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 http://www.archive.org/details/freetradeinquiryOOgillrich 
 
FEEE TEADE 
 
FREE TRADE 
 
 AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF 
 ITS OPERATION 
 
 BT 
 
 RICHAED GILL 
 
 '^^ OP THR ' 
 
 univee:it7^ 
 
 ^oli^^ 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MD-CCCLXXXVII 
 
 All Rights reserved 
 

 A/^'>^ 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The present study of the free-trade question was pro- 
 jected with the ultimate view of exposing what the 
 writer still considers to be a very popular delusion. 
 For the prosperity which attended the early operation 
 of the free-trade principle (after a short interval of 
 depression, the terminal period of a natural depression 
 which commenced during the protective system, and 
 encroached upon the first operation of free trade) was 
 then believed very generally, and is supposed now, but 
 in a less degree, to be due to the immediate and benign 
 efficacy of the new principle. To prove the falsity of 
 this inference is the burden of this present treatise. 
 In it there is displayed, and without any prejudice to 
 the requirements of party systems or of hypothesis, the 
 real working of the principle of free trade. From 
 its perusal it will be evident, if the original data are 
 allowed to be true, that prosperity did not succeed 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 free trade as a " direct," but as an " indirect," con- 
 sequence. 
 
 This being so, it will at once be perceived that much 
 of the existing depression in trade is dependent on the 
 partial and unequal action of free trade, and hence 
 that the cause of much, but not all, of the suffering 
 of the poorer classes is derived not from causes which 
 are more or less under their own control, but from the 
 adverse operation of a stern and unyielding principle 
 upon which they cannot possibly possess any direct 
 influence. 
 
 R G. 
 
 St Bartholomew's Hospital, 
 
 April 1887. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF OUR COMMERCE ANTECEDENT TO 
 THE INTRODUCTION OF THE FREE-TRADE PRIN- 
 CIPLE, . ... . . . . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE COURSE OF EVENTS WHICH LED UP TO THE IN- 
 TRODUCTION OF FREE TRADE INTO OUR COM- 
 MERCIAL POLICY, ...... 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE POSITION OF SIR ROBERT PEEL, ... 87 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PRIMARY AND BENEFICIAL ACTION OF THE FREE- 
 TRADE PRINCIPLE : TO WHAT IT WAS DUE, . 155 
 
Vm CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 CRITICISM OF THE INDIRECT AND DIRECT OPERATIONS 
 
 OF FREE TRADE, ..... 177 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE DESCRIPTION OF THE DIRECT EFFECTS OF FREE 
 
 TRADE, ........ 224 
 
 f 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF PARTIES IN THE STATE RESPECT- 
 ING THE PROGRESS OF OUR COMMERCE, AND THE 
 PRINCIPLES WHICH PRESIDE OVER IT, . . 291 
 
>>' OP Tu:; 
 
 uuivee^itt; 
 
 FEEE TEADE. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF OUR COMMERCE ANTECEDENT TO THE 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE FREE-TRADE PRINCIPLE. 
 
 1. General view of the course of our track, — If we take 
 a retrospective survey of the progress of our trade, we 
 shall find that, under the protective system, the line 
 of advance was broken at intervals by the occurrence 
 of depression ; and that, at the period when the prin- 
 ciple of free trade was introduced into our commercial 
 code, the various trades and industries were suffering 
 from a recurrence of distress. 
 
 But we must observe, in particular, that at this epoch 
 in our commercial policy this arrest in the progress of 
 our trade, judging from experience, was of a temporary 
 character only, and that during the agitation which 
 marked the advocacy of free trade, the country was 
 in a state of disturbance from causes entirely uncon- 
 nected with it. And we shall perceive, later on, how 
 
 A 
 
2 FREE TRADE. 
 
 this feeling on the part of tlie public was utilised by 
 the free-traders, and diverted from its former nar- 
 rowed channel into the ocean of a much more vital 
 question. 
 
 It will be of advantage to make a cursory observation 
 of some of the more important changes that took place 
 in the progress of our commerce up to the time of the 
 application of the free-trade principle. 
 
 By far the most important alteration was the impo- 
 sition in 1815 of the Corn Laws, a legislative procedure 
 which was initiated by the efforts of those whose in- 
 terests were associated with the welfare of agriculture. 
 
 It was soon determined that the corn-produce of this 
 country tended to be constant, and that, if it fluctuated 
 at all, it was prone to incline towards the direction of 
 decrease. But the population increasing constantly at 
 a certain rate, it thus came to be recognised that this 
 island, now no longer self-supporting with respect to 
 corn, must depend in a gradually increasing larger 
 measure upon foreign sources for the complement of 
 its annual supply. 
 
 This difference between Great Britain and other 
 countries was, from a legislative point of view, a fun- 
 damental one. There was, however, this to be said in 
 our favour, that if our ability to grow enough corn, 
 owing to the limitation of space, gradually diminished 
 relatively to an increasing population, what we lost in 
 the corn-markets of the foreigner we perhaps more 
 tlian gained in our export trade, which continued in 
 a flourishing condition. 
 
 As the constant untaxed foreign importation of corn 
 would tend to interfere with its cultivation in this 
 
FREE TRADE. 3 
 
 country, those who were concerned in its production, 
 together with the owners of the soil, being then 
 powerful enough, demanded that the same protection 
 be allowed the produce of the land as was afforded to 
 our other industries; and such a demand was recog- 
 nised as being the logical consequence of our estab- 
 lished commercial policy, which had for its object the 
 protection of the native industries of the country, 
 which had slowly grown up and been fed by the 
 talent and genius of our countrymen : the ultimate 
 result of which was to place the nation in the most 
 favourable position for supplying its own wants. 
 
 This was the corner-stone of the political economy of 
 the protectionists ; and where we lost in the importa- 
 tion of certain articles, the chief of which was corn, the 
 balance was more than maintained by the exportation 
 of our manufactured goods, which was slowly but cer- 
 tainly increasing. 
 
 The central idea of the policy was — there can be no 
 question about it — a purely selfish one. It was to 
 nourish as far as possible the industries of the country, 
 in order to employ to the fullest extent the labour of 
 its inhabitants. 
 
 By this means the system of protection sought to 
 maintain the universal and equable employment of the 
 nation ; and with the aid of material prosperity to 
 aftbrd the majority of the people the means leading to 
 content and happiness. 
 
 In spite of notions of free trade which then were 
 prevalent, the agricultural and landed interests gained 
 the day. And the Corn Laws, which were in the 
 course of the next thirty years to become the source 
 
4 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of so much anxiety, and to offer the main ground of 
 contention between the rival parties in the State, be- 
 came the laws of the land. The selfish element pre- 
 dominated in the breasts of our ancestors ; and free 
 trade had yet to burst through the powerful fence of 
 self-interest. 
 
 The next period of import — passing by the occasions 
 when our system was adjusted, on the basis of reci- 
 procity, to alterations in the commercial systems of other 
 nations, which tended to the disadvantage of our trade 
 /—was in 1826, when an Order in Council was made to 
 / permit the importation of foreign corn, free of duty, 
 Ion the discretion of the Government. 
 
 Thus a means was devised by which the dire conse- 
 quences of a local scarcity of corn from bad harvests 
 might be counteracted with the greatest efficiency. 
 In 1827 Mr Canning proposed his sliding scale; but 
 this was rejected, as not providing that amount of pro- 
 tection which it was the original intention of the Corn 
 Laws to secure. And in the following year another 
 scale, constructed by Lord Glenelg and Mr Charles 
 Grant, was brought before the Commons, but it met 
 with the same fate as its immediate predecessor. The 
 position of the agriculturists and the landowners was 
 firm and resolute. It was felt that to admit a modi- 
 fication in the existing Corn Laws would be to accel- 
 erate the plans of those who, using such a relaxation 
 as a false argument, would endeavour to effect their 
 total repeal. 
 
 In 1830 the duty on sugar was reduced by three 
 shillings the hundredweight ; and at the same time the 
 customs duties on colonial spirits were diminished by 
 
FREE TRADE. 5 
 
 the amount of sixpence per gallon. This reduction 
 took place consequently on a similar remission in the 
 excise duty on home-made spirits. There was some 
 discussion in the House that the colonial spirits should 
 not be affected to the same favourable degree as those 
 home-made. But the distinction between the colonial 
 and home-made was gradually receding. The differ- 
 ences between the mother country and her colonies 
 were not of the same nature as these between the 
 United Kingdom and foreign nations ; the element of 
 kinship appeared to remove all those inequalities which 
 remained in the case of the foreigner. 
 
 It was in 1839 when Mr Villiers made his celebrated 
 statement in Parliament that universal free trade was 
 possible before the year 1824. 
 
 If this was an argument that free trade should be 
 advocated with the greatest zeal, then it is certain that 
 the ardent pleader in the hypothetical justice of his 
 cause completely forgot the grounds on which parallel 
 cases may be constructed. 
 
 If free trade was possible before 1824 to all nations 
 of importance, surely the circumstances relating to that 
 possibility, having undergone such changes in tlie in- 
 terval as to forbid any resemblance being drawn 
 between the conditions of 1839 and those of 1824, 
 would altogether preclude the assumption of any safe 
 and reliable inference. 
 
 In the following year the duties on imported articles 
 were increased "to the extent of five per cent on all 
 raw materials, upon articles of food, upon everything 
 which constituted the import trade of the country." 
 Such an addition was imposed by the Whig Chancellor 
 
6 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of the Exchequer, with a view to remove the deficit of 
 the Budget, a deficit which was becoming an annual 
 phenomenon. 
 
 The measure, however, did not meet with success. 
 And considering the impoverished state of the country 
 at the time, the trade depression, commencing in 1837, 
 being still in progress, was it likely ? 
 
 It is curious to observe how this fact was made use 
 of by Sir Eobert Peel when he introduced his Bill to 
 reduce, with the final view of their abolition, all import 
 duties, as well as to secure the admission of articles up 
 to the time prohibited. Sir Eobert, when he advanced 
 his argument for the reduction of these duties in some 
 cases, and their entire remission in others, stated his 
 conviction that they could not possibly be regarded as 
 a stable source of the revenue of the country ; because 
 an attempt had been made by his predecessor to in- 
 crease the produce of import duties by additional 
 imposts, and had failed. 
 
 But Sir Eobert Peel did not advance the special 
 reason of this failure. He did not associate this failure 
 on the part of the country with its inability to afford 
 the additional burden which the requirements of the 
 Exchequer had been compelled — and it was a rash com- 
 pulsion — to place upon it. Take the instance when 
 the country was in a state of prosperity, and the 
 demands of the Exchequer were increasing. In such 
 a case, would not the anticipation of the financier have 
 been realised ? 
 
 But the assessed taxes answered to the addition 
 imposed upon them. Hence Sir Eobert Peel's conclu- 
 sion : that from this particular example, and when the 
 
FREE TKADE. 7 
 
 circumstances of the country were exceptional and 
 unfavourable to indirect taxation, the country was 
 better able generally to bear direct taxation than the 
 burden of an addition to its import duties. 
 
 From this general inference, drawn from a particu- 
 lar phenomenon, Sir Ilobert Peel originated the idea of 
 reimposing the income-tax; the result of which pro- 
 cedure would enable him to effect the complete aboli- 
 tion of all customs duties, and to remove the obstacles 
 which prohibition erected in the extending course of 
 our trade. 
 
 In 1841, when Sir Kobert Peel was questioned as to 
 Ills intention regarding the Corn Laws, he accused the 
 noble leader of the Opposition — after referring in a 
 sarcastic manner to the reduction of the import duty 
 on timber as the only means of having conferred any 
 benefit upon the commerce of the country — with having 
 deserted the interests of the country, if he considered 
 that the present Corn Laws required any modification 
 which he had not attempted to effect in them. His 
 party had just emerged from the sphere of power ; and 
 if he thought that the Corn Laws had any material 
 share in the causation of the national distress, w^hy had 
 he not proposed some change ? 
 
 But the fact was that the previous Ministry was not 
 sufficiently powerful to bring about the change they 
 thought desirable : which was that the ordinary Corn 
 Laws be replaced by a fixed duty. And this Sir Robert 
 Peel well knew. 
 
 In the following year, however, Sir Robert proposed 
 a sliding-scale, which succeeded in obtaining the assent 
 of both the Houses of Parliament. 
 
8 FKEE TRADE. 
 
 But this measure, probably devised to soothe the 
 anxieties of both parties, was regarded by the protec- 
 tionists as directly tending to deprive them of their 
 customary rights — and as foreshadowing the ultimate 
 repeal of the Corn Laws ; and by the free-traders, as 
 not sufficiently meeting the difficulties under which the 
 country was suffering. 
 
 But the fears of the protectionists were not allayed ; 
 nor were the hopes of the free-traders fulfilled ! And 
 thus, by a policy which was intended to diminish op- 
 posite feelings, Sir Eobert Peel failed in satisfying 
 either party in the State. 
 
 The periods of depression which marked the reign 
 of protection varied much in intensity; but they all 
 agreed, in the opinion of Sir Eobert Peel, in being the 
 natural result of a low state of interest, and an ap- 
 parent prosperity of our trades and industries. Such 
 a state of things tended to the excessive advance of 
 money at a minimum cost, and to the indulgence of a 
 wild, and as it was sometimes described, an insane, 
 speculation. But however depressed the trade markets 
 became by this procedure, they subsequently recovered ; 
 and if the depression which was hanging over our com- 
 merce at the time when Sir Eobert Peel acceded to 
 power, was similar in nature to that which had pre- 
 ceded it, the probability was that, after speculation had 
 run its course, the markets would regain their former 
 buoyancy, and the prosperity of the nation be again 
 ensured. 
 
 But did this period of depression, which began in 
 1837, and was still prevailing when Sir Eobert Peel 
 referred to the distress of the country in the opening 
 
FREE TRADE. 9 
 
 session of the Parliament of 1842, so differ in its causa- 
 tion from those which had previously occurred, and 
 were well within the recollection of many who heard 
 him, as to call for some new legislative treatment, 
 specially applicable to the altered conditions of de- 
 pression ? 
 
 Not in the judgment of the Prime Minister: the 
 main source of depression had been at work, and much 
 of its pernicious consequences was still evident. To 
 undue speculation Sir Kobert ascribed the origin of the 
 nation's troubles ; but in addition to this, the chief 
 cause, other collateral influences had combined their 
 effects with those of the former one to prolong and 
 intensify the distress. But Sir Eobert Peel avowed 
 that he had witnessed depression as bad as, or even 
 worse than, the particular one under discussion; and 
 asserted that a sudden revival followed the severest 
 which had come under his observation. He expressly 
 stated his conviction that, in spite of the agitation of the 
 Anti-Corn-Law Leaguers, the operation of the present 
 Corn Laws had no material share in effecting the pres- 
 ent ills of tlie country. The wars in India and China, 
 and strained relations with the nations of Europe, acted 
 " concurrently and simultaneously " with internal causes 
 to bring about the existing distress of the people. But 
 what was the prospect ? Sir Robert looked with the 
 greatest confidence to the native energies of his country; 
 and predicted that the progress of natural causes would 
 surmount the obstacle which now obstructed the path 
 of trade prosperity ! 
 
 The opinion of the highest authority on domestic 
 affairs, as to the causation of the depression of 1837- 
 
10 FREE TRADE. 
 
 1842, was that it differed in no essential feature from 
 those of other periods of depression. What entered to 
 create a slight amount of disagreement between the 
 effects of its combined cause and those of preceding 
 occasions, was that amount of distress, producing the 
 interruption of the ordinary commercial transactions, 
 which follows the conduct of wars in foreign countries, 
 and the presence of unfriendly sentiments towards 
 neighbouring nations. But this was not the opinion 
 of a numerous section, mainly of the manufacturing 
 part of the community, which promulgated the purely 
 abstract doctrine "of buying in the cheapest market 
 and selling in the dearest," and which therefore advo- 
 cated the principle of free trade. 
 
 The distress of the nation, arising from the depressed 
 state of the markets, was ascribed to the vicious influ- 
 ence of the system of protection, w^hich kept out of the 
 country a sufficient amount of raw materials to supply 
 labour for all ; and which, by preventing a correspond- 
 ing increase of the capital of the country, by diminisli- 
 ing a possible enlarged export trade, interfered directly 
 with the natural growth of our commercial industries. 
 The attribute of natural was given to the rapid and 
 almost feverish activity of trade by the free-traders ; it 
 was reserved by the protectionists for the uniformly 
 gradual and equable advancement of our industries. 
 y- But especially were the Corn Laws attacked, as being 
 / directly the cause of the high price of bread, and as 
 ( bearing with undue severity upon those who toil for 
 \ their daily subsistence. 
 
 It was the doctrine of the free-traders tliat all raw 
 materials sliould be admitted into this country duty 
 
FREE TRADE. 11 
 
 free; and that as corn was the first and the most 
 important of raw materials, the disability under which 
 its admission laboured should be removed. 
 
 Great stress, therefore, was laid by the free-traders 
 upon the supposed injustice w^ith which the protective 
 principle bore upon the labouring classes. The appli- 
 cation of the free-trade system would reduce the price 
 of bread, and thus would react advantageously for the 
 large manufacturers ; and in the eyes of the visionaries, 
 who regarded the principle in the abstract, as if its im- 
 mediate efficacy would obtain eternally, the first seed 
 was sown for the future and permanent prosperity of 
 the sons of toil. 
 
 As long, therefore, as the commerce of the country 
 continued in a flourishing condition under tlie system 
 of protection, while yet there was no income-tax, and 
 the growth of our trades and industries slowly but 
 equably advanced according to the law which relates 
 to the production of strength and stability, there was 
 no real ground for any alteration in a system under 
 the benign influence of which the nation had overcome 
 the greatest disasters that could befall it — had even 
 attained the successful accomplishment of the most ter- 
 rible wars. 
 
 During prosperity, and while contentment was spread 
 over the land, theoretic legislation had no sound oppor- 
 tunity of improving her claims. But though the times 
 were unfavourable to its development, the spirit of free 
 trade was kept alive mainly in the persons of those 
 who — and some occupied a share in the administra- 
 tion of the country's affairs, and were well read in the 
 hypotheses of Adam Smith — advocated her cause, not 
 
12 FREE TRADE. 
 
 unconditionally, as many who subsequently supported 
 the principle imputed to them, but conditionally upon 
 the expectation that free trade should fairly operate 
 throughout the commerce of the world. 
 
 Herein lay the difhculty which involved the greater 
 freedom of their action. They could only effect this 
 fair action of a principle, undoubtedly, if rightly em- 
 ployed, potent for good, by a concurrence with similar 
 sentiments on the part of external nations. 
 
 Here was an object which, universally pursued, would 
 be attended with general good in the opinion of the free- 
 traders ; but the partial attainment of which might be 
 associated with disasters. 
 
 But if such an opinion were practically entertained — 
 and there is ground to suppose it was, from the assertion 
 of the Hon. Charles Yilliers — the protectionist feeling 
 of the country, which regarded the slow fruits of cer- 
 tainty more favourably than the splendid results of a 
 doubtful experiment, was too powerful to permit of 
 so desirable — from the disinterested point of view 
 — an alteration in international commercial systems, 
 for the influence of agriculture was then in the 
 ascendant. 
 
 It is natural thus to suppose that, with such a display 
 of antagonistic feeling, the free-traders would await a 
 lucky moment, when they might advance, with some 
 prospect of success, their truths upon the notice of the 
 nation. Such a time would be supplied by a recurrence 
 of depression ; and a new framework of its causation, 
 and the method of its operation, were at hand. The 
 chances, too, of their success would be increased by a 
 continuance and aggravation, it might be, of distress 
 
FREE TRADE. 13 
 
 produced by collateral causes, to the proper action of 
 which they would close their eyes. 
 
 How difficult it is to convince the public that, while 
 in a state of prosperity, they are pursuing a pernicious 
 policy ! But how easy, when a nation is in distress, 
 owing to the operation of natural causes, and when 
 their sufferings may be increased by the occurrence of 
 wars in various parts of the world — how easy it is to 
 point to false causes as the fountains of all their ills ! 
 
 Then is the lucky moment, when the popular ear may 
 be charmed by whispering into it tlie means of revenge. 
 It is a dreadful fact to convey, but it is lightly done. 
 The people have been deceived, and there is only one 
 deliverer. Free trade will dissipate the sufferings of 
 the nation. 
 
 The paths of plenty and content are opened up. In 
 a moment of passion the people follow the way. Her 
 false leaders depict the grandeur of the objects at the 
 end of the journey, as well to divert attention from off 
 the obstacles which surround their progress as to en- 
 liven those who fall by the way in their eager excite- 
 ment to catch a glimpse of a state of prosperity which 
 exists only in the imagination of their enthusiastic 
 minds. 
 
 A people becomes absorbed in the contemplation of 
 false promises. The true causation of distress is de- 
 serted : anything to be relieved of our present sufferings, 
 says the spendthrift and reckless, while the thrifty sees 
 in this state of depression the foundations of past ex- 
 pectations and the adequacy of his means to counteract 
 their vicious tendency put to the test. 
 
 Thus a favourable opportunity presenting, the free- 
 
14 FREE TRADE. 
 
 traders proceeded to the development of new forces ; and 
 as they gained the spurious adhesion of their country- 
 men, so did they gradually become a recognised, though 
 a false, power in the State. 
 
 As the free-trade doctrine advanced, so the cause of 
 protection began to wane; and Hypothesis, having at 
 length, but with much patience, overcome the difficulties 
 in which she had been previously involved, now in the 
 ascendant, occupies the position which Experience, for 
 so long a time and with such benefit to the country at 
 large, used to hold. 
 
 A change in the balance of our commercial system 
 was on the point of occurring, in which the solid merits 
 of Protection and Experience would be outweighed by 
 the evanescent prosperity which a vain Hypothesis con- 
 ferred ! In 1842 there commenced the gradual intro- 
 duction of the new system, at the hands of the Minister 
 who had stated the causes of the national distress, and 
 predicted a happy issue of it. The principle upon 
 which Sir Eobert Peel acted was to reduce duties of 
 a prohibitory nature gradually, until prohibition was 
 finally abolished. 
 
 The articles which came within the sphere of this 
 alteration were the raw materials used in manufacture 
 and certain articles of subsistence. Salted meat was 
 admitted free, fresh meat subjected to a small duty, 
 and live cattle introduced for the first time into this 
 country and without duty. The reason which Sir Eobert 
 Peel gave for admitting live cattle duty free was that 
 the growth of the population of this country and the 
 growth of its cattle no longer held their relative propor- 
 tions. The production of cattle had been decreasing. 
 
FREE TEADE. 15 
 
 The price of meat was thereby being raised ; and to 
 supply the deficiency, and to tend to lower the prices, 
 he permitted the admission of foreign cattle. 
 
 The remission of taxation continued during the next 
 and following years, and by the commencement of 1845 
 the effects of the previous depression had nearly dis- 
 appeared. This gradual improvement in trade had been 
 observed by Sir Eobert Peel ; and he subsequently 
 alludes to it as being due to the change which he 
 effected in our commercial code. But in the years 
 1846 and 1847 there again appeared symptoms of ag- 
 gi^avated distress ; and loud was the clamour, in its first 
 progress, for the removal of its hypothetical cause on 
 the part of the free-traders. 
 
 What was the position of Sir Robert I^eel with refer- 
 ence to this recurrence of distress ? While the opera- 
 tion of free trade was nearly unrestricted, he asserted, 
 in answer to those who laid the blame of distress upon 
 the action of the new principle, that " free trade was 
 not the cause of this distress, but the mitigation of evils 
 and distress then prevalent." 
 
 The railway mania of 1845 and 1846, by locking up 
 the capital of the country, and by diverting from the 
 commercial world those resources which ought to have 
 stimulated the circulation of trade and promoted the 
 wages of labour, together with the general deficiency of 
 harvests all over Europe, sufficiently account for this 
 period of depression occurring during the early develop- 
 ment of the principle of free trade. 
 
 And when the effects of these had passed off, com- 
 merce and trade generally began to assume a very 
 lively condition; and in 1848 our exports amounted 
 
16 FREE TRADE. 
 
 to £133,000,000, as compared with £59,000,000 in 
 1847 and £49,000,000 in 1841. 
 
 The unfavourable harvests all over the Continent 
 serves to explain the relatively small amount of ex- 
 ported goods during 1847. But after 1848, the excite- 
 ment of the markets was such that the demands upon 
 them could scarcely be supplied. 
 
 It is easy, therefore, to trace the rapid rise which 
 the principle of free trade effected in our commercial 
 and manufacturing systems, when this was left free to 
 act upon surrounding conditions favourable to its de- 
 velopment, and no longer trammelled by the influence 
 of adverse forces. 
 
 And the immediate consequences were just what the 
 advocates of free trade predicted. Labour was plenti- 
 ful ; wages were high ; bread was cheap. 
 
 There was only one class of the community left 
 deserted, while the rest of the nation enjoyed the 
 blessings of a temporary prosperity — a prosperity 
 which, so far as the social development of the labourer 
 was concerned, was the harbinger of coming dangers. 
 The agricultural class had been abandoned for the 
 presumed welfare of the country: the part had been 
 sacrificed for the whole. 
 
 The repeal of the Corn Laws, so it was said at the 
 time, had sealed the fate of agriculture in this country, 
 and of every one dependent upon it ; nor was this sur- 
 prising, when it was openly proclaimed that England 
 was essentially a manufacturing country, and that 
 agriculture had come to occupy a subordinate place in 
 her industries. 
 
 But despite the efforts of the protectionists to stand 
 
FREE TRADE. l7 
 
 by agriculture in her hour of need, the farmers of this 
 country were, by the adverse action of free trade, the 
 first to feel its untoward effects, for they were left at 
 once to the mercy of foreign competition. 
 
