NEWS OF THE DAY.

SIR JOSIAH MASON.

This gentleman, as esteemed for his benevolence, as noted for his business habits, has already presented Birmingham, in which his fortune was made, with a home for orphans and an asylum for aged poor, at a cost of a quarter of a million, and a year ago he added the gift of an edifice intended to be used as a college for the study of practical science. He has now crowned the many acts of munificence which have made his name a household word in the Midland district, by giving the proceeds of the sale of his gigantic business as an endowment for the college. Such a donation, coming as it does from one who has been for half a century so closely identified with the industrial pursuits of the great manufacturing centre, is peculiarly apposite; and the special scientific education imparted in the institution will indubitably have a beneficial influence on the products of those workshops and factories which have made Birmingham famous all over the world. Sir Josiah has stated that the ambition of his long life is to be spared to see the college completed, and he richly merits that this laudable wish of his grand old age should be gratified.

A GENERAL VIEW OF 1875.

The Telegraph thinks that good wishes, kind words, will not clear away the horrible evils arising from the growing bigness of our cities. It says:-" It is not always wise to make the best of things and to take a cheerful view of everything all round. Comparing ourselves with our forefathers, we hear of many nearly colossal calamities, and are face to face with a larger number of great crimes. The accidents that shocked them killed or maimed units: our misadventures desolate hundreds of homes. The horrible consequences of strong drink in brutality to women and children he multiplied in our large towns. For one English child brought up in foul air three hundred years ago there are now at least fifty. For ten men habitually unused to country walks in the sixteenth century there are probably now one hundred. If we look abroad and remember the Civil War in America or the recent French war, we see that the numbers of men engaged in deadly struggle were ten or twelve times the forces our ancestors thought great, and the loss in money and every way to the nations striving proportionately increased. In trade and commerce dishonesty has made gigantic strides; the tiny pickings and stealings of the village have grown into gigantic City frauds. Goldsmith's rogue no longer cheats Farmer Flamborough in a bargain, or overreaches Moses with "a gross of blue spectacles: " he starts a company, and dips his hand in thousands of pockets. Then, instead of a few sailors being paid to scuttle a ship, giving the passengers time to escape in boats, we have the Bremerhaven monster, who murders by machinery, and winds up an assassination eight days in advance of the deel, leaving no hope for the victims of the calculated crime. Moreover, faith has died down, leaving none of the stern relentless zeal that impelled men to die at the stake themselves or burn their neighbours for a clause in a creed. The chivalrous loyalty which placed life and goods at the bidding of a king is vanished, or is cherished only by a few peasants, priests. and nobles in Biscay and Navarre. Our theatre relies not on intellectual but sensuous attractions; our literature is all copy and compilation; our poetry is half-hearted, and Romeo, sighing under Juliet's balcony, is soothed by the anticipation of a dinner, a cigar, and a rubber at the club."

THE FINANCIAL ASPECT OF 1875.

The Daily News thinks, putting all things together, 1875 has been a moderately prosperous year. It says:-"The year 1875 will pass into economic record, we think, as another good illustration of such a second or after-crisis proving

In

almost as serious as the first. The year 1873 was one of crisis in almost all parts of the world. In Austria and Germany in the spring, in the United States and South America in the autumn, in Russia, in India, money was either very stringent, or there was an actual panic; the great panics in Vienna in May, and in New York in September, being only the most conspicuous among many similar events. England, happily, a panic was escaped, but the rate of discount rose to 6 and even 7 per cent. in the spring and early summer, and after intermediately low rates again advanced to 7, 8, and 9 per cent. in the succeeding October and November, with a continual apprehension of panic for several weeks. The time was altogether a most trying one, and the shock of it was long felt in falling prices in almost every market, whether for commodities or securities. It has now, in 1875, been succeeded by the after-crisis, which happens to have been most marked, where the events of 1873 passed away most quietly. Austria and the United States, which supplied the most conspicuous events of 1873, have been comparatively without events, the San Francisco panic being a small and exceptional incident; but in Germany there has been the Strousberg bankruptcy, which only slightly touches Austria, and in South America, where the stringency of 1873 generally stopped short of actual panic, we have had in 1875 three or four panics—in Rio de Janeiro, in Montevideo, in Lima, and partially also in Buenos Ayres. Above all, there has been at home, as compared with only a money stringency in 1873, a very serious commercial crisis, extending over several months, and a financial crisis of even greater duration. To the commercial crisis belong the stoppages of the Aberdare Iron Company and of the large discount house of Messrs. Sanderson and Co. in May last, and the stoppage about a fortnight later of Messrs. Alexander Collie and Co., with the accompanying suspensions of one or two more discount-houses, and a large number of firms who had more or less assisted, or been used by the Collies in the manufacture of accommodation bills. These events were also preceded and followed by several large failures, such as that of Messrs. J. C. im Thurn and Co. in March last; the whole forming a revelation of indebtedness and bad business which proved to demonstration how ineffectual had been the work of the crisis of 1873. To the financial crisis belong the numerous suspensions of payment by foreign States, and the preceding and following depreciation in the securities of such States. Turkey has suspended payment one-half, Uruguay and Peru have become wholly in default; the amount of annual interest on foreign investments thus to be left unpaid being about £9,000,000, not including the half of the Turkish debt which Turkey still promises to pay. Here again 1875 mainly completes the work which was left undone in 1873.

