Mr. Chamberlain's speech at the Cobden Club dealt with some
of the same topics, but contained also a very able demonstration that our Free-trade system has saved us from the complete and disastrous collapse from which the United States, under a strict Protective tariff, have suffered. While in this country the number of bankruptcies has decreased, in the United States they have reached a number and a value never before known. In 1884, for instance, the American bankruptcies were 12 per cent, more in number, and 37 per cent. more in value, than in 1883. There has been at the same time a general and extraordinary fall in wages. In the twenty-two Northern States the average reduction of wages had been from 20 to 25 per cent., while the average reduction in the number employed had varied from 12 to 33 per cent. Again, English boots and shoes were driving American and French goods of the same kind out of all the neutral markets of the world. The United States have an immense natural advantage for the manufacture of clocks ; but, as a consequence of their Protective tariff, it has happened that there is almost as large an exportation of British clocks to the United States as there is of American clocks to Great Britain, while in other markets the British clocks are superseding the American. Again, take the exports of woollen goods. The exports of woollen goods to this country from the United States, which had only reached the poor value of £72,000 in 1879, had fallen to 228,000 in 1884. In the same period the export of woollen goods from this country to the United States had doubled, and had reached the very high value of £3,500,000. Now, in every respect the Americans are our equals for manufacturing purposes except as regards their tariff. Hence may be inferred bow vastly superior is a Freetrade system to a Protective system. If figures of this kind do not dispel the Fair-trade illusion, that illusion is not to be expelled by argument, but is a genuine superstition.
Sir William Harcourt made one of his most witty speeches at St. James's Hall on Tuesday, at the meeting of the London and Counties Liberal Union. He remarked that it was very unusual to find a set of victors who are furious with their victims for being defeated ; yet this was the precise condition of the Tories just now. They bad watched with their gun behind the hedge night after night, to get an opportunity of shooting their victim, and no sooner had they succeeded than they treated it as a case of suicide, on the ground that, if he had only "ducked," he would not have been shot. Mr. Callan had said that the Government had fallen through Irish whisky ; well, he would rather belong to such a Government than to the Government which had floated into power upon that most generous fluid. The Tories, indeed, had cultivated a close alliance with that Irish spirit which is stronger than whisky, a spirit which had shown itself in relation to Egypt and the Soudan in one vote of censure after another. Sir William Harcourt also remarked on the strange scene of Monday night, when different members of an unborn Administration were attacking each other; and said it reminded him of nothing so much as the struggle of Jacob and Esau before they were born. Probably, too, the end might be the same,—that the elder would have to serve the younger. He rallied the Tories on their hope of getting rid of Mr. Gladstone, and said Nelson was not going to haul down his flag on the eve of Trafalgar. The Liberals would fight and win for the old cause and the old man.
The worst part of Sir William Harcourt's speech was the part about Egypt. He expressed his profound sympathy with one of Lord Randolph Churchill's (now abandoned) opinions that it is all delusion to suppose that England has any special duty in Egypt. "I believe that the longer this country remains in Egypt, the worse it will be for her." Sir William Harcourt promised his warmest support to the Government if it would evacuate Egypt, and, in fact, left the impression that our intervention has been a mistake from beginning to end, which he would undo as soon as possible by placing Egypt under the guarantee of Europe. That really means abandoning Egypt to the first Mahommedan Government which determines to plunder its people with a strong hand, and to cry "Hands off" to England. That is neither a strong nor a beneficent policy. Moreover, it is an infectious policy ; and if applied to Egypt one year, will be applied to India before many years are over.
Mr. Chamberlain addressed a large audience at Islington on Wednesday, in a speech which promised the Tories, if they brought in a meaningless Budget, "a contemptuous toleration." He ridiculed the Tory party for its internal differences, and declared that its chiefs stood pledged to five contradictory financial policies,— all of which they must give up in order to fish for a sixth. He maintained that local government was the key of the situation, as only through that could the misery of the people be relieved, great social questions be effectually dealt with, and the ancient class of yeomanry restored to its numbers and position. He was, however, strongest about Ireland. He maintained that the present government of that country was founded on 30,000 bayonets permanently encamped as in a hostile country. "It is a system as completely centralised and bureaucratic as that with which Russia governs Poland, or as-that which was common in Venice under the Austrian rule. An Irishman at this moment cannot move a step, he cannot lift a finger in any parochial, municipal, or educational work without being confronted, interfered with, controlled by an English official appointed by a foreign Government, and without the shadow or shade of representative authority." He would reform all that, sweep away " the Castle," and substitute for it "a genuine Irish Administration of purely Irish businesa" These sentences, though no doubt reconcileable with Mr. Chamberlain's avowed oppositioir to disunion, are almost Parnellite in seeming, and will raise hopesof Home-rule in Ireland which will not be gratified. They point, or will be believed to point, to a central representative body in Ireland wielding the powers of the administrative Boards now concentrated in "the Castle," which would be a mere prelude to the separation of the countries.
The uselessness of fixing the hours of labour by law is already beginning to be felt in Austria. Under the new statute the legal day is limited to eleven hours ; but the masters contendthat this means eleven hours of actual work, and the men that it means eleven hours attendance in the mills, meal-times being included. The lawyers uphold the former view; and the workmen of Brunn, some thousands in number, have struck, and threatened the masters so seriously, that troops were called out on June 16th, and bayoneted or " gashed " twenty-six operatives. The masters immediately after yielded ; but the men, infuriated by the appeal to force, raised their terms and remain on strike, demanding that the limit of attendance, meal-times included, shall be ten hours a day. If the masters were wise, they would yield that also, as the shorter time would be compensated by more assiduity ; but they fear a continuous increase in demands. The affair shows clearly that the workmen could have struck for lighter hours if they pleased, and that legislation was entirely needless.