 So long as the principle of free trade was unhindered 
 by some of its own effects, and so long as we retained 
 entire possession over neutral markets, the wealth of 
 this country continued rapidly to increase, and the 
 prosperity of labour to flow. 
 
 But even these times of prosperity are characterised 
 by the natural recurrence of trade-depression. 
 
 And when surrounding nations are developing their 
 internal resources, and are beginning to enter those 
 fields of industry which had been entirely our own; 
 when competition arises, and tlie foreigner is enabled 
 to supply the customary articles at a cheaper rate ; 
 then, when the equilibrium in external commercial 
 relations, disturbed by the application of a new prin- 
 ciple, has been established by the activity and enter- 
 prise of surrounding nations, will the scale descend 
 against the prospects of free trade, and our commerce 
 begin to decline ! 
 
 And when such unfavourable conditions as these 
 exist, what benefit does the free-trader derive from 
 importing raw materials, free of duty, when the con- 
 gested state of the markets cannot be relieved ? 
 
 For it is obvious that the markets will become con- 
 gested when, the supplies remaining constant or in- 
 creasing, the demands upon them diminish. 
 
 And what direct loss does this free- trade country 
 sustain by her articles being subjected to a tariff in 
 foreign ports ? 
 
 B 
 
18 FREE TRADE. 
 
 The loss is the amount of duty which our merchants 
 pay upon the admission of their manufactured goods 
 into foreign countries, and which may be applied, and 
 is sometimes, for the purpose of assisting a growing 
 industry there by means of a bounty, in order that the 
 foreign merchant may be enabled to undersell the free- 
 trade merchant, and thus directly protect the labour of 
 his own countrymen. 
 
 But the free-trade merchant throws the whole of his 
 loss upon labour. 
 
 What, then, is it that suffers by means of this in- 
 equality, between free trade and protection ? 
 
 It is labour, and free-trade labour too. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel states in one of his speeches that " a 
 constant, injurious, and exhausting process is going 
 forward." This was before the introduction of free 
 trade. It seems as if this exhausting process had 
 reached its culmination in the present day, for with so 
 unequal a method of competing with the trade of the 
 foreigner, we may, in truth, be accused of courting our 
 own failure, and increasing our own distress ! 
 
 2. The course of our trade under the system of piv- 
 tection is graphically depicted on the opposite page, 
 
 3. Conclusions to he drawn therefrom, — Sir Eobert Peel 
 clearly indicated the special feature of our growing 
 trade when he compared its slow but certain advance 
 under the policy of protection with its sudden rise 
 when that practical system was rudely interrupted by 
 the introduction of the principle of free trade. 
 
 There was the slowly but surely increasing growth of 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 19 
 
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20 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the native industries of the country — a growth which 
 had a certain relation to the gradually increasing num- 
 ber of its inhabitants. 
 
 Did it occur to Sir Eobert Peel to discover this in- 
 timate relation, and to foretell the consequences which 
 might possibly attend its disturbance ? 
 
 Thus, suppose the case of a period of depression like 
 unto the one then prevalent throughout the country. 
 There would be a certain distress ensuing under pro- 
 tection ; but if under free trade, England being isolated 
 in her general commercial policy, a larger amount 
 would ensue, by reason of a slowly but constantly 
 exhausting drain upon the resources of the country. 
 For when our markets were contracted, the foreign 
 duty on our manufactured articles would be the more 
 felt by us. Under such circumstances, and as labour 
 is the final source which bears this loss, would not 
 the ill be thereby greatly augmented in the case of a 
 population which is gradually increasing while the 
 means of occupation were becoming more and more 
 restricted, and, it may happen to be, altogether de- 
 stroyed ? 
 
 What, it may well be asked, was the particular 
 motive which' impelled Sir Eobert, under the compara- 
 tively favourable circumstances of our trade during that 
 period of depression, to make an alteration in its equa- 
 ble advance, the ultimate consequences of which he 
 could not certainly portray ? 
 
 Did he prognosticate the operation of the free-trade 
 principle in the possible case when this country alone 
 should remain a free-trader ? 
 
 The fact remains that in spite of our exports increas- 
 
FREE TRADE. 21 
 
 ing while depression continued to reign in the markets. 
 Sir Eobert Peel was induced to alter the principle of 
 our commercial code. 
 
 There can be no doubt that he utilised the hypothet- 
 ical truths of the free-traders in order that he might 
 place the national finances on a more solid foundation 
 than they had lately been ; and also that he might dry 
 up the springs of an agitation that was likely to be- 
 come prejudical to the national interests. 
 
 Remembering the statement which he made over and 
 over again, that the operation of the Corn Laws had no 
 material share in the causation of the ills of the coun- 
 try, the question inevitably arises — 
 
 Did Sir Eobert Peel, pursuing a policy of expediency, 
 make use of the free -trade principle to tide over a 
 national crisis, the magnitude of which he exaggerated, 
 and the purpose of which he appears to have ignored ? 
 or. Did he really believe in the eternal and uncon- 
 ditional efficacy of this free -trade principle, whose 
 action was to be attended with prosperity to the nation 
 at all times, and no matter what were the varying 
 characters of the external conditions which affected the 
 sphere of its influence ? 
 
 4. The basis of the protective systein. — The grounds 
 upon which the founders of our commercial system 
 protected the native industries of the country were 
 those simply of self-interest. In every commercial 
 bargain the tendency always exists for both the con- 
 tracting parties to be gainers by the result: thus a 
 species of mutual reciprocity is established. 
 
 From the earliest times, when England began to 
 
22 FREE TRADE. 
 
 export her manufactured goods, her intercourse with 
 foreign nations was constructed on the lines which 
 govern such intercourse between individual and indi- 
 vidual. This idea of the growth of our commercial 
 policy was entertained by Sir Eobert Peel, and he 
 gave expression to it in the House of Commons. 
 
 Gain, therefore, is the mutual end of each interna- 
 tional treaty, as it is in the case of every individual 
 bargain. And each party seeks to be, relatively, the 
 greater gainer of the two. Thus it was when Mr Pitt 
 displayed his reasons for endeavouring to effect a com- 
 mercial treaty with France in 1785. This is the vital 
 principle which underlies the conduct of all commerce 
 and trade. To neglect it is to shut our eyes, as practi- 
 cal men, to a motive from which we can never become 
 freed. For the motive of self-interest is predominant 
 throughout the commercial world. 
 
 There are many proofs of the jealousy with which 
 former legislators regarded the relationship of our trade 
 connections. 
 
 Even when it was proposed to admit Ireland to the 
 advantages which our extensive foreign and colonial 
 trade offered, the opposition with which it was met, 
 and especially in the northern provinces of the king- 
 dom, was bitter and vindictive. In 1780, when Lord 
 North was at the head of the Government, measures 
 were taken to introduce Ireland to a share in our 
 colonial trade. To these the shipowners were particu- 
 larly antagonistic, quite irrespective of their tendency 
 towards a just and enlarged policy of the nation ; but 
 none were more hostile to them than the shipowners of 
 Liverpool. These gentlemen declared that if Ireland 
 
FREE TRADE. 23 
 
 were allowed to participate in our colonial trade, " the 
 town of Liverpool would ine\dtably be reduced to its 
 original insignificance/' 
 
 And so in 1785, when Mr Pitt endeavoured to seal 
 more closely the union between the two kingdoms by 
 means of a single commercial code, the opposition with 
 wliich his Bill was met, both on this and the other side 
 of the water, was such as to increase rather than allay 
 the ill-feeling which the sister islands, perhaps natu- 
 rally, entertained for one another. 
 
 After much discussion, carried on with much heat 
 and temper, and after his first Bill was rejected by the 
 Irish Parliament then sitting in Dublin — for there 
 were many who regarded tliis enlarged policy as a 
 means of aggrandising the trade interests of Great 
 Britain at the expense of Ireland, and some who held 
 that the smaller nation ought by right to be protected 
 from the grasping tendencies of a larger and more 
 flourishing community — the second Bill of Mr Pitt, to 
 cement the commercial union between Great Britain 
 and Ireland, was passed by both Parliaments and be- 
 came law. And Great Britain and Ireland thus came 
 to be, with some slight exceptional articles, free-traders, 
 with respect to their mutual commercial policy. 
 
 But so strong was the influence of the East India 
 interest, and such the peculiar support by which the 
 Company's trade was secured,' that it was impossible, 
 at this time, to do more than to afford a slight relaxa- 
 tion of their stringent regulations in favour of Ireland. 
 For it was the object of Mr Pitt to place Ireland ex- 
 actly on the same level of commercial advantages as 
 Great Britain. But this happy issue did not take place 
 
24 FKEE TRADE. 
 
 till the year of the Union, 1800, when Mr Pitt's effort 
 was crowned with success, and Ireland became as free 
 a participator, nominally, in the East India trade as 
 Great Britain was. 
 
 It is of importance to discern the motive which 
 impelled Mr Pitt to this course of action. 
 
 The foundation of it was to remove all grounds of 
 complaint on the part of Ireland, and to afford her 
 every facility for developing prosperity in her commer- 
 cial progress. 
 
 By increasing the ordinary trade between the sister 
 kingdoms, and by the removal of inequalities, a larger 
 intercourse between the inhabitants of the two isles 
 would result, with the supposed beneficent intent of 
 allaying any sources of irritation which might remain, 
 and of dissipating all opportunity of discord and hos- 
 tility between the different races of the Anglo-Saxon 
 and the Celt. 
 
 This advantageous result of international treaties 
 was still further enlarged upon by the same Minister, 
 when, in bringing forward the outline of a commercial 
 treaty with France, which he abundantly proved would 
 react with enormous benefit in our favour, he asserted 
 that the increased development of this intercourse be- 
 tween different nations, of opposite manners and habits 
 of life, was the principal means of disarming unworthy 
 suspicion and the spirit of hostility. 
 
 Why, then, did not Mr Pitt advocate, universally, the 
 principle of free trade ? 
 
 Why did he remain content with having effected its 
 partial operation between Great Britain and Ireland ? 
 
 And when he introduced free trade into the com- 
 
FREE TRADE. 25 
 
 mercial relations of the United Kingdom, why did he 
 not extend this supposed benefit to mankind at large — 
 to all the other nations of the world ? 
 
 The action of Mr Pitt is to be regarded as a means 
 to an end. His policy with reference to Ireland is 
 clear and distinct. The commercial union was but the 
 antecedent to a legislative union, which the far-seeing 
 statesman anticipated was necessary for the tranquillity 
 and safety of both kingdoms. 
 
 Ireland was a weak point in the British empire, and 
 migiit become the centre of attack by a neighbouring 
 foe, as happened not long afterwards, when France 
 became a republic. It was of paramount importance 
 to weld the different parts of the British empire into 
 one solid whole, and the simplest and surest method 
 Mr Pitt followed, when he aimed at gaining the con- 
 fidence and goodwill of the Irish people. The union 
 was to be founded on similarity of hopes and inter- 
 national friendship, as against that kind of false union 
 which is effected by the aid of arms. 
 
 What, therefore, Ireland was to gain by those con- 
 cessions, which were regarded as being nothing short 
 of ruinous to the interests of this country, the whole 
 empire was to gain by the additional strength which 
 would accrue to it, from the causes of disaffection and 
 sedition being banished from a small part of it for 
 ever ! This was the position of Mr Pitt when lie 
 struggled for that intimate union between the two 
 kingdoms, as tending to the increased security of both. 
 
 When, therefore, he enunciated the doctrine of free 
 trade between Great Britain and Ireland, his motive 
 was self-evident. But what motive had he to intro- 
 
26 FEEE TRADE. 
 
 duce the principle of free trade into the commercial 
 code of the United Kingdom ? 
 
 Where was the similarity in relationship between 
 the United Kingdom and any other country, and Great 
 Britain and Ireland ? Where the security, that if a 
 change in commercial relations were effected by one 
 people, it would be followed by another ? 
 
 Mr Pitt's policy brought the commercial codes of 
 the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the 
 controlling action of a single force. It is obvious that 
 such a result, however much it may be desired by 
 philanthropists, is impossible where treaties are entered 
 upon by foreign countries, for the security of the action 
 of a single force is no longer attainable. 
 
 Nowhere, in any of his commercial speeches, does 
 Mr Pitt notice even the possibility of such altered 
 state of affairs. 
 
 But what was his intention with reference to those 
 treaties which he attempted to conclude, and succeeded 
 in some instances, with foreign nations ? Gain to his 
 country. Thus, in the commercial treaty which he pro- 
 posed to France, he demonstrated completely how we 
 should be the largest gainers. France was a much 
 larger kingdom than our own ; our exported articles of 
 manufacture were of much greater use than their im- 
 ported wines ; our field of operation in France would 
 be conterminous with the limits of the country; the 
 stimulus given to our manufactures would spread its 
 effects through the greater part of this country, and 
 affect, proportionately, a very large part of its inhabi- 
 tants ; while tlie reaction upon the vineyards of France 
 would be limited to a comparatively small space, and 
 
FREE TRADE. 27 
 
 benefit only a very small number of its popula- 
 tion. 
 
 And these were the means by which he asserted in 
 Parliament that the hostile spirit of nations was to be 
 destroyed ! 
 
 But it has been announced by the upholders of the 
 free-trade doctrine that Mr Pitt's sentiments and policy, 
 when reduced to a common term, form a link in the 
 chain of reasoning, the terminal element of which is 
 the establishment of the efficacy of the free-trade prin- 
 ciple. And the grounds upon which such a precarious 
 adhesion is maintained are — 1, the introduction of free 
 trade between this country and Ireland, as anticipating 
 the subsequent and general development of interna- 
 tional free trade ; and 2, the enormous benefits which 
 would accrue from a more extended and constant com- 
 mercial intercourse between nations, inasmuch as it 
 would tend to consume their energies in the direction 
 of peaceful pursuits, and to restrain, by such a means, 
 a natural and warlike disposition, as shown by the 
 important results Mr Pitt deduced from the increase of 
 international commercial treaties. 
 
 Those, however, who care to analyse the motives 
 which prompt men to action, will conclude that, what- 
 ever may have been Mr Pitt's hypothetical sentiments 
 concerning free trade, his practice is based upon the 
 foundations of past experience and present security. 
 
 But the free-traders, stretching this point, infer that 
 while Mr Pitt regarded the desirability of this end, he 
 must of necessity have admitted that free trade, by 
 stimulating international intercourse, would gain the 
 end in a more rapid manner than our commercial sys- 
 
28 FREE TRADE. 
 
 tern under protection ; and therefore that, from a logical 
 point of view, Mr Pitt was a free-trader. 
 
 There is an error, however, which underlies this chain 
 of reasoning, and which reflects not a little upon the 
 soundness of judgment which this illustrious statesman 
 is made, in this so arbitrary a fashion, to display. It 
 consists in the assumption that free trade is the only 
 cause which can effect the end in view, instead of being 
 one of several causes, and then only acting beneficially 
 when surrounding circumstances are favourable. 
 
 What about the certainty of free trade being capable 
 of consummating that gigantic object which alone can 
 satisfy the desire of the man of peace, of labour, and of 
 thought ? 
 
 There was evidence enough at the commencement, 
 and surrounding circumstances remaining in a favour- 
 able condition, that the application of free trade to our 
 commercial system would bring about such an altera- 
 tion in our ordinary commercial relations with the rest 
 of the universe, as to make the majority of mankind 
 forget, for a while, why there should be any cause of 
 enmity between them. 
 
 But regard the remote consequences of the introduc- 
 tion of the new principle, the many obstacles that may 
 possibly attend its course, and imagine that ultimate 
 result, when subsequent events are framed, on the part 
 of external Powers, to act adversely to its growth and 
 development, and therefore to the appearance of that 
 " peace on earth " which is the outcome of philanthropic 
 legislation so called. 
 
 What if surrounding nations might refuse to follow 
 the lead which this country gives, in the progress of 
 
FREE TRADE. 29 
 
 civilisation, to overthrow the barbarous custom of war- 
 fare ; but, at the same time, to react, for a given period, 
 towards the improvement of its own wealth and the 
 increase of its own resources ? 
 
 In such a possible state of future affairs, how would 
 the free -trade principle diminish the spirit of inter- 
 national enmity, whicli is but the exaggeration of the 
 spirit of individual rivalry ? 
 
 The sources of discord and hostility have not been 
 destroyed by this measure — nay, rather, they are in- 
 flamed and increased — for the supreme temporary as- 
 cendancy such a policy would acquire for this nation 
 would be regarded with the fierce eyes of envy by 
 those who would look upon the adoption of such a 
 departure from the natural course of commercial 
 growth as opposed to their own individual, slow but 
 constantly increasing, development. 
 
 What hatred, then, would be engendered in the 
 breasts of those who were affected adversely by the 
 partial operation of the free -trade principle, by the 
 experience of their commercial progress arrested, and 
 their trade in part destroyed ! 
 
 It is not possible, therefore, that neighbouring nations 
 should become more intimately connected, especially 
 when so arbitrary a policy is enacted directly against 
 the individual interests of each. 
 
 And what would result ? The experience of an in- 
 justice sharpens rivalry; energies are developed and 
 extended until the effects of that injustice are effaced ; 
 and during the interval, hatred and hostility are nour- 
 ished with the thoughts of future vengeance ! 
 
 Such a possibility must have occurred to the fertile 
 
30 FREE TRADE. 
 
 imagination of Mr Pitt. Is it the object of a wise 
 legislator to increase the chances of raising up afresh 
 and maintaining the spirit of international hostility ? 
 
 The error above alluded to, which pervades the argu- 
 ments of the free-traders, is concealed in the assumption 
 that, of the two ways of promoting the commerce of 
 nations, free trade operating partially is the most rapid 
 and the most certain. 
 
 It is obvious that when these two so widely different 
 means are regarded, not only must their immediate 
 results, whether beneficial or adverse from the ideal 
 point of view, be contrasted, but their future conse- 
 quences as well. And who could contemplate the 
 course of the free-trade principle, acting with restric- 
 tion and therefore inefficiently, without calling up the 
 disasters that would surely attend its path ? 
 
 Free trade might indeed, for the time, appear to the 
 eye of the prejudiced to be invested with the especial 
 function of spreading peace over the earth. But upon 
 what do they build ? Upon the insecure expectation 
 that the operation of their principle shall become uni- 
 versal. Such do not apprehend the germs of future 
 dangers which the united action of the free-trade prin- 
 ciple scatters in its course towards decline. 
 
 Many during the time that the free-trade doctrine 
 was discussed must have weighed the relative merits of 
 the systems of free trade and protection in effecting the 
 closer intimacy between the nations of the world, and 
 intending to remove the bane of international enmity. 
 
 And in the discussion the question must have arisen, 
 whether or not the great object of mind — the diffusion 
 of peace throughout the world — would be more cer- 
 
FREE TRADE. 31 
 
 tainly effected by a slow but sure process, — a process 
 which, however gradual it might be in its development, 
 tended to diminish the subsequent occurrence of evils, 
 — or by the sudden interruption of the former means 
 adapted to this end, the immediate effects of which, for 
 the time, might flatter the hopes and exalt the vanity 
 of those who believed — and believed, how falsely and 
 how dangerously ! — that so large a measure as the paci- 
 fication of the world could be effected by such precarious 
 means in so short a space of time. 
 
 Besides, tlie simple fact, perhaps not understood by 
 all, could hardly have escaped the observation of those 
 who, directly concerned in the management of their 
 country's affairs, remarked the inequality which char- 
 acterised the various stages of the civilisations of sur- 
 rounding nations and the different periods of their 
 commercial growth. 
 
 With such a difference between contemporary levels, 
 how could those nations on a lower level be expected to 
 regard those on a higher with aught but jealousy and 
 envy ? 
 
 This source of international inequality was present 
 during the reign of protection, and is a natural cause of 
 hostility. 
 
 If free trade was introduced, even universally, would 
 these different levels be reduced to one and the same 
 level in a comparatively short time ? If not, an interval 
 would elapse ; and, in this interval, the same jealousy, 
 which before existed under protection, would continue 
 during the operation of free trade. 
 
 Does free trade, then, abolish all the sources of jeal- 
 ousy and enmity in the world ? 
 
32 FREE TRADE. 
 
 The protectionists had this in their favour, that they 
 followed the simple beauty of the curve in the devel- 
 opment of their commercial progress. They took the 
 course prescribed by nature. The evils which they 
 recognised as existing in the system of protection — and 
 what system is devoid of evils ? — would gradually be 
 removed in course of time. What they most of all 
 dreaded was the introduction of a new principle, tlie 
 action of which was violent, and whose results were 
 involved in the obscurity of uncertainty. In a word, 
 they preferred the present safe guidance of experience 
 to the dangerous drifting of a hypothetical policy ! 
 
 The action of Mr Pitt is sufficient proof that he 
 doubted the certainty of this method of free trade when 
 foreign nations are concerned ; and his continuance of 
 a system which had grown up with the wants of the 
 commercial part of our community, goes to show that 
 the desirable object of universal peace was to be best 
 attained by the slow and equable advance of our trade 
 and commerce, and by the maintenance of the principle 
 by which they were then regulated. 
 
 Nor was Canning, the favourite pupil of Pitt, any 
 more the advocate of the abstract principle of free trade 
 than was his master. 
 
 Canning was the disciple of progress and reform, but 
 only when these were associated with the material well- 
 being of the nation. He was perhaps the most brilliant 
 exponent of a tendency which was making fast efforts 
 in his day towards liberalisation in our foreign and 
 domestic policy. But no matter what the nature of 
 his dealings with foreign Powers, they were all founded 
 upon the basis of mutual reciprocity. When the Span- 
 
FREE TRADE. 33 
 
 ish colonies revolted, and while Spain was assuming a 
 threatening aspect towards this country, Mr Canning, 
 then the Foreign Secretary, took the advantage of re- 
 cognising the independence of the new republics, to 
 weaken the position of Spain in Europe. " I called the 
 new world into existence to redress the balance of the 
 old." And so with reference to the sliding-scale which 
 he proposed in 1827. While admitting the justice of the 
 Corn Laws, as the very means of advancing the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil, his liberal spirit urged him to relax in 
 some degree their stringency. And so in the case of 
 Mr Huskisson's policy: whatever may have been the 
 true nature of his sentiments, the actions of that poli- 
 tician were founded purely on reciprocity. Thus when, 
 in 1816, the United States, in following our example 
 and protecting her native industries, acted in a manner 
 prejudicial to our commercial interests in that country, 
 it was deemed advisable that the hitherto stringent 
 regulations of our system should be relaxed; but the 
 change was based upon the event of good accruing to 
 both peoples. 
 
 And so in 1824, when Prussia followed suit, the same 
 relaxation was advantageously given; and afterwards 
 to Sweden, Norway, and other countries. 
 
 Mr Huskisson has been held up to public notice by 
 the free-traders as having entertained decided views 
 with regard to the efficacy of their principle. But 
 the influence of even so high an authority on the sub- 
 ject of commercial affairs is a little weakened by the 
 fact that he was not a consistent upholder of the 
 doctrine ; and we have the evidence of Sir Eobert Peel, 
 when defending his own position in 1846, that Mr 
 
 c 
 
34 FREE TRADE. 
 
 Huskisson had wavered considerably in his attitude 
 towards the subject of the Corn Laws ; and that he had 
 more than once changed his mind on the beneficial 
 operation of these measures ; and even wlien he was 
 supposed to have arrived at a final conclusion, that he 
 had changed his views again. 
 
 But, whatever his true position with reference to the 
 principle by which our trade should be regulated, no 
 one can deny that any legislator, however ardent an 
 advocate he may have been of progress and reform, 
 conceived, at the time, that this abstract principle of 
 free trade would not act in any other manner except 
 for the interests of the nation at large. 
 
 Much may have been pleaded that the adaptation of 
 the free-trade principle would lead to the pacification 
 of the world. But the believers in the doctrine could 
 not shut their eyes to the plain fact that free trade, 
 even though operating partially, in their own opinion 
 would work to the advantage of the nation, however 
 much they may have lauded its efficacy in other chan- 
 nels. What was nearest the heart of these entlmsiastic 
 pleaders was the gain which would accrue from its ap- 
 plication to our commercial code. 
 
 But selfishness ever wishes to be concealed, and so 
 free trade was praised, not because it would certainly 
 increase the wealth and add to the prosperity of the 
 country, but because of its other and more special 
 virtues, and in particular, its civilising influence upon 
 mankind at large. 
 
 It is not difficult to show that, whatever may have 
 been the original intention of the founder and the 
 early promoters of the doctrine of free trade, the mo- 
 
FREE TRADE. 35 
 
 tives of those who most of all agitated for its intro- 
 duction, were peculiarly narrow ones. For who were 
 the chief supporters of the Anti-Corn- Law League ? 
 The manufacturers of the northern counties. 
 
 And upon what grounds, so far as this country's 
 welfare was concerned, did they advance the efficacy 
 of the free -trade principle ? Upon the grounds that 
 its application would stimulate trade and commerce ; 
 that it would thereby cheapen bread and raise wages ; 
 and that it would increase their profits, and so tend to 
 their own aggrandisement. 
 
 What they claimed, in a moment of general forget- 
 fulness of its wider influence, as the first-fruits of the 
 principle, was the improvement of the social condition 
 of the labouring mass : they forgot to mention the 
 means thus afforded to them of indefinitely increasing 
 their own riches ! 
 
 Thus, apart from the notions of some theorising 
 politicians, the free-trade principle was really advo- 
 cated upon and carried by self-interest. And self-in- 
 terest of what nature ? Was it that self-interest which 
 regarded more the future, and was satisfied with the 
 abandonment of certain privileges, if this nation was 
 to enjoy an increase in her prosperity in common with 
 the other nations of the world ? or was it that kind 
 of self-interest which is concentrated in the proper 
 advancement of the welfare of one's own country, as 
 opposed to that of surrounding kingdoms ? 
 
