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This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux de reduction indiqui ci-d6ssous. lOX 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X y 12X 16X 20X 2 . led by tx THE TRADE QUESTION. FALtAOIES OF PEOTECTION, OB THB •ff-C« "faimnal §0%" PUBLISHED BY THE REFORM ASSOCIATION OF THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE GLOBE NEWSPAPER 1878. IL. * *t I PROTECTION FALLACIES. *i I it, Jfrr' '^''^'"'^.y'' ^y «'^"«« whatsoever ha« begun to make itseK felt by any considerable class in the community, the^ is no kcW of charlatans ready to persuade tiie people that the/'plsirsolt fallible remedy, warranted to cure all the Uls that flesh is heir to • and most assuredly the Protectionist champions of the present day ^rei^ noil™ ''^ ^'^'^^^^^S *he universal efficacy of their particular What 18 our Complaint, and what are their ^'^'m^^i 18? ■ C!anada, like almost evewy civilized country in th A «o Ml. ■ 11 • or Ji«t now under temporary ^Lpression ?tl"at i to strhe^ ilV""*^ S=irtote^ Zi ll ^;ay-oJ'r:L7 i^ ^VTufe Canada obtains the greater part of her revenue from duties on in, f1,p i^ ' ^'V^'^y^ J^as expended enormous sums of money in cboauenin J the transport of goods from one side of the Atkntin tr. +1.0 ^m *^ ^ many manufactures. Therefore, by way of remet?v fL 1" *• ° ^ ^"■?'^ her peojjle are exhorted to"^ abandon jHESENlSRAfrlf'"^ ^^'^^' pccuPATio^'s. and to betake themselvel to those br^cJL ZfTV'^ m which the odds are from natural causes heav' J a^st t W ""^"^ Lastly, Canada enjoys a reasonably fair and equiJabte svs «m nf taxation pressing evenly on the whole of the commlntv^!lT ^ designed to give any unjust advantage to one cl^Hbo^^; !^ *%""' 2 Wore, let usby all means afcolish this system and inllT^"*^^'- of taxation which wiil compel overv merehlnf^J ^ ^°*^*«^'«« "o^laa in the land to maJte up SkTtTat ^hf S/ste rS ^^^f '^ M TO SECURE SUFFICIENT POLITICAI. INFLUENci TO HAVE T«T'.^ ^ ARRANGED FOE HIS PARWOTlAR BENBTET «AVE THE t^r,„ These in brief are the remedies suggested for the present difficulties of the coiintry, and set forth with much pomp and parade in a certain pamphlet entitled "Free Trade and Protection," to which it may be ■worth while to refer a little more in detail, as being a sort of handy compendium of the chief blunders committed by the alvocates of in- creased taxation, otherwise called protectionists. Let us review them in detail. Tbe First Ml8*Statoment. The very first statement, printed in large capitals, is entirely delu- lusive. We are told that •* Canada is exchisively a farming country." Now, it so happens that a large number of the people of Canada are engaged in finning, in ship building, in lumbering, and in sea-faring pursuits, and in a great variety of manufacturing occupations. Strange as it may appear to the protectionist writers, the actual number of per- sons engaged in these occupations is almost exactly pbofobtiokate in Canada, under a revenue tariff, to those similarly employed in the United States under their most unjust and oppressive fiscal system, For example, according to the census of the two countries, Canada bad 479,000 farmers against 6,000,000 in the United States ; 114,000 commercial and professional men against 1,500,000 in the United States ^ 213,900 persons engaged in industrial pursuits, against 2,500,- 000 in the United States. And if it be true as alleged, that the soil of Canada is being impoverished year by year, it is a very good reason for correcting a system of bad farming, but none at all for trebling the taxes of the people of the country. Tli0 Fanniiig sad Town Popiil*tto.a of CMiafla compared. *' As to the farming country which manufactures" it may suffice to say, that as Canada had at the last census a population of 787,336 in cities and towns of over one thousand inhabitants, distributed as follows : Ontario 366,280 Quebec 287,391 Nova Scotia 56,949 New Brunswick 76,711 a proportion which is not fax short of the proportion of the town population of France, one of tlie most prosperous of European coun- tries, it does not appear that the proportion between the farming and town population of the Dominion is very badly regulated after all, especially as the town population of Canada has probably increased considerably since 1871. It would be nearer the truth to say that we are suffering from