THE HIGH PRICE OF LUXURIES.

The two reasons most generally received in explanation of the rise in price of late years of all articles of luxury are, firstly, the cheapening of money, and, secondly, the system of long credit to so many members of the upper classes. That these two causes greatly affect modern current prices no one will deny it is also plain that the former is utterly beyond the control of society, and affects not only luxuries, but also necessaries. There is, however, a third cause not so generally traced out, and which has almost as much to do with enhancement of prices as at least the second of the two causes specified. This cause is the custom of allowing a commission-known in the trade vernacular as "regulars"-to servants in the employ of the consumer, upon commodities bought by Him. householders and housekeepers-ladies especially are in ignorance as to the existence of this system, or at all events to the extent to which it is carried. Upon a new carriage the coachman expects from £5 upwards for himself, as his " regulars" for "passing" the goods to his master's possession; upon a new set of double harness, two guineas; upon a horse,

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if bought from a dealer, a fee varying from a sovereign to ten per cent. upon the full price, according to whether the master is independent in such purchases, or is bound by the advice of his groom. If the horse is bought direct by the master, even from a private gentleman, still the purchaser's groom looks for a sovereign; and if the vendor does not hand one over, the vendor's groom will, by the freemasonry of the trade, attempt to obtain it for his friend by charging it in the weekly stable book as money paid out, and assuring his master that it is the custom." The cook or housekeeper looks for a fee or percentage, from butcher, grocer, baker, confectioner, and greengrocer, upon the annual bills. The butler, when he has the command of the cellar, looks for the same from the wine merchant; the coachman from the corn chandler; and a recent case shows us the relations between a master gardener and the nursery gardener. Let the producer in any case decline to pay these regulation items of black mail, he will be the loser in the long run. The new hack from the dealer will then be sorry and ragged in his coat, and possibly even lame; the paint on the new carriage will crack and the windows rattle within two months; the harness will get dry rot; the butcher's meat and groceries will never give satisfaction at the master's table. The sequel will be the same in each case that, when the master is at last driven to complain of the unsatisfactory nature of his purchases, the servant will confidentially hint that the tradesman is anything but what he should be, and that the master will find himself better pleased if he deals elsewhere.

DIRECTORS' NAMES,

The recent trial at the Guildhall, at which the directors of the London Saw Mills and Short Length Timber Company were charged with a conspiracy, only constitutes one amongst a list of scandals which seems almost endless in its length. The question of criminality involved in this particular instance is one which cannot be decided for some time yet. Nor will the decision affect, except incidentally, the principle involved in the long series of transactions amongst which it must be included. The great mistake underlying all of them is to be found in the idea that men of position and repute may give their names to speculators to be used as ornaments to a prospectus, and afterwards shelter themselves under the plea that they were ignorant of the real purpose for which their names were to be used. This is an abuse which might perhaps have been put an end to much earlier had the judges on each side of Westminster Hall been disposed to carry out with a little more severity against certain notable offenders the spirit of the law. As it is, a negligence has been suffered to be committed with impunity by directors of companies, which is not only disastrous to the wretched shareholders, but brings into discredit, if not to absolute disgrace, the persons who have been so heedless as to sign their names to a concern of whose soundness they were nowise convinced. It is quite time that the eyes of honest, but weakminded persons, setting up as speculative capitalists, should be opened a little wider, and that they should be warned as to the risks they run while accepting the blind chance of good fortune and success. There are plenty of designing persons who will be ready to dignify them or flatter them with the name of director if they will even passively countenance their schemes by associating themselves with the promoters. And it is primarily against this sort of schemers that there is special need of caution just now, when unprincipled speculators are finding themselves rather short of opportunities.

MR. W. J. RIVINGTON, late of the firm of Gilbert and Rivington, printers, has become a partner in the house of Sampson Low & Co., publishers.

