Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1874 — The Doom of England. [ARTICLE]

The Doom of England.

Now, let us face boldly and state in the plainest language what the industrial decadence of our country, whether it will come sooner or later, will mean when it begins. (Statistics are unnecessary here; they cannot be precise, and might give rike to useless controversy on details.) It will mean that we shall lose one foreign market after another; that we shall gradually cease to manufacture for other manufacturing countries; then that those countries, after supplying themselves, will meet us and beat us in neutral markets; finally, that we shall be reduced to the supply of our own demand. This will be a terrible reverse—a momentous and, it may be, a miserable change. It must involve, a vast and grave metamorphosis; it may, but it-need not, involve ruin. The extent and depth of suffering we shall have to undergo during the sad progress and the weary struggle will depend upon how soon and hftW’ distinctly we recognize the coming revolution and how wisely and courageously we meet it. /The great, ultimate, naked fact we look At is this: The home demand for our iron, cotton, woolen goods, etc., may be about one-third of the whole; we manufacture njainly for foreign consumption. About one-third, of all our productive industry is all that we' can hope ultimately to keep going. Two-thirds of our artisan population, therefore, must cease to be—or to remain. That vast proportion of

our imports which is now paid lor by our millions of exports will have to be foregone, or to be purchased by other funds. To speak broadly, the population of these islands, which is now maintained by agriculture, commerce and manufactures, will have to be maintained by agriculture and commerce almost alone. We shall, therefore, only be able to support 20,000,000 people, instead of 30,000,000 as at present. England will become a second Holland —greater, richer, more powerful than the first. But she may be a prosperous and happy Holland Still, if she only’ sees her destiny in time,’ and girds up her loins to meet it as a great_nation should. — Contemporary Review.