an undue aggregation of the people in towns and ciiies. The True Commercial Position of Canada. Passing on, let us tako into consideration "tJie true Commercial position of Canada. " Surely every one, even of the most moderate intelligence, can or ought easily be brought to understand that, while Canada posse?ses many natural advantages for the production of certain articles in the growth and manufacture of which she can compete, Buccesafully with almost any country on the face of the earth, she does 1 ot and never vvill possess equal advantasjes fur the manufachira of ce.ta.n other articles, which she therefore finds it better and more advantageous to buy than to make. Why u it, prav that in -nifT^I ^le long ocean voyage Canadians, and more pakFSriv the prnleof Ontario, are able to sell wheat, barley, cattb, batter,'^ wwl^3\i, manner of agricultural products in England cheaper than The pL/e of great Britain ? Simply for two reasons. First, because ouWj mate is better adapted for the production of many of these artioli. Secondly, because land is cheaper and in many cfses more fert U T^ Canada than in England. W?iy is it, on tlfe other Tand.tff tie Englishman is able to produce cloth, cottons, hardware and iron cheaper than we can do in Canada ? Simply because hs l,«7^;« !u first place, a better dimate for certain purp'^3L ; Hhe s^cS^d ^much cheaper money ; m the third, cheaper labor ; and lastly, i^vnouTid- nnf ^"'vT'"** '"^ ^ "''"^^'^ P?"^°"' ^^«^» enables .am ^L^ on a much larger trade than we could hope to do, at any rate for aTS^ long time to come, whereby he en joys the advantage of maimf^urfn? on a very much larger scale. Now, as we can neither make Oa^da 2 island, nor aUer our climate, nor by any amount of artilicial legialati^ materially affect the rate of interest we have to pay for moner n«? yet enable a Canadian to live comfortable in our climate S ?hl same quantity of clothes, the same quantity of fuel, or to obtain hoSe accommodation as cheaply as the Englishman, at any ratlin m^t towns or cities, it stands to reason that we will enter into oompetkion with England or other countries similarly circumstanced, aT3mous disadvantage in the manufacture of these particular a^t-cles a3 although it may be true that by prohibiting the importation of thSe articles altogether we can obtain a home market fSr a ve?v imS number of manufactures, yet it is clear that it is equally true that we should lose sc much m other ways, that even our home market would fhefinaf result"*'''"''"^ diminished instead of being increased, ia The effeot of Protection la the United State*. YT V 'i*'«f r '^®w r°P^®' 'n Y* ^"' "*. *^ '^^^ ""f protection in the fJmted States. Well, we wiU look u, the effect of Protection in the United States. We will have recourse only to American witnesses of the highest otandmg and position in their own country, to show u. what Protection has done in the United States. Wliat Senator Blaine aaya about It. The people of the United States possess a wonderfully rich country a country extending from ocean to ocean, comprising within its limits every variety of climate, and which has the capacity of producinff every single article and every single mineral which human beinea arl in the habit of using. They have a vast internal trade, and § anv- where on the face of the earth the experiment of a high tariff and nro- tective duties could be tried with a reasonable prospect of auccesf it would be in the United States of America. Now tLy have triS the experiment for nearly twenty years; they have, according to the co ■ . putation of their own best economists.expended betweensioHT THOiBiin> AND TEN THOUSAND MILLIONS OF DOLiARs in the attempt to foster certfcim special industries, and mark the result. In a country which m P*eM 6 dent Lincoln tnily said, could mainuiiu with ease a population of two hundred miiiions; ;Sonator Hlaiiio, a prominent member of the Hepubli- ean party, declared publicly on a recent occasion that there were butween three and four millions of human boiiigs in a state of destitu- tion, and that more than five hiindred thousand (500,000) a!)le bodied men, with their families, were unable to find empluyment in the i nitod States in the present year of grace, 187'^. The p.i[iers of New York have related from timetotiniehow thouBardnof industrious mechanics (a thing heretofore unknown in the history of America) are