 It was neither of these; the selfish interest which 
 won the cause of free trade in this land was the selfish 
 interest of class. A portion of the community separated 
 itself from the rest, and identified its welfare with the 
 
36 FREE TRADE. 
 
 welfare of the whole nation. In this alone is the pecu- 
 liar selfishness of free-trade politics exhibited. 
 
 The difference between the motives upon which pro- 
 tection was based and by which free trade was intro- 
 duced is nothing. For they both spring directly from 
 self-interest. Where the difference appears is in the 
 intention with which they were severally put into 
 practice. 
 
 Protection had for its sole object the proper advance 
 and welfare of all the classes of the community; its 
 sphere, therefore, was general : while that of free trade 
 was partial from the very first, for it regarded only the 
 immediate prospects of the manufacturing interest at 
 the expense of the agricultural ; nor did it secure, even 
 in the faintest degree, the ultimate prosperity of the 
 former. 
 
 The difference in the actions of the two principles is 
 worthy of remark. There was abundant evidence of 
 the safety and security provided by the policy of pro- 
 tection. Its course could be proved by the latest 
 statistics to be sufficiently certain. For the surround- 
 ing conditions remained in a similar state. But when 
 free trade was introduced, it must have appeared ob- 
 vious to all, even to the most sanguine of the free- 
 traders, that the relations which our commerce had 
 before with external nations must become disordered. 
 And who could with certainty trace the ultimate course 
 which these altered conditions might take ? 
 
 But certainty was deserted for uncertainty: rights 
 which had existed since the earliest days of our com- 
 mercial growth were abandoned ; and the possibility of 
 the reckless sacrifice of the future commercial prosperity 
 
FREE TRADE. 37 
 
 of the country was for the first time introduced by a 
 Minister, for the mere sake of tiding over, with the 
 hollow object of giving the public affairs a more stable 
 appearance, the then depressed state of the nation. 
 
 Whatever grounds, then, philanthropic legislation 
 may obtain from the sentiments which many illustrious 
 statesmen of this country are supposed to have enter- 
 tained with reference to the subject of free trade, it is 
 certain that the policy of these same statesmen, with 
 the single exception of Sir Kobert Peel, pursued the 
 paths of experience. And it is curious to observe that, 
 while those who were free-traders hypothetically, acted 
 on the policy of protection, some who subsequently 
 were powerful advocates of the value of the new prin- 
 ciple, had previously and freely expressed their senti- 
 ments in favour of protection — a contrast of opinion 
 all the more extraordinary as occurring within so short 
 a period of time. 
 
 For what was the opinion of Lord John Kussell in 
 1822? "Let but the foreigner once compete with the 
 agriculture of this country, and she is destroyed." 
 
 What peculiar influence was that which led the noble 
 lord, from countenancing the ordinary operation of the 
 Corn Laws, to incline to the opinion that a " fixed duty " 
 was the proper means of satisfying the conditions of the 
 times in 1842 ? And what alteration occurred in the 
 circumstances in which he found himself placed in 1845, 
 to justify him in abandoning the notion of a fixed duty 
 and in advocating the free admission of corn ? 
 
 Had the time arrived when even Lord John Eussell 
 could no longer conceal his true sentiments on the 
 vexed question of the day? 
 
38 FREE TRADE. 
 
 The opinion of Sir Eobert Peel is well known, and 
 was delivered on many occasions in Parliament before 
 the actual period of the repeal of the Corn Laws. 
 
 " Existing rights were to be maintained, and the cul- 
 tivation of the land protected/* 
 
 What was the directing force which effected so un- 
 seemly a contradiction in his ultimate position ? The 
 critical state of public affairs, based upon the supposed 
 injustice of the Corn Laws, but really deriving its origin 
 from a widely different source. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel exaggerated the magnitude of the 
 agitation with which he had to deal. He failed to per- 
 ceive the foundations upon which it was constructed, 
 and he entirely misapprehended its tendency. 
 
 To conclude. It can scarcely with justice be inferred 
 that, however ardent an advocate of reform, Mr Canning 
 was a free-trader, simply because he introduced a sliding- 
 scale to prevent the excessive action (as he supposed it 
 then to be) of the existing Corn Laws. If Mr Canning 
 supposed this action to be excessive, justice would impel 
 him to restrict their operation by a new system, within 
 the limits which the Corn Laws were originally intended 
 to possess. To reduce the action of a principle from an 
 unjust to a proper extent, is not an argument to abolish 
 the principle altogether. Is it difficult to imagine that 
 a principle may be sound in structure, but that its 
 operation may exceed what it was at first intended to 
 effect ? So much regarding Mr Canning's position as a 
 free-trader. Let us proceed to the inference to be drawn 
 from Mr Pitt's policy affecting Ireland. 
 
 It is obvious tliat the conditions existing between 
 England and Ireland, at the time that free trade was 
 
FREE TRADE. 39 
 
 applied to the commerce of the two nations, totally 
 differed from those which obtained between the United 
 Kingdom and any of the surrounding nations. 
 
 Can any sound conclusion be derived from such a 
 hypothetical parallel as that which results from sup- 
 posing that the conditions which existed between the 
 United Kingdom and a foreign Power were similar to 
 those which had existed between England and Ireland 
 before their legislatures were incorporated into one 
 Parliament ? 
 
40 
 
 
 
 ^S^ 
 
 11. 
 
 THE COURSE OF EVENTS WHICH LED UP TO THE INTRO- 
 DUCTION OF FREE TRADE INTO OUR COMMERCIAL 
 POLICY. 
 
 5. The free -trade agitation. — While the prospect of 
 greater gain impelled the manufacturers io promote the 
 advancement of the free-trade principle^ the reasons of 
 those who had steadily opposed the new system were 
 gradually overcome by the economic doctrine of the 
 free-traders, "of buying in the cheapest market and 
 selling in the dearest." This Sir Robert Peel himself 
 subsequently admitted ; and Sir James Graham, in his 
 place in Parliament, asserted that it was impossible any 
 longer to withstand belief in the economic principles of 
 the free-traders, and that all men of sense^were already 
 agreed as to their general truth. 
 
 The subject against which the free-traders specially 
 levelled their arguments was the protection which was 
 still afforded to the cultivation of the soil. Their 
 object was to demolish completely the grounds upon 
 which the protective system was based, and to over- 
 whelm the uniform phalanx of the protectionists, who 
 
FREE TRADE. 41 
 
 were thus driven to preside over the welfare of agri- 
 culture. 
 
 Corn was still subjected to a duty on admission into 
 our ports. They advanced, therefore, their fundamental 
 proposition, that, as " corn was the chief and most im- 
 portant of raw materials," it should be admitted into 
 the country duty free. And while the free-trade prin- 
 ciple was in partial operation, and when live cattle 
 were freely imported, so eager were they for the near 
 fulfilment of their designs, that they censured the logic 
 of the Minister who allowed the free importation of live 
 animals, but taxed the food upon which they were fed. 
 They pictured in glowing colours the prosperity which 
 would attend the unrestricted development of their 
 favourite principle ; and in order to arouse an enthusi- 
 asm among the labouring classes, assumed a spurious 
 connection between trade depression and the Corn 
 Laws. In a word, the goal of free-trade aspiration was 
 the repeal of the Corn Laws« 
 
 Opposed to this assault upon an important branch of 
 national industries, the agricultural interest withstood 
 any further alteration in the Corn Laws than what was 
 enacted by the sliding-scale of 1842 ; and commenced 
 to upbraid a Minister who had been borne to power by 
 virtue of their influence. Still Sir Eobert Peel reiter- 
 ated that the operation of the Corn Laws was not the 
 cause of the country's depression; and while endeav- 
 ouring to conciliate the popular agitation, which was 
 already being displayed in favour of their repeal, by 
 large remissions of taxation, he struggled to retain the 
 support of his old party. 
 
 At this time the opinion of Lord John Eussell, which, 
 
42 FREE TRADE. 
 
 like most others, underwent the usual course of vacil- 
 lation during this critical period, was in favour of a 
 fixed duty. 
 
 Thus the leaders of the rival parties in the State held 
 views respecting this important question which were 
 antagonistic to what is represented as the true expres- 
 sion of public opinion of those days. 
 
 But one argument, as fallacious as most of the rest, 
 was urged by the free-traders as likely to have in- 
 fluence upon those of philanthropic tendencies, and 
 whose desire it was to mitigate the hard condition of 
 the working classes. It was this : that corn was main- 
 tained at a high price, with the single purpose of 
 increasing rent. This statement had particular effect 
 on Sir Eobert Peel, and he animadverted upon it in 
 Parliament, as exhibiting a source of mischief which 
 was likely to end in the ruin of labour. There can be 
 no doubt, from his subsequent action to his tenants in 
 1846, that he was firmly convinced of its truth. 
 
 It is quite possible that on certain occasions the price 
 of corn might be affected by this natural phenomenon. 
 But it is clear that such occasions are quite excep- 
 tional; nevertheless, from these particular and easily 
 explicable data, the free-traders drew the general con- 
 clusion, and fenced it round with the sentiment of 
 injustice. 
 
 And Sir Eobert Peel, thus regarding the asser- 
 tion in an unlimited sense, instead of referring it to 
 those periods when, to pursue that line of action wliich 
 takes place in every other branch of industry, the 
 prices are raised by the farmers to meet the demands 
 which are made upon them, fell into the trap. 
 
FREE TRADE. 43 
 
 At any rate, the conflict between the manufacturing 
 and agricultural interests was nearing a bitter termina- 
 tion. And it reached its climax when the free-trade 
 rhetoricians boasted that England no longer was an 
 agricultural country; as if this were a sufficient argu- 
 ment, while agriculture was still in a flourishing con- 
 dition, why wrong should be done to tens of thousands of 
 the inhabitants of the country. But the protectionists 
 had some hopes, though they were meagre ones; for while 
 the favours shown to free trade were gradually increas- 
 ing, Sir Robert Peel, whatever his inmost sentiments 
 may have been, was still out of doors the upholder of 
 those existing rights which attached to the soil. 
 
 But to expose the fluctuating nature of opinion dur- 
 ing the free-trade agitation, the labouring classes at 
 first were taught to believe that the tyranny of their 
 masters was the cause of all tlieir sufferings. The 
 action of tlie workmen in the south of Lancashire shows 
 the animosity which prevailed on one side. These men 
 had been cajoled by specious demagogues into the be- 
 lief that they would never succeed in obtaining their 
 rights unless the Chartist demands were forced from an 
 unwilling Parliament. It was not witliout some diffi- 
 culty as to the nature of the means to be employed, 
 that the leaders of the free-trade movement eventually 
 gained over the adhesion of the working classes to the 
 merits of their cause, by pointing to the free -trade 
 principle as containing the germ of that contentment 
 for which they were clamouring. 
 
 But when master and man had come at last to com- 
 bine their efforts, then the importance of the anti-corn 
 movement rapidly increased ; and the conclusion be- 
 
44 FKEE TRADE. 
 
 came irresistible, that the Anti-Corn-Law League was 
 a power in the State. And so indefatigable were the 
 exertions of the promoters of free trade, that the farmers 
 were at last converted to a belief in the new principle ; 
 for their rent would be diminished thereby, and a dimi- 
 nution of rent would be associated with an increase in 
 profit. As a natural consequence of the latter desirable 
 result, the agricultural labourers' wages would be raised. 
 The means, however, which the free-traders practised in 
 some instances cannot be described as being very far 
 removed from the imputation of being dishonest. Thus 
 the evidence of one agricultural labourer, " I be pro- 
 tected and I be starving," was circulated far and wide, 
 with the obvious intention of associating in the minds 
 of the ignorant labourers their starving condition with 
 the system of protection, which had been wisely framed 
 for their general benefit. In the face of the experience 
 of past periods of depression, such a false association 
 was not worthy of the merest consideration. Was the 
 present depression anything different from previous 
 ones ? Sir Eobert Peel said not ; but the free-traders, 
 in their eager anxiety to advance what they held to be a 
 righteous principle, condescended to the practice of a 
 lower standard of morality in their endeavour to win 
 the support of the lowest classes of the community. 
 
 With what truth might the statement have been ad- 
 vanced if they could have shown that, as depression 
 was a natural phenomenon, and free trade in no way 
 able to counteract its occurrence without protection, the 
 chances of the labourers starving would thereby have 
 been considerably diminished ? 
 
 Has subsequent experience proved that these chances 
 
FREE TRADE. 45 
 
 have been decreased under the " benign " influence of 
 the principle of free trade ? 
 
 The time when the Anti-Corn-Law League became a 
 powerful instrument in the State was when Mr Cobden 
 succeeded in removing its headquarters from Manchester 
 to London. Thus, from being a provincial movement, 
 identified with the interests of the manufacturers, and 
 therefore regarded with suspicion by those who held 
 the welfare of their country at heart, it began to assume 
 a metropolitan character : it now no longer was confined 
 within its former narrow boundaries ; its object was 
 brought before the notice of the whole nation, and its 
 cause was pleaded, and pleaded eloquently, by Mr 
 Cobden in the House of Commons. 
 
 It is a subject of remark that the Anti-Corn-Law 
 Leaguers made no progress beyond their own con- 
 tracted sphere, till the advocates of the repeal of the 
 Corn Laws transferred the base of their operations to 
 the metropolis. 
 
 It is true that the Hon. Mr Pelham Yilliers had 
 brought forward his annual motion for the abolition of 
 the corn -tax for some years previously to the time 
 when Mr Cobden took the helm of the repeal agitation 
 into his hands. But this annual motion was preferred, 
 simply to be rejected ; and it subsequently came to be 
 regarded as an annual farce. 
 
 Still, the position of the Hon. Mr Villiers respecting 
 the abolition of the Corn Laws may be said to have 
 been, what cannot be remarked of Mr Cobden, of the 
 kind called disinterested. Mr Villiers advocated the 
 cause of free trade on purely abstract grounds ; he stood 
 aloof at first from all appearance of agitation, but event- 
 
46 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ually, when the Leaguers sought his assistance, he gave 
 it willingly. 
 
 On the other hand, Cobclen was a cotton-spinner, and 
 would become materially benefited by the introduction 
 of the free-trade principle. He was essentially the 
 champion of the manufacturing interests; and inas- 
 much as these were taken to be representative of the 
 entire nation, he was naturally regarded as the organ of 
 popular opinion. There can be no question, when Mr 
 Cobden's position is considered with reference to only 
 one portion of time, and that the period of prosperity 
 which was assumed, and assumed on good grounds, to 
 be the immediate effect of the operation of the free-trade 
 principle, that it is entirely a genuine one. What he 
 knew very well would take place, was that all the trade 
 markets would be violently stimulated ; that the mer- 
 chants would, in consequence, increase the field of 
 labour, and that therefore the condition of the working 
 man would be greatly improved. But antecedent to 
 the prosperity of the labourer must be the prosperity of 
 the master. And where Mr Cobden's short-sighted 
 policy comes within the measure of the severest censure 
 is, that he made no ultimate provision for the prosperity 
 of the working man when the prosperity of the mer- 
 chant was unattainable. Besides, by this action, when 
 the condition of commercial affairs might, from many 
 natural causes, fall into the deepest depression, would 
 tlie labourer be placed in any more favourable position 
 than he was under the existing system of protection ? 
 Would he not rather suffer the more, from the simple 
 fact that his labour was no longer protected ? And 
 compare under such distressing circumstances the rela- 
 
FREE TRADE. 47 
 
 tive positions of the merchant and his labourer. The 
 farmer, by the happy turn events took, would be enabled 
 to amass a relatively large fortune; the hardships of 
 duties would not bear upon him, however much they 
 might affect his successors ; but the labouring man — in 
 what particular would his lot be softened ? It is not 
 the general character of the working man to save much 
 of his weekly earnings: what, then, can he console 
 himself with but the memory of brighter times ? And 
 what directly brouglit these bright times about ? An 
 Act of Parliament. Thus is he led unconsciously to 
 put his faith in the power of the Legislature to bring 
 back that prosperity which he once enjoyed. Thus is 
 he liable to be entrapped by the false promises of the 
 designing rhetor, who aims at becoming popular by the 
 precarious method of advancing the cause of the people. 
 
 Did Mr Cobden or any of his colleagues frame any 
 means to counteract the influence of free trade, sup- 
 posing this to become in the course of time pernicious ? 
 
 The peculiar feature of the oratory of the free-traders 
 was that their allusions were altogether limited to the 
 immediate effect of their favourite principle. They 
 looked not ahead; no complications were enumerated 
 as likely, under certain conditions, to affect its pro- 
 gress injuriously ; the remote effects of free trade were 
 allowed by the free-traders to take care of themselves. 
 
 But the nature of parliamentary opinion was entirely 
 adverse to the cause of free trade. The landed interest, 
 which had raised Peel to power, was represented by a 
 large majority, and this was naturally in favour of 
 protection to the cultivation of the soil; and there 
 were strong reasons why the landlords should take 
 
48 FREE TRADE. 
 
 this course, for there were many burdens upon the 
 land. 
 
 Out of doors, therefore, there was a violent move- 
 ment in the direction of free trade. The meetings 
 which were held in its favour were always attended 
 with uproar, and oftentimes terminated by assault. 
 The blessings the new principle was to bring in its 
 train and the prosperity which was to attend the 
 country were so zealously, if ignorantly, portrayed to 
 the ravished senses of the mob, that the enthusiasm 
 of the sketch was caught by the bosom of the people, 
 which swelled with indignation at the thought that 
 the hateful Corn Laws prevented them from entering 
 the promised land of peace and plenty and happiness. 
 
 But indoors, protection was nominally, if not safely, 
 guarded, until there appeared a contingency which en- 
 tirely convulsed the judgment of men as to the exact 
 remedy which should be called forth to meet its dreaded 
 effects. The famine in Ireland, which had been pre- 
 dicted, was looming in the distance ! 
 
 6. Character of the times and attitude of Sir Robert 
 Peel, — What was the exact nature of the influence of 
 this contingency upon the judgment of Sir Eobert Peel 
 it is impossible to ascertain. But it seems most prob- 
 able that Sir Eobert seized the possibility of a famine, 
 in order that he might, with the appearance of less 
 inconsistency, and as if by a natural consequence forced 
 to a separation from the protectionist party, proceed 
 with the work of reforming the tariff. That he was 
 aware of the efficacy of the free -trade principle to 
 elevate the condition of the masses, is evident from 
 
FKEE TRADE. 49 
 
 the defence which he put forward after his second 
 desertion from the Conservative party. But it is 
 equally certain that he did not accurately ascertain 
 the method by which the pros^Derity of the labourer 
 was to be effected ; nor did he regard the future pro- 
 gress of those conditions which then reacted favourably 
 to the operation of the free-trade principle. He appears 
 to have been content, like so many of the thinkers of 
 the time, with the prospect of the successful results 
 of the new system : the relations of this period of 
 success to what immediately preceded it, and to that 
 adverse state of affairs which might possibly, and under 
 certain circumstances would assuredly, follow, were un- 
 considered ; and thus the even and smooth course of 
 the whole and continued progress of the working man 
 was forsaken for the contemplation of a particular part 
 of it, which, inasmuch as it was bound up with the 
 characters of plenty and content, acted as a blind to 
 the imagination of future evils and distress. He looked 
 to posterity, he said, and to the present labouring classes 
 for having effected much that would react towards the 
 interests of labour. Present interests, he might have 
 added ; and continued in a parenthesis, the future in- 
 terests of labour are enshrouded in uncertainty ! But 
 he forgot to admit that he had introduced an element 
 of discord in the mutual harmony of internal relations, 
 which could have none other effect than that of a per- 
 nicious precedent to subsequent generations. For in all 
 large undertakings, it is customary to look to the pros- 
 perity of each individual part in the welfare of the whole. 
 How then could the welfare of the nation have been 
 considered when legislation resulted, when the conflict 
 
 D 
 
50 FEEE TRADE. 
 
 between Manufacture and her elder sister Agriculture 
 was being decided, in the virtual destruction of the 
 prospects of the latter ? 
 
 And if the masters, by reason of a certain temporary 
 depression of their trade, cannot afford a greater supply 
 of labour, if even they are forced to reduce the wages 
 of the producers when the demand for their produce 
 is restricted, are not these natural phenomena with 
 which, at any time, it is hazardous to deal ? For such 
 interference should imply the control over all those 
 elements which affect the processes of demand and 
 supply. Is such control possessed by the Legislature ? 
 And the results of such action of interference, by being 
 partial and artificial, terminate in the interruption of 
 the normal line of progress. What direction will the 
 course of our trade finally take, when the initial con- 
 sequences of such interruption have been allowed to 
 subside ? 
 
 Thus, by interfering with the relative conditions of 
 the manufacturing and agricultural interests. Sir Eobert 
 Peel offered an unfortunate example. His father, the 
 first Sir Eobert, is well known to have had a lively 
 dread of legislative interference of any kind in the 
 economy of our trade. But the wisdom of the father, 
 however crude it may appear now, was not perceived 
 in the action of the son. For, supposing depression to 
 occur during the operation of the free-trade principle, 
 the labouring classes, having the actions of 1846 and 
 previous years before them, would incline to the Legis- 
 lature for the means of its removal, instead of patiently 
 abiding the results of a natural phenomenon. By such 
 an example are the working classes taught to look upon 
 
FREE TRADE. 51 
 
 the goodwill and a false omnipotence of Parliament, 
 when their attention should be diverted to the clemency 
 of their masters. Thus are they led to suppose that 
 their masters have not a peculiar and proper interest 
 in their wellbeing and contentment ! 
 
 How such a belief in the omnipotence of Parliament, 
 where Parliament is powerless, tends to the destruc- 
 tion of the spirit of independence and the decay of 
 individual energies, it is not necessary to describe. 
 
 This view of the explanation of Sir Robert PeeFs 
 desertion from tlie Conservative party is strengthened 
 by a knowledge of his cautious behaviour. For there 
 was time enough for even a cautious legislator to arrive 
 at a sound conclusion in the interval between the period 
 at which the famine was predicted and its actual occur- 
 rence. 
 
 It is impossible to suppose that Sir Eobert Peel was 
 taken unawares, and that his action partook of the in- 
 gredients of alarm and impulse. On the contrary, 
 there was every opportunity for him to weigh the 
 relative values of the various opinions which were 
 before him, and of the extent to which those opinions 
 were held by the country at large. And, perhaps a 
 consideration as important as any other during this 
 perilous time, Sir Eobert had to balance the chances 
 of his continuing in power, supposing that he acted in 
 a manner likely to withdraw the support of the larger 
 part of his followers. It is even in no small degree 
 probable that Sir Eobert Peel, considering the helpless- 
 ness of the Whigs, with whom free trade had become 
 identified, to effect the great reform of the tariff, fell 
 into the expectation that the inevitable division in his 
 
52 FREE TRADE. 
 
 camp would leave him with a sufficient force, when 
 united with the assistance of the Whig party, to con- 
 duct the Government of the country till the dissolution, 
 which was close impending; and then, after such an 
 important service in the cause of labour, he might hope 
 to be raised to power again, and this time effectively, 
 upon the shoulders of the people. 
 
 But there was this obstacle in the way. Sir Eobert 
 had been led by the light of reason to acknowledge 
 the truth of the new doctrine. And to defer its opera- 
 tion on account of resistance which must at some time 
 be met, and, if possible, overcome, seemed to him to be 
 in direct opposition to his own conscientious scruples, 
 and adverse to the interests of the State. 
 
 As there was no near and certain expectation that 
 Lord John Eussell would be powerful enough to bring 
 about this desirable reform, and as he had already 
 given up the idea of a fixed duty in a letter which 
 he sent from Edinburgh to his London constituents, 
 where he declared himself in favour of total repeal, 
 what little support the Prime Minister had up to this 
 time received from the partial opposition of Lord John, 
 and which enabled him to temporise, was now gone, 
 and Sir Eobert Peel was left alone to take upon him- 
 self the whole of the responsibility of the projected 
 reform in the tariff. 
 
 But though fully preoccupied with the management 
 of the measure he had decided to espouse, the occasion 
 must have arisen when his isolated state brought back 
 to the powerful memory of Sir Eobert Peel the simi- 
 lar condition of that party which he had, and not once 
 only, been guilty of so ruthlessly abandoning ! 
 
FREE TRADE. 53 
 
 With his previous antecedents, therefore, as expressed 
 in certain articles of his speeches, Sir Robert Peel had 
 no other course left open to him but to bring forward, 
 and "strain every sinew to carry," the repeal of the 
 Corn Laws. 
 
 But before he commenced the struggle openly, it was 
 regarded as necessary that he should go through the 
 formality of resigning, as if to proclaim to his country- 
 men that he had not, except as a matter of compulsion, 
 undertaken the measure of his adversary, lest he might 
 be accused of snatching the glory of its adoption, whicli 
 properly belonged to another. But although Lord John 
 Eussell was requested to form an administration, he 
 was unable to do so, and Sir Eobert reassumed the 
 reins of power. 
 
 Thus, with the support of the people apparently, and 
 with the protectionists only in Parliament to oppose — 
 and what was the nature of the opposition of the chief 
 to his former followers ? — Sir Ptobert Peel proceeded to 
 consummate the work of reform which he had begun in 
 1842. 
 
 When in that year he remitted the import duties of 
 certain articles, and removed the prohibition w^hich 
 weighed upon others, did he then anticipate that he 
 would be compelled to pursue the logical conclusion, 
 as it was falsely supposed to be, of the doctrine upon 
 which he acted, in the repeal of the Corn Laws within 
 so short a time ? 
 
