The commercial crisis to which England finds itself exposed at the 
moment is, indeed, more severe than any of the preceding crises. 
Neither in 1837 nor in 1842 was the depression as universal as at the 
present time. All the branches of England’s vast industry have been 
paralysed at the peak of its development; everywhere there is 
stagnation, everywhere one sees nothing but workers thrown out on 
the streets. It goes without saying that such a state of affairs gives rise 
to extreme unrest among the workers who, exploited by the 
industrialists during the period of commercial prosperity, now find 
themselves dismissed en masse and abandoned to their fate. 
Consequently meetings of discontented workers are rapidly increas- 
ing. The Northern Star, the organ of the Chartist workers, uses more 
than seven of its large columns to report on meetings held in the past 
week’; the list of meetings announced for the present week fills 
another three columns. The same newspaper mentions a brochure 
published by a worker, Mr. John Noakes,° in which the author makes 
an open and direct attack on the right of the aristocracy to own its 
lands. 

“English soil,” he says, “is the property of the people, from whom our aristocrats 
seized it either by force or by trickery. The people must see that their inalienable right 
to property prevails; the proceeds of the land should be public property and used in 
the interest of the public. Perhaps I shall be told that these are revolutionary remarks. 

* Reports on the Chartist meetings in The Northern Star No. 521, October 16, 
1847.— Ed. 

b John Noakes, The Right of the Aristocracy to the Soil, considered. The report on its 
publication appeared in The Northern Star No. 522, October 23, 1847 .—Ed. 

Revolutionary or not, it is of no concern; if the people cannot obtain that which they 
need in a law, they must get it without law.” 

It will not seem surprising that in these circumstances the Chartists 
should have recourse to most unusual measures; their leader, the 
famous Feargus O’Connor, has just announced that he is shortly to 
leave for Scotland, where he will call meetings in all the towns and 
collect signatures for the national petition for the People’s Charter, 
which will be sent to the next Parliament. At the same time, he - 
announced that before the opening of Parliament, the Chartist press 
is to be increased by the addition of a daily newspaper, the 
Democrat.'*° 

It will be recalled that at the last elections Mr. Harney, 
editor-in-chief of The Northern Star, was put forward as the Chartist 
candidate for Tiverton, a borough which is represented in Parlia- 
ment by Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary. Mr. Harney, who 
won on the show of hands, decided to retire when Lord Palmerston 
demanded a poll.'*° Now something has happened which shows how 
the feelings of the inhabitants of Tiverton differ from those of the 
small number of parliamentary electors. There was a vacancy to fill 
on the borough council; the municipal electors, a far more numerous 
class than that of the parliamentary electors, gave the vacant seat to 
Mr. Rowcliffe, the person who had proposed Mr. Harney at the 
elections. Moreover, the Chartists are preparing all over England for 
the municipal elections which will take place throughout the country 
at the beginning of November. 

But let us turn now to England’s greatest manufacturing district, 
Lancashire, a part of the country which has suffered under the 
burden of industrial stagnation more than any other. The situation 
in Lancashire is alarming in the highest degree. Most of the factories 
have already stopped work entirely, and those which are still 
operating employ their workers for only two or at the most three 
days a week. But this is still not all: the industrialists of Ashton, a very 
important town for the cotton industry, have announced to their 
workers that in a week’s time they are going to reduce wages by 10 
per cent. This news, which is causing alarm among the workers, is 
spreading across the country. A few days later a meeting of workers’ 
delegates from all over the county was held in Manchester; this 
meeting resolved to send a deputation to the owners to induce them 
not to carry out the threatened reduction and, if this deputation 
achieved no results, to announce a strike of all workers employed in 
the Lancashire cotton industry. This strike, together with the strike 
of the Birmingham iron-workers and miners which has already 

The Commercial Crisis in England 309 

started, would not fail to assume the same alarming dimensions 
which signalled the last general strike, that of 1842." It could quite 
well become even more menacing for the government. 

In the meantime starving Ireland is writhing in the most terrible 
convulsions. The workhouses are overflowing with beggars, the 
ruined property owners are refusing to pay the Poor Tax, and the 
hungry people gather in their thousands to ransack the barns and 
cattle-sheds of the farmers and even of the Catholic priests, who 
were still sacred to them a short time ago. 

It looks as though the Irish will not die of hunger as calmly next 
winter as they did last winter. Irish immigration to England is getting 
more alarming each day. It is estimated that an average of 50,000 
Irish arrive each year; the number so far this year is already over 
220,000. In September, 345 were arriving daily and in October this 
figure increased to 511. This means that the competition between 
the workers will become stronger, and it would not be at all 
surprising if the present crisis caused such an uproar that it 
compelled the government to grant reforms of a most important 
nature.