The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-23
National Debts-The Financial and Indus
trial EuIuTe of England.

trial Future OF England.
From ne Times.
The speech of Mr.. Gladstone on the English
budget which we published lately, contains
many suggestions worthy of the careful conside.
ration they are certain to command. His pre-
sentation OF the general topic of national debts
is very striking, and the tone of warning and
gloom with which he speaks of the enormous
debts OF the continental powers of Europe, and
that OF more than American hopefulness, and
almost Indifference with which he treats the
immense debt OF our Union will be very sig
fcant to those whe remember how lately he
spoke OF the Union as hOpelessly divided. The
change in MIR. Gladstone's tone reveals the cor
responding change in the views of Europe as TO
American resources and the sOundness OF our
finances
The few hints he throws out as to the great
dangers OF England, and which were more fully
eXpounded, at least on one topic, by Mr.. Mill
IN recent speech, already become historical,
are lull OF instruction and warning. The danger
OF England undoubtedly lies in her deficiency in
agricultural resources and the possible failure
OF her mines. Mr.. Mill, taking a careful and
scientific estimate, prophesies failure of the
coal supply in three generations. Mr.. Glad
stone, and, we believe, a higher authority, Sir
Roderick Murchison, doubt this dangerous
eventuality, and probably give the profitable
working of coal in Great Britain q much longer
lease OF existence. Under any estimate the
day OF that fearful famine for English manufac.
tuTe-a coal famine-must come, and at no very
remote period. When it does arrive one great
source 0t the cheapness Of English manufac-
lures will be drained, and decrease Of pfoduc.
ton Will ensue. Yet one may well believe that
before that time the teeming Anglo-Saxun brain
will have invented or discovered some other
source Of force besides the coal stored up in the
rocks.
The history of the past shows that no nation
can be long safe or prosperous without an
ample agriculture. Commerce and manufac-
lures are not enough. country must be able
to feed itself.
England is fast losing her agriculture; her
supplies OF food come more and more from
abroad, and the little island is being given up
for mines, cattle-Taising and pleasure-grounds.
This is a natural result OF the immense profit of
her manufactures and commerce. She cannot
afford to cultivate the ground to great degree.
Capital tiLds better investment and return in
other branches. Like Tyre or Venice or Amster-
DAM she is becoming the commercial excnanger
and manufacturer for the whole world, without
her own independent agricultural wealth. She
is carrying out the theory of Tree trade to its
most logical sequence.
Having made her wealth, and leading the COM
meTce o. the world (as Mr.. Gladstone says) by
her ability to produce more cheaply than any
other countrY-an ability given in great part by
her throwing off all restrictions from trade and
manufactures, and thus securing every product
at its cheapest rate and directing capital in its
most productive channels-she now deyotes
labor and capital alone to that which pays the
best; getting her food from America and Russia,
who can supply it more cheapy than she, and
supplying them with fabrics, or tools, or ma
chlnerg, or steamers, which she can best pIo-
duce. The tree-trader will argue that she will
never starve Tor want OF food, because she can
always make that to buy which food is raised
more cheaply than the food-ralsng countries;
and she VIII do this, not because she pays lower
wages (tor her wages now are not low, but be-
cause freedom of trade and convenience OF coal
make all the material, implements, and expenses
of labor cheaper than else where.
But the danger, to the outside observer, lies in
the possibility of wal, and her foreign supplies
being interrupted, and, above all, to the chance
that the currents of commerce may be changed,
and she, as was Venice or Amsterdam, be LETT on
one side, and finally to lose the carrying trade of
the world; with her ports closed by strict
blockade, famine might ensue, and with COM
merce gone and no agriculture halt of her wealth
would disappear But the free trader will claim
that new era has come with this great modern
principle; that free trade always insures supply
OF whatever the people can buy, and that war
itself would only be a temporary interruption,
blockade-running being able even to bring food
to a blockaded island like England. In modern
days, he would urge that superior commerce
does not depend on position or number of ports,
but on being able TO make the transport cheaper
than others, and on producing the most cheaply
what the world wants. While England, through
unrestricted trade, is able to build steamers and
man and freight them more economically than
America or France, she will possess the carrying
trade of the ocean; and while she can manufac-
ture what all the world desire, at less price than
any olneI country, exchanges ana commerce
will naturally centre in the little island.
Still, though the free trader may be right
economiealy, politically 1t is important for
each nation to have diversity of pursuits,
and to be as independent as possible of other
nations.
Mr.. Gladstone may well be elated at the vast
and incredible development of wealth in Great
Brialn-a development which is IN part an
effect Of the very measures he is recommending
the constant lifting OF burdens from trade.
He ventures, even with the strong desire TO
begin more palpable lessening of the national
debt to suggest the taxing off OF certain taxes
on foreign luXures-kno wing that British con-
sumption of these may develop q demand for
British products in those countries and that,
at all events, he will be Tightening the burdens
on enjoyment, which means giving a greater
reward to labor.
We trust that our own finances will Justify his
favorable estimate, and that they will be, as he
says, an instructive example, to European
Governments.