flying from her shores, and trying to obtain employment in Kngland or Scotland, or in distant countxit s. From one en^ of the land to the other goes up a wail of distress and destitution. Tho Testimony of Seorerary Kvarta. Secretary Evarts, a member of the present Cabinet, declares : " In your own great state (Pennsylvania) I perceive that in the " production of iron, there are to-day 478 furr acjs out of blast- ont of ♦* 8 total number of 714, representing an idle capital of $100,000,000. *' The capacity of t' ese furnaces is at least double the demand. What " is true of iron i« true of other industries." CoL Tom Scott Tectlfles to tjie same eCTeot. Colonel Scott, one of the greatest capitalists in America, speaks as follows : — " In a few hours the credit upon which the fabric of our apparent pT08i)erity rested, was almost entirely destroved The capital whwh had been freely lent to all enterprises cQuring even a show of pro- spective profit, was suddenly withdrawn. Since that time the country has been obliged to meet its debts, not by renewal, but by actual payments from its resources. " Every important industry in the coiintry has been compelled to practise the closest and most rigid economy in order to escape mar- keting its product at an absolute loss. The cotton and woollen mills of New England, the furnaces and mines of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, have all passed through the same experience, and have the same story to tell. The capital which communist orators so eloquently denounce, has yielded such scanty returns as the men who pretend to dictate the scale of adequate wagee for labor, would regard with disdain. In every manufact\iring state in the country it is perfectly well known that many eatahlishmentH have been kept ia operation simply that the men might be employed." . !<« H: <. ^ ; Honry Ward Boeoher tella his Experience. -,'i Henry Ward Beecher, the celebrated preacher, gives as the result of his experience — " Everything has fallen in value. Provisions, raiment, real estate, ** commodities of every form and shape, have gone down. Properties *' that were mortgaged at one-third of their value are sold tor the . " amount of the mortgage ; two-thirds of their estimated value has «,;** gone under. I need not tell you that property in Brooklyn va snb- .(« gtiuatially unsaleable. You can e^ohangd houses an ,unted stale of Massach usetts. The statis- tics of vagrants relieved show — ]lll ■ 45,643 j^i'* 98,263 ]%'' 137,208 ^^'^ 148,936 The Value of Property Depreciated Thereby. And in this, the chief manufacturing state of the union, the famous b.ilisbury cottoa mills, put up to ancHon a few days ago, known as perhaps the best mill property in the state of Massachusetts, haying cost |! 1,2(>0, 000, were sold for $160,000, being precisely thirteen and a hall cents in the dollar on their original cost, by way of pendant, we suppose, to the fate of the woollen mill establiahment cited by Mr. Wells. Surely in these statements, and they may be multiplied ad tnjimtum, there is proof that he that runs may read of all that Protec- tion has done and is doing for the people of the United States ; and that rorsooth, is the policy which is held up to tha admiration of Oanadiaus m general, and ik» people of Ontario in partiouiar ! 11 Canada as aa Importer and iAxiH>rt«r. But let U3 see 'tvhit Canada imports, a,id what Canada, ml'ild j^rojit' ahly make. We are told that Canada could manufacture sixty million dollars worth of the articles she now imports. Well, in the rirst place there is every reason to believe that this statement is monstrously exaggerated; and that without an absolutely prohibitory tariff, Canada could not manufacture at the outaide more than thirty millions worth of goods. This would give twenty-three thousand (23,000), instead of forty-six thousand (46,000) operatives, as claimed by the atlvocates of protection ; and of all these operatives probably not one-third, that is about eight thousand (8,00;>) would be men, the remainder being women and children, often of very tender years. The wages of these people would not average more than from a hundred to a hundred and twenty dollars a year, if we pay them as in England, and the total wages which they would receive would probably be about three millions (3,0(X),000). Yet we are gravely *,old that, directly an(i indirectly, these twenty-three