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    iOfla THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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    THE FIBST WAR WINTER. The evenings aro d...

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    DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARMY. Unless the war ...

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    Where Is The House Of Commons? Parliamen...

    clerky diplomatists out of the traditions of his race : and war was declared . Declared amid valiant speeches from our Ministers , that the Czar had exhausted every variety of falsehood ( as though young girls had been bewildered ) , and that Russia was an aggressive power ( singular discovery for statesmen of half a century' s experience , and who had' smiled on the Czar even up to the moment of Menscihikoff ' s mission ) whose career it was high time to arrest . But , in the meantime , the genius of our

    statesmen had been developed in their financial preparations . When negotiations were still in progress , and Russia had not yet been found out by these colossal-minded Englishmen , Mr . Gladstone , Chancellor of the Exchequer , hurried , in the month of April , to present a war budget . We were entering on a great crisis ; so he doubled the Income Tax for half a year . A few months . passed : we were in the crisis : there was a

    second budget : it was a European convulsion : so he asked for 10 , 000 , 000 / . He entreated the nation , eager to give , to believe that this was sufficient ; he ridiculed the idea of a loan ; and , under his auspices , a new political idea set in— "that a , war must be paid for in ready money . And what were the military preparations ? Two great fleets were equipped which have been of comparatively no use ; and one small army was sent out—which has now to be reinforced . In all the details of the war the

    petty conception of the struggle has been painfully illustrated . At Varna , the commissariat arrangements were criminally incomplete ; before Sebastopol , within a few hours' sail , of Constantinople , they are still so ; and after Alma , and at Scutari , the sick and wounded have died by dozens— -from neglect . The neglect arose from a clerky economy of

    moneyeconomy of money when the richest of peoples were clamouring to pay I The war by degrees is developing itself ; -week by week and month by month we find that the Government ' s conception of the war is enlarging . In time we shall have great armies , and , we venture to assure Mr . Gladstone , as vre assured him at the commencement of last

    session , a great loan . "What the Government could not , or would not , see at first , the y are seeing at last ; what they would not do , in the pettiness and pedantry of routine , they will have to do iu the end . For a great war we must have great measures ; and we see no signs of great resolves , arising from statesmanlike foresight , in giving Lord Raglan a small reinforcement of 50 , 000 or 60 , 000 men—only 7000 of these being English . The war will not end in the Crimea : and it is this winter we should see some preparations for next spring .

    Now , as we have in the present Government the very best men that the governing class can produce , and us no other Government is possible , all we can hope is that the Coalition may see reason to include the House of Commons and expand its views of the war b y contact with tho collective representation of the nation . When there is no great man , the next best thing is a great assembly ; we may have faith in the House of Commons as regards the war because , from the first , it haa been in advance of the Government .

    Iofla The Leader. [Saturday,

    iOfla THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    The Fibst War Winter. The Evenings Aro D...

    THE FIBST WAR WINTER . The evenings aro drawing 1 in ; the firo begins to grow pleasant ; and the young people are looking to the Christmas holidays . But tho careful housowife asks what , is likely to bo tho price of coals and provisions ; tho man of business no tea with auxioty tho contracting index of hia day-book ; « , ud tho statesman asks , not "without apprehensions , what will bo tho price of bread tor the poor ?

    The last question is one of keen interest to many of us , rich as well as poor . The full stomach can sustain hard labour and keep out old cold . Poor wages it can make wages by increased toil ; it can make a shift with little fuel , or none . But even better wages cannot sustain the empty stomach for work , and coals cannot warm it . The stomach will not be empty , although we may perhaps stint our feasting . Let us at once admit that the prospect for the winter is neither brilliant nor of the darkest ; it is sombre , but not more than sombre .

    The fluctuations in the corn-market need alarm none , lut the creditors of the corndealers . The price is evidently kept up by artificial means . One more series of fluctuations has yet to come—that which will mark the ebbing tide . While corn has been going up and down in London , it has been going down and up in country districts and Ireland ; and on the Continent , where they

    have not had a universal abundance , and where some alarm has been felt at the prospect of deficiency , — -the French Government , for instance , has forbidden deportation or distillation of grain , — the markets are quiet , with increased supplies reported at Dantzic , and every prospect that the granaries in the chief centres will be fairly stocked . We have already alluded to the prospect of short supplies in America —r- those accounts of universal

    drought which seemed to affect cereals alone ; for we had no reports of starving beasts , or plains strewed with the dead bodies of those that were killed by thirst . The want of rain has checked the corn in many districts , but the higher prices of last year , the known shallowness of the stocks all over Europe , and the certainty of a good consumption during the current year , have encouraged that spread of land devoted to corn culture which had already been facilitated by the return of many farmers from speculations in railways and other jointstock enterprises to their own legitimate industry .

