the other hand, had a word to say on that question, and did not wish it to be left to the sole arbitrament of those who were entirely dependent upon it. Capital said, after putting up machinery and finding employment for labour, it ought to have a fair return, because without its assistance labour would be comparatively of small value, and in the general run of things they would find that where ever there was a large number of labourers seeking employment, wages went down, and vice versa. He agreed with what had fallen from the Marquis of Normanby, because there must be the individual autonomy of which his Lordship spoke; for a man who was able to pay his passage money would like to select the place to which he was to go, and would not consent to be drafted whithersoever a commission or person in authority might consider it bestto send him.

Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON: I beg pardon for interrupting your lordship, but you assume that the colonies require skilled labour. This is not so; what they want most is agricultural labour; and that there is a plethora of this kind of labour in England, Wales and Scotland there can be no manner of doubt: large numbers in Hampshire, Gloucestershire and other counties are working hard for eight shillings a week, with scarcely sufficient, certainly not more than sufficient, to keep body and soul together. It is impossible for them to save money, and when they get old and infirm they have no resource but the workhouse, and become a burden upon the already over-burdened population.

Viscount BURY: If he were told that any scheme of emigration proposed would limit the emigrants taken to that part of the population which was earning six or eight shillings a week he should not be averse to it. But as the proposal stood, it was one which would deport the best and hardiest of the English workmen ; and that would be a great loss to the mother country, because she would be giving up so much of her reproductive wealth. He mentioned that what was spoken of as a plethora of labour was merely a local congestion, and that some scheme ought to be inaugurated by which men might be moved from one county to another in England, instead of being deported in a wholesale manner to the colonies. He concluded by moving that a vote of thanks be given to Sir William Denison for his able Paper.

Mr. JAMES A. YOUL seconded the motion; mentioning that there was a redundancy of labour in this country which might find profitable employment, whilst at home it was in a state, if not of semistarvation, at least bordering upon the workhouse. The enormous increase of population in this country had been especially alluded

to, and the very inability of the country to grow sufficient bread and meat to satisfy the mouths of the population; and it was a question which thinking men would most readily decide, whether it was cheaper and better to bring the mouths to the bread and meat, or the bread and meat to the open mouths. Again, the acreage of the country had been so swallowed up by railways, &c., that not only could we not grow sufficient corn to make bread, but we could not grow sufficient wool to make dress to clothe the population. We could not grow cotton or sugar, and so not only the luxuries, but the common necessaries of life had to be imported, whilst we had only three or four native products, like coal, iron and tin, and had to depend mainly upon our manufactures. By sending out some of the surplus population to become the producers of cotton, corn, and wool, we created a market for the home manufactures, and not only benefited those we sent out, but made it better for those who were left behind; and so made the colonies and the mother country interdependent. The proper way to treat the colonies was to consider them in the light of outlying counties, and accustom men to think in the same way as the population in Hampshire would think of Wales, and people in Wales would think of London.

The motion was unanimously adopted, and the proceedings terminated.

Ar an Ordinary General Meeting of the Institute, held on Monday evening, April 3rd, 1871, the Right Hon. Viscount BURY, M.P., K.C.M.G., in the Chair, the following Paper was read by HYDE CLARKE, D.C.L., F.S.S., Treasurer of the Society of Arts, late Cotton Commissioner in Turkey :1

ON THE UTILITY OF ESTABLISHING A REPORTER ON TRADE PRODUCTS IN THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

COMMERCE is ever making demands for new materials, and for these the varied productions of our colonies afford material, and they are expected to bring them into the market by the exertions of private intelligence, and private enterprise. Such a requirement, however, in its broad sense involves a forgetfulness of what the private individual is in many cases in our colonies. He may be possessed of considerable intelligence, but has had little scientific training, and has had few means, if any, of keeping it up. He is a pioneer on the borders of civilization, busy in pushing those borders into the wilderness, and enlarging the heirdom of mankind. Such a task yields him no learned leisure, he has often hard work to get food, he has always cares about his homestead, his household, his cattle, his fields.

