laid before Mr. Cobden, whose
clear and energetic mind was at no loss to master
its dark details, and whose generous goodwill has not
failed to manifest itself on behalf of these aged
people. He has promised, we learn, to aid their
cause to the full extent of his influence, and we en-
tirely believe he will do so. We wish to cast no
slur upon any Parliamentary personage who has
hitherto interested himself on the behalf of—we
will not say the Cort family, but the national hon-
our, which has been stained by the treatment of
that family. But we do say we would rather hear
that Richard Cobden had whispered one syllable in
favour of the cause, than learn that all the others
whom we have named had agreed to promote it
together. And this we say because we believe Mr.
Cobden is a man of sounder sense and purer integ-
rity than most of our great politicians. We say
nothing here either in favour of or against his po-
litical principles ; but we do believe him to be as
sensible and reliable a man as there is in Parliament.
He is consequently very influential in those counties
in which he is best known, and we doubt not he will
find means of using his influence for the further-
ance of justice in the Cort case. It will indeed re-
dound to the honour of Mr. Cobden, Mr. Fairbairn,
and the friends of each of these gentlemen, as
well as to the honour of Lancashire and York-
shire, if the great manufacturers of those counties
conduct this case to an honourable conclusion.

They may well do so ; for the inventions of
Henry Cort, by giving us the iron of the steam
engine, have benefited every branch of manufacture
in which machinery is employed—the cotton trade
to the extent of many millions sterling annually.
We need not say what Cort did for free trade. He
was really a promoter of that great modern move-
ment ; nay, he it was who taught us the secret of
our own iron-producing power, and thus laid the
basis on which so much of our modern trade and
manufacture rests ; while by aid of his great in-
ventions the markets of Europe have been brought
into instantaneous communication with Great
Britain. All that Cort did was done, moreover,
by means of native materials which were useless up
to this time, and by the exclusive exercise of native
labour.-111echanies' Magazine.