Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1879-10-08
England's Peril.

If the safety valve of concession in the
engine of English social and industrial life
be not soon put in motion something, to
use the homely phrase, will break. Lord
Beaconsfield in his late astonishing speech
at Aylesbury showed a consciousness of this,
carefully as he CLOSED in it any hints of
apprehension. His superb msstatements
of things in America put in shade after a
fashion his more correct auguries of things
at home but he gave voice, if family and
cautiously, to doubts and fears that have
been for sometime spreading through Eng
fish society, and which have now found
outspoken expression in the London Times.
What is doubted and what is feared?
The answer, sensational as it may sound
lies in one word revolution. When we
remember last years famine in England
and this years trade distress; when we
consider how many thousands Of artisans
and laborers are out of employment, and
how many more this Winter are likely to
be; when we reflect upon the paralysis of
English manufacturers, and the rising and
successful competition in making what she
has so long made and sold at profit to other
countries; when we weigh the work done
and promised by the" Workman's National
Emigration Society,"" when we see Goals
fall from sixteen and seventeen to five and
six shillings the ton, while the iron trade
| sinks in ratio ten times as disasterous
when we find cotton-spinnlng almost at a
| stand still, the weavers sent adrlft by tens
| of thousands, and earthen and ornamental
wares almost unstable; when we are told
that the crops, in many places afailure, are
in nearly all places scanty, and that pro
visions must needs be imported from other
countries; when we know that England
owes US in commodities so much more than
we owe her that bullion is constantly flow
ing hither from her Golfers to rectify the
balance; and finally, when we understand
that, as one consequence of all these thing;
the land Of England is concentrating in
fewer and fewer hands with all the risk!
that concentration entails, we shall not bt
surprised that, guarded and conversative az
it is, the London Times sounds the note o
alarm and more than hints that if a catas
trophe is to be averted the time has come
for action.
But what is to be done? The answer il
plain as to what ought TO be done. TIT
: doubt is whether or not it is possible to d.
it. England needs first and foremos
amelioration for the condition of her work
, ing classes, and next fresh markets for he
goods. The salty valve we metaphoricall,
l | speak Oh mas lOIlH OeGll III ueE COlOUIGS
England's colonies have been in one sens
to her what our vast undeveloped West ha
{ been to us. She has gone on steadily 70
two hundred and fifty years grasping ne'
!. areas to which her unemployed, or turbu
lent, or discon tented children could emf
CRATE, and who would thereafter buy i
/. ever.increasing quantities her manufacture!
So long as she could continue to do this tn
y monopoly of, or "corner in, land, de
{: scribed by a contributor to the Evening PO
r who to-day begins series of papers on TIL
monotonous subject, could 60 on wit
y safety But after time England's colonie
It have become England's competitors. Amer
ca and India now make what Engla
;, makes, and make it better and cheape
There is nothing new in the fear of thi
If although there is in the realization of
Long before the American Revolution, s
IS was set forth by the Evening Post som
d months ago; there were astute Englishme
to foresee and to try to forestall what
o now coming to pass. But those mel
although able and far-seeing, did not kno
7. that their afforts were necessarily vail
l. They might postpone what they dreaded
!, but they could no moro prevent it alt
e. gether than they could make water run u
hill.
< The problem now is whether the peculii
system of England can be maintained
& the development Of new eXpedients of tt
pattern, or whether ameliorations or col
1t cessions can be divised that will make tt
Of discomfort other commonalty stop short
q, revolution. If Africa could be civilized,
so far civilized that the African peop
l., would buy English manufactures, andwor
ID for the money to pay for them, there won
st be found, for example, practical resourc
p To be sure there would be competition
s, other nations, but the field is large, at
IS. conquest, whether right or wrong, for
long time carries certain privileges. BIT
p. if nothing of this kind can be done, it
oil hard to see how like causes are to fail
er repeat like effects in dsasterous sens
s. and how the danger foreshadowed by Il
re Times is to be avoided The origin
a strength of the English people lay large
III in something like an equable division
ar the land. Partly true of the previous {
ID cupants, this was especially true of t
invaders and conquerers from Schlesw
OF Holstein, and was only measurably qua
q fed by the Normans who afterward hecar
3, the masters. But the masters of Engli
q, soil have become fewer and fewer as t
e. years have rolled on, so that England
peril from this source is at this nome
ominously coincident with her peril frc
er, others. The remarkable sagacity of i
dominant thinkers may tide over t
C. danger as it has done before, although il
perhaps true that the dangers more gra
ID, than at any previous time. 1t is in a
m. case singularly unpropitious for the ext
ld, ing order of things that the heir.appare
rst to the British throne should occupy at
ur critical juncture the position Of bel
en- suspected Of offending against that fam
of sanctity so dear to the hearts ofhis count
n men, an act charged against him befo
rst and only condoned because of the dang
Gus and SOLDERING illness that brought h
ire so near the grave.-POSt.