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THE OPENING YEAR OF INDUSTEY . " The accounts of the state of trade in the provinces throughout the first week in the new year , furnish indications of a more uniform and satisfactory kind , than have perhaps ever before been presented on a similar occasion . So says the commercial editor of the Times ; but we can give to his view a much more extended expression . The accounts of the state of commerce , in the
largest sense of the word , for the immediate season , are more satisfactory than any that have ever been presented to the English people in the course of our history ; and that remark may be extended , not only to the state of trade within our own frontiers , but to the condition of those colonies which are commercially most important ; and even to the most important countries in commercial relations with us .
We insist u p on this view , because it is important that all classes should know the substantial nature of the present prosperous condition , both in order that full advantage may be taken of the opportunities which are before us , and that all classes may attain to a just share of the unwonted blessings that we enjoy . The nation must take care that the Government continues the supreme direction of affairs in a manner calculated to promote the interests of the entire community . The individual who has substantial interests at
stake , must furnish himself with the proper information to guide the enterprise in the best manner according to his capacities , his resources , and his opportunities . And the working classes especially are bound to acquire that exact information , which will enable them , without making exaggerated claims , to insist upon their just claims . At other and adverse seasons mistakes may entail calamity , and so they may even now . But most assuredly , any practical mistakes may entail tho loss of profit which might otherwise be secured .
We proceed to make good tho sweeping assertion which wo have added to the emphatic averment of the Times . The first and most ordinary evidence of public prosperity is taken to be the state of tho revenue . Now , the condition of our rovenuo has been seriously affected by the large remissions of duties . I'Jie Sugar-duties , for example , which yield ho important au item , reduction
have been undergoing a progressive . Tho Wmdow-tax has been commuted into tho much loss onerous House-tax . In the past year tho high price of barley has checked the consumption , and the- consequence is a decrease in tho Excise . All these are circumstances which might reconcile us , if we found a decrease in tho revenue ; but tho fnet in , that there is an increase on the whole- year of 1 ) 78 , 926 / ., and an increase on tho revenue for tho closing three months ouly ,
of 702 , 77 ( 5 / . , ,. , , If wo piiHS to the City , we there iind tlio name minis of high tido mid healthful atmosphere . Consols , that universal standard , have long boon at par ; and if tho rumoured rising of tho Bank rate of interest bus boon followed by a Blight decline in tho prices , they are still done at par . Tho raining ol tho interest i . s ascribed to tho necessity of checking a drain of bullion to Paris , nu"gcHted by those who , taking a merely routine view of mieli matters , regard a current of bullion in itself absolutel
out of tho country as a thing y mischievous . They forget that a current is Hotting with Htill greater strength in tho opposite direction , » m < l that in iuo cour 8 « of tr * ia < 1 tu 0 im « at supplies which come to us through New York From California , and Htill more directly from Australia , will ultimately bo spread throughout the commercial world- —England deriving riches for her commercial fertility m il "\» tream a « it -passes through her . Iho possibility ol conflict with more than one loreigu
Government , especially that of France , may have been amongst the shadows that alarm the . sensitive creatures in the City . But these little fluctuations do not affect the plethoric state of wealth , which in July last became almost an embarrassment to the Bank . The bullion then stood at the unprecedented amount of more than 22 , 000 , 000 ? . —5 , 000 , 000 / . above any previous point ; and if the amount has now been reduced to a more reasonable level , we find that within the present week one steamer has brought 890 , 000 / .
Turn we to trade , and we find the same progressive increase . The exports for the first eleven months of the year were , in 1850 , 60 , 400 , 525 / . ; in 1851 , 63 , 314 , 272 / . ; and in 1852 , 65 , 349 , 798 / .: an increase in two years of 5 , 000 , 000 / . And that is a progressive increase : in the single month ending on the 5 th December , the exports had increased from 5 , 362 , 319 / . in 1850 , to 6 , 102 , 694 / . in 1852 . Such has been the * ascertained increase in the surplus of produce carried abroad ; while it is notorious that the home consumption would show yet larger results if we
could collect them , and present them in the same compact form . Our shipping trade corroborates the general view . The ships entered outwards have increased , in number , from 27 , 445 in 1850 , to 29 , 871 in 1852 ; and in tonnage , from 5 , 531 , 715 , to 6 , 367 , 519 . Inwards , the number of ships has fallen from 29 , 206 to 27 , 722 ; but in tonnage , there has been an increase from 5 , 645 , 850 to 6 , 170 , 539 . The British shipping is about twothirds of the whole . The ships entered inwards show a slight decrease in 1852 as compared with 1851 ; partly through alterations in the method
of building , which economize space ; but we suspect also partly through the disproportionate activity of outward traffic in the latter half of 1852 , an activity which will be amply compensated in the sequel . ¦ It is well known that our dockyards were never so busy with construction as they are at the present moment , especially in vessels of the largest class ; not only for the contemplated increase of aur war navy , but for an increase to provideifor the incessantly expanding traffic with our distant dependencies . That traffic , indeed , is taking quite a new
character . The increase of passengers is coming upon shipowners , not so suddenly , but with a surprise not unlike that which visited railway speculators , when they found the passengers ot so much more importance than the goods . Hitherto , vessels have been built for goods alone , the passengers a mere adjunct : now vessels are building with a view chiefly to passengers , at the same time that the transport of goods is largely increasing . The whole traffic continues to expand , and a new traffic is in process of creation . Work here for ship-builders , and sailors , and for all who purvey for ship-builders and sailors !