thousand persons, receiving wages to the extent of about three millions dollars (33,000,000) a year, would suffice to maintain an additional population of two hundred and thirty thousand (230,000) soiils ! If this be so, it would follow of necessary consequence that each of the aforesaid two hundred and thirty thousand would have to be supported on an average of from ten to twelve dollars a year I It would follow, also, that it it be true that twenty-three thousand opera- tives, ©f whom barely one third are men, and the remainder women and children, are worth a population of nearly a quarter of a million to the count z-y, that the six hundued thousand able-bodied farmers, fishers, seamen, and lumbermen, whom the census returns showed to be employed in Canada in 1871, and whose wives ami families are (at any rate in the case of the fanning population), very considerably engaged in the actual work of production, should give employment to a population of fifteex millions instead of three and a half. For surely if these eight thousand full-grown male operatives, pltis their families, represent, as these peoiile would liave us believe, directly and indi- rectly, neariy a quarter of a uiiilion, it is certainly not too much to say that ten thousand farmers and their wives and families (who are quite £;s usefully and quite as proHtably erajiloyed as the wife and family of i'Uy ordinary English operative), are worth quite as much. And few who know anything of the position of the yeomaniy of Canada, and especially of the yeomanry of Ontario, will hesitate to say that every individual farmer and hia family (in the province of Ontario, at any rate), add quite as largely to the national wealth, give indirect employ- ment to quite as many people, and are capable of supporting quite as lirge a population, as any English family employed in factory work that ever existed. Similarly, if it be true that the manufacture of sixty millions worth of goods would give employment directly and indirectly to four hundred and sixty thoasand (400,000) souls, it is equally clear, repeating the calculation as before, that the employment of six Imndred thousand (iiUO.OoO) farmers and seafaring men, would likewise give em- ployment to about fifteen millions (15,0(K),0l)0) of souls. Or, take it in another method of calculati(jn, if the disbursement of three millions in wages is going to produce all these benetic.ial results, what injury would result from the violeHb subtraction from the earnings of the people of Canada, under the operation of heavy arlditional taxation, of some ten or twelve millions of dollars t,i amount ? ' How Protection wouM Sest^'oy the Revenne. fa,.fnvf '^ '\^^ *?®\f ^^'^ P?"P^^ *^" "^' *^^** they «annot manu- factiue goods under the operation of a 17t per cani tariff, which iu- llT' ^V^ ^^'^ ^^'■^^> * ^'"'"''^y °f *^^o hundred and twelve dollars per nead tor every man, woman and child employed in anv manufac- bwST"° '•''5 \*^^?.^°^ ^^'^ .ontinuance ; and if, as requested m^l fcr^^'^fK^^' *h^**^^f be rai- : sulficiently high to exclude sixty m rJT i^^^f?.'^?''^''^ ^^ '' proposed to manufacture in this country and which it is alleged cannot be manufactured except under the shadow of a protective tariff, it is at least equally clear that the H^»o P ^® fi''"^^® "^ 9.''"^'^* ^^^^ ^'^'^""t *o from ten to twenty mil- tTfl i • i^ accordingly as thirty or sixty milKons worth of good. ZSZTyF'"'^' Mr^ ''^^T^ }? ^^ excluded ; and that if the disburse- ment of three millions of dollars is going to give employment directly aud mdirectly to 230,000 people, the loss of ten millio/s of dollars S the earnings ot the people will, by parity of reasoning, throw out of employment some 700,000 souls. o. «- "uk ut "What Increased Protection would Coxt Ua. Why, accepting the calcnlation of that (at present) distingn ishod ./^ T" t^*^^^* *hif inoment every Canadian manufacturer iias an itl^^F ''^Z^'t^^^^''^ or American competitor, to an extent of twenty-two and a half per cent (22^ per cent. ) of the original value of ^nif * Au^ ^'^^?''