The Grotesque Side of Bad Times.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 114, 18 April 1885, Page 4

The Grotesque Side of Bad Times.

There would be something comic, and even grotesque, were it not for its sad side, m the loud wail which has been rising from all parts of Great Britain and her dependencies during the past year over the depression, stagnation — imminent col--1.1 pse and ruin, as many doleful prophets will have it — m every branch of British trade and industry. Not within the memory of our older generation, to which I belong, probably not since the years of evil fame which followed the annus mirabilis of 1815, has our poor sturdy, dogged old John Bull been so puzzled and angry over the condition and prospects of his unwieldly family and estates. . . . And now m 1884, after nearly seventy years of the most wonderful progress m all directions, John is still m the same mmd — at his wits end to know what ails him, for assuredly it cannot m this last year of grace be fairly ! laid to the door of " cursed war and racking tax."" " Why am I j; ruined ? What m the world is the matter with me ? " he pleads, and at intervals roars, to his most trusted advisers and most successful children. " Matter' Why don't you see you've too much cotton ? " replies one ; ** Too much tea and sugar, 11 cries a second , and a third, " Too much corn ; " while the most solemn and profound of the chorus answers with severe and assured front, " Too much labor. If you ever want to be the hearty chap you once were, you've got to bundle out about a third of your producers." In vain he turns on his Job's comforters with, *'Why, bless my soul, didn't you tell me that all I wanted was wealth ? And now what do you call cotton, and tea, and sugar, and corn, and labor ? Ain't they wealth ? Did any fellow ever pile them up as I have been doing for the last fifty years, since Father Adam's time? And now you tell me I'm ruined because I've got too much of them all round." — Thomas Hughes, m %i Good Words."