MESSRS. DEGENOR & WEILER, proprietors of the "Liberty Press," have been awarded the gold medal at the Exposition Internationale, Paris, 1875, and a silver medal at the Royal Pomona Exhibition of Manchester.

POLITICAL SUMMARY.

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THE CHANGES IN THE PEERAGE. The Times has the following:-" What we concerned with is chiefly that our Upper House should be representative. We wish it to include a fair proportion, not only of the talent, but scarcely less of the wealth and social influence of the country, and we may acquiesce gladly in promotions which, like those before us, tend to render it in these respects more complete. Our readers will remember a saying attributed to William Pitt, that everyone with twenty thousand a year had a good right to be a Peer, if he wished it. If this rule were now to be carried out, the number of our Peers would, we fear, be somewhat inconveniently large. The altered value of money may have made it necessary to fix at a far higher sum the income which should carry a Peerage. The principle, however, will be the same, and we cannot refuse to admit that in determining who ought or ought not to be thus distinguished, great wealth, and particularly great ancestral wealth, must always be taken largely into account. The list of new Peers which we announce this morning will be found to fulfil very properly the conditions on which we should desire to insist. The four prospective Nobles will bring to the House of Lords as much as they will receive by joining it. Our House of Lords, however difficult it may be to offer in its defence a theory which shall be perfect at every point, is a body which beyond all question contains its full share of representatives of the real powers that exist among us, nor will its character in this respect be at all injured, if it can scarcely be said to be heightened, by the additions which are so shortly to be made to it. We cannot

as yet say the same for the French Senate. We can only hope that at the forthcoming elections its present deficiences may be, at least in some part, remedied."

ENGLAND AND INDIA.

"The better the greater Chiefs learn to know the political forces of Europe," says the Times, "the more clearly will they also see that they would have nothing to hope from the departure of English authority beyond a change of masters; and it needs no vanity to believe they will also discover that of all foreign masters the English are the best. The nearer the Russians come to the Indian frontier, the better will the Chiefs discern that they could have only a choice of rulers, and the more closely they scan our power the more convinced will they be that neither they nor Russia can shake it off. The purchase of the Khedive's shares in the Suez Canal will have powerfully helped to give them a correct idea of the determination lying behind the authority of which the Prince is the representative. We shall play our cards very badly indeed if the Princes should not gather a growing favour for our rule. For the sake of themselves and their subjects, no pains should be spared to bring them more under the influence of European culture. Now that the prejudices of caste are breaking down, many of them may be induced to visit this country, and even to send their sons to be educated here. The Prince of Wales will have done no mean service to the Empire if he should have so quickened their curiosity as to make them eager to see that strange Western world which holds them in its grasp, and is casting its authority over the whole of the East."

CONSCIENCE MONEY.

A gentleman at Manchester, like many other people, seems to object to the income tax, which is perhaps the most unpopular among the means by which Sir Stafford Northcote obtains what he wants for national housekeeping. One point in particular has greatly disturbed the tranquillity of the Manchester remonstrant. Having observed in the Times frequent acknowledg

ments of "conscience money" being paid to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he forthwith wrote to that official, requesting to be informed whether it is permissible for the public to pay taxes directly into the exchequer. In reply, he was told that payments made anonymously have nothing to do with duties assessed in the ordinary course. This answer having failed to set his mind at rest, he wrote for more definite information, with the result of being comforted by an assurance that the remitters of "conscience money "still remain legally liable for whatever payments they may have omitted to make to the authorised tax collectors. We fear this announcement will cause a good deal of disquiet among the curious folks who are in the habit of allaying the stings of conscience by anonymous payments. Up to the present time they no doubt believed that by doing so they were relieved from further responsibility. This comforting conviction is now dissipated for ever. people like to make the Chancellor of the Exchequer happy by anonymous presents of Bank of England notes for national purposes, that Minister will be always glad to receive such proofs of patriotism. In the present state of the revenue, Sir Stafford Northcote would no doubt feel truly grateful if every person in the United Kingdom sent him something. Even a shilling a head from each unit of the population would go far to place our armaments in efficient condition without recourse to new taxation. Such gifts, however, are purely voluntary, and cannot be written off against debts due to the tax collector. This news will, no doubt, be a sore disappointment to many, but it may produce some good by awakening torpid consciences to the advisability of paying taxes at once.

THE BREMERHAVEN CRIME.

