IV.

the press. The right of Parliamentary representation CHAP. was denied to nine-tenths of the people. The right of meeting was about to be subjected to new restrictions. But the press supplied the nation with other means of making itself heard. Its voice resounded through the length and breadth of the land.

V.

1816.

'The return of

peace.

CHAPTER V.

СНАР. THE definite conclusion of peace in the summer of 1815 was hailed with the liveliest acclamations of gratitude by the people of this country. The war, with all its burdens, all its sorrows, was over; and a new era of unprecedented prosperity seemed to be beginning. The nation had undoubtedly increased in wealth during the continuance of the war; it seemed impossible to exaggerate the development which might be expected to occur in its resources when the burdens of the war were removed. The prospect of an almost boundless prosperity dazzled the eyes of the most sober observers.

A little consideration, however, might have induced the calmer minds among the English nation to hesitate before accepting this conclusion. Economists had already taught them that the prosperity of nations depends on the laws of demand and supply; and that any over-production of the commodities which a country supplies, or any failure in the demand for them, must restrict the use of capital, reduce the employment of labour, and consequently impoverish the two most important classes Effects of in every community, the capitalist and the labourer. The the war on circumstances of the war had largely increased the de

capital.

mand for British manufactures. Britain was the only country in the old world which had escaped the dangers and distresses of a foreign invasion. The foreign manufacturer hesitated to build his factory on a site which might at any moment be devastated by hostile armies; and the British manufacturer, relying from his immunity in the past on equal security in the future, and encouraged

V.

1816.

by the cessation of foreign competition, reared his factory CHAP. on every rivulet where there was water to turn his wheel, or by any colliery where there was coal to feed his engine. Britain, which had previously been little more than a pastoral country, and whose most important manufacture had depended on the excellence of the fleeces which her flocks produced, suddenly became the centre of every industry. Capital could be safely invested in Britain alone; and capital, as a necessary consequence, was invested in Britain. The safety from invasion, to which the country owed her new industry, was won for her by the brilliant victories of her sailors, which had swept her enemies from every sea. But the supremacy of the ocean which she had acquired gained for her manufacturers other advantages than mere immunity from invasion. The nation, whose flag waved supreme on every sea, extended its dominion and carried its trade to the remotest countries of the known world. The mistress of the seas obtained a monopoly of the carrying trade. Other nations could only obtain the produce of foreign countries through British shipowners, or on conditions determined by British statesmen. In one sentence, twenty years of war had concentrated the trade of the world in the British empire.

War, indeed, in another sense had been injurious to On trade. trade. War is a state of things under which two or more communities endeavour to inflict the maximum of damage upon each other. It destroys life; it hampers production; it dissipates the accumulations of previous years; it impoverishes the nation which is afflicted by it. The great war must have restricted the purchasing capacity of the majority of individuals in every European country. But, though it decreased the purchasing capacity of populations, it did not decrease their purchases in British markets. They spent perhaps 1007. where they had previously spent 1,000l. But the 1,000l. had

V.

1816.

CHAP. been expended in the Netherlands, in Italy, in France, and in other countries; the 100l. was expended in Britain. War, too, though it decreased the purchasing capacity of populations, increased the necessities of governments. Every European nation suddenly launched into the most unprecedented expenditure. Every European nation found itself compelled, not merely to increase its existing revenues, but to mortgage the revenues of future years. The vast load of debt was accumulated for expenditure, which left Europe far poorer and feebler than it had been before. The inordinate outlay on maintaining armies and destroying armies hampered the industry of the existing generation, and seriously harassed the operations of their descendants. But even this unprofitable expenditure could not be carried on without stimulating the operations of the trader. Armies could not be fed, or clothed, or armed, or moved without appliances which trade alone could supply. The enormous operations of the war led, moreover, to a constant and deplorable waste of material. The waste had, in some way or other, to be made good; and the nation, which had become the great workshop and trading centre of the world, was indirectly benefited in consequence.

On agriculture.

Every operation of the great war tended, therefore, to concentrate the trade of the world in this country. A similar chain of circumstances had increased the demand for the produce of British agriculture. Agriculture on the Continent languished under a system where the men were driven from the fields to the camp, and the women, left alone to cultivate the ground, were in apprehension of the dissipation of their store from some hostile incursion. The British farmer, on the contrary, sowed his fields with a conscious sense of security. The vast warlike operations in which the British nation was engaged compelled its Government to become a large purchaser of agricultural produce. The increase of po

pulation involved an additional demand for food, and the increasing wealth of the manufacturing classes made this demand still greater. These various circumstances combined to encourage British farming, and to augment the wealth of the British landowner. Vast as was the manufacturing progress of the nation during the twenty years of the great war, the progress of its agriculture was almost as marked.

СНАР.

V.

1816.

The marked prosperity of the landed and moneyed On labour. classes during the years of war would, under ordinary circumstances, have benefited the labouring poor. There appears, however, to be very little doubt that the rate of wages rose, but slightly, in the period, and that the rise, slight as it was, was more than balanced by the increased cost of the labourer's food. It is probable that this result was partly due to the circumstance which, in its ultimate consequences, has conferred unprecedented benefits on the British workman. The demand for British manufactured goods led to the discoveries which augmented twentyfold the productive power of every labourer. Factories were built, employing large numbers of men, and enabling the country to supply a demand which, under the old system, could never have been met. But the erection of every new factory must have entailed an enormous amount of misery on the solitary weavers who, in their humble cottages, had previously imperfectly supplied the trade of the world. It is true that the weaver could always obtain work from the manufacturer. But the weaver was a solitary man: he had no union to arrange terms for him; with instant ruin before him he was compelled to accept any wages which the manufacturer chose to offer; and, if he refused the terms, the employer had only to send to the London workhouses for a cartload of apprentices. Such a state of things must have involved considerable hardships to the better classes among the poor. The chain of events, which had