NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tun class which can effect the abolition of the Corn-laws is be-
ttilting to exert itself for that purpose. Our columns this week .ord the proceedings of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce a panufactures. convened to petition Parliament for a removal of restri tions, which must, if continued, reduce the British foreign trade to an extent involving great national calamities. The state- ments of the manufacturers demand most serious attention. They proclaim the flight of English capital and skilled labour to foreign lamb:, to be employed in rivalry of England. A formidable com- petition in the staples of our industry is showing itself on the Con- tinent of Europe and in the United States. It is important to mark the fact, that it is by English capital and skill that foreign nations are enabled to carry on a successful contest. The want of profitable employment at home has forced the possessors of money and me- chanical ingenuity to seek it abroad. A very large portion of British exports now consists of materials for Continental manufitc- tures. Immense quantities of cotton yarn are prepared in Man- chester for German and Italian weavers. But this branch of business will soon be cut off; as spinning-establishments, conducted by Englishmen and Seotchmen, are springing up both in Europe and America. The Corn-laws, said one of the speakers at the Manchester meeting—and the remark was just and striking—re- semble in their operation the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which expelled from France most of its industrious and ingenious artisans, and planted them in other lands. The mass of mere labourers, the less valuable portion of the population, are left behind. They increase, whilst the means of maintaining them are continually diminished. Be it observed, this is not the specula- tion of political economists : it is not a mere theory, based on probabilities of the future : the process described is actually going on. Exports of manufactures decline ; valuable workmen, engaged by capitalists, and scientific mechanists, are constantly transtiaTing their wealth-producing powers to foreign countries; the crops are deficient ; and population is augmented in the usual ratio. Well might the Manchester gentlemen look aghast, as we are told they did, whilst this formidable array of facts was marshalled before them. May their alarm bring forth fruits of ac- tivity and resolution to grapple with the evil—the destruction— which hangs over them ! It is very fit that Manchester should take the lead in the movement against the Corn-laws, and insist upon a revision of the British commercial policy. Simultaneously, or at short intervals, there have been several agricultural meetings ; and the Smithfield Club have had their an- nual dinner and exhibition of cattle in London. Self-satisfaction characterizes these reunions of landowners. Apparently, there is no apprehension that the system which puts enormous profits into their hands is in danger of subversion. With wheat at from 80s. to 90s. a quarter, and labourers' wages at 8s. a week, of course they must be comfortable. The harvest has been a good one for them. The ports are open ; but little grain comes from abroad to depress the markets. Admirable operation of the Corn-laws ! But the " predominant interest" might find cause for anxiety within the circle of their own observation. They need not go to Glasgow or Manchester for evidence that the foundation of their prosperity totters. Incendiarism spreads ; and the Poor-law in some districts cannot be executed. " Guardians of the Poor" re- sign in a body ; haying received reprimands for relaxing the seve- rity of an enactment which they lack nerve to enforce. But a famishing people must have food ; and, to quote the Morning Chro- nick's expression, they are " going about the business" of procur- ing it " in a cool and systematic way, with a vengeance.' The remark was elicited by an account in a Salisbury paper of a rob-
bery committed on the road from Salisbury to Shaftesbury. A " gang of thieves" broke open a barn, set up a winnowing-machine, winnowed seven sacks of wheat, killed two lambs, " skinned and cut them up" in the most "expert manner," and then quietly carried off their booty in a cart, along the turnpike-road ! It is supposed that
tell men were engaged in this exploit ; which the Chronicle says is " the natural result of the inadequacy of the wages of the labourers to obtain for them the means of subsistence at the present high
price of corn." There will be more of such "natural results" be- tbre the winter is over. The Corn-laws are converting the agricul- tural labourers into robbers, and the manufacturing population into torch-light disturbers of the peace. Praedial and political discon- tent both result front dearness of food and low wages. The existing Government is almost universally allowed to be de- ficient in the statesmanlike qualities necessary to encounter and remove the growing difficulties in which the country is involved. • A change must come ; but of what kind, and how is it to be effected?
The idea of a " coalition " gains ground. Not that we see any advance towards a removal of the obst. .es to a formal union of Whigs and Tories in the same Cabinet ; `gut the hostile attitude of the working classes, and the risk of pcpti! r ebullitions in a period. of scarcity, suggest the idea of a " strong government" to many, who see strength only in the determination and power to keep down the people. It is perceived that to this cod a divided aristocracy is unequal ; and a combination of Whigs ant. Tories, therefore, appears to be required by the exigencies of the times. Should there be that amalgamation of parties which woul present the aristocracy in a body opposed to the masses, we migl.t expect a recurrence to the CASTLEREAGH and Stumm:TR policy, and the employment of the means used in 1818-19 to stimulate the distressed portion of the people to illegal acts, affording an apology for repressive mea- surehand terrifying the timid into a regular support of the existing Government. The result of such a conflict !night scare men of the firmest nerve. The middle classes would have most cause to dread the effects of its progress and its end. The complicated system of credit would receive a shock, which it could not withstand. The "landed interest" might come out of the struggle comparatively unscathed ; and the multitude, with little to lose, would find some- thing like a resource in desperation ; but the credit, the productive capital, and the means of comfortable subsistence, necessary to the middle classes, would disappear in a political convulsion. To the middle classes—for several years sunk in soul-destroying selfishness—it especially belongs to arrest a progress of affairs which would serve as an apology for the baseness of an open Whig-Tory coalition, with the ulterior consequences which we have so feebly traced in dim outline. At present there are practical difficulties in the way of a formal union of the parties. " Government by her Ma- jesty's Conservative Opposition," which has this week been put forth by the Morning Post as though it were a new scheme of politics, seems likely to endure yet awhile. The patient people have not yet g:ven political traders a sufficient pretence for a mutual desertion of their party principles. Opportunity for the beneficial interposition of the middle classes is not wanting. Now is their time: now or never. A truly national policy, displayed in large measures for bettering the social condition of the bulk of the people—gua- ranteed by rational and efficient changes in our most imperfect legislative machinery—would throw into the shade the unpractical though important questions which now agitate a section of the working population. A Government formed and acting on this principle, might awe the class interests into acquiescence, or defy them ; and do much which an unpopular Administration dares not attempt. The days when tinkering legislation, and "rubbing on" from one expedient to another, blinded the people to the selfishness and incapacity of their rulers, are passed away. The country is in thatperilous condition foreseen by Mr. Husaissox, when he warned the House of Commons, that if measures were not taken to free commerce from prohibitory duties, there would soon arise the most formidable state of things which could exist under a popular con- stitution—increased political intelligence and activity, coincident with physical distress among the mass of the people.