Mr. George Russell and Mr. Herbert Gladstone have both been very happy this week in their remarks on the fate which has befallen the mantle of Elijah. Mr. Russell, speaking at Fulham on Monday, and referring to the scene of Monday afternoon in the House of Commons, remarked that, after all, the mantle of Elijah was only a divided skirt; while Mr. Herbert Gladstone, speaking at Cheltenham on Wednesday, remarked that the bearer of that mantle had met on Monday the same fate which Elisba met, when the little boys came out of the city to jeer at him, and cried, "Go up, thou bald-bead !" These little boys, said Mr. Herbert Gladstone, were immediately punished ; but the Tory boys would have to wait for their punishment till the elections. That is very true ; but though the Tory boys have their punishment deferred, our poor political Elislut has not had his deferred, bat has had to sequestrate himself permanently in the cold shade of the House of Lords, whence no intervention of the electorates:can redeem him.
A movement which, in the present position of affairs, might have seriously affected the peace of Europe, has, it is believed, perhaps prematurely, been averted. The Sultan, annoyed by some representations of the Cretan Assembly, which, he thought, involved an interference with his right to appoint a Governor of the island, ordered Same Pasha to accept the office. Saves, who knew himself a just object of detestation to every Cretan, demarred; but the Sultan gave him only the option of obedience, or exile to Arabia, which means death. He obeyed, therefore, and the Cretans prepared for a general insurrection. Saves, however, promised to govern according to law; and the Cretans agreed, if he would sign his promise in the presence of all Euro pean Consuls, to wait and watch his conduct. The Consuls at first refused, however, to sign his promise as witnesses ; and on telegraphing for instructions were told, each man by his own Court, to do what the majority did. At last they consented to sign, and revolution was averted. It is nearly certain, however, that Saves will not keep his promise ; if he breaks it, there will be an outbreak, and this time the Greeks will not allow their countrymen to be massacred. Nor will Austria, which is eagerly seeking to make a party in Greece, allow it either.
The cholera has reappeared in Europe, and by the middle of July the outburst may be severe. It has commenced this time in Spain ; in Valencia the cases on Juno 17th were 174, with 81 deaths ; in Murcia there were 218 cases, and 76 deaths ; and in Madrid five cases, with one death. In Madrid, it would seem, the disease has been lurking for some time ; and it is now acknowledged officially that between May 20th and June 15th—twenty-six days—there have been 75 cascsrof which 45 proved fatal. The proportion of deaths shows the severity of the outbreak; and whatever the law of the disease, there is little doubt that it will march northwards through France. Indeed, there is a. report, not quite authenticated, that it has already reached Paris. So far, the signs of panic are fewer than last year ; but the Governments are beginning to order the useless precautions just condemned by the International Sanitary Commission in the way of quarantine, cordons, and the like. A cordon is even talked of between Spain and France. There is nothing to be done, in England except wait, see, carefully to drains, and advise the people that cholera can be communicated most readily through contaminated water, and that the only remedy as' yet found efficaciousis opium. Fortunately, even in severe outbursts there has never been a tendency to panic in London, and any shrinking on the part of the profession is out of the question. They will resist, if the plague comes, as well as they can, though help must be sought in hygienic precautions rather than in medicine.
Admiral Courbet, who commanded in chief for a time in Tonquin, and in the attack on' Formosa, has died of overwork. He corresponded constantly with a sister in Prance; who is now publishing portions of his letters, and it appears that the whole expedition, and more especially the attack on Kelung, was forced on him by M. Ferry against his advice. He had reported his means to be insufficient, declaring that the fleet, his own ship especially, was worn out, and that he feared even an ultimate defeat. He was out of spirits from repeated bilious attacks, and, moreover, distrusted the Republican Government, being a man of strong Catholic opinions ; but it is evident that he could have done nothing serious against China. The innate dislike of French soldiers and sailors for distant tropical expeditions comes out clearly in these letters, which might have been written by Count Lally ; but there is something else behind. No explanation has ever been offered of the bad provisioning of the French Fleet which produced the mutiny among the Foreign Legion off Kelung. Is the Republic plundered like the Empire, and as incapable of hanging a few plunderers ?
A monster ship-of-war, the Beubow,' was named on Monday by Mrs. Gladstone, and launched at Blackwell with the usual ceremonies. Lord Northbrook described it as larger than "the whole British Navy in the time of Elizabeth." It is a vessel of more than 10,000 tons, and with more than thirty steam-engines, machine-guns, torpedoes, &c. Of Admiral Benbow, after whom it was named, it appears to be only known that he was devoted to all the old traditions of the service, and that when anything newfangled was introduced, the naval MEM always asked each other, "What would old Benbow say ?" The 'Benbow' is, therefore, apparently an ironical name, given to connect the naval Conservatives of former times with the most newfangled of all the applications of science to naval war. Probably "old Benbow" would now say that ihe Navy, if it is to be worked properly, must no longer be left in the hands of sailors, but rather handed over to mechanical engineers ; and he would certainly be right, and perhaps, too, he might not be far wrong, in the sense of surprise and anxiety with which he would no doubt view at least the process of transformation and the time of transition,
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