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    JTeb. 4, I860.] The Leader and Saturday ...

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    COTTON: GREAT STATISTICAL ERROR, LORD B ...

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    CHARNEL-HOUSES. IT is necessary to call ...

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    The Australian Colonies. I T Must Have B...

    « deace . .. Many blunders were , indeed , coinmitted by the Home Government , in the earlieryears of their history , and for a long time they experienced shameful neglect and still more injurious interference . But we have at last got quite , out of the grooves of Jthe old colonial policy , and have left the Australians to manage jfcheir own affairs in the way that seems best to them . They have as . full and entire self-government as they can desire . If the constitur Jtionof any colony seems defective to the inhabitants , they can alter at in their own sense , and , as a natural consequence , they have only themselves to blame for the blunders they make . But if they do make blunders they can easily correct them , and at the worst such mistakes are far less injurious than any which might

    he made by the . Colonial-office .-at home in the plenitude _ of its sgnorance : They have made a full , and , on the whole , wise use -of their liberties ; and if we may see something to cause a smile in their legislative proceedings ,, there is little to call for censure . The colonists have , consequently , nothing to get by independence , fbut something to lose , in the protection and aid England gives sthero ; so that their national -loyalty and the family ties which bind them to . the mother country unite with every dictate of ¦ self-interest to make them cling \ o the connexion . The burden , : such as it is , of that connexion , falls entirely upon England , to whom , in many ways , these possessions are yet a cost . But the cost , whatever it may be , is amply made up to its by the great Meld which the Australian colonies offer to-the enterprise of our

    rapidly increasing population , and the valuable trade which , not In virtue of monopolising restrictions , but under a system of perfect liberty , we carry on with them .

    Jteb. 4, I860.] The Leader And Saturday ...

    JTeb . 4 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst , 111

    Cotton: Great Statistical Error, Lord B ...

    COTTON : GREAT STATISTICAL ERROR , LORD B BOUGH AM is reported to have said in the House of Lords , on the 27 th ult ., that the importation-of cotton into this country had increased sixteen-fold since the import duty was abolished . The noble lord gave the figures G 3 , 000 ,. 00 O lbs . annually before the duty was abolished , and 1 , 000 , 000 lbs . now or at the end of 1858 , which is the latest official account published . The noble lord , made a great mistake , and we have not yet seen any correction of his error : It was in 1812 when the cotton imported was 03 , 025 , 9 30 lbs . ; ' . in 1858 . the quantity . imported was 1 , 034 , 342 , 17 . 6 lbs . This quantity was probably much exceeded in 1859 , as the -official returns to the end of November show an increase

    in the eleven months of 1 S 59 over the same period in 1858 of 1 , 000 , 000 lbs . But the import duty on cotton was not repealed till 1845 , when the quantity imported was 721 , 979 , 953 lbs . ; consequently between the time when the import duty was repealed and the end of 1859 , supposing the quantity then imported to have been 1 , 100 , 000 , 000 lbs ., the import of cotton has only increased 55 per-cent ,, or little more than" one half , instead of sixteen-fold , as stated by Lord Brougham ' . The error is gigantic . . ' The npble lord has confounded the repeal of the Orders in Council in 18 . 13 , in which Henry Brougham , being then in opposition , took a liberal , a patriotic , and a distinguished part—and which , no doubt , still occupies a large place in his mind- —with the repeal of the duties

    on raw cotton , which was not conceded to the reiterated prayers of the manufacturers till 1845 . Over the successive administrations which managed our affairs between 181 . 2 and 1 S 45 , including the Administration of which Lord Brougham formed a part , the jTroquent representations of the manufacturers and merchants , especially of Mr . Baring , afterwards Lord AshbuH'Xon , that the Americans were beating us out of the foreign market for heavy goods , had no- eijtect . In defiance of the teaching of science and the evidence of the senses the import duty on cotton , yielding less than £ 200 , 000 at the early part of the period , and only £ 6825 , 04 . 2 at its close , was obstinately preserved for thirtythree years ' after the period to which the noble lord has assigned the extinction .

