The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-04 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.

Some correspondents express great apprehension of
the consequences that may arise to the general trade in
articles manufactured from iron, from the great con-
sumption and enormous price caused by the railways.
They observe that within a few months bar-iron has ad-
vanced from 51. to 121. per ton, and pig-iron from 355.
to 130 s.—an advance unprecedented and highly injurious
to the best interests of the country. The prospect of
the railroads requiring nearly the whole " make" of iron
for the next three years is viewed with alarm, as it is
said that one year more, with iron at its present price,
will totally destroy foreign trade and the manufacture
of the article. The manufacturers of the iron districts,
having worked off their stocks at low prices for their
spring orders, are unable to execute any fresh orders,
except at rates corresponding with the current price of
the material, and these, it seems, will not be given.
America is viewed as a dangerous competitor, likely to
take advantage of the diminution of our foreign trade
created by this absorption of iron by the railways. The
capital that is in new York and Boston might easily find
its way into American iron districts, and the " make "
might be increased to such an amount as to supply mar-
kets now completely dependent upon Great Britain.
The following is a statistical argument on the same
subject :
"It is estimated by the Mining Journal (quoted in the
Times of Saturday) that the ' make' of iron last year was
1,210,000 tons; and that the make of 1845 may, by exertion
on the part of the iron masters, reach 1,330,000 tons.
"The consumption last year is estimated at 480,000 tons
for the ordinary home market, and 460,000 exported, and (if
the railways now making took- the same last year as in the
estimate for this) new railways 150,000-1,090,000 tons
Expecting an increase of 40,000 in the export, the Mining
Journal estimates the consumption of 1845 at 1.130,000 tons.
"2,U00 miles of new railway (proposed), it is estimated,
will require 670 tons for every mile, or 1,340,000 tons; half
of which the Mining Journal estimates will be wanted in
1345, and half in 1846, increasing the estimated consumption
of 1845 to 1,800,000 tons.
"The estimate then stands-1845, 1,800,000 tons; 1846,
1,650,000 tons; 1847, 980,000 tons, to which we may add,
perhaps, some 50,000 or 60,000 tons (considering all this
railway, &c.) for increase in ordinary consumption and
export; but this quantity cannot be supplied so tkst. We
may estimate (supposing that there are 200,000 tons present
stock)—stock, 200,000 tons, make 1,300,000 for 1845, or
270,000 tons short of the demand. Demand for 1846,
1,920.000 tons ; supply increased to 1,500,0003 or 420,000
tons short. Demand for 1847, 1,400,000 tons ; supply,
1,500,000; leaving 100,000 tons stock; suppliable for 1848,
1,500,000 tons; demand, say 1,030,000 tons.
" Here is production then with a vengeance ; here is de-
pression for 1848.
" It behoves us, then, to take measures against so sad a
depression ; not even to stick at checking too great an exten-
sion in the make' of iron (beyond all ordinary demand), or
the too rapid finishing of new railways.
" Restraining the completion of the proposed railways to a
sixth part yearly (not in every case of course, but one with
another), reducing their demand to some 220,000 tons a year,
would keep down the annual requirement to about the present
make,' and thus we might manage to break the fall of this
trade when this out-of-the-way demand ceases—almost, per-
haps, to save it from falling."
This is no doubt an evil of considerable magnitude
under the circumstances described ; but there is a very
large over-estimate made of the quantity likely to be re-
quired for new railways. Many of the projects now an-
nounced will either be completed in part only or laid

