[15] In 1866 many magnificent vessels were added to our mercantile steam fleet. In fact all the great steam navigation companies have increased their tonnage, so that no doubt at the present time the total steam tonnage of the Empire cannot be less than 900,000 tons. It is to be remembered that in computing registered tonnage in steam vessels, the space occupied by the engines, boilers, and coal bunkers are not included. This tells in a very marked manner in the smaller vessels, especially in tugs, in which the object is to have as much motive-power as possible, and in which all other space is comparatively useless.
[16] It requires a consumption of from 8 to 9 cwt. of fuel before an engine is in steam and ready for service.
[17] It was at one of these rolling mills that was produced, within the last few weeks, an astounding armour plate 15 inches thick. Two years ago 6-inch plates were considered not difficult of production; 7-inch might be produced, but anything beyond it was impossible!
[18] King Iron!—Vide speech of the Right Hon. William Gladstone, M.P., at the opening of the Barrow Docks, on the 19th of September, 1867. The following magnificent article from the Times of four days later gives, in the compass of half a column, the most life-like picture that could be penned of the grandeur of England in former times, and of her Titanic power in the present:—
“Within living memories,—‘Lancashire-over-Sands’—a couple of score of inhabitants represented its population; and when the operations at Barrow, now consummated, were first commenced, a dozen dwelling-houses were as many as could be counted: yet in ten years Barrow has become a flourishing town, with a population of, at least, 20,000, and such prospective wealth and importance as have earned for it a municipal charter. The explanation of the marvel is contained in two words—iron and coal. Beneath the desolate soil of this savage district lay beds of rich iron ore,—the ore brought the miners, the miners brought the railway, the railway brought the docks; and now the docks, the railway, and the mines together are represented in a borough as populous as the old city of Lincoln. When the Furness Railway was first projected, a person experienced in such matters estimated that a traffic of 60,000 tons would be near the mark. The result affords an instance of how calculations of this kind have uniformly been exceeded by realities. Within three years the quantity of ore exported from Barrow exceeded 150,000 tons; this amount had risen in five years to 250,000; and in ten years, to nearly 500,000.
“This is the simple history of the rise and growth of Barrow. In other parts of the north similar miracles of progress have occurred during the present generation—one a place where there was one farmhouse thirty years since, is now a town with 30,000 inhabitants. But the truth is, that all these examples, down to the very latest here commemorated, do but express the continuous displacement of wealth, industry, and population which has been effected by the development of mineral riches in the north of England. If any reader will peruse Lord Macaulay’s description of the Northern Counties in the 17th century, and with that picture contrast the scene of the present day, he will see at a glance what a revolution has been accomplished. England began in the south, and Winchester was its capital. The south was still England, until mining called the north into place and power. It was not that the north-country people lacked energy or intelligence,—far from it; but they had no manufactures, and, for want of them, they were left behind in numbers, riches, civilisation, and all that confers social and political importance. Such elements of grandeur as the country possessed were those of a backward state. Its great feudal nobles were unmatched in power. The three northern earldoms—Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, represented by the great families of Percy, Clifford, and Neville—were like little principalities, and their rulers could combine to alarm the Government and defy the authority of the Crown. The bishopric of Durham was a Palatinate, almost a sovereignty, and its cathedral church was as grand as that of Winchester itself. The great northern abbeys—Fountains, Rivaulx, Bolton—could compete in magnificence with the most famous foundations of the south, but all around these wonderful piles reigned solitude and poverty. At last came the mighty change not unforeseen even in the days of the Stuarts. As soon as coal was brought into use, the iron manufacture left the south for the north—the exhausted forests of Sussex for the productive mines of Newcastle. The woollen trade gradually flitted from Exeter to Leeds, and the cutlery craft from Salisbury to Sheffield.
“All this is the work of coal and iron, and Barrow is the most recent product of the forces in operation. Mr. Gladstone observed with characteristic ingenuity that, whereas iron is by far the most useful of all metals—‘perhaps more useful and more necessary than all the rest put together’—it is at the same time, or rather it was till coal was discovered, the hardest to obtain. Iron is rarely found in a virgin state. It is obtained only in the shape of ore, which must be reduced and purified by fire. The great forests which once covered the whole county of Sussex supplied the necessary fuel to former generations of manufacturers, but that material was easily exhausted, and, except for the development of coal mining, our iron industry would never have been known. Put coal and iron together, and the result is wealth, trade, population, power. These mighty agents turn a barrow into a borough. They attract labour as surely as gold-fields, and it is by their instrumentality that the displacements of modern society have been accomplished. What fire and water effect in geology iron and coal effect in social history. Mr. Disraeli remarks in one of his novels, that men who sneered at the antiquity of Damascus had great faith in the future of Birkenhead. There is reason for such faith, and it is to be found in the history of England for the last two centuries. Trade is the making of cities. It will be the making of Barrow, just, indeed, as it was the making of Tyre. Furness is now drawn from its obscurity, and, for anything that we can tell, may, in a few years’ time, win a name as great as Winchelsea has lost.”—Times, 23rd September, 1867.
[19] But while we are advancing, let it not be forgotten that other nations are also progressing, some of them marvellously. Take for example France. M. de Vinck, one of its ablest statisticians, has recently summarised the commercial state of the country since 1851, and the following are several of his figures converted from French to English values. In 1851 the imports of France were £43,760,000, exports £60,200,000, total £103,560,000. In 1865, imports £141,120,000, exports £163,480,100, total £304,600,000. In 1851 the number of French and foreign vessels which entered or left the French ports was 34,436. In 1865 the number was 51,156. In 1851 the miles of railway open were 2,187. In the end of 1866, 8,750. In 1851 the telegraph services possessed 1,875 miles and 100 stations, by means of which 10,000 messages were sent in the year, In 1866 it possessed 19,700 miles and 2,100 stations, by means of which 2,500,000 messages were transmitted. The charges on messages have been reduced 70 per cent. between 1851 and 1866. In 1851 the number of letters carried was 65,000,000, in 1865 329,000,000, and in the interval the postage has been diminished about 20 per cent. In 1851 the indirect taxes and those on consumption were £29,529,680, in 1866 £51,290,720.
[20] The Times concludes a recent article upon our exports with the following valuable words of advice and of admonition. “To maintain our trade we must zealously maintain our industry. We undertake, it may be almost said, to clothe the world; our exports represent, in the main, cotton, linen, woollen, and worsted manufactures; our imports are the raw materials required for this industry, and the food to sustain us in the work. What other countries grow we make up for use, taking at the same time the abundance of their harvests, to compensate the deficiency of our own. That, in a few words, is a summary of our national trade. We are keeping our position pretty well, but it should not be forgotten that our rivals are now more numerous, more energetic, and more confident than in former times, and that we must prepare ourselves for a competition far more severe than any we have hitherto experienced.”
[21] We omit these in our subsequent comparisons. No doubt their numbers have increased very greatly in recent years.