pathy there can be, however, between these and the others we need scarcely ask.

And it is to be observed, that when the French Government commenced the negotiations in the East in something of a Catholic spirit of anxiety and zeal for Catholic interests in the Holy Land, the English Government showed the reverse of sympathy, and indicated something very like contempt. Two years ago, the English Minister wrote, "that it would indeed be lamentable if a serious difference were to arise on a matter so unimportant as the question which has been raised between France and Russia, as to certain privileges in regard to the custody of a Holy Building at Jerusalem." There is an ill-concealed scorn here, quite characteristic of Protestantism, which, in spite of Jeremy Taylor, has never been marked by "reverence for Holy Places.' And France only purchased the co-operation of England by relinquishing her contention on behalf of Catholicity, and consenting to make the question one of mere policy. It is not therefore that France is combatting on behalf of the Church she is not a champion for Catholicism; she merely unites with England in resisting a common rival. She has resigned her right to contend on the part of Catholicism, in order that she may oppose the pretensions of Russia in the cause of schism. There may, indeed, be a unity of interest where there is no sympathy of feeling. And if French statesmen think French interests involved in opposition to Russia, then they may work with England so long as English statesmen think English interests are involved, which will be so long as India is hers. Still this is a policy not pursued for Catholic objects; the aim being merely to obstruct the influence of Russia in the East. Accidentally, this may tend to relieve Catholicity from the pressure of schism; but at the same time it stops France from interfering to protect it from the accursed influence of Islamism. And were France in the position of Russia, and contending for Catholicism as Russia is now for schism, England and Russia would be infallibly leagued against her. It is not easy, then, to feel sympathy for the spirit in which the allies enter on the contest. One can only hope that the issues may be overruled by Providence to the good of the Church. Were it otherwise, and were it only a question of the sacrifice of Russia to Turkey, we should not hesitate earnestly to deprecate what we should deem

a sad catastrophe to Christendom. Schismatic though she be, Russia is still Christian; and if she be not Catholic, we cannot but recollect the language of Lacordaire, that she is schismatic, so to speak, by accident. And the history of the last three centuries, which we have hastily reviewed, shows that Russia has been a valuable bulwark for Christendom against the foul fanaticism of Mahomedanism. Moreover, the contest between the internal state and the social progress of the two empires exhibits proudly the infinite superiority of Christianity, (even under the disadvantages of schism,) to the debasing influence of Islamism. Most unchristian would it be to desire evil to such an empire as that of Russia. Rather would we cherish the hope that she is reserved for a nobler destiny, for which her compact power and enormous extent so well fit her-the destiny of aiding in the final triumphs of the Church, and of promoting, by her return to Catholic unity, the realizations of the grand prediction of Le Maistre, that one day Europe and Asia shall say High Mass together under the dome of Santa Sophia.

ART. V.-Hansard's Parliamentary Debates. Session, 1854. Parts I. and II.

MAN

ANY persons fancy that the introduction of manufactures would be the best means of remedying our sad condition. This is a mistake. As cheapness is the main cause of success in trade, we cannot compete with those who are already in possession of the market, and have thousands of millions sunk in the erection of buildings, machinery, and other appliances, and a people accustomed to the vocation, until we can supply as good an article for less money. This we cannot do unless we have the materials which go to compose it, cheaper, or a cheaper supply of food for the men who work it up, or skilled and unskilled labour cheaper, or facilities for working it up more cheaply, or conveying it by land or

water carriage to market more cheaply, or there exchanging it more cheaply, and above all, are left by law perfectly free to avail ourselves of all the natural or artificial advantages of our position. We do not pretend to specify all the elements of manufacturing success; but in proportion as we want the above, are our chances of failure. Take, for instance, our linen trade. Few would wear cotton shirts if they could get a better article, linen shirts, at the same price; but we cannot supply them at the same price till the cultivation of flax is so extended that it will be as cheap here as cotton is in England, and food, coals, iron, and labour (skilled and unskilled) are as cheap here as there, and we have equal facilities as the manufacturers of England by roads, railways, canals, rivers, and shipping, for buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest market" at home and abroad. In order to secure these elements of success, the obvious and natural course is to commence by tilling our soil, working our mines, fishing our waters, navigating our rivers, lakes, and seas, improving our roads, and above all, not giving away our labourers for nothing to our competitors.