    Setting increase against deficiency , -vve fully reckon on a fair supply from America . But in the meanwhile it is the in ^ rest of the dealer to make the most of the deficiency . Mr . Caird , than whom we have no > higher authority , has shown , in a letter to the Times , that our own production on the known acreage would be sufficient to equal the produce and the importation of last year taken altogether ; added to -which the excellent quality of tho corn must have increased its weight , and better

    modes of culture must have increased the proportionate return per acre . We may reckon , therefore , on 16 , 550 , 000 quarters against a consumption of 28 , 000 , 000 quarters , leaving only a deficiency of 1 , 450 , 000 against 6 , 000 , 000 last y ear , now to be made good , the average importation being 4 , 500 , 000 quarters . During the last month an unprecedentedly small quantity of wheat or flour was taken for consumption ; a fact which proves that the fluctuations and enhancement of prices arose

    from the speculation of the dealers , not from the pressure of demand . When wo look to the comparatively quiet state of the Continental markets , and the probability that the American return will not be so much below previous shipments , wo may see how completely tho movements in the Corn-market have been speculative . Upon tho whole , thoreforo , we ma } r reckon that thene will be a fair average supply of corn for this country , and as the price hero ia usually higher than it ie elsewhere , wo may also calculate with soino confidence that the

    Continental demand will not very seriously enhance tho cost of tho loaf here . Ultimately it will settle at its level for the twelve months , and that lqvol will not be beyond reason . What , however , will bo our means for

    purchasing bread during these same twelve months , and particularly during the winter season ? Here we cannot speak quite so confidently . We are apt to overdo our " prosperity . " Some twelve months back there was a great demand for British manufactures in America , in India , and in Australia ; but we can manufacture faster than others can want , especially cotton

    goods . If the fair lady of an Australian digger wanted one cotton gown of the best manufacture , we sent her two . We calculated the Indian , consumption at the rate which it might show , if reforms had already emancipated Indian industry and endowed it with a purchasing power such as it ought to possess . We have so overstocked American warehouses that bills could

    not be drawn against any further consignments . Manufacturers are keeping down their work ; merchants must do the same . Merchants deal with retail traders , and retail traders will find their orders contracted . Merchants' clerks j mitate their masters , and another class of retail dealers find their " little bills" smaller than they could wish them to be , except in cases where the little bills are not met * Here is a

    general disposition to retrenchment , not violent nor excessive , but wide-spread , steady , and decided . The labouring class have less to do . As employment is contracted wages sink a little ; but the decline is chiefly in the amount of work done . It is nearly the same thing ; the purse , from that of the lordly merchant to the humblest working man , has less in it ; and thus the somewhat high price of bread is rendered a heavier burden to a lighter purse .

    One fear suggested by the war is spaTed us for the winter . Parliament can sometimes tax us retrospectively , but it cannot meet in February to make us pay in November , December , and January . That is one consolation for not having a winter session . Another consolation lies in the . certainty that , American disasters notwithstanding , pur trade is more generally based on real business than ever ; its scale was never so great ; there is every prospect of a renewed expansion with the spring . We may therefore cheer ourselves ^ in the dull interval before the returning sun , with the proper sun o £ the Christmas season—Hope .

    Development Of The Army. Unless The War ...

    DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARMY . Unless the war with Russia should be abruptly terminated by some legerdemain , we shall be called upon very greatly to enlarge our military system . Before the affair at Balaklava it was calculated that our effective force was reduced to 15 , 000 men ; subsequently there have been that affair , the affair of the 26 th , and the general engagement of the 5 th instant , with others , of course , unreported : —the 15 , 000 must have been reduced

    to a much greater extent than can be compensated by the British reinforcements that have arrived or are on their way . Whatever then may be the result of tlie present stage of tho contest , a much larger increase is inevitable . Even if we are to seize Sebastopol , raze it , and embark , that cannot bo the last of the struggle with Russia ; we must strike yet another blow , must strike that more effectually , and must put greater strength into tho means of striking . On tho other hand , if we avo to retain possession of the Crimea we must grapple with

    Menschikoff , and wo must exceed him in power , notwithstanding his continual recruitments . There seems , however , little probability that tho wnv can be Hunted to tho Crimea . If Austria is with us , Russia will attuck that power ; it" Austria forsakes us , we must attack her ; and , in either case , force alone can secure either tho fidelity or the submission of Prussia . With a largo army in tho Crimea , we shnll roquiro other armies towards tho centre of tho Continent .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 18, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18111854/page/12/