Sir J. Lubbock, who is an experienced banker as well
as a man of science and a politician, evidently believes that the cycle of lean years has fairly passed. He told the London Chamber of Commerce on Monday that prices were rising everywhere, and that the Clearing House returns, which two years ago were six thousand millions, were last year seven thousand millions sterling, a rise of 15 per cent. in the great barometer of pecuniary transactions. The tonnage of our shipping increased both absolutely and relatively, so that half the ships of the ocean carried the British flag— will nobody give us the statistics of coasters also ?- and of 6,800,000 tons which passed through the Suez Canal last year, 5,400,000 tons were British, an amazing and, to us at least, an inexplicable fact. Why should we thus beat countries like France, Italy, and Austria, which have every advantage of us in position for the Oriental trade, and can produce any number of cheap sailors ? Is it all natural adaptability for a seafaring life, or ready command of capital, or both together? We should like to comprehend, too, if we could, why, when Asia produces some of the best sailors in the world, and possesses some of the richest merchants, she secures almost no part of the carrying trade. The Arabs have a sort of genius for the sea ; yet they do not carry now even the pilgrims from India to Mecca.
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