® ^"""^^S" manufacturers can sell those sixty millions of dollars worth of goods in our markets, they must submit to a lino of thirteen and « quarter millions (^13,250,000), most of which at present goes into the national treasury. This, say our pro- tectionist friends, is not sufficient. Instead of thirteen and a quarter we demand eighteen or twenty millions, to be paid necessarily out of ^«r,S"^l*" *^**.P»rti«« of}^^ people of Canada who do not manufacture these particular articles. And for what? Grant that we can manufacture these sixty millions ($60,000,000) worth, and that we thereby give employment to forty-six thousand operatives, men, women ajid children, there is not one particle of evidence to show that HJ^fr^ ^"''■Y^°?,'''"i'^°"y ^"P''"^'= """y ^•''•S^'' proportion of people, directly or indirectly, than the 1,009,849, shown by our census to b^ at present employed m various occupations in Canada. On the con- trary, looking to the number of adult males employed, the presump- tion is very strong that they would support relatively a very much smaller r^mber. 5Jow, if one mUlion cdd engaged mainly in produc J-lKf^f'nm" *' -^^ occupations, support about three and a half millions (.i,0()0,00) of people, it follows plainly enough that forty-sis thon- ?lfl/?r^^^™i^'?^''°Y^'^ support, not four hundred and sixty thousand (4b0,()00), but about one hundred and forty thousand (140,000) souls HiL^l^^ f l"^ !r° *"T'°^{ ""^^^ '^ * high estimate, thit these hun- dred and forty thousand souls would consume forty dollars worth p«r head of farm produce per annum (being at the rate of over two hun- dred dollars worth per family), the farmers of Canada would, at th« toutside, get the advantage ot selling, not twenty-three millioni ($23. 13 J00,000) but five miUions six hundred thousand (§5,600,000) worth of fam produce to these people And as even on the protectioinsts' own showing, the sole possible advantage that could accrue from sellinir those articles here, m place of abroad, would be the savine of the terfL.'?°'°"°^'"f^P"^''P' *'','. '*y «^^ ^'^"dred thousand doUaw, («bUO,000), we would arrive at this very remarkab) t result that for the f^f.f X""? problematical profit of five or six hundred thousand dollars, the farmers of Canada are invited to submit to an increased t^ «* n n^*-?i?m S between eighteen and twenty millions ($18,000,000 to ?-0,000,000) per annum, bemg a dead loss at the rate of about forty IKJLLAES for ONE DOLLAB ! The Lose to Onr Shipping Znterert* hy Preteetlon. '♦>,«,^ V??!?.,!' ?'* *"' ^'''^ i\ ^'^'^ ^^ remembered that the efi^ect of all uSted S Ji r^'^' ""^"^^ ^^ ^' ^'^^^''^y P^«^«d ^y the example of the S« rf,lw ^ reduce enormously the quantity of our shipping and otLr .n,^f °^ ""^2 «"^P^?y«d in the carding trade between th^ and bSelv tw«i5l' r. Supposing our loss from these sources amounted to onln? If^i ^ "^^ thousand (25,000) men, seamen and caiviers, thrown out of employment, we would have (as these are ahnost alwkys fX Sd twS.!^ r*M'""'^'^'^ depending on them;, a loss of one hJndJed ^f W^^f'^^***'!!!??^ (125,000) souls, to set-off agamst the gain^ JS« Tn Purchasing power :«n the part of the great bulk of the J^entvmiSr^f'/ir^.^y *^.« ^^^^^^^ Bubtraction of eighteen or twenty millions of dollars from their ordinary earnings. Protaotloa to Towns, VillacM, and CItlea. dtie^'Mi'^L*^!,!'***!*"**",^" of protection to villages, towns, and ™^ ^ case, unless a large increase s)f the farming popu ation ^Tf ^..fT^P"""''? ^-^^y'- " ■^^'^'^ ^y °"' <'«»«"'» '«t"™«» quite ^ fr?f/.itll +• °'''l*!7 m^^^O' And so far from its being desirable to SltiTSri, f'r^''**' their growth by laws which would dehberately divert both labour and capital from the useful and honourable pursuits of agriculture and ordinary mechanical work, to crowd our people into towns and cities It is a well-established fact that no one^ thing has done more to delay the real progress of this country, and to prevent it from reaping the full benefit of its great natural resourcesf than the disposition of too many of the fanning population to abandon agricul- ture, for the purpose of engaging in professional and mercantile pur- suits. What we really want is more men and more capital employed in agriculture, conducted on more scientific principles ; and no man can well commit a more unpatriotic act, or one more certain to inflict untold misery on his dupes, than to induce men who are able to obtain an honest livelihood by farming, to exchange so safe and respectable an occupation for the doubtful chances of city life. Commercial statistics show with the greatest plainness that the chances of success as between a farmer and a mpvchant, are very nearly a hundred to one in favour of the termer ; that tor one farmer of ordinary ind -try and capacity who becomes bankrupt, twenty merchants are found to faUin business ; and that the number of farmers who amass a comfortable competence is out ot all proportion larger than that of nierchants or professional men who are able to leave any visible property behind theia. r 14 A^'.