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A cheap supply of food and of the raw materials of manufacture is the first essential element of success. It was such a supply that was the cause of our success, when, towards the close of the seventeenth century, we were driving the English manufacturers and fishermen out of all the markets where we were allowed by law to compete with them. This is confessed in the plainest possible terms in the address of the English House of Lords, to William III., in 1698, wherein they represent:

"That the growing manufacture of cloth in Ireland, both by the cheapness of all sorts of necessaries for life, and goodness of materials for making all manner of cloth, doth invite your subjects of England, with their families and servants, to leave their habitations, to settle there to the increase of the woollen manufacture of Ireland, which makes your loyal subjects in this kingdom very apprehensive, that the further growth of it may greatly prejudice the said manufacture here, by which the trade of this nation and the value of lands will very much decrease, and the numbers of your people be much lessened here;" and beseech his majesty to declare to his subjects in Ireland, "that the growth and increase of the woollen manufacture there, hath long, and will ever be looked upon with great jealousy," &c. &c.-L. J. p. 314.

And thereupon the parliament take measures accordingly,

for the suppression of this dangerous manufacture, by the penalties of fine, confiscation, imprisonment, and transportation; the preamble of the Act 10 W. III., c. 16. reciting :

"Forasmuch as wool and woollen manufactures of cloth, serge, bazes, kerseys, and other stuffs made or mixed with wool, are the greatest and most profitable commodities of this kingdom, on which the value of lands and the trade of the nation do chiefly depend, and whereas great quantities of the like manufactures have of late been made, and are daily increasing in the kingdom of Ireland, and in the English plantations in America, and are exported from thence to foreign markets, heretofore supplied from England, which will inevitably tend to sink the value of lands, and tend to the ruin of the trade and woollen manufactures of this kingdom."

They had previously prohibited us in 1663, from exporting to England or any of her colonies, and by this Act they prohibited us from exporting, our woollen manufactures to any market whatever, except "the few wool ports in England where they were liable to duties which amounted to a prohibition." * So with regard to our fisheries. In 1673, Sir William Temple, in a letter reviewing the resources of the country, spoke of them as nearly extinct, and considered the main obstacles to their development to be the want of people caused by the wars and plagues of the three preceding reigns, and the abundance and cheapness of provisions: but in 1698 the English fishermen were obliged to imitate the woollen drapers, and to petition for protection against us, the fishermen of Folkstone complaining that "the said town solely depends upon the fishing trade, and chiefly on herrings caught in Yarmouth seas, which they are like to lose by the Irish catching herrings at Waterford and Wexford, and sending them to the Straits, and thereby forestalling and ruining the Petitioners' market;" and those of Aldborough complaining," That formerly the Petitioners had a considerable trade in selling herrings for exportation; but of late great quantities have been caught in Ireland at a small charge, where they sell them for a fourth part of the charge the petitioners are at in taking them, and from thence they are exported to the Straits

* Lord Sheffield's Observations on the Manufactures, Trade, and Present State of Ireland, p. 151.

and other places, to the prejudice of the trade of this kingdom."

Generalities are suspicious, and do not convince sober, reflecting people and therefore we enter into these details merely as instances of the general system to which English traders were obliged to resort. In short, they saw that while we had food and materials cheaper than they, and equal facilities of access to home and foreign markets, they could not compete with us, and therefore they prohibited us by acts of parliament from exporting any of our manufactures to the colonies, or to any market frequented by them, or any of our raw produce (with the remarkable exception of cattle, the importation of which the landowners enacted to be a nuisance) to any people but themselves, so as to invert the settled, maxims of trade, and to compel us to sell all our surplus of raw materials in their own or the cheapest market, and at the prices they were so good as to give us-and when they were not quick and expert enough with sufficiently stringent acts of parliament, and we discovered some loopholes for allowing us to exercise our industry, they adopted the summary process of embargoes, some specially directed against the export of those articles which we could sell cheaper than they, and several against all our external commerce whatever. Of the latter kind, we had twenty-four between 1740 and 1780, one of them extending over three years. These efforts to deprive us by mere violence of the superior advantages of our position in respect to cheapness, ultimately became so intolerable, as to force the volunteers to label their cannons' mouth with "free trade, or "and to make their legislative spokesman, Mr. Grattan, state in his celebrated amendment to the Address in 1779, that "the constant drain to supply absentees, and the unfortunate prohibition of our trade have caused such calamity, that the natural support of the country has decayed, and our manufacturers are dying for want; famine stalks hand in hand with hopeless wretchedness, and the only means left to support the expiring trade of this miserable part of your majesty's dominions, is to open a free export trade, and let your Irish subjects enjoy their natural birthright,"—and to compel the House of Commons to resolve unanimously

* Com. Journ. for 1698, pp. 178—9.