Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-08-06

The prospective failure of the crops in
England and Scotland is causing the gravest
apprehension in those countries. Spurgeon
and other dissenting ministers are earnestly
praying, as did Elijah, that it may not rain.
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishop Of London have prescribed prayer
for the Established church for the same sub
ject. The hay harvest was ruined. Potatoes
rot in the ground. Nothing equal to IT has
been known since 1904. OF that season,
Forman the historian observes
June and July were very wet and wonderfully
cold, like winter, that the 10th day OF July many
did sit by the fire. and 20 was Il in May and
June, and scant two fair days together all that
time. There were many great floods" stowe
adds: II commonly rained every day or night
till st. James Day" and Dr.. King concludes'
" Our July hath been like to n February, our
June even as an April; for great space OF time
scant one day that hath not raned upon w.
At the agricultural conferences recently
held in London, the land question was dis
cussed with degree of anxiety that indi-
Gated how intense the feeling on this sub
ject has become. Bad harvests for sue
cessive years have brought the defects of
the English system home to the national
consciousness. Out of ffty-four million
acres, twenty-four million are owned by
one thousand four hundred persons, and the
land is farmed to support the class to which
they belong. The burden of the land rental
on the farmers has become insupportable,
and events are fast shaping for change.
Lord Derby, one of the largest and most in
fuential land owners in England, declared,
in one of the meetings, that rent reduc.
ton of twenty per cent was unavoidable.
This means a decrease of income TO the
amount of more than s75,000,000, sum
large enough to seriously affect even an aris
tocracy as rich as the English. Other in
dustries than the agricultural are also suffer
ing; it is estimated that now only five hun
bred thousand spindles and three hundred
looms are working, against one million one
hundred and ninety-fve thousand spindles
and seven thousand nine hundred looms five
years ago, in one district; and in other dis
tricts the reports are analogous, though the
falling off has not been so great. One cause
is sharp competition from America, which is
furnishing English markets with better
goods at cheaper rates. Observant English
men are noting the resources and progress Of
this country with an interest that has con.
siderable element of fear in it. In a debate
in the house of commons on the evening Of
July 4th, Mr.. John Bright with character
istic frankness, said that the time must
come when America, with population Of
one hundred million, her national debt paid
in full, with almost no army and no navy to
support, and with taxes at minimum and
decreasing with the increase of population,
would confront Europe in the race of com
petition with such advantages that one
could hardly imagine how they were to
be met.
In the direct line of this subject an
English correspondent of the New York
Herald furnishes an intelligent review of
the industrial problem that is now SO seri.
ously confronting our British neighbors.
He alleges that neither meat nor bread need
be dear in England, but Englishmen will
have it so, and Englishmen will be discou.
tented over it. The Englshmen who make
food dear and the Englishmen who com
plain that it is dear are not the same Eng
lishmen, however. The course taken in
England with regard to the meat we could
supply illustrates the working of this queer
case. Our Western plains could supply cat
tie to feed the whole world, and if the trade
were encouraged it could supply England
so cheaply that every man in the island
might become once again an actual beef
eater. But what then would become of the
British farmer? He could not sell his cat
tie against that competition. He could moi
pay his rent therefore, and the British land
owner would be in trouble. Therefore thai
competition is stopped by the pretence Of
the need of protecting British cattle from
imported disease, and an important article
of food is made dear At the same time
wages are made low, for the competition OF
American manufactured goods closes uI
many British shops and forces those thai
keep going to sell at prices unheard of in
their history before. All this is story thai
Americans ought to understand clearly in
order to turn the unavoidable embarrassment,
of our great rival to our own best account