 Though, from the tenor of his remarks, however ob- 
 scured he desired these to be, the inference becomes 
 irresistible that Sir Eobert was convinced that the tax 
 upon corn must follow the rest of import duties, and 
 
54 FREE TRADE. 
 
 become abolished, it seems that circumstances had con- 
 strained him to perform more rapidly what he had pro- 
 jected should be gradually induced. But the contin- 
 gency of the famine intervening, and the attitude of 
 the Wliigs causing the intolerable isolation of his posi- 
 tion, he grasped at the exaggerated importance this 
 might afford him, to assist him out of the peculiarities 
 of his situation. 
 
 The efforts of certain orators at this time were not 
 without a much larger share of success than was really 
 their due. The cry of a tax upon the people's food was 
 issued from every platform which could boast a speaker; 
 and some few whose logical capacity appeared to mark 
 them out as superior to their brothers, denounced the 
 Minister who yielded in one direction while he resisted 
 in another. These orators of the free-trade school hurled 
 forth their sarcastic criticism upon the man who re- 
 pealed the duty on fresh meat while he continued the 
 tax on corn. For what was the difference between the 
 two cases ? Are they not parallel ? And if remission 
 is admitted in the one instance, on what grounds was 
 it refused in the other ? 
 
 Why, then, should the Prime Minister endeavour to 
 avoid the logical conclusion of his initial action ? 
 
 Such was their style. But the arguments of the 
 free-traders were not possessed of the soundness which, 
 ignorantly or from prejudice, they attributed to them. 
 
 They did not perceive that the action of Sir Eobert 
 Peel in remitting the duties on fresh meat and allow- 
 ing the free admission of live cattle was based upon a 
 cogent and irresistible fact — the fact that the produc- 
 tion of cattle in this country was unequal to the wants 
 
FREE TRADE. 55 
 
 of the community. The population of this country was 
 increasing more rapidly than the production of its cat- 
 tle, hence it was necessary that the deficiency should 
 be attracted from foreign sources — and what animosity 
 was evinced lest France should be the fortunate medium 
 of the supply ! Fear, however, from this possibility was 
 dissipated when Sir liobert Peel showed that France was 
 a cattle-importing nation. 
 
 But in the case of the admission of corn duty free, 
 what serious influence would such a policy exert upon 
 the industry of the agricultural element of the country ? 
 There could be no possibility of such a serious disturb- 
 ance in the instance of fresh meat and live cattle, the 
 more especially when these were needed, and their free 
 admission was likely to be followed by a fall in price. 
 Where was the analogy between such an action and 
 that of repealing the duty on corn, which had for so 
 long been admitted on the payment of a tax, except in 
 the calm and interested reasoning of the manufacturer, 
 who viewed the abolition of the Corn Laws as a means 
 of increasing the depths of his pocket ; or in the wild 
 imagination of the enthusiast, who fancied he saw in 
 this extraordinary interruption in the normal progress 
 of our commercial affairs the germ of the continued 
 prosperity of tlie country ? 
 
 The ground of action in the first instance was self- 
 interest. Is it possible that the measures of 1842 and 
 of subsequent years would have been enacted without 
 the certainty of gain accruing to the nation ? An in- 
 ordinate and unwholesome gain ! 
 
 In the case of corn, however, where was the differ- 
 ence ? The difference lay altogether in the ^extent of 
 
56 FREE TEADE. 
 
 the influence by which the total remission of the duties 
 upon the taxed articles would affect the cultivation of 
 the soil and the production of cattle respectively. 
 
 Now in the case of meat and cattle, it is obvious that 
 the admission of a small amount to meet a deficiency 
 would have no appreciable lasting effect upon the pro- 
 duction of cattle in this country. What was required 
 represented but a small proportion of the total demand 
 of the population. Nor was the amount thus admitted, 
 though it might gradually increase year by year, likely 
 to depress in the near future the production of cattle by 
 the inhabitants of the country. 
 
 But in the instance of corn, the amount to be ad- 
 mitted free of duty represented a very large proportion 
 of the whole of the corn that was consumed by the 
 inhabitants of this island. And would this proportion 
 between home-grown and imported corn remain more 
 or less constant as years rolled by ? By no means. 
 The ratio would gradually change, for the annual im- 
 portation of corn must necessarily increase, by reason of 
 the fact that the produce of this land is limited by its 
 area of arable soil. Setting aside, for the moment, the 
 economic maxim that the productivity of the soil tends 
 to decrease until it reaches a point where its cultivation 
 is no longer remunerative, it is evident that the remis- 
 sion of the duty upon imported corn was of enormous 
 importance upon the cultivation of home-grown corn, 
 for it directly tended to reduce the price of corn to a 
 level where its cultivation would no longer be profitable 
 to the speculative farmer. Thus an industry which was 
 already the subject of a natural impediment, would be 
 still further subjected to the influence of an artificial 
 
FREE TRADE. 57 
 
 one ; and Agriculture, and those consequently who were 
 interested in her welfare, having been up to the present 
 protected by those time-honoured rights which had 
 grown out of her wants, would now, when the Corn 
 Laws were abolished, be at the mercy of a foreign com- 
 petition, in which it was certain that the force of greater 
 strength would win. The outcomes, therefore, of these 
 two supposed parallel cases were totally dissimilar ; the 
 one may have been needed, but the other certainly was 
 not justified in the peculiar circumstances of the times. 
 
 As matter of fact there was no real parallel between 
 the opposite cases of fresh meat and corn : what parallel 
 was drawn was constructed with the design of strength- 
 ening the merits of the free-trade cause. It was a 
 parallel only on the surface. The two cases differed 
 completely when the details came to be considered. 
 
 But the free-trader was content to argue, that because 
 fresh meat was admitted duty free, so should corn enter 
 our ports without the imposition of a customs duty. 
 Of this nature was the reasoning of the free-trader. 
 So long as he believed the principle was true in the 
 abstract (surrounded as the abstract is witli all kinds of 
 contingencies), lie was bound to follow it to its furthest 
 limits, even when these were bordering upon the region 
 of disaster. And he did this without reference to ex- 
 ternal conditions, and the possible changes in those 
 conditions — whether new ones would arise — any of the 
 present ones disappear ; and what would be tlie probable 
 nature of their fluctuation, and consequently their in- 
 fluence, upon the progress of the free-trade principle. 
 
 But who were the men who advanced the free-trade 
 doctrine, and without whose influence and assistance 
 
58 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the operation of the free-trade principle would never 
 have come into play ? The manufacturers, and in par- 
 ticular the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 And upon what main grounds did they promulgate 
 the doctrine of free trade ? Upon the grounds, simply, 
 of self-interest, and self-interest of the narrowest kind — 
 the self-interest of class. 
 
 The manufacturers saw in the immediate future of 
 free trade, if not for a long, at any rate for a definite 
 length of time, a brilliant period for the manufacturing 
 industries of the country. And, at the same time, they 
 were convinced that their own fortunes would rise with 
 the early growth and development of the free-trade 
 principle. 
 
 Their anticipations, therefore, were possible in the 
 near future, if free trade was to reign in the commer- 
 cial world of Great Britain and Ireland, even though 
 neighbouring nations might still continue the system 
 of protection. And the haste with which they urged 
 on the cause of free trade is rather indicative of the 
 alarm which their selfish disposition was prone to 
 originate, when they conceived that the means of their 
 enrichment might possibly be retarded, or perhaps 
 dissipated for ever. 
 
 But in the case of the selfish disposition of the 
 protectionists, who were advocating at the time ex- 
 actly what the manufacturers were clamouring for in 
 the future, self-interest was ignored. And the manu- 
 facturers elected to sacrifice the interests of the weaker 
 for those of the larger part of the community, and 
 thus struck the fatal blow at the agricultural prospects 
 of their country ! 
 
FREE TRADE. 59 
 
 7. Criticism of the economic doctrine of the free- 
 traders. — That "you should buy in a cheap market 
 and sell in a dear one" sounds all very well when 
 there are cheap and accessible markets in which to 
 buy, and dear and accessible markets in which to sell. 
 
 It must occur to all, that as the nature of surround- 
 ing circumstances varies, so, too, must the result of 
 those changes vary with them. 
 
 The doctrine above enunciated would be sound 
 enough, and one upon which to act, if it could be 
 relied on beforehand — 
 
 1. Will the markets in whicli we buy remain cheap ? 
 
 and 
 
 2. Will the markets in which we sell continue dear ? 
 Whether the future operation of their principle was 
 t^ken into consideration by the free-traders need not 
 be discussed. The approach of present prosperity 
 always obscures the prospect of future disasters to 
 those whose fortunes are about to take this happy turn. 
 And when is prosperity thus commenced ever con- 
 sidered to be apt to vanish ? There is some extenua- 
 tion in the case of those merchants who blindly fol- 
 lowed in the path of an abstract principle, for they 
 would not detect the treacherous nature of the ma- 
 terials upon which it is built. They believed that free 
 trade was going to be the cause of the prosperity for 
 which they longed ; and when they experienced it, the 
 association of free trade and prosperity was strongly 
 riveted in their minds. But they did not trace the 
 true succession of phenomena. And they consequently 
 fell into the error of ascribing to the cause itself what 
 was but due to the transient operation of one of its 
 
60 FREE TRADE. 
 
 effects. But every one worthy of the name of political 
 economist must indeed have taken this prospective 
 action of a " cause " into account, lest after the prin- 
 ciple of free trade had been in operation for any length 
 of time its ultimate effect, instead of being beneficial 
 to the body of the trade and commercial interests of 
 the country, should become injurious, and not only 
 injurious but directly opposed to its healthy and 
 prosperous growth. 
 
 The free-traders saw only the present and immediate 
 advantages to be reaped from the application of their 
 favourite principle. It was to dissipate the sources of 
 depression (and it succeeded in removing some of these, 
 but this lasted only for a time) ; it was to make Eng- 
 land more prosperous than she had ever been before 
 (but did the free-traders anticipate that this prosperous 
 action would be inevitably followed by an equal re- 
 action in an opposite direction ?) ; and it was to be the 
 means of pacifying the world ! As if the disappear- 
 ance of one source of international hostility was suffi- 
 cient to effect, of itself, the destruction of all the rest ! 
 
 But if the enthusiastic promoters of the new doc- 
 trine were thus passionately blinded to the possible 
 future operation of the free-trade principle, it was not 
 the part of the Legislature, thus unwittingly, and con- 
 strained even by the false representations of a " power 
 in the State," to afford the country even the possible 
 chance of running into the depths of a far deeper 
 depression and more sorrowful state of affairs, because 
 directly leading to decline, than it was ever plunged 
 into before. 
 
 The future consequences of this principle, broadly in 
 
FREE TRADE. 61 
 
 all the possible, and more narrowly in the more prob- 
 able, conditions by which surrounding circumstances, 
 induced by the action of foreign nations, might affect 
 our commercial progress, should have been exposed by 
 the wise legislators of the time; and some of these 
 actually were felt by the legislators of the party which 
 was now opposed to Sir Eobert Peel and his Whig 
 supporters. But the very essence of their gravity was 
 met from the ministerial benches by an appeal to the 
 present. 
 
 Look at the labourers' wages, they have risen in 
 some instances as much as 20 or 25 per cent ; at the 
 bullion in the Bank of England, it has been increased 
 by five millions ; and at the prosperity of the kingdom 
 generally, as shown by the rapidly increasing exports 
 and imports, — and then state, has the free-trade prin- 
 ciple acted adversely ? There was no answer to these 
 facts, so obviously true. But the protectionist might 
 well have replied — Will these conditions, leading to the 
 commercial prosperity of the nation, continue similar 
 to what they are at present ? And if not, when shall 
 we expect a break in this transitory sunshine of pros- 
 perity, and how will it be effected ? 
 
 But the ultimate possible results of the application 
 of the free-trade principle to our commercial system 
 required a powerful imagination to unfold the diflierent 
 courses surrounding natious might take, and to deduce 
 the effect in each particular and possible line of action 
 upon the progress, or otherwise, of our commercial 
 growth. 
 
 However philanthropic some visionaries may assume 
 the free-trade principle to be in its results, it is in 
 
62 FKEE TRADE. 
 
 accordance with common-sense, that a nation is not 
 bound to follow any particular doctrine, or to continue 
 in it when once it has been put into practice, pro\dded 
 there is the possibility of the doctrine acting adversely 
 to its interests. 
 
 If, then, the doctrine of free trade, in the abstract, 
 had the benign nature that was so wildly lavished upon 
 it by those who pleaded for its adoption, there must 
 have been strong grounds for surrounding nations to 
 have regarded it with no less envious eyes than our- 
 selves, and to have entered the race for the prize of 
 leading the van of civilisation. But the fact that there 
 was no struggle for such a supremacy proves rather 
 that the action of the free-trade manufacturers of Man- 
 chester, who were, in the first instance, so loath to 
 transfer the centre of their base to the metropolis, was 
 perhaps a little more individual and a little more selfish 
 than they were willing to own. 
 
 Wliy did the free-trade manufacturers advance the 
 principle of free trade ? Because they perceived that 
 the then particular condition of the country was favour- 
 able to its action. 
 
 But did it occur to them to inquire. Will the action 
 of the principle always be favourable, and will sur- 
 rounding conditions always remain similar to what 
 they were at the time of its initial operation ? 
 
 There was no such anticipation exhibited; and the 
 whole nation was cajoled into the belief that a prin- 
 ciple was favourable in its operation always, because it 
 reacted during its early stages in the favour of the 
 working man ! 
 
 Thus the Manchester manufacturers tended to sacri- 
 
FREE TRADE. 63 
 
 fice, not only the future interests (and ought these ever 
 to have been subjected to uncertainty and insecurity ?) 
 of the labourer, but they pawned as well the prospects 
 and the grandeur of their descendants. They were to 
 prosper for a time, out of all proportion to the require- 
 ments of commerce and the good of the State. In short, 
 they forsook the future, and lived for the present alone ! 
 The only tribute that can be paid to their narrow policy 
 is that many of them made large fortunes by the advan- 
 tage, which they afforded generally to the circle of 
 merchants, of a disturbance in the relations of inter- 
 national commerce, which resulted momentarily, by 
 reason of the favourable nature of surrounding circum- 
 stances, in the gigantic development of their trade. 
 
 But has the action of these manufacturing enterprises 
 terminated in securing for our goods dear markets 
 abroad, and for ourselves any cheaper markets at home 
 than we experienced before the introduction of the free- 
 trade principle ? 
 
 Have the labouring classes, who were to be so mate- 
 rially benefited for all time, been really the subjects of 
 a piece of philanthropic agitation ? or, in other words, 
 are the labouring classes now, after a period of opera- 
 tion of the free-trade principle extending over forty 
 years, in a better position to supply the demands of 
 their daily wants than they were under the more cer- 
 tain and securer system of protection ? Are they so 
 favourably treated that they can save more, and thus 
 erect a barrier against the occurrence of hard times ? It 
 is for the experience of the present generation to deter- 
 mine this most significant question. 
 
 The observation of labour during the past years 
 
64 FREE TKADE. 
 
 shows that while the field of the working man has been 
 gradually contracting, his weekly wage has also at the 
 same time been slowly decreasing. And it is of import- 
 ance to notice that this general shrinkage and deteriora- 
 tion of labour is due, not so much to the want of capital — 
 an absence of which formed the chief source of the de- 
 pression before free trade was introduced — but to the fact 
 that there are no markets to induce men of wealth to 
 continue their customary enterprises on the certainty of 
 a profitable interest accruing to the capital which they 
 put into circulation. The feature of the present depres- 
 sion is for the manufacturer to make even the smallest 
 profit for the time and money which he expends in the 
 extension of his trade. 
 
 But at the time of the introduction of the free-trade 
 principle, when the taxes were removed from the food 
 of the people, and the latter placed in a more advanta- 
 geous situation for saving and exercising the attribute 
 of thrift, an income-tax was laid upon all incomes 
 above £150 a-year, amounting to 3 per cent. What was 
 remitted to the labourer, therefore, was burdened upon 
 the manufacturers, and these, from the largeness of 
 their profits, could even cheerfully afford to pay the 
 necessities of the new tax. The logical conclusion of 
 such a domestic policy is obvious : it was to place the 
 labouring man in a relatively more comfortable position, 
 inasmuch as he has now cheaper food and (it was 
 expected, and it had happened during the initial period 
 of the operation of the principle) a proportionate wage 
 even during times of depression, because wages, like 
 similar elements, are maintained at their level till they 
 are forced to reduction; but throughout this period. 
 
FREE TRADE. 65 
 
 and while profits are becoming more and more con- 
 tracted, the manufacturer has to refund to the State an 
 income-tax which is all the harder to bear, because the 
 source which previously supplied it is slowly drying up. 
 
 When the present deplorable condition of the working 
 man is considered along with the decline in the pros- 
 pects of manufacture, what beneficial effect — as both 
 these phenomena can be directly traced up to the ad- 
 verse action of the free - trade principle — has been 
 derived by this redistribution of the burdens of the 
 people, and by lessening, for the time being, pressure 
 upon the working classes, which is now reappearing 
 with redoubled force ? 
 
 The primary effect of what must be undoubtedly 
 regarded as a philanthropic piece of legislation has 
 come slowly, and almost imperceptibly, to be nullified, 
 owing to the ability of the labouring man to increase 
 his expenditure in another direction, now that he has 
 a surplus consequent on the reduction in the price of 
 bread. And it is capable of easy demonstration that 
 the improvement of his fortunes would lead to a more 
 luxurious habit of living ; and, first, the nature of his 
 dwelling would be changed. He would become accom- 
 modated with a better lodging, for which he will have 
 to pay, owing to the inevitable presence of the law of 
 competition, a constantly increasing rent. 
 
 Thus the principle of fluctuation remains, though it 
 has been diverted from its former channel — indirectly 
 from the produce of the land, directly to the land itself I 
 
 After censuring the aristocracy for grinding down the 
 wages of the labourer to the point of starvation, by 
 means of the unwarrantable assumption that increase 
 
 £ 
 
66 FREE TRADE. 
 
 in the price of corn goes directly to increase rent — the 
 manufacturer, nevertheless, managed to consume, during 
 the transient period of prosperity of the free-trade prin- 
 ciple, the main profits of the work of the labouring 
 classes — there was no need to announce to the manufac- 
 turers that their action tended in a direction far worse 
 than that of reducing wages to the level of starvation, 
 for the immediate effect of the change was an addition of 
 20 and 25 per cent to the wages of labour. 
 
 The result was advantageous to all parties except the 
 landowner, the subject of blame and reproach ; but did 
 the labouring man get a higher proportion of the total 
 profits of his labour, even when his wages were in- 
 creased by a fourth, imder the new condition of things, 
 than under the old, when profits were, of course, rela- 
 tively much smaller in amount ? 
 
 Was there any great degree of virtue, then, in this 
 alteration which the manufacturers effected in the con- 
 dition of the working classes ? For who were by far 
 the larger gainers by the change ? The manufacturers 
 themselves ; who now began to act just like the land- 
 owners whose conduct they had so severely reprobated 
 but a short time since. The tyranny of the aristocracy 
 and starvation wages must first of all be associated in 
 the minds of the ignorant ; a proper degree of enthusi- 
 asm must be worked up in the ignorant mob ; the idea 
 of injustice must be gradually unfolded ; wrongs must 
 be suffered which exist only in tlie excited imaginations 
 of those who can feel, but who do not take the trouble 
 to reason ; and the manufacturers must pose as the great 
 deliverers of the people, and as having snatclied them 
 from the jaws of an insatiable exaction ! 
 
FREE TRADE. 67 
 
 But is it true that the manufacturers saw in the 
 measure of free trade the means of advancing their own 
 aggrandisement and took advantage of it ? 
 
 Where comes in the virtue, then, of their action ? 
 And what was the difference in attitude between the 
 landowning portion of the community and the manu- 
 facturers towards the great producers of wealth ? 
 
 For the moment the manufacturers had stepped over 
 and taken the ground of the aristocracy; and what 
 were the means they openly utilised to effect the change 
 of position ? The common one of showing that the 
 present masters are unjust ; and then, because human 
 nature is unchangeable, having succeeded in dispossess- 
 ing a hypothetical tyranny, of exactly following in the 
 footsteps of those whom they had so unjustly and so 
 arbitrarily maligned ! 
 
 But the manufacturers succeeded in veiling the selfish 
 motives by which they were inspired. Nor is it for the 
 undiscerning crowd to distinguish between the apparent 
 and the real — it follows even a false prophet. 
 
 And now, after the prosperity of the manufacturers 
 has run its short and unnatural course, what is the result 
 upon the present interests and future outlook of the 
 labouring man ? Profits are no longer possible to the 
 master, wages consequently become scarce, and the 
 working man who was to gain so much by the ad- 
 hesion .which he was persuaded to give in former times, 
 is now left a prey to the fortunate owners of the land 
 upon which his dwelling rests. Where now are his 
 deliverers ? And to what a sorry plight have ill-advised 
 measures led him ? 
 
 He has, at the present day, a higher rent to pay 
 
68 FREE TRADE. 
 
 relatively to what he was subjected before the year 
 1842, and the means open to him for acquiring his 
 livelihood are becoming more and more precarious. 
 
 But this is not the only effect which the ambition of 
 manufacture has succeeded in bringing about. For not 
 only has this resulted in the aggravation of the distress 
 of labour, after a transient period of prosperity; not 
 only have the manufacturers rendered by their impru- 
 dent tamperings, what before was a bad, a far worse 
 state of the labourer, but they have unconsciously, by 
 their arbitrary proceeding, increased the burdens of 
 their own descendants, by reason of the fact that, in 
 the process of the formation of their own fortunes, the 
 resources of other countries were called forth, energies 
 were awakened, and so great an alteration induced at 
 home and abroad in our commercial relations, that 
 those markets which before were alone open to them, 
 and at the mercy of their price, now have the advan- 
 tage of buying their customary goods at a lower cost, 
 because of the presence and gradual ascendancy of a 
 foreign competition. 
 
 Thus, in the track of the free-trade principle there have 
 been created new forces to counteract the evil tendency 
 with which it operates against neighbouring nations ; 
 and as the final result of their endeavours, its former 
 and beneficial action towards us gradually becomes 
 diminished. 
 
 Before, the circumstances which affected its action 
 were favourable, but now they are unfavourable. And 
 these adverse conditions have been directly brought 
 about by the successful efforts of foreign nations to 
 undersell us in those markets which at one time were 
 
FREE TRADE. 69 
 
 our monopoly, but which can scarcely be considered at 
 the present time to be our own. 
 
 Again, at home, are the markets any the cheaper, 
 relatively, to what they were before the accession of 
 Sir Robert Peel to power in 1841 ? Taking into con- 
 sideration the paroxysmal and restricted character of 
 ordinary trade depression, this can hardly be advanced 
 as true. In the extraordinary rise in our traders ac- 
 tivity, what was due to a natural advance is not usu- 
 ally discriminated and its precise amount ascertained. 
 Even Sir Robert Peel ascribed the whole of the pros- 
 perity which attended the action of the free -trade 
 principle, when this was freed from the effect of 
 local and transient influences, to the virtues of the 
 principle itself ! But it is obviously of importance to 
 analyse the elements of this "ascent," and to sep- 
 arate what was due to " natural causes " from that 
 which resulted from an *^ artificial stimulation," applied 
 at the hands of the Legislature. For there is ample 
 evidence that before 1842 our trade was underaoinfif 
 a uniform and progressive advance ; and there is also 
 evidence that during the whole of the period of the 
 free-trade agitation the people were unhappily inflamed 
 into a belief of the falsehood that the Corn Laws 
 were depriving them of those comforts which they were 
 extravagantly taught to believe should be by right 
 their own. 
 
 Where is the evidence of that progressive factor in 
 the present course of the trade of this country? Has 
 the natural and certain growth of our commerce been 
 strangled by that unnatural overgrowth which was 
 capable only of a short, if active, existence ? 
 
70 FREE TRADE. 
 
 And what is the evidence of the cumulative and pro- 
 gressive distress — a distress which is not partial nor 
 limited, but is universally spread throughout the coun- 
 try, and affects every trade and diminishes all our com- 
 merce ? Where are those dear markets of which the 
 free-traders prophesied ? They are things of the past ! 
 And where is that cheap bread at home which was 
 brandished before the eyes of the populace to arouse 
 them into a sense of false injustice ? Bread can neither 
 be cheap nor dear when there is no money with which 
 to buy it ! What recks it to the labouring man what- 
 ever may be the price of bread, so long as he has the 
 certainty of employment and of his weekly wage ? Is 
 there, then, so very much difference between dear bread 
 and cheap lodgings, and cheap bread and dear lodgings ? 
 The difference is apparent when, with dear bread and 
 cheap lodgings, the labourer had the means of obtaining 
 his daily subsistence ; but now with cheap bread and 
 perhaps no lodgings at all, the labourer is thrown upon 
 the generosity of the philanthropic portion of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 The free-trade economists, who propounded the doc- 
 trine that you should buy in a cheap market and sell in 
 a dear one, never imagined what might be the possible 
 consequences of the immense alteration they were on 
 the verge of effecting in the world of commerce. They 
 seem to have acted as if the markets would continue re- 
 spectively cheap and dear, and that the relationship which 
 existed in these times would remain the same for ever. 
 
 What they should have contemplated first was, not 
 the present advantage of the new system, but some of 
 its possible future effects. 
 
FREE TRADE. 71 
 
 But, it must be reiterated, they proceeded in their 
 measure without any regard to the future ; the free- 
 trade principle was contemplated by them in its present 
 bearing alone ! 
 
