Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-01-22
Our European Letter.
LONDON. ENGLAND. Jan. I, 1877

LONDON, ENGLAND. Jan. I, 1879.
In investigating the distress, so severely
felt by all classes in this country, sharp
distinction should DO drawn between
branches of industry that are pretty sure
TO flourish again when the collapse is over,
and those that have died, or are dying. 1t
is not likely, for example, that the sort of
wood cutters AK that Sheffield used to
make will come again in demand in pref
erence to the superior American pattern;
and it is not probable that America will
ever resort to Sheffield for these and many
other articles. Again. steel rails are found
to be better and cheaper than iron ones,
and from this it follows that certain kinds
of iron not adapted for conversion into
steel, but which have hitherto been used
to make the old rails, will not be wanted
10 the extent they have been, unless new
uses are found for them. There are, |
believe, many instances of similar de.
scription, and it would be valuable to have
some account of the extent to which old
trades and old processes are perishing, and
whether new ones are likely to replace
them. In estimating what can be done by
private charity, it must be borne in mind
that although pauperism has been decreas-
ing since 1870, the present year began
with the melancholy fact that rather more
than thirteen persons out of every four
hundred in England and Wales were in
receipt of work house relief; but in such
an estimate it must be remembered that
these four hundred include children too
young to work, and men and women too
old or too infirm for it. If these allowances
are made, it will be found that considera-
bly, less than one hundred who possess
means have had to keep thirteen paupers
besides their contributions to poor folks
above the pauper class. Although England
is rich country, it is one that, at the best
of times, swarms with poor-thousands
actual paupers, and others only little
above them. In no part of these islands
does the climate permit the cheap living
of warmer and more fertile regions; and
in the north, where the greatest misery
now prevails, though Goals are tolerably
cheap. health cannot be maintained with
out food, lodging, and clothing, that only
considerable wages can buy. However
much, many may be disposed to hope
things are better than they seem, the
known facts, imperfect as is the infor-
nation they afford, do not justify accept
ing that belief. The New Year mas begun
with more melancholy contrasts of wealth
and poverty than we are accustomed to,
even in these islands. where the gross in.
equalities Of property are II standing re-
proach. If the foreground of the national
picture glows with the gold and purple
tints of luxury surprising that of ancient
Rome, Immediately behind the glitter are
the haggard forms Of women weeping
over starving children, and Of despairing
men.
| There seems TO be n virtually universal
acknowledgment that English fabrics of
the simpler, cheaper. and coarser kinds do
not find anything like their accustomed
sale in countries which till recently were
the most important markets. 1t is found
that they have not only to compete with
Swiss, German, and American goods of
the same class, but that these last are
actually coming to he preferred to them.
The difficulty is of the utmost seriousness,
on account of a peculiarity in the English
trade to which we have repeatedly called
attention. The greatest markets for En-
glsh productions are the barbarous and
half barbarous countries of the world.
Manchester and the north of England find
their chief customers among Indians, Chi
nese. and the African negroes. Now these
populations are, from their very barbar-
business, strongly under the influence of
custom, and the tenacity of custom would
make the markets which they supply more
than ordinarily conservative and durable.
If. then, any class of purchasers in India,
China or Africa is once brought to declare
that it prefers Swiss and Indian cottons to
English, because they are better at an
equal price, we may be quite sure that the
temptation to change to another fabric has
been overwhelming. A piece of Manches-
ter cotton must have become extraordina-
rily like cobweb plastered with rice, flour
and clay before the barbarous buyer is
disguised with it. Such market, how
ever, once lost is lost forever. The very
force of usage which has made the bar
barian so long constant to English fabrics
will in future work against them, and the
rival manufacturers will hold ndisputable
possession of the market
AS to the growing intensity of foreign
competition. there can be no question
whatever. 1t is felt far beyond the sphere
of the northern English industries; for
even the trades subsidiary to agriculture
are affected by it, so that in the east Of
England such articles rs hurdles and
drainage-pipes are nowadays foreign
manufacture. The explanation of the
phenomenon usually given is that foreign
countries have of late become aware oil
their natural advantages-ins some cases OF
their great forests, in others of their low
wages. in others of their stores of coal and
iron. 1t would, in fact, be irrational tc
} denythat under systems ofprotective duties
some communities have at length discover
ed, though ut an enormous and prolonged
sacrifice, the secret of their true industrial
J strength. Thus far, the most powerful
cause OF the existing distress is not foreign
! but British competition. 1t is no secret in
) the north that some of the largest fortunes
of recent times have been made, and mum.
bers of new concerns have been enabled
to start, through what is humorously called
cheapening the cost of production This
means that the real thing is not made nj
all, but only something specifically like
the real thing-something which may he
mistaken for it by II careless housewife OIL
an Ignorant barbarian. 1t is, in fact, the
manufacture of mere limitations which has
brought to the northern counties larger
industrial population than they can fairly
J support, which has created for the opera
tives higher standard of living than car
long be maintained, and which, now that
the limitations have been detected even in
half savage countries as not being real
ties, threatens to involve all classes ir
distress or ruin. ALPHA.
The post office department has ordered
a new postage stamp TO be used on letters
not prepaid. Heretofore, Il letter being
nnsied and wanting n sinmn hos hnnn hol1