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The codes of different nations differ considerably on the punishment inflicted for murder. Under any circumstance the Belgian and German codes are far more merciful than ours. When an assassin attempted the life of Prince Bismarck it was ascertained that, though found guilty, he could not be executed for the crime. And now the Imperial lawyers of Berlin have decided that, although the hero of the Bremerhaven explosion were found guilty, and had not committed suicide as he did, penal servitude for life would be the heaviest punishment which could be inflicted on him. This crime of the rascal Thomas has not been sufficiently considered in its dramatic light. As the affair occurred matters stood thus. He originated complicated clock work and machinery, which, put on board at Bremerhaven, would ignite explosive material exactly eight days after the ship Mosel had left Southampton; that is to say, in mid-ocean on the way to America. The diabolical inventor had arranged to embark at Bremerhaven and to disembark conveniently at Southampton. It was absolutely necessary that the infernal machine should be concealed deep down in the hold, at the bottom of the general cargo it was arranged to destroy. But suppose the vessel, detained by contrary winds, had got out of her course and had never reached Southampton or any other port within the time. Supposing the Mosel had been the Deutschland and had been stranded somewhere. The man Thomas would have been on board, and he would have been counting each hour which brought him nearer to his doom. He could not move or stir. He could not order the removal of the cargo without making a confession. And still during all these hours the clockwork would be going on and the explosion more nearly at hand. What an agony for the culprit. But it was no drama for the man Thomas in that sense. The explosion occurred before the explosives could be shipped, and the account of the catastrophe is one of the most sickening which any one could read.-Era.

THE Bristol Paper Company proposes to purchase and patent an invention relating to an improved method of manufacturing paper, and to work the same in Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Sweden, and other countries.

1875.

IN making a retrospect of the past year, we may safely congratulate our readers on the comparative prosperity which continued throughout its course in the trading and commercial world. It is nevertheless quite true that the trade of the United Kingdom has been the subject of much fluctuation, as evidenced by our monthly Board of Trade Returns. The prosperity of previous years has not been generally maintained; the rate of discount was comparatively low, and there was a disinclination to invest fresh capital in manufacturing operations. One sign of a decrease of trade was evidenced by the reduction of the imports and exports. In 1873, the total amounted to 682,292,137, while in 1874 the total was £667,733,165, the respective amounts in 1874 having been 370,082,701 for imports, and £297,650,464 for exports. It must not be forgotten, however, that part of this reduction was traceable to lower prices of both raw material and manufactured goods. Lord Derby, the other day, on being presented with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, said, with respect to our commercial position, he thought it clear that, as a natural rebound from recent activity, a period of compara tive depression in trade must be looked forward to, but they might feel confident it would not last long. And we regard the statement as reasonable and satisfactory.

Except the insurrection in Herzegovina, peace has been universal in Europe; and the blessings attendant thereon have been participated by us as by all other countries. War is the great retarder of commerce and progress, and, though some trades spasmodically benefit by it, the general mischief it carries in its trail is far more detrimental to civilization and prosperity than any other agent. This was made manifest to the late Ministry when they sanctioned the Treaty of Washington, by which the disputes were referred to a peaceful tribunal of arbitration. A war has been avoided-thousands of lives saved-misery and ruin averted-and a bond of fraternal good-will established.

Strikes and trade disputes have been of late very prominent before the public, causing much anxiety, especially in the metal and textile manufactures. In some cases the men were at fault, at other times the masters have brought on the difficulty. It will be remembered that in February last the ironmasters and colliery owners of South Wales joined in a general lock-out, whereby 120,000 men were thrown out of employment. When we reflect upon the virulence and animosity which mark strikes or lock-outs, the anger which has sprung up and is nursed in the triumph of the victorious, and the sullen, dogged disappointment of the defeated, we trust such calamities will in future be avoided, and that moderation on both sides will prevail.

Amongst the eventful items of the year may be mentioned the death of Young-Chi, Emperor of China; the arrest and deposition of the Guicowar of Baroda, on a charge of attempting to poison Colonel Phayre, the British Resident; President Grant's approval of a bill passed by Congress, ordering specie payments to be resumed on 1st January, 1879; the constitution of the colony of Fiji, and the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon appointed governor; the murder of Mr. Augustus Raymond Margary, of the diplomatic service, by the Chinese troops, on his way to Burmah; the laying of a foundation-stone by Sir Josiah Mason, for teaching science at Birmingham; the great failure of Messrs. J. C. im Thurn & Co., merchants, of Leadenhall Street, with liabilities of over three millions sterling; Messrs. Alexander & William Collie, merchants, charged at the Mansion House with obtaining large smms of money from the London and Westminster Bank on false pretences, and the absconding of Alexander Collie, on, bail. M. Michel Chevallier, the eminent French political economist, in April and May was entertained at banquets by various Chambers of Commerce in England. A statue of Mr. S. C. Lister, the inventor and