-otsctlon and Direct Taxation. Then we are told that " lyyotecUon does not cause direct tuxation.'* That is t« say that, deriving over three-fourths of our revenue from duties on imported goods, we could stop the importation of these goods and yet supply the gap in the revenue from Heaven knows what undiscovered horn of plenty. This is mere childish folly. For every million's worth of imported goods which you refuse to admit into the country through the medium of a protective tariff, you lose about two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) of revenue, and this must be made up from taxes imposed on something else. Now, as we cannot raise the taxes on any class of goods beyond a certain easily defined point withotit losing instead of gaining revenue, we have no chance whatever of making up the deficiency by further indirect taxes. As we must obtiiin the means of paying the interest on our national debt, the subsidies to our provinces, and carrying on the necessary expendi- ture oi Government, there remains no other resource except direct taxation of the most formidable kin*!, impairing your energies, and wP^i^"'^ ^"" ** ®^®^ '""^ *•" *^*® inquisitorial visit of the tax-gatherer. While to those who are constantly proclaiming that protection after all is not going to raise prices but to lower them, it is sufficient to point to the example of the United States, where, after twenty years of pro- tection, so far from being able to dispense with the high rate of tariff they at present possess, every protected interest in the country is com- bining together to defeat the smallest proposed reduction in the pre- sent tariff. ' ^ Proteotion does not tower the oo«t of Prodnotion. Surely the stupidest of hack politicians cannot fail to see that if there was one word of truth in the statement that protection can per- manently lower prices, all* these manufacturers ought long since to have been able to dispense with their protective tariff, and to compete fairly iu open market with their English competitors. Unhappily, the case is fur otherwise. It may be true that one of the most deplor- able results of artificial interference with the ordinary laws of trade has been to bring so many men and so much capital from their ordi- nary natuial fields of industry into particular occupations as to have re- duced the operatives to a condition in which they are fain to work for any wage fV t will barely keep body and soul together, and to render the capit, luployed not only almost, but absolutely, unremunerative. And it is quite possible that under such circumstances, as in the case of other bankrupt concerns, the unhappy manufacturer in sheer de- spair, may be obliged to dispose of his goods at ruinous fij,'ures. But itf there were a pa>ticle of truth in the assertion that protection perse enables the manufacturer to permanently reduce the cost of produc- tion, and it is only by permanently lowering the cost of production that he can permanently reduce the price of his goods, then the in- evitable inference would be that he could afford completely to dis- pense with the protection afforded by this mis-called protective tariJE". I»sre«so of Amerlean and Canadian Population Coaipared, But they point to the increase of population in tke United States. Well, it is true that so long as the United States possessed a very largo 16 amount of u^oceupied fertile land, the populatien of the western staten did continue to increase in a rather rapid ratio. But it is distinctly untrue that the population of any of the older States, in spite of protec- tion, has increased one whit more rapidly than that of the Dominion of Canada under its presient tariff. The United States retams show that the population of Maine in 1860, was 628,279 ; in 1870, 626,915. The population of Vermont was 316,098, in 1860 ; and in 1870, 330,551. The population of New Hampshire was 326,073 in 1860 ; and 310,330 in 1870. The population of New York was 3,880,735, in 1860 ; and 4,387,646 in 1870 ; while even in Massachussetts it was 1,231,066 in 