Our own productive trades continue to expand ' as they have done for tho last six months , and yet they seem solid to the very heart . As 1852 wore away , the report of a deficient cotton-crop in America created some fear of a check to the activity , by an unprecedented price for tho raw material . ' It proves , however , that the dealers fuul only been using ' a little sharp practice—that the cotton-crop has extended to enormous proportions , as if in anticipation of our wants . All V .. - . -. . ., i /• ft If' I . . . . i _ . „ therefo ManehoHtor
is right in that quarter re . is a little quiet for the moment , after its excitement , but has on hand orders in abundance , from every quarter of the globe . The iron trade , both for mining and making , is embarrassed only by its over activity : it cannot get its work done fast enough for the demand . The coal trade shares the prosperity of irou . Nottingham has become ; quite a flourishing community . The story continues the same in Leeds and Belfast , and in all the centres of manufacturing
commerce . America , North and youth , Australia , China , appear as increasing consumers with our old customers . Will all this continue F So far as human foresight can euleulato , it will . Speaking generally , our customers are in the best condition . l ' ro ' s porous as wo are , wo sluill need more tea from ( Jltinu , and China will augmont her demands on Manchester . Australia is increasing both in population and in wealth , at a rate never before related in the history of the world ; ami Australia is becoming owe of our best customers in our markets . America is in . a . state of prosperity exactly parallel to our own . After the banking
crash of 1837 , the people of the Union set to work with their accustomed energy . One fact illustrates the decisive character of their conduct . Importations of French silks , and luxurious articles of commerce fell off ; importations of iron increased . Another fact : the farmers of Michi-§ an neglected their , own farms to speculate , and our rose to the inordinate height of thirty-seven dollars a barrel : the crash came ; multitudes were ruined ; but the farmers set to work on their own lands , and in that very year of crash ,
when necessaries of life were the most marketable things , flour fell to four dollars a barrel in Detroit : the vigorous supply keeping * ahead of the demand . The repudiating States have redeemed their bonds , and the national exchequer has 17 , 000 , 000 of dollars surplus . The most enormous cotton-crop yet produced has been sent to this country ; produce is increasing in every branch ; the corn crops enjoy a brilliant prospect ; and America , well stored with material wealth , not forgetting the gold in California , is likely to appear in our markets during the present year as a more jolly customer than
ever . We need scarcely say much about Australia . Down to the very latest point , experience has shown that the product of gold increases exactly in proportion to the hands at work upon it . Emigration still goes on . Since 1845 , the numbers Vho have emigrated from the United Kingdom , under official supervision , progressively increased from 93 , 501 to 335 , 266 ; in 1851 , and for the year 1852 , the numbers were all but 350 , 000 . A new direction , however , is given to the stream . The numbers that went out to
Australia last year , under official control , were 82 , 000 ; but even that gives no sufficient idea of the number sent : the increase having taken place chiefly in the latter half of the year . There is little doubt that the improved prospects of the working classes in this country may tend to check the emigration ; but the 300 , 000 and more who have gone westwards , form a large margin to fall back upon ; and there is no probability that any material check will be given to the supply of hands
for Australia . Every pair of hands that goes out is worth far more than its weight in gold . The comparatively small number of diggers have put 10 , 000 , 000 / . of gold on the way to the field of commerce through England ; and to anticipate a supply of 25 , 000 , 000 / . for the present year is a modest calculation . The English pauper lias become a purveyor of gold , and the English workman , whom he lias left behind , has become the purveyor of the necessaries of life for that
golden customer . The one cloud that hangs over us , is the long rain-cloud of the autumn and early winter . Great part of our home-crop is doomed , and bread is rising . But , who is afraid ? With more wealth in our warehouses , banks , and pockets , than we ever had before , we can bring corn , as we are already doing by anticipation , from , the granaries of the world ; and even the agriculdisa
turists whose corn prospects are ppointed , will find ample profit in supplying Avith other crops than eorn , the wants of the richest country in the world ' s history . Such is the opening prospect for the present year ; a prospect which merits , under the Divine blessing , but intelligence , energy , good government , and a good understanding amongst tho people , to secure for us blessings unprecedented . The people will do well to understand what they way liuve , and to wee that they do get it .
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CHURCH AND STATK : T 1 IK OXKOKI ) I / NIVKKSITV KLKCTION . Wurk the future Historian shall write the history of the Aberdeen Administration , he will give a prominent place to the Oxford University election . He will narrate how , at the moment of its birth , tho Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen was chnruclorized us an unprincipled coalition , as Hie most unholy of all alliances , as a base conspiracy , as political immo
a Popish plot ; as a " flagrant - rality " Vet iu describing the men ol whom it was " composed , he will be compelled to ntylo them the most distinguished ol whom tho IJritish . Parliament could boast ; and when ho looks around to note who were omitted , he will not find one tried statesman , unions it be hero and there a great lawyer . When he comes to the re-elections of the representative Minis term , lie will tell how one niter tho other tho popular , tho . middle class , and the agricultural eousti-
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Arnold .
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SATURDAY , JANUARY 15 , 1853 .
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January 15 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 69
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 59, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1969/page/11/
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