 There is another criticism of the free-trade doctrine, 
 " of buying in a cheap and selling in a dear market," 
 which displays the faulty analysis upon which its foun- 
 dation is laid. 
 
 When the free-traders talked of buying in a cheap 
 market, they referred to the raw goods which we were 
 accustomed to import into the country for tlie purpose of 
 converting, by British labour, into manufactured articles. 
 
 Could they ever have contemplated the possibility 
 that the measure which was to make the foreign markets 
 cheap for buying purposes was also to make our own 
 markets the dearest relatively, and therefore to repel 
 the merchant from home to foreign labour ? The prin- 
 ciple of free trade enabled us to admit raw material at 
 a very cheap cost ; but at the same time, it bore the 
 germ of the future supply of our own markets with the 
 manufactured goods of the foreigner. So that now, as 
 the ultimate result of the free-trade doctrine being put 
 into practice, we not only admit raw goods from foreign 
 sources, but we admit manufactured articles as well, 
 with how much injustice to British labour it is needless 
 to dilate ! 
 
 But it must be ; this possibility escaped the contracted 
 views of the free-trade economists, because it was not 
 an immediate but a remote effect. For it is impossible 
 to suppose that the free-traders thought that England 
 would not maintain her complete monopoly of neutral 
 markets. 
 
72 FREE TRADE. 
 
 The admission of manufactured articles ! We shall 
 then be able to export our raw materials ; but this 
 country is not so fortunately placed as to be able to 
 export, to any large extent, the produce of the land. 
 We have to rely, as the free-traders predicted, solely 
 upon the exportation of our manufactured goods. 
 
 But if this exportation is interfered with, how then 
 are we placed with reference to our neighbouring nation ? 
 
 They have raw articles which they can freely export ; 
 they have, as well, their manufacturing industries, which 
 are protected, and which are slowly growing and devel- 
 oping in strength; but this country, when its manu- 
 facture is injured, has nothing to fall back upon. And 
 it is curious to observe that this injury to the exporta- 
 tion of manufactured goods is inflicted by the former 
 actions of the manufacturers themselves I 
 
 Time only was required for the symptoms of the in- 
 jury to become evident. 
 
 8. What led to the repeal of the Corn Laws ? — There 
 can be no doubt that the selfish motives of the manu- 
 facturers were freely utilised by Sir Eobert Peel ; and 
 there can be as little doubt but that the same legislator 
 was constrained to give too great an importance to the 
 manufacturing interests of the country, to the neglect of 
 another and equally important industry. 
 
 When Sir Eobert Peel acceded to power in 1841, the 
 first difficulty with which he had to grapple was the 
 miserable state in which the condition of the finances 
 had been left by the Whig Minister. The deficit of 
 the year was 2^ millions, and this, taken in con- 
 nection with the fact that the deficit had become an 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 annual phenomenon, was sufficient to prove that the 
 sources from which the revenue was deriyetj were be- 
 coming gradually but increasingly less and less pro- 
 ductive. But it must be remembered that during the 
 period 1837-41, there was a very considerable disturl 
 ance of tlie ordinary progress of trade, owing to the 
 occurrence of one of those crises which are prone to 
 attack the monetary world when circumstances are con- 
 ducive. The prosperity of the country, therefore, was 
 retarded ; and the deficit in the several branches of the 
 revenue is thus explained in those instances where the 
 wellbeing of the people enables them to afford such 
 luxuries, the consumption of which was then attended 
 with profit to the State. 
 
 The problem, " How to meet the deficit ? " was the 
 first to occupy the attention of the new Premier. And 
 the difficulties in which he was involved were expressed 
 in the treatment of the Whig leader by the Prime Min- 
 ister, when questioned as to the ultimate modification 
 the Corn Laws were to undergo. Sir Eobert Peel sar- 
 castically replied that he had no further suggestion to 
 offer with regard to the sliding-scale, which he had 
 already framed ; and that it was of the first importance 
 to place the financial condition of the nation on a sound 
 and flourishing basis. 
 
 Many things would occur at once to the mind of Sir 
 Eobert, but perhaps all did not receive the same care of 
 individual attention. Then the late Whig Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer had increased the import duties on 
 all articles which constituted the import trade of the 
 country, at the same time that he had raised the 
 assessed taxes throughout the kingdom. By these 
 
74 FREE TRADE. 
 
 means he had expected to balance income and expendi- 
 ture ; but the gain which he had anticipated from the 
 increment to the import duties fell short of his prog- 
 nostication, and thus he was left once more to face an 
 inevitable deficit. And this in spite of the fact that 
 his treatment of the assessed taxes fully responded to 
 his expectations. 
 
 Simply on this instance, and while the country was 
 deranged owing to the consequences of a trade convul- 
 sion, Sir Eobert argued that the mode of levying the 
 revenue by means of indirect taxation had reached its 
 limit, and that if taxation was to be productive, resort 
 must be had to the direct method. 
 
 Direct taxation ! the opportunity afforded Sir Eobert 
 Peel the idea of proposing, but for a time only, the 
 burden of an income-tax. It was obvious that such a 
 tax would react adversely to the interests of the various 
 professions ; the great body of the manufacturers, how- 
 ever, who saw the sure means of being able to bear its 
 weight with ease, and as they thought with security, 
 offered no objections, and consequently the Premier put 
 his " idea " into practice. 
 
 The immediate effect of the imposition of the income- 
 tax was to distribute a part of the burdens of the coun- 
 try upon those whose incomes exceeded £150per annum; 
 and a portion of the produce of this tax was set aside 
 for the purpose of relieving the labouring classes of 
 some of those hardships beneath which they were sup- 
 posed to be groaning. 
 
 And it may be remembered here, that Sir Eobert had 
 on a previous occasion, some years before, expressed his 
 intention of not dealing with the produce of this hypo- 
 
FREE TRADE. 75 
 
 thetical tax, to effect the remission on malt and other 
 articles which are subject to excisable duties. Did it 
 occur to Sir Eobert Peel at that early date, 1835, that 
 the remission of import duties was of paramount ad- 
 vantage to the nation ? 
 
 At any rate, after the adjustment of the Corn Laws 
 by means of the sliding-scale of 1842, by which the 
 protectionists thought that the protection offered to 
 agriculture was too little, while the free-traders pro- 
 claimed that it was too much, the Prime Minister intro- 
 duced his scheme for placing the finances of the country 
 on a sound foundation. An income-tax was to be levied 
 on all incomes of £150 and upwards, to the extent of 
 3 per cent ; it was to exist for a period of three years ; 
 and it was calculated to produce a little more than 
 7 millions per annum. But at the same time, and 
 conjointly with tlie Income-Tax Bill, another Bill was 
 introduced, with the express object of reforming the 
 tariff As these two Bills were taken together, there is 
 evidently displayed the intimate connection which Sir 
 Eobert Peel had finally decided upon between the two 
 measures. To counteract the annual deficit, an income- 
 tax was proposed — a productive source of revenue. This 
 would place in the hands of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer a sufficient sum yearly for the next three years, 
 which would be available for the discharge of the recent 
 debts that had been incurred by the late Government. 
 Still a large balance would remain. And this was in- 
 tended to be applied to the remission of the import 
 duties upon all raw materials admitted into the coun- 
 try. The introduction of the new system was, however, 
 to take place gradually ; and thus we find that in the 
 
76 FREE TRADE. 
 
 first year, 1842, duties to the amount of £1,092,000 
 were remitted; in 1843, £411,000; and in 1844, 
 £458,000. 
 
 In this way Sir Eobert Peel was carrying into action 
 the principle of an almost imperceptible introduction of 
 change into the affairs of our commerce, which he sub- 
 sequently enunciated in one of those speeches in Parlia- 
 ment in which he effectively proved that the operation 
 of the Corn Laws was not responsible for the distress 
 of the country ; but that free trade, inasmuch as it was 
 founded upon reasonable arguments, which his genera- 
 tion could not overcome, was admittedly the last course 
 the commercial body could pursue, with respect to the 
 subject of " corn." 
 
 Why, this introduction of the principle of free trade 
 gave Sir Eobert Peel a loophole, by means of which he 
 might disembarrass himself from the disaster of an ap- 
 parently constant and increasing annual deficit. The 
 income-tax supplied him with the means of successfully 
 conducting the financial concerns of the nation for 
 three years. 
 
 Only for three years ? Sir Eobert must have had 
 the prospect of good accruing from the partial action 
 of the new principle. Else why was the time during 
 which the income-tax was to bear, limited to three 
 years ? 
 
 Was this a means of accustoming the nation to the 
 idea of a permanent income-tax, which would be met at 
 the outset with so much opposition, even by the manu- 
 facturers ? For even the manufacturers were somewhat 
 jealous of the probability of this burden upon them 
 either increasing in amount or becoming permanent, as 
 
FKEE TRADE. 77 
 
 is evident from their refusal to grant the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer in the next Administration an addition 
 of 2 per cent to the income-tax, to meet a return of 
 the deficit. 
 
 Or did Sir Robert Peel anticipate that, by the end of 
 three years, if the action of the principle of free trade 
 answered his expectations, he would really be in a 
 situation to abolish the income-tax altogether, and that 
 he would be able to draw a sufficient revenue, to replace 
 it, from the favourable action of free trade ? There are 
 some grounds for the inference in the increased con- 
 sumption which Sir liobert concluded would inevitably 
 succeed the diminution or the entire remission of im- 
 port duties. For in the instance of sugar, he showed 
 afterwards that the reduction in the duties had been 
 attended with the greatest advantage to the nation. 
 
 But during these three years, the free-trade principle 
 was in partial operation ; and at the end of it, therefore, 
 he would be in a position to judge of the efficacy of its 
 partial action, and thereby enabled to deduce the total 
 effect of the unrestricted operation of the new principle. 
 
 But the results at the end of the first period of three 
 years were not such as to permit of the removal of the 
 tax upon incomes. In 1845, Sir Robert obtained from 
 a willing Parliament the renewal of the income-tax for 
 a further period of three years. This measure was the 
 more readily passed because those wlio had most largely 
 to bear the burden were mainly concerned in manu- 
 facture, and had already tasted of the initial and 
 favourable action of free trade, and, in consequence, 
 were cheerfully disposed to contribute a portion of 
 their newly acquired profits. 
 
78 FREE TRADE. 
 
 But although the results were not sufficiently favour- 
 able to lead Sir Eobert Peel to depend upon their 
 stability and permanence, they were favourable enough 
 to impel him to extend the operation of the principle. 
 It was in this year 1845, when the country had re- 
 covered from the effects of the previous distress, that 
 Sir Eobert Peel expressed the absolute necessity of 
 abolishing all duties of a prohibitory nature ; and it is 
 important to analyse the grounds which led him to a 
 conclusion which was so violently opposed to the whole 
 of his past career. At this time, then, Sir Eobert Peel 
 had only the statement of the Whig Chancellor and 
 the experience of three years of the action of a prin- 
 ciple whose subsequent course, it was unavoidable to 
 deny, was altogether dependent upon the fluctuating 
 nature of surrounding circumstances. Can the per- 
 manent action of a principle be deduced from the mere 
 experience of a period of three years of its action, which 
 was limited, and when the future conditions which 
 would influence its operations were unknown ? 
 
 But it appears that Sir Eobert Peel had already 
 made up his mind as to the final efficacy of the free- 
 trade principle in the abstract, and that he was com- 
 pelled to give, as his plausible grounds for becoming 
 a convert to the belief in free trade, this observation 
 of its partial action extending over three years, and 
 as well, "other reasons which are derived from other 
 sources." Thus was he to appear consistent in the 
 public eye : the details of the experiment in free trade 
 he afforded with a sparing hand. It mattered not 
 whether the principle should have only been in action 
 for tliree days ; such an unimportant difference in one 
 
FREE TRADE. 79 
 
 datum could have had no influence upon the conclusion 
 which Sir Eobert Peel drew from no evidence at all. 
 For Sir Eobert Peel, like all the free-traders, had made 
 his conclusion first, and supported it by precarious 
 arguments afterwards. 
 
 The problem which Sir Eobert constructed was piti- 
 lessly incomplete. Is it possible so grand a conclusion 
 can, with any degree of safety, be supported on such 
 a slight foundation ? 
 
 Thus, if Sir Eobert Peel did base his inference upon 
 experience, it was unwarrantable, for the most im- 
 portant factors in the experiment were then unknown 
 to him ; and it was experience, and experience of a 
 very bitter kind ultimately, that alone could supply 
 him with them. But it is in the highest degree prob- 
 able that, as the principle Sir Eobert Peel introduced 
 was an abstract one, so the arguments for its applica- 
 tion were likewise abstract and existed only in " idea." 
 This free-trade system was an ideal system purely, the 
 initial results of which were foretold as prosperous, but 
 the ultimate action of which was ignored ! But it was 
 a likely remedy for the distresses of the times, and 
 its merits should be tried ; and perhaps Sir Eobert, 
 fastening upon this immediate prosperity which was 
 certain to attend the action of the principle of free 
 trade, saw in its introduction a means to regulate suc- 
 cessfully the national finance, and at the same time 
 to remove the cause of discontent, which was then 
 associated with the prevalent distress, by an increased 
 activity of the markets for a time. And then after that, 
 when depression again reigns, some other means must 
 be devised to meet the special difficulties of the case. 
 
80 FREE TRADE. 
 
 But although it is certain that Sir Eobert Peel was 
 brought to believe in the efficacy of the principle of 
 free trade in the abstract, it is questionable how far 
 the perilous condition, as it was described by the free- 
 traders without grounds, of the country reacted on his 
 judgment in favour of its adoption ; and the conclusion 
 must always remain a matter of doubt whether Sir 
 Eobert Peel really believed in the ultimate favour- 
 able issue of free trade, or whether he utilised it 
 to extricate himself from a network of extraordinary 
 difficulties. 
 
 It is strange that nowhere in his numerous speeches 
 on the subjects of our trade and commercial relation- 
 ship does Sir Eobert draw any distinction between the 
 duties on imported corn and the duties on other im- 
 ported materials, whose production in this country was 
 scarcely worthy of protection. Many a time he refers 
 to the rectitude of the course which he had hitherto 
 pursued in the maintenance of existing rights ; but 
 whether, during this eventful time, he merely referred 
 to his past attitude, and concealed those arguments or 
 diverted their real tendency, in the practice of which 
 he was so able a master, which made him doubt the 
 necessity of continuing such rights in the future, it is 
 difficult to estimate. 
 
 When in his speeches a Minister and legislator con- 
 tinually asserts that neither himself nor his colleagues 
 have any intention of amending the Corn Laws, but by 
 his actions is placed in the unenviable position where 
 they are carried, as he knew they would be, to their 
 logical results of directly proceeding to their repeal, 
 there must be some strong ground why he was able 
 
FREE TRADE. 81 
 
 to assume an attitude which can only be described by 
 an epithet of disapprobation. Sir Kobert, as we have 
 observed, did not recognise the want of parallel between 
 the cases of meat and corn, but appears to have in- 
 sidiously conveyed to the protectionists, through the 
 means of a false logical conclusion, his ultimate inten- 
 tions witli regard to their policy. 
 
 And now, in addition to other difficulties, the disasters 
 of party disruption began to loom in the near future of 
 Sir Robert Peel's administration ! 
 
 By such reforms as lie had already effected in the 
 tariff, he had given his party strong reasons to suppose 
 that he was no longer so closely attached to its mem- 
 bers or their principles as heretofore. And when, as 
 he continued in the work of reform, the proof which 
 he offered to the protectionists that he would leave 
 the Corn Laws exactly where they stood by the altera- 
 tion of 1842, was considered neither as sufficient nor 
 trustworthy, the relationship between the centre and 
 base of the Conservative party became subjected to a 
 strain. Measures were anticipated ; the old desertion 
 was called up, and Sir Eobert again received the asper- 
 sions of the majority of his former party — that party 
 which had looked up to him for tlie most intimate sup- 
 port ! The fact could no longer be kept concealed ; the 
 Prime Minister had come to have discordant views with 
 the larger section of his party. And when Sir Robert 
 Peel differed, he was, by a natural weakness, inclined 
 to persevere in his own way. It was thus when Can- 
 ning and Peel were colleagues in the Liverpool Admin- 
 istration ; and again expressed when Peel refused office 
 under his more successful rival. Was there in these 
 
 F 
 
82 FREE TRADE. 
 
 dififerences of opinion merely differences of opinion or 
 something more ? Something in the nature of an un- 
 worthy dislike, or the ungenerous desire of occupying 
 that position, and enjoying tliose honours which pro- 
 perly belonged to another of greater brilliancy and 
 power ? 
 
 The incident of this difference of opinion proves that 
 the motive which actuated Sir Eobert Peel in the course 
 he took was a purely selfish one ; and was not the same 
 result to be expected from conditions which were more 
 or less similar to those of the days of the Catholic 
 Emancipation and the interval of hunting Canning to 
 death ? 
 
 Nor was • the present crisis un associated with the 
 possibility of future glory, and this was what Sir 
 Eobert fully anticipated would attend the memory of 
 the statesman who had emancipated labour from the 
 burden under which she was then, as he supposed, 
 suffering. 
 
 There is some proof of the animosity with which, per- 
 haps, he retaliated toward the party of protection in 
 the proceedings which were antecedent to the intro- 
 duction of the Bill to repeal the Corn Laws. In con- 
 nection with this particular instance, we must recall 
 to mind the unsatisfactory state in which Ireland 
 then was, where sedition and rebellion were doing 
 their work. 
 
 The Irish Arms Bill was brought forward along with 
 the Eepeal (Corn Laws) Bill ; but by some misunder- 
 standing the protectionists were led into the error that 
 the Arms Bill would be taken first, and that the Eepeal 
 would follow it. The contrary, however, happened to 
 
FREE TRADE. 8 
 
 *> 
 
 be the case; and the incident shows that Sir Robert 
 Peel, contrary to the usage of conduct which prevailed 
 between the leaders of the rival parties on important 
 measures, ignored the action of his subordinate. 
 
 But what was the reason of so extraordinary a be- 
 haviour ? The fact remains, that when Sir Eobert Peel 
 introduced the fatal Bill to repeal the Corn Laws some- 
 what earlier than had been generally expected, he found 
 the protectionists wellnigh unprepared. Tliey concluded 
 that the Eepeal Bill would come on after the Easter 
 holidays ; and in the meantime they set about the 
 method of opposition on which they were determined. 
 Thus the protectionists were taken at a disadvantage ! 
 
 The Corn Laws were repealed ! And this measure 
 was brought about by the Minister who had been for 
 such a long period of his public career, nominally at 
 any rate, on the side of protection ! By the suddenness 
 of Sir Piobert's action, the protectionists received a blow 
 which entirely disconcerted them, and legislative pro- 
 tection to our trade and industries became buried in the 
 limbo of the past ! 
 
 In the pursuit of this policy, Sir Eobert Peel, who 
 had been the subject of perhaps the severest exposal it 
 has befallen the lot of any public man in high station 
 to experience, may have been brought to the reflection 
 that mind is unstable, and the action of will vanishes. 
 But he afforded himself the opportunity of comparing 
 his attitude respecting the question of Emancipation, 
 which concerned only a difference of mere opinion, and 
 the matter of the repeal of the Corn Laws, which struck 
 at the foundation of national prosperity ! 
 
 But he had gained his point ; he had acted according 
 
84 FREE TRADE. 
 
 to the might of his reasoning power, first fed by the fal- 
 lacious doctrines of the interested political economy of 
 his day, stimulated by the demands of a selfish trade, 
 working its own unhealthy, because dangerous, develop- 
 ment even at the expense of the w^hole nation, of which 
 it formed a limb only ; and lastly, strengthened by the 
 clamours of an inflamed populace. For the present he 
 had done well, according to his account, which appeared 
 later on in his celebrated manifesto ; but what evil had 
 he been unconsciously maintaining up to the year 1842 ? 
 Did such an admission on the part of the late Prime 
 Minister reflect favourably upon the past endeavours of 
 his stupendous intellect ? He had been guilty, then, of 
 a mistake : he had nourished this for the major part of 
 his official existence, and it was only by a chance that 
 his mind was opened, and he saw the truth ! But such 
 considerations would not blight the happy picture which 
 he described around. He would not pause to examine 
 whether the means which had led to his open conver- 
 sion then had not already been within his grasp almost 
 from the very day when he became a servant to the 
 monarch of his country. He saw around him a grateful 
 and prosperous people, and he looked for nothing but 
 the regard of posterity and the smile of labour ! 
 
 He, too, had fallen into the fatal error of staking all 
 the interests and the glory of the nation on the present. 
 The future, in the insidious embrace of the free-trade 
 principle, was entirely neglected ! 
 
 But when inconsistency is permitted to creep into 
 the thoughts or the actions of man, the tendency ever 
 remains, and may become exaggerated. The character 
 
FREE TRADE. 85 
 
 possessing so obvious a defect is worthy of being re- 
 pelled as exhibiting either one of two deformities, each 
 equally repugnant. In the first instance, we have the 
 picture of a man who is liable, from what we know of 
 human nature, to hold certain opinions from certain 
 consequences flowing from such; but change these 
 consequences, as they may be really, by the appearance 
 of new factors, or apparently by reason of the admission 
 of some data which before had escaped the range of his 
 knowledge, and then adhesion to these former opinions 
 ceases. 
 
 There are two kinds of selfishness — the one of the 
 pleasures of the senses ; the other, of the product of the 
 intellect, and from an inordinate degree of the latter it 
 is difficult to exonerate Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 The other picture is that of a man who has no definite 
 line of action, simply for the reason that he cannot fore- 
 see difficulties, by his inability to vary the possibilities, 
 of future results with the assistance of a powerful 
 imagination. However great the memory may be, if 
 imagination be not at hand, there is the tendency, ever 
 waiting to be put into action, of being swayed from 
 time to time by the opinion of others, which come to 
 be more cogent, according to the varying importance of 
 certain collateral and transient conditions. And it is 
 not difficult to perceive that interruption to the normal 
 course of natural progress under such circumstances is 
 fraught with the direst consequences. For if change is 
 to be when this event falls out, so will change have 
 to be when that other occurs. Thus is sown the end- 
 less means of interminable change I 
 
S6 FREE TRADE. 
 
 The life of a nation, as compared with the life of an 
 individual, is vast indeed. And in the case of the ulti- 
 mate and pernicious action of a principle upon its com- 
 mercial development, the signs of decline will take a 
 proportionately longer time to become evident to the 
 political observer's eye. 
 
87 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE POSITION OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 9. Si7' Rohert Feel's defence. — The reforms which Sir 
 Eobert Peel succeeded in effecting so arbitrarily in the 
 commercial code of the country eventually left him 
 isolated in the parliamentary arena. The great Con- 
 servative party, which he had done so much to develop 
 and maintain, viewed in a state almost amounting to 
 despair the leader who had thus deserted them in the 
 moment of their triumph. A few faithful followers 
 surrounded him after he had openly seceded from that 
 country party whose boast it was no longer that they 
 had raised him to power. 
 
 / Up to this point it will be observed that the case 
 against Sir Eobert Peel has been laid chiefly on the 
 grounds that he did not sufficiently analyse the pros- 
 pective action of the free-trade principle, nor did he in 
 any the least degree provide for its possible pernicious 
 X)peration. For in what way did free trade act ? As a 
 stimulant, by increasing the circulation of our trade 
 markets. But the effects of stimulation tend to pass 
 off unless they are nourished. What else, then, did he 
 leave to take the place of the free-trade principle when, 
 
88 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ill the course of time, its power to stimulate had ceased 
 to be ? what was to replace its primary stimulant and 
 beneficial effect ? 
 
 It is impossible to believe that free trade, as a stim- 
 ulant to the activity of the markets, can continue the 
 same degree of potency with which it first set out. 
 For it is evident that, out of its continued operation, 
 consequences arise of a nature to paralyse its beneficial 
 action. 
 
 Did Sir Eobert Peel anticipate this operation of the 
 free -trade principle when surrounding circumstances 
 would tend, with a gradually increasing force, to impede 
 that very effect, upon the presence of which its action 
 for good depended ? 
 
 It is true that a review of the position of the coun- 
 try at the time was not such as to inspire him with 
 the highest hopes, although he fully predicted that the 
 energies of his countrymen would be equal to the occa- 
 sion of the then depression — and perhaps he had in 
 mind the operation of free trade in the primary period 
 of its action, for it was evident to all that Great Britain 
 and Ireland were becoming year by year less and less 
 capable of producing their former proportionate amount 
 of corn. There was thus all the more reason why the 
 Legislature should endeavour to attract the produce of 
 foreign lands, to invite competition, and in this way to 
 reduce the price ; for if the gold of the country was to 
 be drained inevitably away, it was to the interest of 
 the nation that the outgoing capital should be the least 
 possible. 
 
 But although the ultimate prospect of this country 
 being a corn -producing one was reduced almost to a 
 
FREE TRADE. 89 
 
 nothing — though it might have been anticipated that 
 the time would arrive when we should have almost 
 entirely to rely on foreign sources for a supply of corn 
 — it does not seem, from an examination of the opinions 
 expressed during this critical period, that the idea was 
 entertained of the possibility of our being wholly sup- 
 plied from our colonies. 
 
 To counteract the constant drain of gold thus induced, 
 Sir Eobert Peel relied upon the increasing exportation 
 of our manufactured articles ; and the ratio of the out- 
 going and incoming of gold with reference to tliese 
 markets was greatly in our favour. But was this ratio 
 to exist for ever ? If we were to depend solely upon 
 our manufactured articles for the money spent in the 
 consumption of corn, was not this an argument rather 
 that these manufacturers, the source of this wealth, 
 should be efficiently protected ? There could be no 
 doubt of the actual existence of an evil at the time 
 when Sir Eobert Peel was called upon to put the legis- 
 lative engine into work ; but if this eminent politician 
 was not sure of the ultimate as well as the immediate 
 effects of the principle of free trade, he may with truth 
 be condemned as having cured one evil by means of a 
 larger source of misfortune to the country ! 
 