Such a man sees some mineral, or some plant, which he thinks may be useful-not for his immediate wants-not for those of his neighbours, but for that far off place, thousands of miles away, half the girth of the world, the London market. According to the theory of some statesmen, he is of his own head to institute analyses, to manufacture the article, to ship it to the English market, and to get back his money or to lose it. That is to say, he is to accomplish in his own person many functions, which in political economy are widely distributed and separated. He must leave his plough, and his flocks, and turn miner, smelter, manufacturer, merchant, shipper, and exercise the subordinate functions of these various branches of business. The parallel to this was the requirements of some statesmen that the manufacturers of Manchester should turn cotton cultivators in India, if they wanted more or better cotton from India; as if a man whose whole time and capital was devoted to one business in England, could undertake a separate and unknown business in India.

1 This Paper is introduced here somewhat out of its order in consequence of the renewed interest which the subject is now exciting.

In all such matters, as in every branch of commerce, and it may be said in all the functions of society, co-operation is required, and in certain cases there is required the ready and cordial co-operation of the community. The colonist who finds out a new economical substance, or a new supply of it, by that act confers a benefit on the community, and he is not the person who ought to be taxed for the fructification of his discovery. He has already done his part, and ofttimes more, and the matter should be taken up by others. The discovery of gutta percha, or rather its introduction into this country by one individual has been of untold benefit, but he derived from it no commercial profit; indeed it would have been impossible for him to have provided any scheme by which he might have benefited from the unforeseen applications. It was not within his conception to foresee that this substance, which then only made hafts for wild Malay woodmen, would enable telegraph cables to be laid at the bottom of the ocean, and the news of London to be known as early in the country stations of India, or in a remote city of Canada, as in one of our provincial towns. Nobody who makes a really important discovery can tell what its applications will ultimately become.

So far as the individual colonial discoverer is concerned he has an evident right to look to the co-operation of his own colonial community, because, should he succeed in opening up a new branch of trade, he will add to the trade and prosperity of all his neighbours. It is in this spirit such communications are treated in many of our enlightened colonies. The local government takes charge of the matter, and does its best: it sends the specimens home, and if it is a wealthy government, with a well-paid agent and abundant means, the specimens sent over are well received, and attended to: analyses are made, experiments carried out, trade trials are obtained, and a result is got at. It may be the substance fails, because some technical or market requirement is not complied with, and there is a permanent or temporary failure, or on the other side some encouragement is obtained.

There are, however, more difficulties than may be supposed even where the agent of a great colony is concerned. Such a man has been chosen for his political or financial duties, and has enough to do in their discharge; and with full intelligence, and all zeal to effect his purpose, he may not be able to follow out against trade prejudices and all obstacles the destinies of a fibre or a dye-stuff. He cannot be required to have the special knowledge, and the long absence from home, during which he has acquired colonial experience and the confidence of a large constituency, may have very

much weakened his knowledge of suitable individuals and trade arrangements here. It requires in fact special knowledge to deal with such subjects, as those which we are now considering.

If a great colony cannot always successfully follow up the researches of a colonist, the small colonies are under greater disadvantages. Some have an agent, on whom they already make too large demands, many are without an agent. Therefore of necessity the colonist is driven into other channels, and must apply to the merchants, and run the chance of what they may do for him. Here the theorist has no difficulty, but the colonist has. For him there is the Darwinian theory of selection driving him in one course. He has perhaps one correspondent at the port, who may or may not be intelligent, or zealous, or conversant with the matter in question, and may or may not have home correspondents of the like qualifications. The merchant in the port may have some notion about fibres, but none about dyes; and if he knows about fibres, his accessible correspondents at home know about dyes, and cannot help him as to fibres.

There has been one resource to all colonists and all colonies for a century, and that has been the Society for the Promotion of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce, and in the future many of its functions will be performed no doubt by the Royal Colonial Institute. To the Society of Arts, the government agricultural society of the colony, merchant, or colonist sends a letter and specimens, and the Society gratuitously does the best it can. The Society has of course small funds available for all the demands made upon its exchequer, and which really correspond to the functions of what ought to be the Ministry of Commerce. Indeed for many years that valuable Society has discharged duties at its own cost, which ought to have been performed by the Minister of Commerce, if such a functionary there were, and sometimes of the Secretary of the Colonies, and the nonexistent Minister of Agriculture. When an application arrives from a colony or colonist the Secretary of the Society does his best. Availing himself of the great influence and wide relations of the Society, he puts himself in communication with the leading parties interested, but there his functions must cease, and the matter takes its chance. If there are no trade prejudices, and the right and willing man is got at, some trial is made, but in many cases the whole affair is summarily worked.

The whole result of the present system, or rather no system, is that there are more chances against the realization of a new colonial product than in its favour.