The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-07-17

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alton of England, as it showed that the IN
dustrial and Agricultural depression there
! has reached stage at which her legis lators
feel themselves forced to turn their atten-
ton from the fiashy foreign policy which
has been their luxury, to the consideration
of remedies for home distress The debate
arose upon motion of Mr.. Chaplin for
royal commission to inquire into the causes
of the depressed condition of the agricul-
tural interest whether these are permanent
or temporary and how they can be rem
edied. There was no attempt in this de-
bate to conceal that the distress in England
is great. Indeed, Mr.. Chaplin quoted re-
mark of Lord .Beaconsfield, that "though
he could recall several periods OF SUI
fering none of them had ever equalled
the present" The question concerned
remedies for what all the speakers frankly
confessed to be an unb earable condition
of things. What that condition is readers
of the HERALD know from series OF letters,
describing it in detail, which have appeared
in our journal during the last four or five
months; but it was concisely described by
one of the speakers in the debate on the
4th, who remarked that while England
is losing more and more of the
foreign market for her manufac-
lures, and while she even exports
now to the United States some raw
materials which are in part returned to her
as finished products, at the same time with
this ominous change her agriculture IS
depressed by the cheapness Of American
grain, our wheat ruling the price in Euro
pean markets and being sold so cheaply
there as to leave the English farmer loser
on his product.
That is to say, we of the United States
are underselling our English cousins
both in food and in manufactures, and this
to degree which threatens serious calami-
ties to England. In the irst place it should
be said that no one on this side of the
water will do otherwise than regret that
our prosperity should injure any other
people, and most of all the English, who,
if they have been our rivals in many fields,
are yet our kinsmen. But this is not
question of sentiment. The question
is of remedies, and what these
shall be and how they shall be
applied are questions which English
statesmen appear to us to have put off too
long for the good of the people they rule.
The questions which stare Englishmen in
the face will turn out to be the
gravest that have worried her statesmen in
great many years; for to remedy the evils
which afiict her industry will, We believe,
necessitate changes which must profoundly
affect her peculiar social system. MIR.
Bright, in his speech the
Chaplin resolution, plainly showed
his belief that the change in the
English Land laws which he has been adj
vocating for many years can now not much
longer be put off. But Mr. Bright under
stands perfectly that this change, whenever
| it comes about, will, in the making of it,
strike fatal blow at the aristocratic pre-
dominance; and that when there, as here,
to use his words, ssthey till the land
who own the land they TILL" Eng.
land will be new England, with new
spirit, new aims, motives and new motive
power. Whatever may be the conclusion
of the great debate which. by a singular
coincidence, was opened on the day which
we celebrate as the festival of our indie
pendence. it is not probable that one or
even two or three sessions Of Parliament
will suffice to see it decided.
The difficulty with English farmers is
this they pay an annual rent for their
lands which amounts to at least twice. and
for much Of our best wheat land to ten
times, what it costs our wheat growers to
buy the fee of their lands; and railroad and
water communications have now been so
far perfected and cheapened with us that
our Western farmers can send their prod
ucts TO England and sell them there so
cheaply that the competition is runous to the
English farmer. 1t is not only our wheat
which is thus cheaply sold in Europe, but
our beef and pork, our butter, cheese. and
lard and many other articles. The Eng
| lish farmer pays a fine, in the shape of rent
to his landlord, which now equals and per-
haps exceeds the fine which our Western
farmer pays in the shape of freight to Liver
pool on his products; and the American
has the further advantage of more
fertile soil, which does not re-
| quire expensive manures; and more
intelligent labor and great ingenuity
in the continuance and use of labor saving
machinery. This is the situation which
causes cool observers in England to predict
''social revolution" and which leads one
of the most cautious and thoughtful OF the
English weeklies-the Spectdtor-to say, at
! is very difficult to avoid the belief-though
| it may prove untrue-that England under
this tremendous competition must be Guilt
waited under some new system"
OF course Mr.. Brights suggestion that
the landlords shall sell out meets with a
cool reception from legislative body
which consists for the most part of men to
whom the ownership of land gives social