 And this leads to the discussion of the morality of 
 Sir Eobert Peel's action, which may be called in ques- 
 tion on very different grounds. 
 
 He must have been assured that, however firmly and 
 however sincerely he was newly wedded to the doctrine 
 of free trade, the party, of which he was the once trusted 
 chief, was as sincerely and as steadfastly devoted to the 
 principle under which the trade and commerce of the 
 
90 FREE TRADE. 
 
 country had grown to its present vast magnitude. It 
 was not as if the opinion of the majority of the Conser- 
 vative party were of small moment, and not representa- 
 tive of very large and very important national interests. 
 Sir Eobert Peel knew as well as any other politician of 
 the time that the party of protection, as it was called, 
 represented by no means a powerless division of the 
 community. What, then, was the chief source of his 
 opposition to those interests which had up to the 
 present time been associated with the prosperity of the 
 country ? 
 
 The answer Sir Eobert Peel gives very distinctly and 
 quite frankly. In the previous period of his political 
 career he had been fighting the battles of the van- 
 quished. He had followed in the paths of a natural 
 progress, which was the outcome of a harmony between 
 the various interests of the State. Existing rights he 
 had regarded with a jealous eye ; the agricultural inter- 
 ests of the country could not be disturbed without the 
 infliction of injustice upon a large body of the com- 
 munity. The schemes of abstract politics he had re- 
 jected as opposed in the end to the welfare of the 
 country ; as being arbitrary, because limited to certain 
 conditions in the nature ; and as acting adversely to the 
 interests of surrounding States. 
 
 This was his apology for having been blinded to the 
 reality of a mistake of more than thirty years' standing. 
 But Sir Ptobert was astute enough to apprehend the 
 growth of forces, though he undoubtedly mistook their 
 direction, and to mould liimself to the condition of the 
 times. 
 
 But now, after having confessed an error which cov- 
 
FREE TRADE. 91 
 
 ered by far the largest portion of his official career, he 
 was persuaded by the light of reason that his former 
 path had been in the wrong direction, and this notwith- 
 standing the plain fact that he had had ample means of 
 discovering his error. But the whole of his philosophy 
 underwent a violent change ; and his action proves that 
 he sought political truths only in the foundations of 
 abstract principles. Some extraordinary alteration 
 must have attended the mental structure of the man 
 who asserted, with the full conviction that he would 
 be believed, the falsehood that " competition increases 
 wages." 
 
 The plausible reasoning, however, of the free-traders 
 overcame what remained of the solid judgment of the 
 Prime Minister and Sir James Graham, the ablest, per- 
 haps, of his colleagues. It likewise prevailed over the 
 Duke of Wellington ; and this is the more remarkable, 
 as free trade was supposed to express the sentiment of 
 the people. In the astounding benefits which the free- 
 trade principle, in the hands of these enthusiasts, was 
 to confer upon the country. Sir Robert Peel and his 
 colleagues for a while lost the use of the faculty of 
 anticipation. The immediate action of the principle 
 was painted in the brightest colours; but the remote 
 effects were unconsidered, were dim, therefore, and left 
 for time to develop ! 
 
 Impelled by a popular movement, of which he took 
 advantage, and thus attracted to a hypothesis to 
 which he had not given a suflicient critical attention. 
 Sir Robert, with some obvious reluctance, which he 
 evidences in many of his speeches, played over the 
 part which had already become familiar to him. For 
 
92 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the second time lie abandoned his party ; and, if for no 
 other reason, he has justly earned his place in history 
 as the only politician in whom this instance of double 
 apostasy can be traced. In the Eoman Catholic Eelief 
 Bill Sir Robert Peel's individual power was not suffi- 
 cient to enable him to cast aside the trammels of party 
 principles. He maintained his true opinion, therefore, 
 in political silence : there was no course left open for 
 him, if he were still to aspire to office, but deceit. In 
 the Eepeal (Corn Law) Bill, however, he was suffi- 
 ciently powerful, he thought, to dispense with ordinary 
 party obligation, and he effected this, supposing that, 
 when in authority, the manly course to pursue was to 
 expose his true opinions, " after he had carefully con- 
 cealed them for a certain length of time." Such 
 breaches of faith between a leader and his party are 
 certainly not desirable; and is it in accordance with 
 the foundation of representative government that so 
 arbitrary an action on the part of a leader of the House 
 of Commons should be possible ? Tor, passing by the 
 lesion of political faith which such conduct entails, it 
 can only be characterised, when looked at from the 
 view of subsequent apostasies to which the initial ex- 
 ample gives rise, as a noxious precedent, which to know 
 is to avoid. 
 
 What was the attitude of the protectionists ? They 
 were sound in their principles and sincere in their 
 attachment to them. They attempted fairly, with the 
 means at their disposal, to resist what they regarded 
 as a violent, and eventually a destructive, innovation in 
 the commercial system of the nation. 
 
 It is true that the feeling of the times was strained, 
 
FREE TRADE. 93 
 
 and oftentimes showed itself in undue excitement and 
 outrage. But is the statesman always to be guided by 
 the enthusiasm of a mob, and especially in the present 
 case, where the earlier movements of the people were 
 opposed to those of the leaders of the free-trade agita- 
 tion, and where the labourers were finally gained over 
 by the promise of future aggrandisement ? Are all 
 the interests of the country to be governed by those 
 measures which relate to the success and unwholesome 
 overgrowth of one only ? Is the welfare and the liveli- 
 hood of a relatively small part of the community to be 
 sacrificed in order that the largest body may be placed 
 in a position of comparative ease and comfort, and this, 
 so far as the free-traders themselves could foresee, for a 
 short time only ? 
 
 What species of legislation is this ? To make the 
 countryman jealous of the town ; to introduce the 
 source of his desertion of the soil; to sacrifice the 
 interests of agriculture, and thus directly to disturb 
 the constant produce of the land, and thereby to inter- 
 fere with the normal conditions of labour in neighbour- 
 ing cities, the chief effect of which is seen in the re- 
 duction of wages. In a word, what is it to increase 
 the tendency w^hich arises from natural causes to dis- 
 contentment and distress? which, indeed, would now 
 no longer be localised to one particular branch of in- 
 dustry, but will spread by degrees and cumulatively 
 over the length and breadth of the land, affecting all 
 trades and deranging all commerce ! 
 
 It is of value to revert to the arguments which Sir 
 Eobert Peel adduced to strengthen his position with 
 reference to the Corn Laws in 1846. After referring 
 
94 FREE TRADE. 
 
 to the recurring inconsistencies of Mr Huskisson and to 
 the original opinion of Lord John Eussell in 1822, that 
 the free admission of foreign corn into this country 
 would act in no other than a disastrous manner to our 
 agriculture, he avers that it is not from observation 
 alone, nor from the results of the experiment which 
 had been partially conducted during the last three 
 years, that the idea arose to react so strongly in favour 
 of free trade, but from a large and comprehensive view 
 of the situation — comprehensive only in the sense of 
 its extension over a wide field at the particular time, 
 not with respect to its subsequent operation over a 
 period of years — that he has been constrained to alter 
 his sentiments affecting the Corn Laws. 
 
 When the subject was rationally considered in 1845 
 and 1846, there could be no difference of opinion as to 
 which side the truth lay ! Are we then to infer that 
 the subject was not treated rationally before the acces- 
 sion of Sir Eobert Peel to power, but that it was re- 
 garded, from the selfish point of view, as a means of 
 stepping to power ? 
 
 But it might have been replied to this, seemingly 
 the final statement of the case on the part of Sir 
 Eobert Peel, — Suppose, instead of taking a superficial 
 examination of the two cases, of fresh meat and of 
 corn, and arguing from general grounds which are un- 
 warrantable, you make a minute and detailed compari- 
 son between them — suppose you draw tlie comparison 
 between their ultimate effects — what grounds of like- 
 ness will you then perceive in their opposite instances, 
 as bearing upon the general theory of free trade, when 
 adapted to the interests of the country ? And where 
 
FREE TRADE. 95 
 
 no parallel exists between them — and this is confessed 
 — would it not be the manly course to assume (and this 
 Sir Eobert Peel ascribed to himself in his speech on 
 the subject, to clear himself of the charge of incon>, 
 sistency) to point out the differences, to expose the- ' * 
 fallacies, and to guard the country's trade from running 
 along a theoretical and unconditional path ? 
 
 Sir Eobert changed his views ; were the chances of 
 his being on the side of the general progress of the 
 nation thereby increased, for the grounds of the altera- 
 tion were certainly insufficient to convince the merest 
 reasoner that he was replacing a wrong by a right 
 direction ? 
 
 Why not, if he had already conducted the commer- 
 cial affairs of the country under the system of protec- 
 tion, continue them in the face of a false opposition, 
 which was to be met with a fierce and unyielding atti- 
 tude, and with arguments which would comprise not only 
 the present difficulties of the situation, but the whole 
 of the future of our commercial relations ? Why should 
 the future of a nation be sacrificed for the present ? 
 
 It is not difficult to unravel the grounds upon which 
 Sir Robert Peel based the reversal of our hitherto 
 ordinary commercial system. Having at first tempor- 
 ised and attempted to conciliate all parties, and hoping, 
 with the greatest probability, to escape the final adjust- 
 ment of the Corn Laws, having solved for the time 
 being the problem of the national finances, and hav- 
 ing laid down an income-tax from which there was 
 no prospect of removal, except in the extraordinary 
 and continued consumption of luxuries, and now sur- 
 rounded by the increasing tide of a popular agitation, 
 
96 FREE TRADE. 
 
 which had reached a state of fury, and with a famine 
 close at hand, Sir Eobert, in order to extricate himself 
 from the difficulties which might possibly overwhelm 
 him, measured all these elements in their relative 
 magnitude and value, seized the opportunity of the 
 predicted famine to satisfy the clamour of those who 
 were crying out for free trade, and endeavoured, by 
 these means, to appease the alarmed Conservative 
 party by appearing as if he had been constrained by 
 the adverse phenomena of nature to divert his course ! 
 
 The legislation of Sir Eobert Peel was thus ex- 
 pedient; and the most dangerous ground of principle 
 and custom was the site where the tentative experi- 
 ment was to be made. The most popular politician in 
 the country was compelled, owing to the exigencies of 
 surrounding circumstances, to hazard the future des- 
 tinies of the nation upon the die of expediency ! 
 
 The course of events subsequent to the rupture of 
 Sir Robert Peel with the Conservative party shows the 
 determination with which he pursued his policy. To 
 the Whig party, now openly professing the doctrines 
 of free trade in corn, he gave the opportunity of put- 
 ting the theory into practice. But Lord John Eussell, 
 who had sounded the knell of protection in his Edin- 
 burgh letter of November 1845, was unable to form an 
 administration. The consequence was, that Sir Eobert 
 Peel, after a formal resignation, reassumed the govern- 
 ment of the country. 
 
 At this time there appear to have been two possi- 
 bilities that might have been embraced, owing to the 
 peculiar circumstances of the period — thus, the Parlia- 
 ment might have been dissolved, or there might have 
 
FREE TRADE. 97 
 
 been a temporary coalition formed between the Peelites 
 and the Whig party, with a view to the settlement of 
 the question. 
 
 There was good ground for a dissolution, for doubt 
 upon the subject of the Corn Laws extended throughout 
 the country, and it is certainly consonant to the spirit 
 of our free constitution that the constituencies should 
 have the direct means of expressing their sentiments 
 upon the measure in dispute. But it seems to be the 
 fashion of reformers to obtrude their own ideas of re- 
 form before a people, and rather to impress them with 
 its necessity than to gather the true development of 
 the popular wish. Sir Eobert Peel did not follow this 
 course ; and had it been on a subject that was not so 
 intimately associated with the domestic concerns of the 
 people, the justice of his action or that of any other 
 politician would not be within range of being con- 
 demned. But where the general interests of the 
 country are at stake, it is but justice that each individ- 
 ual interest of the nation should have the opportunity 
 afforded to it to express its opinion on matters which 
 are directly associated with its welfare. But such an 
 opportunity was not granted. The feeling of the coun- 
 try was taken to be what it was represented as being, 
 and it is not difficult to imagine how bias may exag- 
 gerate. If the feeling of the country was wholly on 
 the side of free trade, it was because free-trade rhetors 
 abounded, not because the people reasoned. There 
 was thus an evident source of making an erroneous 
 observation, which it was the part of a prudent poli- 
 tician to remove. There was the simple remedy of 
 appealing to the polls, but Sir Eobert relied upon the 
 
 G 
 
98 FREE TRADE. 
 
 efficacy of hypothetical argument and a false account, 
 and hence by this conduct failed to exclude a very 
 probable source of error. 
 
 But to the coalition there were strong objections. 
 For not only would there be considerable difficulty in 
 harmonising the petty jealousies and dislikes among the 
 chiefs of parties ; but the idea of a " coalition " raised up 
 at once incongruity and disgust. . The disastrous coali- 
 tion, on a similar occasion, of the parties of Lord North 
 and Charles James Fox, would be called to mind, with 
 its pernicious results. But the strongest objection of 
 all was, that a coalition defeats the end of government 
 by party system, and that departure from the ordinary 
 conduct of affairs is liable to be followed by dangerous 
 consequences, it may be, to a subsequent generation. 
 
 However distasteful such a coalition must have been, 
 the fact remains that the policy which Sir Eobert Peel 
 pursued amounted, though not nominally, yet virtually 
 to the same thing. For in the critical and extraordi- 
 nary position of a chief without a party, and entirely 
 dependent for support upon those whom he had previ- 
 ously counted amongst his adversaries. Sir Eobert Peel 
 elected to continue the Government, with the express 
 purpose of consummating his commercial reforms. 
 
 And under these strange and almost incredible con- 
 ditions, the Prime Minister of England succeeded, with 
 the adventitious assistance of the Prince Consort of the 
 realms, in repealing those very Corn Laws for which 
 he had so long and so tenaciously pleaded. 
 
 Thus Sir Eobert Peel almost completed that series of 
 reforms which he had, but in appearance only, so auspi- 
 ciously commenced. 
 
FREE TRADE. 99 
 
 The consequences of his action were well known to 
 him, and yet the possibility cannot but be entertained 
 that Sir Kobert, by thus accomplishing in so strange a 
 fashion, and contrary to the foundations of popular gov- 
 ernment, the supposed desire of the people, expected, 
 as his reward, to be borne again to power, but on this 
 occasion, properly on the shoulders of the people. 
 
 If such an opinion were embraced, and if Sir Eobert 
 imagined that he might be able to construct a new 
 party on a new basis, there can be no doubt that he 
 arrogantly overrated liis individual influence and popu- 
 larity in the country, and tlie thought that these are 
 insecure should have led him to weigh well the meas- 
 ure he was about to adopt. 
 
 He fell ; and with his second apostasy, all hope was 
 for ever excluded of again acceding to power. 
 
 Then the fallen statesman took up the attitude of the 
 man who had been vanquished in a just cause. But he 
 won the cause, though this had wrought his ruin. And 
 now hear him proudly and defiantly exclaiming that 
 power to him was nothing except as a means of pro- 
 moting the good of the State, and in especial, the wel- 
 fare of the labouring classes. To these he looked for 
 the meed of praise denied to him in another direction. 
 And to posterity he left the merit of his disinterested 
 and generous measure 1 
 
 But was Sir Eobert Peel unconscious of having acted 
 adversely to the interests of agriculture ? The answer 
 is found in the abatement of rents which the fallen 
 Premier immediately made to the tenants on his large 
 estates. 
 
 The new elections were in favour of the Wliigs by a 
 
100 FREE TRADE. 
 
 small majority ; but the course of commercial reform 
 was continued under the segis of Sir Eobert Peel ; and 
 with the bitterest taunts from the protectionists, Sir 
 Robert enabled the Whig Minister to proceed to the 
 iinal completion of the reform of our commercial tariff. 
 
 10. Comparison hehveen Pitt and Peel. — The action of 
 Sir Eobert Peel with reference to the sense of Parlia- 
 ment and the country, respecting the Corn Laws, may 
 perhaps be best compared with the action of the Hon. 
 William Pitt in 1784. There had been considerable 
 agitation throughout the country regarding the East 
 India Bill of Mr Fox ; and on this measure the Admin- 
 istration of Lord North and Mr Fox, commonly called 
 the Coalition Ministry, was thrown out by the adverse 
 vote of the House of Lords, after its second reading. 
 Mr Fox claimed the support of the Parliament and the 
 sympathies of the people. The latter was open to much 
 doubt ; of the former there could be no question. But 
 the Parliament in this case was a corrupt assembly, 
 enslaved by the extraordinary eloquence and ambition 
 of an unscrupulous leader. Mr Pitt was well aware of 
 the opposition with which the Parliament viewed him ; 
 and though the Ministry of the young Premier suffered 
 defeats in succession, he chose rather to weather the 
 storm inside the House than place the nation at a dis- 
 advantage by a new election. For the dissolution of 
 the Parliament was at hand ; and Mr Pitt had received 
 sufficient evidence of the support of the people, by the 
 numerous petitions which had been placed on the table 
 of the Commons in his favour. By such conduct would 
 he tend to weaken the position in the country of the 
 
FREE TRADE. 101 
 
 party of his adversary ; for thus time would be afforded 
 to convince those who were capable of an impartial 
 judgment of the unconstitutional nature of Mr Fox's 
 legislation. 
 
 Thus Mr Pitt withstood the onslaught of the Opposi- 
 tion, while the sympathies of the people were gradually 
 being elicited in his favour. He stood upon the ground 
 of justice and right, and by these weapons was his 
 victory to be won. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, on the contrary, though opposed by 
 the majority of the party which he had deserted, might 
 possibly, with the assistance of his quondam opponents, 
 succeed in effecting his measure in the teeth of a hostile 
 opposition in the Commons. 
 
 In the case of Mr Pitt, the contrary sense of Parlia- 
 ment was obvious ; in that of Sir Eobert Peel it was 
 sufficiently large and respectable enough not to be 
 despised. 
 
 Mr Pitt had nearly the whole of the country with 
 him, whereas Sir Robert Peel mistook the agitation of 
 a part of the community to represent the desire of the 
 nation. 
 
 Moreover, the position of Mr Pitt had been equal 
 and consistent throughout : Sir Robert Peel's had been 
 marked by inconsistency ; for he had opposed, before, 
 the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, a measure in 
 itself wise, and based upon a large and comprehensive 
 statesmanship. At the present he was reversing what 
 had been a cherished policy for the last twenty years ; 
 was, therefore, such an inconstant behaviour likely to 
 impress those favourably who regard a steady and uni- 
 form progress to be the chief feature in the career of a 
 
102 FREE TKADE. 
 
 politician ? This turncoat incident, however truly it 
 may have been based upon the discovery of a supposed 
 error w^hich it had taken nearly thirty years to detect, 
 must have reacted adversely to the prospects of Sir 
 Eobert Peel, for many would look upon him as having 
 for the largest part of his official career acted contrary 
 to sense and contrary to right. 
 
 Both Mr Pitt and Sir Eobert Peel conscientiously 
 held the interests of their country in their hands. But 
 Mr Pitt maintained existing rights, and opposed only 
 the seditious and those who raised up unconstitutional 
 measures in the State. Mr Fox's Bill was for the re- 
 formation of the government in India. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel, on the contrary, in his efforts to 
 advance the prosperity of the country, disturbed the 
 possession of existing rights prescribed by Act of Par- 
 liament. He set his face directly against the whole of 
 the agricultural interest of the kingdom. 
 
 Both were surrounded by circumstances wiiich had 
 an eminently dangerous tendency. Mr Pitt was as- 
 sailed by the boisterous and vapid rhetoric of a politician 
 who strove to play the part of a demagogue. Sir Eobert 
 Peel was confronted by an agitation which sought to 
 identify the interests of manufacture with the interests 
 of the nation. 
 
 Mr Pitt's action was directed against a measure 
 which, if it became law, would place more power than 
 was justifiable in the hands of an individual who was 
 the subject of his king. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel's action, on the other hand, regarded 
 without misgiving the introduction of a principle which 
 was to enrich disproportionately the merchants of the 
 
FREE TRADE. 103 
 
 country, and thus to rapidly and unduly advance their 
 importance in the State. But the consequences of the 
 actions of the statesman and politician were widely 
 different. Mr Pitt by his attitude tended to weld the 
 forces of the State into one homogeneous whole, Sir 
 Eobert Peel directly effected their disruption. 
 
 However slight may be the comparison between the 
 respective positions of these leaders of their parties, 
 they both offer a perfect agreement in the arbitrary 
 character of their procedure. In the moral conse- 
 quence of Mr Pitt's action there is nothing to condemn. 
 The Parliament which he defied was a corrupt Parlia- 
 ment ; and he is treated leniently by Mr Burke when 
 the latter compares Mr Pitt's action of 1784 with Mr 
 Fox's of 1793. The conditions which Mr Pitt found 
 were not those of the ordinary course of events ; the 
 rej^resentatives in Parliament had deserted the cause of 
 their constituents ; and thus an extraordinary course 
 had to be adapted to the new state of affairs. To blame 
 Mr Pitt as having acted unconstitutionally is to blame 
 him in name only. Nor is the corrupt assembly of Mr 
 Pitt's time ever likely to come into existence again. 
 But Sir Eobert Peel has left an example which it would 
 be unenviable to follow. He arbitrarily introduced a 
 measure on a subject which it was universally sup- 
 posed would be left untouched by the Parliament of 
 1841-46. His party was taken unawares by such an 
 action, and the country had to witness the deplorable 
 spectacle of a chief deserting the body of his party. 
 
 But it was for the good of the country ! Why 
 then did he not leave this question to be settled 
 by that party which had embraced the theory of free 
 
104 FREE TRADE. 
 
 trade, when it was strong enough to effect the al- 
 teration ? 
 
 Did not Mr Pitt leave the vexed question of the re- 
 form to be applied to the East India Government to a 
 new Parliament, elected under the most advantageous 
 circumstances for eliciting the wishes of the people ? 
 
 Why did Sir Kobert Peel so strongly desire to repeal 
 the Corn Laws? Because he was impelled by the 
 motive of becoming adored by posterity I 
 
 But the sources of error which Mr Pitt successfully 
 excluded were left open by Sir Eobert Peel. Even 
 Sir Eobert might have imagined the free-trade agita- 
 tion to have been exaggerated, as it certainly was. 
 Were any measures taken to ascertain whether there 
 was exaggeration and misrepresentation ; and how 
 much ? Is the impulse of the mob always directed 
 into the channel of right ? And in the present in- 
 stance, when popular enthusiasm wa^ dependent upon 
 the teaching of agitators, what means were used to 
 ascertain whether such teaching was based upon sound 
 principles, and not upon interested motives either of 
 the merchant or the visionary ? 
 
 By grasping the opportunity which was before him 
 of appealing to the country. Sir liobert Peel would 
 thus have precluded the possibility of an adverse criti- 
 cism ; of having legislated in haste, and without due 
 regard to the full merits of the measure he was 
 adopting. 
 
 Has not the country the riglit to express its senti- 
 ments upon a policy which is bound up with the well- 
 being and prosperity of its inhabitants ? But no such 
 right was admitted by Sir Ptobert. He alone was the 
 
FREE TRADE. 105 
 
 judge. And upon his judgment the fate of the nation 
 depended ! And what were the conditions under which 
 the judgment of Sir Kobert Peel was formed ? A fam- 
 ine in Ireland, which was looming in the distance ; and 
 the fact that Lord John Russell had thrown up the idea 
 of a fixed duty on corn. The time had come when Sir 
 Eobert Peel was being outbidden by the Whigs; the 
 contingency of a famine in Ireland offered a pretext of 
 applying extraordinary measures to critical times. 
 
 So long as the Whigs were on the side of protective 
 duties on the admission of foreign corn, so long did Sir 
 Eobert continue his conscientious scruples in favour of 
 agriculture ; but these being removed, and the race for 
 popularity commencing. Sir Robert, with his well-known 
 avidity, desired all the honour and the glory for his 
 own. To retain a fleeting popularity, he was com- 
 pelled to sacrifice the welfare of a relatively important 
 though small industry of the country I 
 
 11. The nature of Sir Robert PeeVs action, — To under- 
 stand fully the motives which formed the foundation of 
 Sir Robert Peel's conduct in 1845-46, we must take a 
 retrospective glance of a former epoch in his political 
 career. For the antecedents of a man's conduct are 
 of paramount importance in the display of a present 
 action. 
 
 When Mr Canning, with sentiments disposed to the 
 favourable settlement of the Roman Catholic question, 
 succeeded to power in 1827, Mr Peel refused to join 
 his Ministry, on the ground that the Cabinet ought to 
 be united on the burning dispute of the day. It has 
 subsequently come to light tliat Mr Peel had expressed 
 
106 FREE TRADE. 
 
 an opinion in 1825 that Catholic emancipation ought to 
 be conceded. His position, therefore, with regard to 
 Mr Canning arrives at the juncture of a self -contra- 
 dictory action with the continuance in power under a 
 leader of whom he was envious. That there had been 
 a feeling of rivalry between Mr Canning and Mr Peel 
 was well known at the time ; but Mr Canning, by the 
 aid of his more brilliant faculties, had outstripped Mr 
 Peel in the race for the Premiership. What grounds, 
 therefore, could there possibly be, in the case of an open 
 and disingenuous mind, for any further animosity be- 
 tween them ? 
 
