TOPICAL PORTRAIT SERIES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 283, 28 November 1905, Page 1

TOPICAL PORTRAIT SERIES.

TEE MAUQUis OF SALISBURY

HIS FORECAST OF BETTER

TIMES ALL BOUND

The Marquis of Salisbury is the Ministerial head of the British Board of Trade, and he declares that the cloud of depression which has rested on enterprise for so long is passing away rapidly. Since his utterance the Board has published its usual mouthy return, and the showing is in keeping with this rather pronouncedly. Exports have shown an expansion for tho time embraced of a quite unusual character, and side by side with it we note other evidences which go to suggest that the growth will bo steady. Tho. world's commercialism ebbs "and flows like the tides, and it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to acount for any part of it with actual correctness. War means; an ebb, peace a flow naturally, but there are other diverting things which alter the weight of the current and which not oven the wisest can ever fully analyse. One thing is certain, that prosperity to bo worth anything is something like general*prosperity, as misfortune cannot be confined to any single nation with so much in the way of intertwining interests. A pond that has a pebble thrown into its centre is disturbed not in a part but all over its surface, even though the waves so caused should just be discernible in the farthest places. Similarly one that is fed by an inflow from some connecting stream must swell on all sides even though the. same rule obtains in regard to the shore most distant. If the trade oi: England is on the upgrade again then it must have a result on the trade of the British Empire as p. whole, the better occupation of the Eugisli people meaning their greater prosperity, their greater spending power, and. o.y a result, their greater buying power. Trade follows the flag in divers ways, and this is one of the most satisfactory. Hence the assurance by the Marquis of Salisbury is most welcome, and coupled •with the fact of a most immediate- proof, it gains its sign iiico nee and interest. The Board of Trade is an unfailing brometer in this regard, and the man at the head of it has his hand on the pulse of British commercialism. Clearly the horizon for trade is clearer and smoother, and the King's Sovereign is the most pleasing "sunrise" we have noted for some considerable time.