NEWS OF THE WEEK.
CLOSING in peace, as it opened in war, the year 1849 has wit- nessed events second in importance only to those of 1848; though it has not brought us to that European settlement which the tumult of last year seemed to necessitate.
At home, quiet has been unbroken, save by the growing cry of " agricultural distress," and some winter indications of madden- ing wretchedness among the rural labourers : politically, the quiet amounts to dulness. In many respects the period bears the marks of a transition state—the suspense, the conflicting hopes, the doubts. Free trade has had its swing; the promised " prosperity " has not yet fully come, but it is still said to be coming; and several signs of it are tangible enough. In the factory districts all is bustle and activity; mills are constantly at work, stocks are low, wages are up, and speculation is looking forward to a harvest of affluence next year. If California has not sent heavy cargoes to swell the immense Ettore of bullion in the Bank of England, it may have helped to spare American demands upon that establishment ; the insecurity of the European Continent has contributed to turn the golden stream to London • the depression and hesitation of the
closing years now closin have checked investment, and aided to heap up the hoard : there it lies, more gold than the moneyed wisdom of the City knows what to do withal ; and speculation fastens its greedy eyes upon the mass, seeking what it may de- vour. We might forget that there was such a thing as distress, were it not that the agricultural meetings like that at Blandford, still repeat the complaint of farmers and landowners; and that recent inquiries have laid bare the existence of a chronic poverty which seems to lie beyond the reach of " prosperity." In that respect the deadly epidemic of the year has worked a permanent good, by forcing attention to the state not only of our sanatory re- gulations but of our poor : hence the two social movements that especially distinguish the year now closing—the broad inquiry into the condition of the poor, and the general effort at sanatory reform. The victims of pestilence have not perished in vain : an equal number might have died from similar causes, without attracting attention, had the mortality been spread over a longer period or had it been even in its pressure ; but pressed into a single season, it struck the imagination and stimulated exertion. The two kinds of political agitation that are going on as we take our farewell of 1849 accord with the actual state of the people. Agricultural dis- tress combines with the natural tendency to reaction in bringing about the movement for renewed " protection." In vain Earl Fitzwilliam argues at Huntingdon that renewed protection is impossible; the farmers who find it difficult to pay rents out of current prices wish to believe Earl Stanhope, and to think that prices may be made higher. They prefer that even to Mr. Disraeli's ingenious invention of an agricultural agitation for the juncture to obtain a diminution of the local burdens : Mr. Disraeli's notion is too much of a refinement for the agri- cultural mind ; and so it remains a sort of literary project, to which the agricultural ear listens with a polite disguise of its inattention. Sir Robert Peel has just come forth with a letter to his tenants, backing up his policy by proposals for equitable adjustment of relations between landlord and tenant, on the basis of a lower level of prices—though not so low a level as the pre- sent, which is brought about not only by the removal of restric- tions, but by the undue stimulus of high prices in the years of scarcity. To landlords he furnishes a sensible example in the ful- filment of duties towards well-conducted tenants ; to tenants he conveys an intelligible hint on the manner in which farm- ing at a profit may be reconciled with the altered commer- cial polity of the nation. The other of the twc political agitations corresponds with the rising wages and quiescent politics of the working class, and with the ascendancy of the middle class,—it is the movement for creating a new County freehold constituency, to be purchased out of the savings of the working class, and to be used for the objects of the middle
class, especially that "financial reform" to some success in which Mr. C. i
obden's reputation has been so openly pledged. That Cob- den is an indefatigable man, witness his agitating speeches at Leeds and Bradford last week. The two agitations have a marked and characteristic distinction. The Cobden movement essentially belongs to the trading towns, is based upon material realities, accords with the tendency of the times, is calculated to force official attention to its subject, and is by its nature likely to have some result which may pass for success. The other agita- tion is a shadow of the past, belongs to a declining or evamshed influence,' and can have no result. And so the year closes, not without anticipation of some dire portents; for a prophet not yet extinct has foretold extraordinary tides in the Straits between Great Britain and the Continent; and the rationalizers of the day have presumed some sanction for astrology in practical science, insomuch, it is said, that officials have fOrtified the low- lying public offices against the expected floods. But Sir Wil- liam Hamilton, the Astronomer-Royal 'at Dublin, has declared that there is no scientific reason to expect a rising of the waters ; and so the portent of the day must be due to non-natural causes, unless it prove non-existent.
Europe is more tranquil—on the surface—than it was at the commencement of the year. In France, Prince Louis Napoleon has maintained his seat as President, and has thus far success- fully coquetted with events and parties. If he is a puppet in the hands of others, he makes a profit out of that function. Some things indicate that he is in that state : the only view at all origi- nal which he has exhibited has been his inclination towards an as- sociative organization of labour ; but he seems free to indulge that disposition only in trifling efforts. He is reported to have promised the other day the abolition of passports ; but passports are not abolished. His indiscreet tongue receives some private castigation and correction. However, be has made both ends meet, and France is not more unsettled iv December 1849 than she was in December 1848, perhaps less so. Germany is not more settled,—her federal condition still a theory, Prussia and Austria still at loggerheads, Schleswig-Holstein still provisionally go- verned. King Frederick William seems just now to be stealing a march upon Austria in the most cunning manner, by developing truly " constitutional" government in his own territories ; a policy which, if carried out, must. the end compel Austria to fol- low his lead. Italy has been reconquered, and is still unsettled : but here also Victor Emmanuel is pursuing a similar course ; he opens his Parliament under an escort of armed National Guards, and delivers a royal speech in which English com- monplaces assume an aspect of startling innovation, con- sidering the geographical point : Victor Emmanuel there- fore seems to be raising up in Italy that power which is so peculiarly fitted to the age and is so much stronger than despotism—Constitutional Monarchy. Hungary is reconquered, but sulky, and evidently unsubdued in spirit. Russia helped to conquer her, but has done nothing further to consolidate Austrian power ; which remains where it was, unaugmented amid growing powers. The conflict of Despotism and Constitutionism has been extended to Turkey, not as an internal but as an external ques- tion : Russia is pressing unjustifiable demands for the betrayal or expulsion of refugees, and England is said to have committed a breach of treaty in her zeal on the other side, by invading the neutral waters of the Dardanelles. Through all these conflicts Russia keeps up a prudent reserve—by some ascribed to wisdom, by more to timidity, and by others with greater reason to an astute cunning bent on ulterior projects of aggrandizement.
The British Colonies are in that disaffected condition which the year has rendered so familiar : Sir Charles Grey still shilly- shallies in Jamaica; Lord Elgin still skulks in contumacious Canada; from the Cape, this last week of the year brings us news how Sir Henry Smith still holds out against the domestic block- ade of the official larder. Lord Grey is the blister of colonies— he makes them all rise, and detach themselves from the body of the empire ; which is at the same time put into a state of hot water by the operation.
