Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-01
FOREIGN REVIEW.
ENGLAND.

The mast wear has not been fortunate one
for England To an unusually severe winter
an unusually severe summer succeeded, and 1t
did not need tine comparative crop failure so
caused to make the outlook depressing. For
it has been made apparent in this last twelve
month that great and far-reachlng changes
are about to occur in English commerce, ag-
riculture and land tenure. Every country
has two lives. That which it lives outward
to the world, and that which it lives inward
to itself. England's outward life is the rec
ord of her foreign policy, of her attempts to
make Turkey fulfill her pledges. of her wars
in South Africa and Central Asia. of her
troubles in India, of Beaconsfield's doinss and
reputation. Her inward life is the record of
her peoples progress, and this after all is the
most significant. For some years past for
eign competition has been encroaching more
and more upon England's commercial supre-
macy. The blind folly and brutal selfish
ness of her own workingmen have at the
same time contributed to cripple her man
terms to their employers these men have
through their trade-unions done much to pre-
vent manufacturers from competing fairly
with their continental and American rivals
The favorable reaction in the trade of the
United States has helped to intensity this
depression, while the menacing aspect of the
future tends to prevent recovery. The in
creased facilities for the expectation of Amer
lean cattle and cereals, have shown the Eng
lish farmers that the scepter is departing
from them. A great depreciation in the value
of farming land has resulted. The farmers
can no longer pay the high rents of old
times, and the Weather landlords have been
obliged in many cases to remit great part
of their rents. Nor is there any reason to ex-
pect change for the better in the situation.
America will produce mole wheat and cattle
henceforth than ever before, and both will
be transported more swiftly and cheaply.
At present the English agriculturists seem to
to think that change in the tenure of
land would solve the problem for them,
and the Irish agitation naturally sug-
gests the abolition of prinogeniture and
entail. Whether if this reform were granted
| it would have the effect anticipated, must be
considered doubtful, but it is not probable
that any such innovation will be possible I'M
til there has been protracted discussion
over it. SO long as England adheres to her
Free Trade policy she can never be perma-
nently crippled by competition. She may
have to change her commercial policy in
some respects, but she will continue to be the
treasury and the emporium of the world, and
however difficult her situation may appear
for the moment, she will extricate herself
from all temporary enbarrassments. Her
politics this year have been more than usu-
ally stirring. The failure of the projected
reforms in Asia Minor, undertaken in con-
formity with the Treaty of Berlin, the disas-
tiers which marked her military record, first
in South Africa and later in Afghanistan,
and the stormy agitation on the land ques-
ton which has arisen in ireland, have almost
shaken to pieces the singular confidence in
the Beaconsfeld Ministry which existed at
the opening of the year. The programme of
the Premier indeed has been most unfortu-
nate. Not one of his predictions has been
verified, not one of his avowed causes of con-
graduation has proved genuine. Entangled
with Turkey in reform experiment which
all Europe saw to be hopeless; committed in
Central Asia to a policy of conquest which
must make the frontier Of India less secure
instead of more scientific; confronted at
home by an Irish agitation which may drift
into an Irish rebellion the star of Disraeli
seems to be threatened with extinction, while
the popular reaction promises to take his
great rival Gladstone once more into favor
notwithstanding his doubtful patriotism and
his dangerous leanings toward ecclesiasticism.