 Mr Peel, however, though beaten, and remaining ill- 
 disposed towards his more favoured rival, still sought 
 some plausible excuse which would relieve him from 
 the unpleasantness, not of acting with Mr Canning, 
 for they had already been colleagues in the Liverpool 
 Ministry, but under him in a subordinate position. 
 
 So that Mr Peel chose the ground of the Catholic 
 question as that which was to separate their future 
 careers. 
 
 But that there was something underlying this appa- 
 rently genuine source of difference between Mr Canning 
 and Mr Peel is evident in the feeling at the time, that 
 the latter had not acted generously to his former col- 
 league; and that Mr Peel and his friends greatly added 
 to those anxieties which terminated in Mr Canning's 
 premature decease. 
 
 The incident is adduced to prove, how, in affairs even 
 of the highest importance, Mr Peel was impelled by 
 the obstinacy of his nature to seek his own individual 
 aggrandisement, even at the sacrifice of the interests of 
 
FREE TRADE. 107 
 
 the State. In this Mr Peel acted as his selfish disposi- 
 tion dictated, animated by liatred which he bore to a 
 rival, who he persuaded himself to believe was his 
 inferior in talent and ability. 
 
 It is possible that Mr Peel's career at the Home Office, 
 having won for him extravagant praise, may have re- 
 acted with undue impression upon an able and persever- 
 ing man. But there is a distinction, and one of vast 
 importance, between the power of administering and the 
 capacity to originate. And it is a curious observation 
 that, during the whole of his official career, it was Sir 
 Kobert Peel's misfortune never to originate, but his 
 merit to adapt measures previously constructed by 
 others to the supposed requirements of the country. 
 It was thus with regard to the regulation of the cur- 
 rency in 1819, when Mr Peel took up the propositions 
 of Mr Francis Horner, which before he had despised, 
 and witli respect to those ameliorations in our com- 
 mercial code already commenced by Sir James Mackin- 
 tosh. And now, in 1842, when Sir Robert Peel began 
 the work of reform in the commercial tariff, the lines 
 upon which he was to act had already been laid down 
 for him. What the country was to gain on one side by 
 the introduction, and partial operation at first, of the 
 principle of free trade. Sir Robert was to gain on the 
 other by applause for his financial ability, and by the 
 contrast whicli his scheme offered to the miserable 
 results of his Whig opponents. 
 
 But between 1842 and 1846, and previously to 1842, 
 the free-traders had promulgated the same doctrines 
 and deduced the same results as those which appealed 
 to the intellect of Sir Robert Peel in 1845 and 1846 ! 
 
108 FREE TRADE. 
 
 It must have been something marvellous, amounting 
 almost to miraculous, which thus suddenly converted 
 the Prime Minister's notions of a commercial principle 
 to an abstract hypothetical doctrine ! 
 
 But there was an agitation abroad, and it is of im- 
 portance to remark this, inasmuch as the opportunity 
 was afforded of acting presumably with the consent, 
 and directly for the interests of the people at large. 
 
 There was prevalent throughout the northern counties 
 of the kingdom an opinion that free trade was advan- 
 tageous to the prosperity of the manufacturing element 
 of the community. This opinion had gradually been 
 diffused, from the fountain-source in the manufacturers 
 themselves, even to the very dregs of the populace. 
 Those now out of employment would, with the intro- 
 duction of the new principle, succeed in obtaining 
 work. Now the Whigs had up to the present been 
 on the manufacturing side, and had advocated in Par- 
 liament considerable relaxations in the Corn Laws, till 
 Lord John Eussell in 1841 pronounced his verdict in 
 favour of a fixed duty. 
 
 While, therefore, the opposite party entertained such 
 an opinion. Sir Eobert could continue to smile upon 
 one side of the House and to threaten the other. 
 
 But the unlucky moment arrived when the leader 
 of the Opposition, after mature consideration of the 
 affairs of the nation, reversed his previous decision, and 
 unreservedly proclaimed the absolute necessity of free 
 admission of corn into this country. The position of 
 Sir Ptobert Peel then became a critical one. The oppo- 
 site party was in favour of the total repeal of the Corn 
 Laws ; Sir Eobert still held a restriction on the admis- 
 
FKEE TRADE. 109 
 
 sioii of corn. And here there seems to open up the 
 explanation of Sir Robert's course, and of what had 
 passed in his mind and been uttered by him previously. 
 Up to 1845, the speeches which he made on the subject 
 of the Corn Laws were all in favour of continuing tlie 
 restrictive duty. Existing rights, he iterated, ought 
 always to be respected. But in the instance of the 
 introduction of a new principle, this should take place 
 by degrees, in order that the conditions of surround- 
 ing circumstances may become gradually adjusted to 
 its action. 
 
 Is it possible to suppose that during all these years 
 Sir Eobert Peel was in reality entertaining in private 
 the value and beneficial influence of a principle which, 
 by reason of party ties, he was, or thought he was, 
 prevented from admitting in public ? 
 
 But let us compare Sir Eobert Peers speeches against 
 the emancipation of the Eoman Catholics, up to 1829, 
 with his opinion privately expressed in 1825 ; and his 
 speeches on the necessity of retaining the Corn Laws 
 with the admissions which he makes throughout, to- 
 wards the eve of the solution of the problem, on the 
 probable results of the operation of a new principle. 
 
 Are we to believe that Sir Eobert Peel was virtually 
 a free-trader at heart while he was fighting the battles 
 of the protectionists in corn ? 
 
 And was he but awaiting an opportunity when he 
 could, with the least danger to his own prospects, sur- 
 rounded as they were by dangers on all sides, proclaim 
 the new principle with regard to corn, and thus end a 
 prolonged and deplorable game in domestic policy, in 
 which he had been and still continued the chief player ? 
 
110 FREE TRADE. 
 
 As Sir Eobert Peel drew no distinction between the 
 importation of various articles, as he seems to have 
 regarded the principle as sound in its general bearings, 
 and stayed not to inquire what were the particular 
 exceptions which forbade its indiscriminate application, 
 when Lord John Eussell had come to advocate the 
 cause of manufacture in his progress to the helm of 
 the State, he was left alone to consider the outcome of 
 what was regarded, and he took it to be, an illogical 
 situation. 
 
 Already had the free-trade economists propounded 
 the illogical position of those politicians who admitted 
 fresh meat and live cattle duty free, and yet denied the 
 free admission of the corn on which they were fed. 
 And now there would be the whole weight of the 
 Opposition party to expose still further the unsound- 
 ness of his policy. 
 
 Out of this miserable plight there was no other door 
 open to Sir Eobert Peel but that which led to the 
 abolition of the Corn Laws. But even the view through 
 this was pleasant enough in the prospect, for what he 
 lost in the confidence of the former members of his 
 party he would gain in the favour of the majority of 
 the people. His popularity would still further increase, 
 and he saw a vision of country villagers and town la- 
 bourers resounding with gratitude the name of Peel. 
 
 This would console him for the loss of power, if 
 he chanced to be unsuccessful at the ensuing polls 1 
 
 But even then the shadow of Canning must have 
 clouded his brow. Sir Eobert may have soliloquised : 
 " This measure, I believe, is for the country's good ; 
 but suppose my opponent resists it because it inter- 
 
FREE TRADE. Ill 
 
 feres with his party pretensions and his own individual 
 ambition, what then ? Can I complain ? I refused 
 to give my support to Canning under similar con- 
 ditions ! " 
 
 But there could be no doubt of Lord John Eussell's 
 support in effecting the measure. For the division in 
 the Conservative ranks had opened up to him early 
 aspirations of the advent of office. 
 
 12. The origin of the conflict hetiveen manufacture and 
 agriculture, — We have already seen in a former section 
 how unfavourably the final policy of Sir Eobert Peel 
 contrasted with that of Mr Pitt ; for while the latter 
 statesman strained all his energies to consolidate the 
 forces of the country, the former politician, instead of 
 harmonising, rent still further the breach which had 
 appeared in the future prosperity of rival interests. 
 
 Although asserting that he was converted to the 
 principle of free trade by the light of reason simply, 
 the whole of the official conduct of the Prime Minister 
 between 1841 and 1846 proves beyond doubt that his 
 policy with reference to its introduction was based 
 upon expediency. Such an unstable attitude was un- 
 likely to be associated with a happy condition of the 
 several opposite parties in the State, and it had its 
 evil consequences ; for on a subsequent occasion the 
 cause of the depression of trade was purely out of 
 animosity to Sir Eobert Peel, but erroneously ascribed 
 to the Bank Eestriction Act of 1844; and such was 
 the abnormal excitement induced by this wrong notion 
 in some commercial circles, that in 1847 the Act was 
 suspended by an Order in Council. By this means, 
 
112 FREE TRADE. 
 
 tension was immediately relieved, and the Act remained 
 unbroken ; but still discord was rampant, and showed 
 its existence in ascribing to false and impossible causes 
 the distress under which the country was then suffering. 
 
 The depression of 1837-41 led to the question of its 
 causation. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel's generalisation that a low state of 
 interest and inordinate speculation are the invariable 
 antecedents to a depressed state of the markets, was 
 supplied in order to prove that depression in general 
 was not due to the adverse influence of the operation 
 of the Corn Laws. But this generalisation was exclu- 
 sive of these causes of depression which are without 
 the sphere of man's power. 
 
 It appears just to ascribe these paroxysmal condi- 
 tions in the normal progress of our trade and commerce 
 to the operation of natural causes, some of which can 
 directly be traced to the designs of the human intellect, 
 while others are without the sphere of human action. 
 Thus, deficiency in harvests, when this is due to the 
 inclemency of the seasons, is without the power of 
 man ; while those tendencies to insane speculation 
 can very well be controlled by the appropriate remedy, 
 and its disastrous effects thereby limited in extent. 
 
 Up to the time of Sir Eobert Peel, it had been 
 the opinion of most practical politicians that the exist- 
 ing system, under which the trade and commerce of 
 the country were conducted, was the best under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 Then it was in vain to discuss the merits of a fresh 
 system of things. Under the idea of protection was 
 conveyed the feeling of national self-interest, and by 
 
FREE TRADE. 113 
 
 its influence the monopolies of the country were jeal- 
 ously guarded. Our commercial relations with foreign 
 States were founded upon the basis of reciprocity. 
 In these days the goodwill of statesmen was consigned 
 to the region of probabilities, and mutual obligations 
 formed the means of international commercial inter- 
 course all the world over. 
 
 But in the course of time there appeared a tendency 
 on the part of certain politicians and statesmen to relax 
 a system that seemed to bear with too great a burden 
 upon those nations which supplied us with the larger 
 part of the corn we consumed, on the ground of the vast 
 importance a foreign supply of corn was to this country. 
 
 Of such a disposition was Canning, who introduced a 
 sliding-scale, in order to remove what he conceived to 
 be too stringent an operation of the existing Corn Laws. 
 But this scale was rejected by an enormous majority, 
 nominally on account of the opinion entertained by the 
 leading men that it was not sufficiently protective 
 enough, but really because they considered it undesir- 
 able to tamper with the bulwarks of an important 
 industry of the country. And so was Huskisson char- 
 acterised by a similar though inconstant tendency. 
 But it must not be inferred from tlie limited policies 
 of these eminent statesmen that they were ardent advo- 
 cates of unconditional free trade. They were promul- 
 gators of the doctrine of free trade just in the same 
 way as any comprehensive politician was then, and is 
 now, a free-trader, when all nations agree to be free- 
 traders. But their policy sufficiently proves that they 
 would have unhesitatingly rejected any arrangement 
 which would have eventually a beneficial effect upon 
 
 H 
 
114 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the interests of surrounding nations at the expense of 
 their own. For what relaxations were made during 
 their periods of office were based on the foundation of 
 mutual loss and gain. And the reason why the Corn 
 Laws were the subject of a proper and temperate degree 
 of relaxation was that the alteration would be attended 
 with advantage to the prosperity of the country, because 
 it removed a tendency which, at the commencement of 
 the operation of the Corn Laws, did not act to any 
 serious extent, but which now, after these laws had been 
 in action for some years, appeared in greater force, and 
 had come, in their opinion, to oppose the real intention 
 on which they were constructed. 
 
 In this we again perceive the policy of self-interest. 
 It is curious to notice how former legislators, in their 
 relations with our colonies, acted on the principles of 
 nearer acquaintance and intimacy. Then, colonial corn 
 was not exported to this country to anything like the 
 extent it is usual to see nowadays. 
 
 The vast resources of some of our colonies are being 
 gradually utilised, and it is possible that the framers of 
 this wise reservation in favour of our colonies perhaps 
 foresaw the time when this country would altogether be 
 supplied with the produce of her colonial acquisitions. 
 
 But if such opinions were seriously entertained by 
 those gifted with the faculty of looking ahead, they 
 were disastrously unheeded by the majority of thinkers 
 at the time. 
 
 "What an argument, therefore, can be turned against 
 the hasty legislation of 1845 and 1846 ! But the times 
 were extraordinary, and impending famine demanded 
 that extraordinary measures should be taken ! 
 
FREE TRADE. 115 
 
 The exigencies of the case could, with the greatest 
 ease and confidence, be met by allowing the ports to be 
 open to the admission of foreign corn for a definite time 
 by an Order in Council ; the precedent of 1826 would 
 apply to the instance in point, and permit the free 
 admission of foreign corn on the discretion of the 
 Government for the requisite period. Even in 1846, 
 when the Corn Laws were repealed by Act of Parlia- 
 ment, but were not to be suspended tiU 1849, the ports 
 were opened for six months to meet the special require- 
 ments of the times ! 
 
 It is strange to notice how Sir Eobert Peel came to 
 the conclusion that before their abolition, if he sus- 
 pended for the time being the operation of the Corn 
 Laws, lie would not be justified in reimposing their 
 burden upon the country ! Why not ? He had the pre- 
 cedent of 1826 in his favour; but perhaps he believed 
 that, in the agitated state of the country, the people 
 would not lightly accept the return to the former con- 
 ditions of the importation of corn after the burden of 
 the Corn Laws had once been removed. 
 
 And yet, while they were in the transitionary stage 
 of repeal, the Corn Laws, as they remained in their 
 modified form from the adjustment of 1842, were sus- 
 pended by an Order in Council. What, then, was it 
 that drove Sir Ptobert Peel to this inevitable conclusion ? 
 The agitated state of the times. It was necessary, in 
 his opinion, that the so-called wants of the people — in 
 other words, the free -trade doctrine of the manufac- 
 turers — should be appeased. 
 
 From the attitude of Mr Canning and Mr Huskisson 
 and their school, there cannot be drawn, without intro- 
 
116 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ducing an arbitrariness into the opinion which is foreign 
 to a just contemplation of the facts of the case, the 
 slightest inference that they were on the side of free 
 trade, in the sense that political economists of 1842 
 were free-traders, or that they advocated its uncondi- 
 tional operation. But some few, and especially the 
 Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, extolled the virtues of 
 the principle of free trade in the abstract. The 
 Hon. Mr Villiers was particularly pertinacious in his 
 advocacy of the doctrine. There was not a blessing, 
 however free trade might operate, whether condi- 
 tional or unlimited, that could not be traced up to the 
 fountain of this benign principle ! His annual oration 
 in Parliament became, in the eyes of the protectionists, 
 an annual farce. But soon the majority against his 
 singular views was gradually reduced, and ultimately 
 they reigned supreme. And no doubt can be held of 
 the fact that the position of the Hon. Mr Villiers con- 
 stituted an important link in the antecedent chain of 
 free trade, which proved of the most inestimable service 
 to the cause. 
 
 Whether or not the Hon. Mr Villiers supposed that 
 free trade, acting so beneficially upon the commerce of 
 our own country, would be followed by other nations, 
 is open to considerable doubt ; .but this is certain, 
 Mr Villiers advocated the principle of free trade from 
 the noblest motives. He, unlike Mr Cobden, was 
 purely disinterested in the immediate operation of tlie 
 principle ; he took only a compreliensive survey of its 
 course, though that was imperfect and obscured, and 
 lieralded in its introduction the germ of a constant 
 commercial prosperity of the nation. 
 
FKEE TRADE. 117 
 
 But it may well be inquired, Did Mr Villiers examine 
 into the nature of the after-effects of the progress of a 
 principle which, when once in a condition of full de- 
 velopment and in the possible event when its action 
 might be limited to one country, would be surrounded 
 by dangers in all sides ? For we were to gain by the 
 operation of the principle of free trade. Then who 
 were to lose ? The answer is afforded by the speeches 
 of Sir Eobert Peel! Far greater harm would be in- 
 flicted upon the commerce of other nations by this 
 arbitrary procedure than harm resulting to ourselves. 
 With respect to ourselves, he asserted that " every shil- 
 ling abstracted from consumers by monopolies and pro- 
 tection diminishes the abilities of those consumers to 
 contribute to the exigencies of the State ; " and with 
 reference to the foreigner, *' take off imposts, and then 
 you will be able to contend to greater advantage with 
 your foreign rivals." In the gross, therefore, it was Sir 
 Eobert Peel's opinion that we should be the greatest 
 winners. 
 
 But was such a policy as this likely to attract the 
 admiration and esteem of surrounding nations, the more 
 particularly when they had to bear the initial burden 
 entailed by the limited application of the free -trade 
 principle, and when certain branches of their industry 
 were for the time being crushed, if not destroyed ? 
 
 The Hon. Mr Villiers might have put the question to 
 himself, whether the boasted universal peace which he 
 predicted would follow in the train of free trade, even 
 partially operating, was likely to reach a consummation 
 when it developed, wherever its influence appeared, 
 such deadly feelings in the breasts of foreign peoples ? 
 
118 FKEE TKADE. 
 
 Should he not have shown the way to allay and 
 appease international hatred and hostility on the sound 
 principles which are inculcated in the Gospel, by 
 spreading the Christian doctrine of " loving thy neigh- 
 bour as thyself," rather than o]3ening up new sources of 
 discord and enmity ? For is the usual animosity which 
 is evinced in the business transactions of a single nation 
 likely to disappear when nations are concerned in com- 
 mercial relationship ? 
 
 Still the weight of Mr Villiers's authority was suffi- 
 cient to give an air of respectability to the diffusion of a 
 doctrine of which otherwise it would have sadly been 
 wanting. For a time he stood alone, and pleaded the 
 justice of the cause of free trade with all the ardent 
 feelings of a patriot, whose sentiments alone were asso- 
 ciated with the welfare of his country.^; The Anti-Corn- 
 Law League stood aloof from him. Its members advo- 
 cated free trade from their own selfish point of view. 
 But afterwards, when they sought the assistance of the 
 earnest outspoken champion of free trade, that assist- 
 ance was frankly offered ; and then ensued thereupon 
 the united efforts of disinterestedness on the one side 
 and of self-interest on the other ; for Mr Yilliers viewed 
 the principle of free trade extending far and wide, and 
 erroneously conceived that the future progress of the 
 principle would be as prosperous as its first period of 
 activity, while the manufacturers regarded only the 
 depths of their own pockets. It is true that with their 
 aggrandisement for the time the wages of their labourers 
 would be raised for a corresponding period, and would, 
 on the whole, be more certain for a somewhat longer 
 one; but the extent to which such a beneficial result 
 
FEEE TRADE. 119 
 
 would reach was limited, firstly, in point of numbers, as 
 regards the part of the community to be affected by it, 
 and secondly, in respect to that tract of time during 
 which these immediate benefits would be flowing. 
 
 But the manufacturers themselves had set their 
 hearts on the introduction of the principle of free trade. 
 The conduct of the Manchester Assembly — the centre 
 whence emanated all those forces which acted in favour 
 of the free-trade system — sufficiently proves the narrow 
 motives which guided their conduct. This is shown in 
 the way in which they combated the idea of trans- 
 ferring the main source of action from Manchester to 
 London, for the purely selfish reason that they feared 
 their cause might lose in popularity and strength ; and 
 it belongs solely to the merit of Mr Cobden that he 
 succeeded, after many obstacles were overcome and 
 much patience exhibited, in conferring upon the free- 
 trade agitation the aspect of a metropolitan character. 
 
 What was the action of the Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce with reference to the attitude of Mr George 
 Wood, who was their chairman, and therefore was pre- 
 sumably foremost in the advocacy of the free-trade 
 doctrine ? Mr Wood was selected to second the Address 
 in the session of 1841-42 ; and although in Manchester 
 he was of the opinion that free trade was the sole 
 means of relieving the distress of the country and of 
 deepening the pockets of the Manchester manufac- 
 turers, yet when he was removed from the sphere of 
 narrow and selfish convictions, and was at once sur- 
 rounded with an atmosphere of liberality, which was 
 clouded with the future disasters of so precarious a 
 system, he as well succeeded in demonstrating, to the 
 
120 FREE TRADE. 
 
 admiration of the Peel Ministry and to the satisfaction 
 of Parliament, that the country was in a prosperous 
 condition in spite of the supposed pernicious operation 
 of the Corn Laws, as he showed to the enthusiasts of 
 Manchester that the distress of the country was directly 
 due to the evil action of those laws ! The obvious 
 corollary of which is, that the agitation was thereby 
 proved to be more selfish than ever in its character ; 
 that distress was aggravated, but in speeches only ; and 
 that the nation was in as flourishing condition as the 
 circumstances of the times — be the commercial policy 
 free trade or protection — would allow. 
 
 But, in consequence of this independent expression 
 of opinion, the tone of Manchester, then " Liberal " in 
 its politics, was greatly aggrieved towards Mr George 
 Wood. The Chamber of Commerce was irate; and 
 Mr George Wood was deposed from the position of 
 president. 
 
 What is the probability that many others of the 
 same assembly would have pursued a similar course 
 when removed from the contact of such a deadly virus, 
 the worst possible of all when the general body of the 
 assembly was subject to its insidious influence — the 
 selfish interest of a limb of the body politic, which the 
 free-traders had mistaken for the trunk, leading to an 
 unwholesome congestion, and terminating in a fatal 
 overgrowth, for it thereby nurtured the seed of disease ? 
 
 But the importance of manufacture was inordinately 
 exaggerated ; and as the case permitted it, the progress 
 and development of manufacture was extolled at the 
 expense of agriculture. 
 
 Thus agriculture came to be depreciated. A limb. 
 
FREE TKADE. 121 
 
 and an important one too, of the body politic came 
 thus to be neglected ; and when its circulation was on 
 the verge of being strangulated, was it unlikely that it 
 should die ? 
 
 This opposition between the main branches of the 
 industries of the kingdom being originated in this way 
 — by the selfish attitude of the manufacturers towards 
 those measures which kept up the price of corn, because 
 they interfered with the temporary wellbeing of their 
 labourers — it was not difficult to maintain the flame of 
 passion which blazed amongst tlie respective champions 
 of the antagonistic interests. There was extreme facil- 
 ity in impressing the ordinary merchant with the un- 
 conditional truth of the free-trade doctrine of buying 
 in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest. Nor 
 was there any greater trouble in deflecting the feelings 
 of the common labouring man into that cliannel where 
 he would find his highest account. The previous op- 
 position which lie had exhibited towards his master 
 would now be turned into all the more devoted an 
 adhesion than if he had simply been drawn, in the first 
 instance, to the side of the merchants. Thus, when the 
 labourer was convinced that he had a connnon cause 
 with his master, and that the repeal of the Corn Laws 
 would be altogether for his own advancement and 
 prosperity, it was obvious that the progress of the free- 
 trade agitation in corn, which before had been limited 
 in extent and therefore retarded, would now, with this 
 fresh accession of strength, be greatly increased. 
 
 The agricultural labourers were shown the blessings 
 that would attend them by the application of the new 
 principle to the admission of foreign corn, and the rev- 
 
122 FREE TRADE. 
 
 olution which it would effect in our trade ; and even 
 the farmers were persuaded to believe that their profits 
 would increase when their rents were diminished. 
 
 So diffused had become these false teachings of the 
 Anti-Corn-Law League, and so violent a certain section 
 of the mob in favour of the free-trade system applied 
 to corn, that individual instances of violence and up- 
 roar were not uncommon. The halls where speeches 
 in favour of free trade were delivered, by the insidious 
 means of exposing the faults and supposed injustice of 
 tlie policy of protection — and what system is free from 
 faults ? — were filled to overflowing, by a populace gen- 
 erally inflamed by the sophistical tricks of an ignorant 
 eloquence. 
 
 Free trade — indeed ! — would deliver them from those 
 burdens under which they imagined, by being taught to 
 believe, that they were groaning ! Free trade was the 
 means — the only means — of for ever abolishing war 
 from the face of the earth, and of diffusing peace and 
 goodwill throughout all mankind ! But most of all, 
 the nation would be prosperous under the unrestricted 
 operation of the free -trade principle, and not only 
 prosperous for a time, but its prosperity was always 
 to continue ! On these foundations were the harangues 
 constructed. It was easy enough for the merchant to 
 anticipate that the abolition of the Corn Laws would 
 render the condition of his labourers far more satis- 
 factory relatively than it had ever been before, and 
 convert the possibility of his accumulating a large 
 fortune into a certainty. The difficulty, however, of 
 foreseeing the ultimate results of so vast a disturbance 
 was not encountered, and hence the masters were con- 
 
^ 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 tented with a view which was restricted to the iie^« / < 
 
 future. ^^i^J^i^^l-r^Ji^ 
 
 But feeling must be aroused : as it is impossible that 
 a movement shall spread throughout a considerable 
 mass by reason alone. A more volatile instrument is 
 needed, and one which can be brought into action 
 readily. Passion must be called forth and kept aflame. 
 And thus the necessary means were devised by which 
 the agricultural class partly, and the landed owners 
 generally, were held up to the excited people as being 
 adverse to the progress of the nation nominally, really 
 of manufacture alone. There were tyrants in the land, 
 who ground down the wages of labour to their lowest 
 point ! 
 
