The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-06 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY' EVENING, NOVEMBER

MAGAZINES, &c-(CONTINUED.)

FRASER.

We comrr en I 'o e perus 11 of alt re-
actionaries, Young Englanders, Protectionists, Char-
fists, Socialist;,
(Amin nags, et hoc gents omne, the
perusal of the opening article of Fraser for this
month. It is enti: led "1 he Comfortable Doctrine of
Compensations," and it proves by various instances
that every one of the magic changes of these eventful
times, howsoever they may have overwhelmed some
with sorrow and perplexity, have more than compen-
sated for the temporary and partial evil they have
occasioned by the permanent good they have brought.
:Otte, and that even the sufferers themselves are ulti-
mately compensated. Take, for instance, the case of
the present low price of agricultural produce :
"In the first vacs., there is the compensation, often
overlooked but nut the less real, of a diminished price
of the first necessaries of life to the producer himself,
to his family and household; secondly, the farmer can
procure a; a more economical rate the produce which he
does not raise, but which ho requires for the foeding of
:tuck; thirdly, it he have previously paid wages duly
proportioned to the then price of food, he can saf-ly re-
duce ahem, and if a just rent, he may demand a reduc-
tion at least proportioned to the landlord's gain in the
shape of ciwap provisions.' Farther, as cheap food re-
sults from large production, he must of necessity employ
rather more than less labour, and so still further reduce
the poor-rate already diminished by the low price of
food consumed within the workhouse. The burden of
county-rates is also diminished; for cheap food means a
lower expenditure on the inmates of prisons, and a re-
duetiou in the number of commitments. All these COM-
pelsations, however, arse trivial when compared with the.
great gam to toe nation by a diminished price of the
first necessaries of life. Dues not all history teach us
that cheap food means, not merely less crime and less.
paup,riern, but less political excitement—in orderly com-
muoities fewer riots, in turbulentones fewer revolutions?
Riots and revolutions are, as we all know, the common
consequences of want of employment in dense town po-
pulations; and that want of employment is always co-
incident with a high price of provisions, and rapidly dis-
appears as the price of food falls. In our English towns,
with our libarty of action and speech, dear food and
scanty occupation, if they proceed beyond turbulent
public meetings, show themselves in conflicts with the
police; but in Paris the same causes work out into revo-
lutions. We are convinced that all the revolutions of
France have been really due to these causes, and not to
mere political theories; and just because the price of
food is now very low, we do not look forward to another
revolution emanating from that centre of turbulence till
we again enter upon the cycle of dear food. One obvious
advantage of this view of the case is, that it lowers dis-
turbances and revolutions from the high dignity of chil-
dren of the intellect and conscience, to the less flattering
parentage of the appetite cheated of its due supply of
food. If we are right, and more faith is really to be
placed in the low price of food than in the sword of Chan-
garnier, the English agriculturist, in common with the
rest of the world, may thank what he regards as a per-
sonal calamity for the peace which is so necessary an ele.
ment in the prosperity of all nations, and of all the in-
dividuals of which they consist.
" The rationale of this order of compensations is very
simple. A low price of food immediately affects every
consumer in the kingdom. He pays less for the loaf of
bread, and the pence which he thus saves are spent in
clothing, books, and other common necessaries, and in
luxuries bordering upon them. The demand on the retail
dealer is soon felt in the wholesale warehouse, and
thence is transmitted to the great seats of manufacture.
In this way the depression of the agriculturist leads in-
evitably to the elevation of the manufacturing interest.
The two will then, for the first time, flourish in harmony,
when cheap food shall be fully compensated bytincreased
production. This, according to the modern school of
political economy, is the destined work of free trade, with
its corollaries of free labour and diminished taxation."

The writer gives us a still stronger case, viz., the case
of the slop system. Of this system he says
Even this evil is not without its bright side. By
providing cheap clothing for the masses, it has met a
demand which it was of the first importance to supply,
and has been instrumental, to a certain degree, in di-
minishing the numbers of ragged and ill-dressed people.
But it has had another good result. It has brought,
within much narrower limits the old system of doing
business at the West-end, by means of long credits and
high-prices—a system which compelled the punctual
paymaster to discharge the debts of dishonest noble-
men and gentlemen, who were accordingly clothed at
his charge, very much to their own satisfaction and his
disgust. Through the competition of Messrs. Moses,
Ilyam, and Nicoll, this system has happily received its
death-blow, to the great relief of poor parsons, doctors,
and lawyers."
Very rich men, who know not the value of money,
or very unprincipled men, who pay their debts by a
periodical appearance in the Insolvent or the Bank-
ruptcy Courts, may magniloquently rail against the
purchasers of cheap goods ; but the industrious man,
who honestly pays his debts, hails the cheapness
of provisions and of clothing as a blessing. Our
friend, the Naturalist, gives us much curious infor-
mation concerning the habits of the turtle tribe, and
intersperses his communication with much gastrono-
mic lore touching the cooking and feeding of the
green species, the furnishers of Callipee and Calli-
pash ; and a New Yorker continues his sketches of
American Society. We have also reviews of Captain
Hervey's " Ten Years in India," of M. Romieu's
work on Cmsarisin," Of Pd. Coltnache's " Life of T. 1.•
leyranti,' and a very interesting paper on the Wal
lacha in Transylvania