1860, and 1,457.351 in lo70. In other words, the population of all these States collectively increased much more slowly than that of the Province of Ontario, or even the Province of Quebec. And even in MasBuchuBsetts the population does not appear to have increased one whit more rapidly than in the case of Nova Scotia, where it rose from 330,857 in 1861, to 387,000 in 1871. Truth to tell, the only thing which appears to have increase! with unexampled rapidity in the United States, was the amount of municipal taxation, which rose so rapidly under the operatioH of protective laws, that in one hundred and thirty-one cities of which we have authentic records, the taxation for municipal purposes had risen from $66,000,000 in 1866, to $112<- 000,000 in 1875 ; and in which about one quarter of their population had been reduced to a condition of abject destitution. While as to the statementthatEngland had prospered under a highly protective system, nothing could be more utterly at variance with the actual fact* of the ease, as depicted by English writers of the highest authority! Xnsland Depressed under Protection. All parties, no matter in what else they differ, agree in this— that the period preceding the introduction of a Free Trade policy in Eng- land, was one of the most terrible distress. Mr. Noble, a writer of great eminence on these subjects, says expressly : — Mr. Noble's Testimony. '* Every interest in the country was alike depressed- In the roanu- " facturing districts, mills and workshops were closed, and all property " depreciated in value. In the seaports, shipping was laid up useless " in the harbours. Agnicultural labourers were eking out a miserable " existence upon starvation wages and parochial relief. The revenue " was insufficient to meet the national expenditure, and the country " was brought to the verge of national and universal bankruptcy." Lord Uaoanlay gives a Similar Picture. In a speech delivered at Edinburgh in 1845, Lord Macaulay says : " So visible was the misery of the manufacturing towns, that a man of sensilnlity could hardly bear to pass through them. Everywhere he fovmdJfilth, and naloedness, and plaintive voices, and wasted forms, and haggard faces. Politicians who had never been thought alarmists began to tremble for the very foundations of society. First the mills were put on short time. Then they ceased to work at all. Then went to pledge the scanty property of the artizan ; first his little luxuries then his comforts, then his neces saiies. The hovels were stripped tiH they were as bare as the hovel ef a d»g-ribbed Indian. Aloae, amidst the general misery, the shop with the three golden balk pros- The k^c^.t, (:^i'^tlUiy^ ... •10 '• tablel' Trl Tlf^ I m '^'^ ^aT 'f "' ^ garret with the clocks, and the tablea, and the kettles, and the blftnketb, and the Bibles of the poor. u y«"'«ml'or well the effect which whs produced in London by the un- wonted sight of hnge pieces of cannon which wtre going north waitl to overawe the starving population of Lancashire. " Sugland Prosperona under Free Trade. . Since then, under a wise free trade pelicy, En^Wand hai made immense strides. It took her 300 years, imder^rotectTon, to export goods to the extent of £.50,000,000. In thlrt,, years, under free trade ?hI„'S*onn ;?rr" '"^ £210,000,000, and he'r total trade fnn less fo^rf^lo^Tl ? ^r^'l ^" ^'600,000,000, being an increase of 500 per cent, m less than half an ordinary life-time. T« i^Z^ I'f "f *? ^® 'l«^"y '^* *«i*^« ^y ^^^ people of Canada i Is It not enough to look at the position of the TTnited States this day. »B08pltul»tlon of the Results of Protection In the United States. A,, :^*^%S*^« ^^ protection-all the protection they could aak for— fc^r.f r*T ""' .*h«T*^"f. a"J what has it done for them? l\lomtin'S'^^^ **^""r 1 ^^^ ''^'''' ^"^ * population of rate of 870 pfi^'.^r/?^ * ^^^^ ^^'^ *^' ?""?«««" ^""^y' ^ei»« »* ^^^ rate oi Jif/u pee family per annum. It ha» all but utterly stopped emigration to the United States. It has wasted TEN thousand millions of dollars of capital. at nas plunged FOUE millions of people into destitution. It has ruined the whole foreign American shipping trade It has created a system of rings, of log rolling, and of leffislative doct^ii'eTofnr;:r:1ktd."^^^^'^' '°"^"^*^° ai/of^Communistio fln,iL^ " ^^^^ men." (i.e.) A Revenue Tariff, the nearest anproach to it possible in Canada.