NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE.
The following expression of the wounded feelings of the ‘Daily News’ is perhaps worth preserving:—
“Mr. Ruskin’s ‘Fors Clavigera’ has already become so notorious as a curious magazine of the blunders of a man of genius who has travelled out of his province, that it is perhaps hardly worth while to notice any fresh blunder. No one who writes on financial subjects need be at all surprised that Mr. Ruskin funnily misinterprets what he has said, and we have ourselves just been the victim of a misinterpretation of the sort. Mr. Ruskin quotes a single sentence from an article which appeared in our impression of the 3rd of March, and places on it the interpretation that ‘whenever you have reason to think that anybody has charged you threepence for a twopenny article, remember that, according to the “Daily News,” the real capital of the community is increased.’ We need hardly tell our readers that we wrote no nonsense of that kind. Our object was to show that the most important effect of the high price of coal was to alter the distribution of the proceeds of production in the community, and not to diminish the amount of it; that it was quite possible for real production, which is always the most important matter in a question of material wealth, to increase, even with coal at a high price; and that there was such an increase at the time we were writing, although coal was dear. These are certainly very different propositions from the curious deduction which Mr. Ruskin makes from a single short sentence in a long article, the purport of which was clear enough. There is certainly no cause for astonishment at the blunders which Mr. Ruskin makes in political economy and finance, if his method is to rush at conclusions without patiently studying the drift of what he reads. Oddly enough, it may be added, there is one way in which dear coal may increase the capital of a country like England, though Mr. Ruskin seems to think the thing impossible. We are exporters of coal, and of course the higher the price the more the foreigner has to pay for it. So far, therefore, the increased price is advantageous, although on balance, every one knows, it is better to have cheap coal than dear.”
Let me at once assure the editor of the ‘Daily News’ that I meant him no disrespect in choosing a ‘long’ article for animadversion. I had imagined that the length of his articles was owing rather to his sense of the importance of their subject than to the impulsiveness and rash splendour of his writing. I feel, indeed, how much the consolation it conveys is enhanced by this fervid eloquence; and even when I had my pocket picked the other day on Tower Hill, it might have soothed my ruffled temper to reflect that, in the beautiful language of the ‘Daily News,’ the most important effect of that operation was “to alter the distribution of the proceeds of production in the community, and not to diminish the amount of it.” But the Editor ought surely to be grateful to me for pointing out that, in his present state of mind, he may not only make one mistake in a long letter, but two in a short one. Their object, declares the ‘Daily News,’ (if I would but have taken the pains to appreciate their efforts,) “was to show that it was quite possible for real production to increase, even with coal at a high price.” It is quite possible for the production of newspaper articles to increase, and of many other more useful things. The speculative public probably knew, without the help of the ‘Daily News,’ that they might still catch a herring, even if they could not broil it. But the rise of price in coal itself was simply caused by the diminution of its production, or by roguery.
Again, the intelligent journal observes that “dear coal may increase the capital of a country like England, because we are exporters of coal, and the higher the price, the more the foreigner has to pay for it.” We are exporters of many other articles besides coal, and foreigners are beginning to be so foolish, finding the prices rise, as, instead of “having more to pay for them,” never to buy them. The ‘Daily News,’ however, is under the impression that over, instead of under, selling, is the proper method of competition in foreign markets, which is not a received view in economical circles.
I observe that the ‘Daily News,’ referring with surprise to the conclusions which unexpectedly, though incontrovertibly, resulted from their enthusiastic statement, declare they need hardly tell their readers they “wrote no nonsense of that kind.” But I cannot but feel, after their present better-considered effusion, that it would be perhaps well on their part to warn their readers how many other kinds of nonsense they will in future be justified in expecting.
WALTER of the BORDER-LAND.
Facsimile of Chantrey’s sketch from life.