aside altogether, while others, having the best support
and the best localities, must be much slower in their pro-
gress than the moat moderate of those engaged in them
would imagine. The capital of the whole world would
be otherwise brought into active employment at once,
while, as every one knows who is at all conversant with
such subjects, the cost of railways must be in a great
measure supplied out of the surplus income of the com-
munity. One would imagine that the high price of iron,
leaving other causes out of consideration, would alone
damp the ardour of the speculators in such projects; but
they appear up to the present moment quite insensible to
the danger that awaits them.—Tinzes.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
STANDARD.—Lord Ashley's Bill for the regulation o
labour in calico printing works was last night read a second
time; after an explanation from the Home Secretary, that it
must be considerably modified. Lord Ashley assented
to the proposal of modification, in order that he
might secure a locus standi in the matter, and
the Noble Lord was right. This is one of the
cases in which
i it is not only wise but innocent to take instal-
ments, for it s only by showing the safety and utility of
such reforms as the Noble Lord has so long conducted, upon
a limited scale,. that the minds of all can be reconciled
to their principle. Of this Lord Ashley had a
handsome testimony from the millowners last night,
in Mr. Brotherton's ingenuous acknowledgment, un-
contradicted by any one, that the Noble Lord's re-
forms hitherto had proved as beneficial to the employers
as to the employed ; a fact, indeed, sufficiently attested by
the present prosperity and contentment of the manufac-
turing districts. This and the most interesting letter from
a working mechanic, describing the factory labourers as
elevated to a higher order of beings within twenty
years, read by the Noble Member for Dorsetshire, must
afford him great encouragement in his glorious course,
and present an irresistible argument to the Legislature !.
in o
follow a leader at once so zealous and so circumspect. It
plain that the great work of social improvement is irre-
sistible progress—not in this trade or in that—but, as it
was reproachfully thrown up to Lord Ashley, in all pur-
suits (probably the highest compliment ever paid even to
his Lordship) ; and this has been the work of Michael
Thomas Sadler and of Lord Ashley in less than..
fifteen
years. There was an objection to the bill now in
progress offered by the Home Secretary, which has weight.
in
no doubt, against an abrupt change, but wnich, truth,
offers the most powerful argument that can be offered in
favour of the pervading principle of all Lord Ashley's
reforms. We allude to the Right Honourable Secre
tary's remarks upon the impossibility of reconciling the
regulation of the hours of labour with the alternation of
" pushes" and " slacks," which, as it seems, almost regularly
succeed to each other in the calico printing trade. Now, if
the regulation of the hours of labour had no other effect than
to render impossible this alternation of " pushes" and " slacks,"
it would render the greatest possible benefit to all engaged
in the trade : we need not say how much the labourers
would be benefited by the substitution of steady for de•
sultory employment ; how much happier they would be,
and how much more skilful they would become ; this must
be obvious to all. The employer, however, would be, in
the end, even a greater gainer, in being able to adjust
his expenditure to his profits with certainty and precision,
in having more skilful and snore attached servants,
in having his works constantly remunerating the capital laid
out on them, above all, in protection from the gambling
competition of perinyless adventurers, working upon credit
for "the push," and underselling the fair trader (with or
without the intervention of the Bankrupt Court) during
"the slack." We have no doubt that much of the
present prosperity of the manufacturing districts, and nearly
all the solidity of that prosperity (which is, we believe,
solid), may be traced to Lord Ashley's former measures
steadying the course of manufactures by limiting the hours
of labour. Indeed, this was almost acknowledged last night.
GLOBE.—The Bill " for regulating the Profession of
Physic and Surgery," now before Parliament, though ren-
dered less offensive to the members of the medical profes-
sion by alterations which Sir James Graham has con-
sented to introduce, is still open to serious objections
on public grounds. In legislating upon such a subject
Government is especially reminded of the axiom, Salta
populi suprema est lex. That the subject of medical
reform caanot, at any time, be brought forward in this coun-
try without exciting more respect for class interests,. than for
beneficial results to the mass of the population, must ever be
a source of regret. This will continue to be the case so long
as such varied interests exist in the
.medical profession, fos-
tered by corporate bodies, possessing peculiar privileges.
A worse mistake cannot be committed than to suppose
that all existing interests can be harmonised in the pro-
duction of a reform, unless one or more of these interests, or
the individuals representing them, are regarded as the pure
and unobjectionable source whence any sufficient measure of
reform should be derived. Yet every legislator who has
undertaken the subject has fallen into this error. Even if he
has originated his plan upon information which he has been at
the pains of obtaining from impartial sources, he has eventually
abandoned it to the conflicting parties affected by the measure,
who, in expunging whatever interfered with their " vested
rights," destroyed whatever of good it originally con-
tained. Sir James Graham's present scheme of medical
reform had its congenial taint, and was further cor-
rupted by concessions. Sir Benjamin Brodie very plainly
says :—" This is what we, the Colleges, intend to reserve to
ourselves ; we sacrifice none of our sins ; but, if you object,
we will compromise, by sparing more, or less, of those faults
from which we intend to purify you." And in this
manner opponents may, or may not, be bought
over, until it is discovered that the plan, exs
ceedingly faulty at first, is no longer worth defending or
opposing. Conflicting medical gradations we do not under-
take to reconcile. Amid their disputes for rank and privi-
lege, the principle of reform is crushed ; and the security
essential to preserve the public health from being neglected,
or tampered with by uneducated quacks, is sacrificed.
The first principle of medical reform should be that
none but duly educated persons should be permitted to
practise medicine. The medical authorities, however—
concerning themselves only about gradations of rank, and
the construction of fortifications against privileged com-
petitors—very coolly suppress the note of war against the
class presumed to be most prejudicial and dangerous to the
public health—namely, the uneducated and unqualified prac-
titioners of medicine. If these are to be tolerated, it is quite
evident that any measure of pretended reform, however ad-
vantageous it may prove to a class, can be of but little ad-
vantage to the community.

It is reported, says the Commerce, that the Prince
de Joinville is to take the command, in the month of June,
of small squadron for evolutions in the Mediterranean.