VQICES FROM OUR SUPPLEMENT.
"Sirs, Colonies, and Commerce," were the demands of the first Napoleon from his subjects—" Ships; Colonies and Commerce," in order that he might obtain a standing-ground equal to that of Great Britain ; and that possessing such equality, combined with the superiority which France possesses in other respects, he might then advance to the ascendancy in Europe and so over the entire world. Napoleon was stopped in his career—brushed away, and other regimes came after him The old Monarchy again had a chance, and failed, because it could not adapt itself to the actual Mate of the world, but mistook the nineteenth for the fifteenth or twelfth century. The bran-new nineteenth-century Monarchy which succeeded only committed the blunder of mistaking the middle class for the universe. It expired in the act of trying to nominate an infant for ruler over a more intelligent scheme of go- vernment; and left room for the experiment of a revolutionary corps, which, if it did not mistake the nineteenth for the twenty- ninth century, omitted the middle class, the aristocracies, the foreign governments, and the European system, from the uni- verse in which it lived. That gave place to the Presi- dent Prince, who revived the Empire, and the oppor- tunity for a Napoleon again to try his hand at "ships, colonies and commerce." How altered the state of Great Bri- tain since the first Emperor attempted his rivalry ! The reader may see the features of the great difference in our statistical Supplement. In the days when the first Napoleon ap- peared to set up _French "ships, colonies, and commerce," against Great Britain —when Great Britain stood alone against the world,
—we had nothing whatever of some of the machinery thatproduced the wealth displayed in our present Supplement. Our exports and imports were then but the embryo of what they are now. We had no Railways, no Australian Colonies, no Gold regions of our own—nothing to compare with the commerce we now carry on with all the world. Napoleon aimed at establishing a com- mercial ascendancy for France on the principle of a fostered commerce, a government-nurtured trade, an exclusive system. Our Supplement would have been a valuable sermon to him on the true morale of state commerce.
Napoleon coveted colonies, but for what do the British Colonies
-figure in our Supplement ? They cost us three millions and a quarter—that is, if we take colonies in the view of a central ad- ministration. But half of that expenditure must be set down for naval and military stations. The remains of our great gaol ex- penses in Australia make up half a million, and naval and mili- tary charges occasion the larger part even of the remainder. It costs some three millions to maintain stations for our fleets and troops in dependencies miscalled colonies, and the remains of our official dignity income other real British colonies. That is the true meaning of the expenditure. The first Napoleon desired ships' we have been lending ships to the third Napoleon. And why? Tt is not because we have established plantations in Florida or Guiana ; it is because, whe- ther we establish plantations in Aiierica or Australia, we have
carried on trade with great freedom even while our system was exclusive, and in these days we have set it absolutely free. Hence it is that we see, during war-time, that steadiness which our exports maintain ; for any decrease in the details of ex- ports bordering on 100,000,0001. a year, is properly a commercial fluctuation consequent upon disturbances such as the discovery of the gold in Australia. The great body of our trade has gone on as before, expanded to immense magnitude : such a commerce needs a vast service of shipping ; and the shipping is available when required for other purposes. We have used it ourselves in war, we have lent it to France ; and yet we possess the power of keeping the field of commerce free and undisturbed by that which in all past history has arrested its progress, war.
It is the same freedom which has given us all our successes. It is the direct or reacting result of some interference which creates our difficulties. The vacillating system of .polity in regard to railways, which allows the different companies to struggle with each other for the field of employment while it carries an ineffi- cient official interference into every detail of management, has caused great waste upon the capital invested. Of the 300,000,0001. capital, how much is encumbered with debt? Of the 20,000,0001. expended in law for railways, how much is paid for projects that have come to nothing ? If we were to relieve the system from these mistakes of bad management, past and present, we should find that the active capital returns a handsome percentage upon all the railways of the country ; while we do find that every grade of the community, with first, second, and third class, has ample accommodation, and a still better accommodation in pros- pect. For the whole tendency- of the changes incident to the development of railway traffic has been in the direction of saving the friction of machinery and of cheapness. As it is, the number of journeys is just equal to the entire population of the United Kingdom making a journey and back once a year. The railway statistics might supply materials for some very in- teresting observations. If the reader will compare the length of miles on different railways with the number of stations and the number of persons employed, and with the rate of price per share of the different lines, he will be struck with coincidences in the high value of shares and the high number of persons employed on the railways. Take for example the London and North-Western, where there are 12,800 persons employed on 636 miles of railway, and the Eastern Counties, where a little over 6400 persons are employed on 575 miles : the 100/. shares of the North-Western are worth 101i; the 201. shares of the Eastern Counties are down to 9 per share. This is only one example of the effect of liberal as well as wise management ; for the number of servants has much to do with the comfort and safety of a line. The reader will also compare the progress of railways in liberal and constitu- tional Piedmont with the decline of railways in Austrian Lom- bardy.
The whole face of the Australian statistics is covered with in- teresting suggestions. The impulse which the gold. has given to commerce was overdone and there has been reaction ; Yet it is im- possible not to perceive that the golden wealth of Victoria will continue to exercise great power in developing the commerce and therefore the political strength and independence of our Austra- lian Colonies. At the same time, the unequal distribution of gold, which at first seemed adverse to particular colonies, is a real advantage. The great fluctuations have happened where there has been the greatest productiveness, but the spirit of the self-government will accommodate itself to those circumstances. The decline of gold in New South Wales, where there is a com- paratively moderate production, has been attended by a marked recovery in its commercial and social condition. South Australia, which has no gold to speak of, but which is the portal of the Mur- ray Valley and the granary of the Southern part of the continent, has shown the steadiest and most healthy development: yet who would venture to say that the extinction of gold would be bene- ficial to Victoria, to New South Wales or South Australia ? The
inequality is beneficial ; and it is the Wales, to take advantage of natural diversities in the several countries of the globe, as in the several races and even classes of society, which has developed English commerce, on which rests English influence.
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