But these being the figures, why the prevailing despondency, which
is undoubted, and which Lord Derby admits P He says it is a passing mood, that the strong man has a slight ailment, and being used to full health, cannot believe that his ailment will pass away, though it will pass away. A nation with 35,000,000 of industrious persons and unbounded capital cannot, he thinks, be dislodged from its industrial position. We doubt, however, whether this is quite all. We imagine that the diminished spending power of the landlord class, and the panic of economy which has seized the wealthy, has a good deal affected some kinds of inter- nal trade ; while the steady shrinkage of the returns on solid investments, though in itself a sign of prosperity, worries and alarms investors exceedingly. Lord Derby sees that men accumulate as much as they did, but does not see that the amount yields much less income. While the scale of living is
always going up, the scale of interest obtainable on £1,000 is always going down. That is, at least, one cause of the depres- sion ; and we will mention another, though Lord Derby, per- haps, will smile. Nations have moods, and just now England is in a mood of axgry dejection, all the more savage because she cannot say why. The why is the absence of pleasant things to think about. There is nothing but Ireland.
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