    This historical fact is of great significance , besides correcting a very egregious mistake , it removes to thirty-three years later than is perhaps commonly believed ' the date of ' the practical conversion of our Government to the wholesome doctrines we are now trying to teach the rest of Europet When it was so slow in learning to do right , even when administered by Lord Brougham , in conjunction with the Whigs , we ought not to be surprised afe the French manufacturers , and the l < Yeuch

    Government , still lingering behind in the race of improvement . If the great increase of our qpttou manufactures be a just subject of congratulation , it will be observed that between 1812 and . 1845 , while the raw material was' subject to an import duty , the import of cotton increased nearly eleven fold . We know that this great increase was wholly independent of political causes , and took place in spite of the duty ; hut when other nations notice the i ' aot , they may be excused I ' ov their continued adherence to old

    protection , under which they may think we throve , and for their reluctance to follow our new and most successful course . They will be neither instructed nor encouraged to do right by the noble lord ' s mistake . - If the noble lord required an illustration of tire effect of repealing import dutiesj he might have found a more striking one in other articles than cotton . In 1844 the import duty on wool was repealed . It yielded only £ 97 , 174 . The quantity then imported was 65 , 713 , 761 lbs ., and it jumped rip the following year to 76 , S 13 , S 55 lbs . In 1858 the quantity ; imported ¦ amounted , to 126 , 738 , 723 lbs . Thus , while the increase of cotton imported in fourteen years was only 55 per cent ., the increase of wool in a similar period was 100 per cent . In 1 . 858 the import

    of raw silk was unusually small , owiug to exceptional circumstances ; but if we take the average of the three years , 1856-8 , we shall find that it too , like wool , lias , in a similar period , increased 100 per cent . Our cotton ' manufacture , therefore , great and noble as if is , and deserving of all admiration , is not , in its latter growth , so good an example of the beneficial effects of reducing import duties as wool and silk . In . its earlier growth it is a better illustration than they of the benefits of freedom . From several causes , not now to be stated , the manufacture of cotton was free in relation to our internal of our own social regulations , which many persons entirely overlook ; while the woollen and silk .. . manufactures were encumbered by heaps of old ' trade restrictions . Then it flourished a great deal more than ¦ othe r branches of manufacture ; but since they

    and it have been placed on a in ore equal footing at home , and are alike free , they have iucfeased faster than the manufacture of cotton . : Our contemporary the 1 'iines , which , adopted Lord Brougham's error s was quite right in representing the increase of our , cotton manufacture as " a giant fact , standing head and shoulders higher than the crowd , " and quite right in representing it as an index to an immense number " of smaller facts which stand under its shadow ; " only the sixteen-fold multiplication of mills , ships , freights , & c . to which the Tioi . es refers , has taken place in forty-six years , —not , as that journal and Lord Brou ' gham represent

    it , by substituting 1812 for 1845 , in thirteen years . Nor is the quantity of cotton imported an exact index to the increase of mills * . aud of people . In the interval much new and improved machinery has been ' introduced ; and it is' probable ; that , mill for mill , every ' mill in existence now works up in the year twice as much cotton as it worked up in 1812 . In adhering to correct statistics , we must not forget the progress in knowledge and skill , and its consequences . No cause is benefited , no truth can be promoted by mistakes and exaggerations , and therefore , we have thought it right to point out the error of a great orator and a great journalist .

    We may notice , as . a somewhat extraordinary circumstance , that , surrounded as the Times is by rivals a _ ul opponents , not one of them should have fastened on it for the error into which it was led by Lord Brougham , The journal said expressly , the increase had taken place since the import duty ' on cotton was abolished , and on this fact built a very striking leader . In the majority of the remarks we concur ; but while we consider them well-timed and appropriate , w e regret that they were all run up on an erroneous foundation .

    Charnel-Houses. It Is Necessary To Call ...

    CHARNEL-HOUSES . IT is necessary to call attention to a subject in which all are concerned , but upon which at this moment all appear apathetic . In the Quarterly Report of the health of the City of London , presented a fortnight ago , Dr . Listhisby makes allusions to the state of the church vaults and ' burial-grounds within his jurisdiction — seventy-one in number—which have been carefully examined . The vaults are , in some cases , gorged with corruption , and all along the aisles and porches of the sacred edifices' are graves filled with liunuin remains . In most instances , the only partition between the living and the dead is a thin slab of stone and a few inches of earth . Thcso oiler but a very imperfect barrier to the escape of noxious efliuvia ; and " slowly ; therefore , but incessantly , the guacous products of decomposition are effused into the atmosphere of the church . But at the night services , or during the winter bcmkmi , when the . air is rarefied by the warmth of tho fires or burning gus , and ' the rank vapours are drawn out in uncontrolled profusion , it is impossible to say what mischief has been done by this , and how many while worshipping within tho sanctuary have sickened unto death . " How very few of the thousands who are living in tho very contact with this abomination , and of tho tons of thousands who are daily exposed to its influences , are awaru of tho danger they incur thereby , must be obvious from tli « little exertion tluit la made to escape from this imminent peril . To supposes that tli » Legislature will interfere without the pressure of tho people , o *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 4, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04021860/page/11/