The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-18
England Gave Thanks
For Peace One Hundred
Years Ago Today


1.-THE last great war has been fought
and the nations may now look for
ward to uninterrupted peace
This was the hope and the belief
proclaimed from many pulpits in Eng
land just century ago to-day, jan
uary IS. 1916, when Great Britain
by royal proclamation, celebrated a
general thanksgiving day, following
the end of the Napoleonic wars.
When the smoke of bloody Water
loo rolled back, it revealed a, continent
given over to desoIation. While Eng
land had suffered less than the other
nations involved in the long and ter
rible struggle, she had by no means
escaped unscathed. For twenty years
Great Britain had supplied the fnan-
cial sinews of war for her allies. in ad-
dition to her active participation in
the battles on land and sea. When
the people were called upon to give
thanks for peace, they were scarcely
of eight hundred million pounds ne
cessitated taxation so heavy as to
cause general distress. Most obnox-
ious of all was the tax ON the inpor-
tation of grain. which rendered food
stuffs so high in price that hundreds
OF thousands of people were constant
ly on the verge OF starvation.
Owing to tariff restrictions in other
countries, England was shut off from
many markets for her manufactured
goods All over the country factories
and mills ceased operations. and vast
| armies of workmen were thrown out
of employment Brought to the verge
of starvation, with q cold winter ad-
ding to their sufferings, English work
men were not disposed toward thank
full piety on the day appointed for fiv-
ing thanks. It is difficult to be truly
thankful ION an empty stomach and
that was the condition of a vast num-
Der of people in the year following the
close OF the Napoleonic wars.
The era Of modern invention was
then just setting in. and the starving
toilers, augmented in numbers by seY-
eral hundred thousands Of soldiers
and sailors, discharged by the govern-
nent, were bitter in their opposition
to all A1abor-seving devices! They
were scarcely to be blamed, for when
there were already ten men clam oring
for every job. and eager to work long
hours for the merest pittances any re-
duction in the number of jobs was nat
ural1y opposed
While the nations of continental
| Europe relapsed in 1916 into the most
savage and brutal political despotisn,
and all attempts to keep alive the spir-
| it of revolution were ruthIess1y crush
ed, Great Britain became Increasingly
radical. Great labor meetings were
held in the industrial centers, and the
workers had spokesman in Parliament
who grew more and more importuaate.
Cobbett's. radical newspaper, the
'tTwo-Penny Register for a time was
more powerful than even The Times.
1t was not until toward the close of
1915 that the clouds of financial and
industrial depression began to lift, and
with Increasing prosperity, the ex-
treIne radicals waned in influence.
Yet the political upheaval in Eng
land was a mild and evanescent phe-
nonenon compared with the changes
in other countries. In France the
restoration of the old regime was but
the beginning Of the end of tyranny,
and the same was true, to a lesser
extent, in other lands.
Great Britain had been least of
all shaken from her political moor
ings,H says Ridpath, the American his
torian .'It was discerned. as the
roar of battle receded to the horizon,
that England had, even through the
epoch of turmoil and violence, held on
her tedious and labored course, like a
heavy ship. toiling with the breakers,
battered with the storms but, never
the1ess. essentially sound in her struc-
ture.' One can but wonder if this
applies to the future, well as to the
past.