 But what was this progress, of which the free-traders 
 made such a brilliant display? In the eyes of the 
 agricultural protectionists it was an unwholesome pro- 
 gress ; and it was to this kind of false progress — which 
 afforded the shadow only, a mere temporary increased 
 •circulation of the markets, and not the true substantial 
 •element of advancement, which they associated rather 
 with the decline than with the reform of our commerce, 
 as being the unstable and exuberant product of too 
 active a growth — that they directed their steady and 
 fixed opposition ; for they perceived in the agitation of 
 the manufacturers the germ of an undue growth of a 
 single, however much it may have been the most im- 
 portant, branch of our industries, an overgrowth which 
 €ould only be effected by a corresponding diminution in 
 the vitality of another industry. 
 
 But the free-traders, at the instigation of the manu- 
 facturers, identifying themselves with the commercial 
 
124 FREE TRADE. 
 
 prosperity of the nation, and openly proclaiming that 
 England was no longer an agricultural country, pointed 
 to the landowners, who were mainly on the side of pro- 
 tection, as being the mainstay of the high price of bread ; 
 for they argued that the high price of corn is maintained 
 to increase the rents of the farmer, and so to attract 
 more money to the pockets of the lords of the soiL 
 The landowners therefore, and of course the aristocracy, 
 were enriched, that the people and labourers might 
 starve ! And thus the mob were aroused into a sense 
 of the hypothetical injustice which they were suffering 
 at the hands of the lazy and rich. 
 
 By thus appealing to the lowest passions of an angry 
 populace, it was but necessary only that the free-trade 
 rhetors should make use of arguments which were 
 based upon an obvious fallacy, and statements which 
 had their foundations alone in the depths of their often- 
 times luxuriant imaginations. They little perceived the 
 tendency of the change by which they were endeavour- 
 ing to bring about a redistribution of wealth. The vast 
 fortunes of the landowners might, for the nonce, be 
 arrested in their flowing course ; many who were pre- 
 viously enriched might, by these measures, become im- 
 poverished ; but those who pleaded the cause of the 
 new principle as a means of checking the inordinate 
 accumulation of wealth, argued with a strange deficiency 
 of the knowledge of surrounding conditions, for they 
 failed to discover that, in their attempt to effect their 
 object, instead of preventing the gigantic accumula- 
 tion of wealth, they but displaced the sources of that 
 accumulation. 
 
 Suppose the rent of the arable land of the country to 
 
FREE TRADE. 125 
 
 be reduced according to the prognostications of the free- 
 traders — an event which was not of unusual occurrence, 
 and generally it may be stated that the rent of the 
 farmers remained where it was — the value of the town 
 land would proportionately increase with tlie extension 
 of the commerce of the nation. Large offices would be 
 required, and larger still, according to the gradual de- 
 velopment of commercial houses, and prices would 
 increase with the most desirable situation. Here was 
 one source by which the landowners would recoup the 
 loss, if that was to occur, ensuing upon the effect of 
 free trade upon tlie agricultural prospects of the coun- 
 try. But in the meanwhile there would be a greater 
 demand for labourers' dwellings in the manufacturing 
 towns, and these would undergo a corresponding in- 
 crease in development to become adjusted to the re- 
 quirements of a temporarily over-active trade. The 
 law of competition would appear, and tend to drive the 
 rent of the artisan's cottage to its highest point. An- 
 other influence, too, which would react upon this and 
 increase it, was evident in the higher wages, which, for 
 the time, attended the immediate consequence of the 
 introduction of free trade. The labourer would have 
 more to pay for a home increasing in comforts. And 
 thus, if the country landowners were to be the losers 
 by the pernicious effect of tlie free-trade principle upon 
 agriculture, the town landowners would more than re- 
 cover such loss to aristocratic wealth by the additional 
 gain accruing to them from the extension of those towns 
 in which the prosperity of manufacture usually flour- 
 ished. If, therefore, both town land and country were 
 in the possession of a single owner, it is easy to see 
 
126 FREE TRADE. 
 
 that what would be lost in one direction would be gained 
 in another. The free-trade principle, therefore, in many 
 instances, is thus proved to fall short of the original 
 intention of some of its promoters. And was the idea 
 present to these of the possibility of the construction of 
 large commercial fortunes by means of the free-trade 
 principle ? 
 
 It is doubtful whether, from a general point of view, 
 the landowners lost anything of their rent by the appli- 
 cation of the new commercial principle ; and it is cer- 
 tain that an increase to their wealth accrued more 
 rapidly by the immediate stimulus which free trade 
 gave to all our trades and industries than by any other 
 means. 
 
 But what was the baneful effect to be foreseen, and, 
 if possible, avoided, in the dangerous state into which 
 our domestic affairs were engulfed by the free -trade 
 principle ? The rent of the labourers' dwellings was 
 soon raised to the highest point. While this remained 
 constant, the incomings of the labourer were liable to 
 fluctuate ; and when they began steadily to decline, what 
 was open to him but to exchange his better dwelling 
 for one of inferior comforts ? The relationship between 
 the two elements of the amount of rent to be paid, and 
 the ability to pay it, which was kept properly adjusted 
 by the system of protection, w^as now seen to be vio- 
 lently disturbed. Before free trade, the relationship 
 was a true one, and true because based upon a just 
 basis — it was founded on the equable advancement of 
 our trade upon sure and steady lines. But now, while 
 the country is in a state of distress — and the country 
 has been under the severest distress during the opera- 
 
FREE TRADE. 127 
 
 tion of the free-trade principle — and the labourer no 
 longer able to pay the former proportionate share of his 
 wages for the rent of his dwelling, when rent ought 
 to be decreased, it is maintained at a relatively high 
 level, just as the rents of farms after the introduc- 
 tion of the free-trade principle were kept at their pre- 
 vious level ; because it is the opinion of the sanguine of 
 the commercial world that a revival of trade is at hand, 
 and that labour will be again plentiful, and wages reach 
 their former amount. 
 
 But what brought about this sudden increase in the 
 labourers' dwellings ? The principle of free trade. And 
 who are responsible for the misery which the descent 
 from a higher to a lower degree of social conditions 
 entail ? The free-trade entlmsiasts. 
 
 But is the forecast — and a very poor one it appears 
 to be — that a future prosperity awaits labour an ade- 
 quate argument why, in the meanwhile, the labouring 
 man should be unjustly the sufferer of an unequal state 
 of things, of a disordered relationship, brought about 
 immediately by the continued operation of the free-trade 
 principle ? The labourer's son of the present generation 
 groans beneath the burden which the labourer's father 
 of the past age, in a moment of blind enthusiasm — and 
 when is popular enthusiasm not blind ? — bequeathed 
 to them. The steady course of our trade was violently 
 interrupted, and the effects of that violence were trans- 
 mitted to that very relationship of income and expendi- 
 ture, on the proper adjustment of which the happiness 
 of the labouring classes is founded ! 
 
 Are those, then, who advocated protection the cause 
 of this disastrous consequence ? and are the owners 
 
128 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of the soil to be condemned because rents are, owing to 
 the circumstances of distress, unduly high ? But who 
 are responsible for the present disproportion between 
 the amount of rent and the ability to pay it ? Obvi- 
 ously those who predict a near and rapid revival of the 
 present trade-depression, which has existed now for so 
 long a period that it may well be considered whether 
 or not a tendency to decline is its proper attribute. 
 What is the work which the free-traders have done ? 
 Their first object was to cause a rupture in the harmony 
 of natural relations and progressive development ; and 
 after this was completed, and relying upon the con- 
 tinued efficacy of the principle which effected the rup- 
 ture to induce a second reign of prosperity, they ex- 
 tend all their powers to maintain it, to the disadvan- 
 tage of the labourer and to the evil of the State. 
 
 But there are signs of a near revival ! What are 
 they, then ? Sir Eobert Peel, in the time of distress, 
 pointed to distinct causes, the removal of which, he 
 foretold, would be followed by a return of prosperity, 
 and they were. The causation he described completely, 
 and indicated how the revival of trade was to be effected. 
 But in the present day, where are the indications of 
 such a revival, except in the imaginations of enthusiastic 
 free-traders. Not only are there no signs of recurrent 
 prosperity, but the evidence of an imperceptible decline 
 comes daily to be stronger. 
 
 Are the landowners, then, in the face of such expres- 
 sions of opinion on the part of free trade, to be con- 
 demned because they act for their own self-interest ? 
 Does not the free-trader himself act for his own interest, 
 and none other ? 
 
FREE TRADE. 129 
 
 Ay ! but the landowners, in their wealthy position, 
 should relax rents when they become stringent, will 
 the philanthropist cry out ; they should be governed by 
 generous motives, and exercise a benevolent disposition 
 towards their suffering countrymen ! 
 
 Did the free-traders practise these measures when 
 they agitated for the cause of free trade ? Are good- 
 will and charity the springs which regulate the trans- 
 actions of business, either between nation and nation or 
 individual and individual ? 
 
 But the general tendency must be admitted on the 
 part of the landowners to mitigate the hard lot of their 
 suffering tenants in those instances where such acts of 
 cliarity are unlikely to be followed by the growth of 
 indolence. For it can hardly be called a good or a safe 
 system to replace one evil of a certain magnitude by 
 another of a far greater. 
 
 Look at the question in whatever way we may, it 
 is impossible to avoid the truth of the fact that self- 
 interest is the force which guides us in all our commer- 
 cial relations, as the general rule. There may be some 
 exceptions in those peculiar cases where the emergency 
 of the case demands that we shall make a present sacri- 
 fice ; but then, do we not make such a sacrifice in order 
 that we may, at some future time, and when the condi- 
 tions are similar, but against us, be the recipients of a 
 second apparent act of disinterestedness ? 
 
 The"]' result of the free-trade agitation carried on by 
 the Anti-Corn-Law League was patent. Its charms had 
 worked. The people had been aroused into an enthu- 
 siasm, the effects of which it was sometimes impossible 
 to check. The labouring classes were the aggrieved 
 
130 FREE TRADE. 
 
 classes; the agriculturists and landowners, the ty- 
 rants of the nation, who ground the wages of labour 
 down to starving -point, and who directly opposed a 
 mighty obstacle in the progress to more abounding 
 riches, and therefore greater happiness ! 
 
 Was it possible to expose to the inflamed mob the 
 dangers which beset a too rapid progress, — dangers 
 which, if they did not appear in their own days — and 
 it was probable they would in the case of the young — 
 would at any rate certainly attend the lives of their 
 children ? 
 
 But the difference between a healthy and an unwhole- 
 some progress was not to be discriminated. The mere 
 mention of progress in the vapid utterances of a free- 
 trader was received with exuberant applause and de- 
 monstration, as if all progress was good. Nor was it the 
 endeavour of the people, or of those who advocated their 
 consistent and just advancement, to lay bare the hollow 
 nature of the arguments which served the purpose of 
 saluting the appearance of free trade ! The people had 
 their eyes fixed and their attention riveted upon the 
 injustice which the operation of the Corn Laws perpe- 
 trated upon them. They were taught to believe that 
 they suffered, and suffered unjustly. It was a clever 
 trick ! — to divert the enthusiasm of the mob into the 
 channel of the manufacturers' pockets, and to make a 
 nation believe that the prosperity of their country was 
 identified with the welfare of a portion of its inhabi- 
 tants ! 
 
 But the end was attained. By means of the most 
 powerful of forces — passion — the interests of agriculture 
 and manufacture came directly to be opposed ! 
 
FREE TRADE. 131 
 
 13. Criticism of the free - trade fallacy ^ that increase 
 in the price of corn was invariably associated withy and 
 was the cause of rise in rent. — An increase in the price 
 of corn directly tended to consume a larger proportion 
 of the wages of the labourer. But the economists, who 
 saw the welfare of the working classes in the lower 
 price of bread, failed to foresee that other means would 
 be called into existence to absorb the earnings of the 
 labourer ; and that in the alteration they were endeav- 
 ouring to effect, of affording the labourer greater advan- 
 tages for the enjoyment of comforts on the one side, 
 and for saving on the other, they were but introducing 
 a redistribution of his expenditure, without gaining 
 ultimately their desired end. 
 
 Thus the political economists of free trade sup- 
 posed that labour would receive the chief benefit from 
 their reform; and undoubtedly this was the object 
 which many sincerely hoped would be attained by the 
 new system. But the opportunity of gratifying self- 
 interest they neglected. Was it difficult to detect that, 
 under the new arrangement, the masters would use the 
 means of attracting to themselves too large a proportion 
 of the wages of labour ? For though wages would rise 
 with the increased circulation of the markets, they 
 would not be permitted to reach their proportionate 
 level, by reason of the great reduction in the price of 
 bread. Nor does the fact, apparently, seem to have 
 been considered, that in the fresh distribution of the 
 labourer's expenditure the landowners, as well as the 
 masters, would not be without their proper share. 
 
 But let us pursue the same method of arbitrary asso- 
 ciation which the free-traders used in the last age. On 
 
132 FREE TRADE. 
 
 some few particular occasions, an increase in rent coex- 
 isted with a rise in the price of corn. IN'o attempt was 
 made to explain this unfortunate coexistence, nor was 
 the general result of the advance of our industries 
 under the policy of protection accurately deduced, 
 though it was proved by experience, the mistress of all 
 sound conclusions, that the country was never so pros- 
 perous as when rents were high. A comparison, in- 
 deed, might be instituted between what has already 
 happened in the prosperous state of agriculture and 
 what is happening now in the instance of our large 
 commercial institutions. Is not the rent of their offices 
 gradually increased and increasing ? Why ? Because 
 so long as their markets are active, their ability to 
 afford a higher rent becomes greater. But there is no 
 need to inquire into the foundations of a relationship 
 based upon the natural progress of things — a relation- 
 ship which was cruelly ignored by the advocates of free 
 trade. 
 
 Let us proceed to take the case where a low price of 
 bread is associated with low wages. Have these two 
 phenomena been invariably associated ? And are they 
 likely to continue so, if they have been, during the later 
 operation of the free-trade principle ? What is to pre- 
 vent any one from drawing so close a connection be- 
 tween low wages and a low price of bread as shall 
 result in the relationship of effect and cause ? or as col- 
 lateral effects of the same cause ? What will the free- 
 trader reply ? That the inference is unsound, because 
 not drawn from a sufficiently large number of instances. 
 But supposing this association of low wages with a low 
 price of corn has existed for some comparatively long 
 
FREE TRADE. 133 
 
 period, and supposing, from the outlook of trade affairs, 
 the association is probable to continue, what explana- 
 tion has the free-trader to offer ? He will answer that 
 the depression is due to other influences than that of 
 the operation of the free-trade principle. Perhaps he 
 will assume the unenviable position of Sir Eobert Peel 
 on a former occasion ; and while believing in his heart 
 that free trade is the source of all the distress of the 
 country, and the decline in our trade, will be under a 
 moral compulsion of supporting a conclusion whicli he 
 knows to be false, that free trade has no material share 
 in the causation of the present ills of the nation. 
 
 Could there be any doubt that the comforts of the 
 working men would be largely increased, after the im- 
 mediate and unrestricted action of the free-trade prin- 
 ciple ? But luxuries sometimes become necessaries, 
 and in the conversion undergo an increase in price, 
 owing to the ability of the consumer to pay for them. 
 The time would arrive, however, when the surround- 
 ings of the labourer had become adjusted to the dis- 
 turbance in their previous equilibrium — when the cost 
 of various articles having increased, the condition of 
 the working men would not be one tittle any the bet- 
 ter than it was under the old condition of things. 
 
 The conditions which before obtained and tended to 
 the development of thrift and the accumulation of sav- 
 ings are present now, but in no wise improved. Rather 
 the reverse has occurred. For if the disposition to 
 save be absent, no matter how favourable the surround- 
 ing circumstances, there will still remain the tendency 
 to be dissatisfied — a tendency which will not be re- 
 moved even by the continued increase of wages. For 
 
134 FREE TRADE. 
 
 this spirit of extravagance, nurtured by the inordinate 
 rise in wages, depends upon the inability, which by 
 education ought to be repressed, to live within the 
 limits of the powers of one's production. This abil- 
 ity to adjust expenditure to income it is that leads to 
 content and the diffusion of happiness throughout so 
 many families. They are content with what they are 
 able to procure ; their supply exceeds their demand ; 
 and they have the consolation of having a sufficiency to 
 fall back upon in the hour of illness and the time of 
 distress. 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that any permanent beneficial 
 alteration in the labourer's condition was impossible to 
 be effected by a reduction in the price of bread. For 
 the time being the working classes enjoyed the benefit 
 of the disturbance in their slow and equable advance- 
 ment ; but to what evils was the enjoyment of such a 
 temporary prosperity prone to lead ? 
 
 Their relative surroundings, having undergone a spe- 
 cies of convulsion, return to their former state. Their 
 surroundings return to the same condition compara- 
 tively, but not their disposition nor their character. 
 For the immediate effect of the convulsion has been to 
 foster an increase of extravagance, and an attachment 
 to luxuries, which, in the uneducated, when once the 
 taste has been experienced, it is very difficult to repress. 
 
 The free-traders, at the period of the promulgation of 
 their doctrine, whether knowingly or not, refrained not 
 only from pointing out the possible disasters that might 
 attend the course of their principle, but they neglected 
 as well the dangers which involved the spasmodic change 
 in the domestic affairs of the labouring man. On the 
 
FREE TKADE. 135 
 
 contrary, instead of indicating the evils which beset 
 their own system, while they magnified those which 
 belonged to the system of protection — and every system 
 is necessarily bound up with evils — they demonstrated 
 that the price of corn was liable to rise, and at the 
 same time, to suit the statement of their case, they 
 asserted that rent was liable to become increased. But 
 they left out the place of speculation as a force which 
 is capable of effecting the former, and altogether ignored 
 the true causation of the latter. The two factors they 
 associated in their imagination ; and after mature con- 
 sideration, the association became invariable ! When 
 they thought they became restricted to one possibility, 
 they enunciated the problem. What is it that tends 
 to increase rent? And they sought the solution of 
 this question, perplexing to them, in the conclusion 
 drawn from a relationship based entirely upon a hypo- 
 thetical foundation between factors which were con- 
 stantly associated but in their imagination ! Corn was 
 forced to a high price, with what effect ? To increase 
 the rent of the landlords ! 
 
 Thus by a simple fallacy — by means of an arbitrary 
 association, which expresses a relation not existing in 
 the natural course of things — the free-trade economists 
 succeeded in constructing a problem which struck at 
 the position of the landlords in the State ; and by means 
 such as these they eventually created a diversion of 
 public feeling in their own favour. 
 
 It is obvious that so forced an explanation of a natu- 
 ral phenomenon was framed to meet the requirements 
 of a special object. 
 
 But the true statement of the case, however, is widely 
 
136 FREE TRADE. 
 
 different. It is, that rent, like every other element of 
 a similar nature depending upon a complex relation- 
 ship, the components of which are all liable to fluc- 
 tuation, is prone to increase when circumstances are 
 favourable to its rise, and to fall when they are the 
 contrary. Eents used to increase, not because corn 
 was kept at a high price — though it is probable that 
 the farmer tended to keep the price of corn at a high 
 level when the produce of his farm was less abundant, 
 but such occasions were exceptional, and were the out- 
 come of self-interest — but because the total produce of 
 the farm went on increasing. And here the subject of 
 the unproductiveness of the soil may conveniently be 
 introduced. Land, it is well known, tends to become 
 less and less productive when left to its own resources. 
 Eich lands tend to become poor, and poor lands tend to 
 go out of cultivation, when their produce is no longer 
 remunerative to the labour which is bestowed upon 
 them. 
 
 The unproductivity of the soil, therefore, would tend 
 to lower the rent of arable land ; but there are means 
 which have been devised by the ingenuity of man to 
 counteract this evil tendency. With the assistance of 
 artificial manures, the produce of the land is kept at a 
 nominal level, and in some cases is even increased above 
 that level. With such an aid, then, to increase the re- 
 sources of nature, the rents of arable lands would re- 
 main either what they were or would increase. And 
 the latter would be inevitable, if the total produce of 
 the farm was, under favourable circumstances of good 
 seasons and skill, able to be increased. But compare 
 such a state of things with the instance of land going 
 
FREE TKADE. 137 
 
 out of cultivation, not because it is poor — though it is 
 relatively poor as regards the profits to be derived from 
 its careful cultivation — but because surrounding con- 
 ditions are unfavourable to its profitable cultivation. 
 Compare the instances when wheat stood at between 
 73s. and 100s. per quarter, with wheat at 30s. per quar- 
 ter, or a little above it. Can it be considered possible 
 that, under the latter adverse circumstances, the pro- 
 duction of corn in this country can be remunerative ? 
 And if not remunerative, what results ? Good land, 
 able to yield its increase, is forced, by an adverse opera- 
 tion of a principle, out of cultivation, to the disadvan- 
 tage of the State, and the ruin of the farmer's prospects. 
 The chance coincidence of an increased value of farm- 
 property and a rise in the price of corn was erroneously 
 described as cause and effect ! 
 
 On the increase of value of arable land, by increasing 
 the productivity of the soil by means of improved cul- 
 tivation, the question arises : Is the result of such im- 
 provement altogether to go into the pockets of the 
 farmer who adopts, but does not originate, this mode 
 of increasing his resources ? Obviously not ; from such 
 a beneficial result, following upon the labour of a genius 
 foreign to both, the farmer and landowner respectively 
 attach their proportionate shares. For by such a dis- 
 tribution, the present tenant is protected from the 
 competition of his neighbours — by these means is he 
 enabled to retain the farm upon which, perhaps, he has 
 been bred. 
 
 It is therefore from the law of competition, arising 
 from the appearance of those improvements, whether 
 natural or artificial, which chance to enhance the value 
 
138 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of the farm, that rent is increased in amount. And this 
 law of competition appears not only in the case of 
 farms to increase their rent, but also in all those in- 
 stances which are characterised by a similar relation- 
 ship. It is this law which tends to raise the price of 
 city offices, as well as to increase the value of town 
 houses. What, therefore, was practised years ago — 
 because the practice had a foundation in natural pro- 
 gress — in the example of farm-property, but was con- 
 demned, for an especial object, is observed to be the 
 ordinary rule in similar occasions nowadays. Why, 
 then, is not the same arbitrary procedure practised in 
 the present day, with respect to the gradually increas- 
 ing value of city property ? The instances are quite 
 parallel ; the same law pervades both cases. If this law 
 of competition was rudely interrupted in 1845, in the 
 case of country land, why should not the Legislature 
 exhibit the same tendency in this year 1886 with re- 
 spect to town land ? What is it that prevents this per- 
 fectly logical procedure on the part of the deliberative 
 assembly of the kingdom ? Is it the nature of the 
 consequences which were supposed to be governable, 
 and were undoubtedly for a certain period, which im- 
 pelled the movement in 1845, and which prevents the 
 application of the same remedy to-day ? Is it purely 
 a question of political or party expediency ? Such an 
 answer is left to the descendants of the great Whig 
 party, who, perhaps, less wise in experience than men 
 who are concerned in the practical conduct of affairs, 
 are nevertheless older in the art of logical reasoning ! 
 
 But the unworthy action of the free-traders in mag- 
 nifying the importance of a chance coincidence, and 
 
FREE TRADE. 139 
 
 forcibly turning it to their assistance, while they utterly 
 disregarded the slow and steady course of natural 
 growth, is sufficiently exposed. They proclaimed that 
 the landowners used force to raise the price of corn ; 
 but they, with much peculiarity indeed, failed to see 
 the arbitrary force which they themselves employed in 
 the construction of an argument to serve their purpose ! 
 — an argument which had for its object the creation of 
 a relationship which has no constant existence in the 
 natural order of things. How could the free-traders 
 ever hope to reach a secure conclusion, when their 
 treatment of the difficult problem they handled was 
 so imperfect and so partial ? They ascribed but one 
 cause which goes to increase rent; they ignored the 
 complex character of its causation. They despised the 
 influence of speculation, wliich is as prone to affect the 
 corn as well as any of the trade markets of our country ! 
 It is curious to observe that the very force which 
 they excluded actually came into appearance not long 
 after the Corn Laws were repealed ; because the rise in 
 the price of corn went to increase the rent of the land- 
 lords. It was in 1846 and 1847 that, the harvests being 
 generally deficient, corn became relatively scarce, and 
 its price reached a fabulous point. And it may be in- 
 quired, In what way does the free-trade system tend to 
 diminish the possibility of corn reaching as high a price 
 as in 1846, when, as may happen, there may be a defi- 
 ciency in any one or more of the sources of our supply ? 
 Will free trade, in such an unfortunate state of affairs, 
 aid in the reduction of price ? As soon will free-trade 
 destroy the ordinary relation which exists between 
 supply and demand ! 
 
140 FREE TRADE. 
 
 But the event goes to show that if the prognostics 
 of the free-trade economists have not been sufficiently 
 disproved, they have received, at any rate, a serious 
 shock. 
 
 For the condition of the farmers, who were persuaded 
 into the belief that with a diminution in rent they 
 would enjoy an increase in profits — what is it now ? 
 
 Is it true that at the present day small rents go with 
 high profits ? Is it a fact that nowadays small rents 
 are associated wdth diminished profit ; and that farms, 
 without paying any rent at all, can scarcely be worked 
 with profit ? 
 
 But the same fatality attends all the doctrines of the 
 free-traders. Can this be otherwise, when they are 
 based upon erroneous foundations ? when mutual sur- 
 roundings are wilfully unconsidered ? when the law of 
 competition is despised, and when the influence of spec- 
 ulation is ignored ? 
 
 Suppose that, like the free -trade economists, we 
 should take the association of phenomena with which 
 we are now familiar, and argue thus : Low rents and 
 small profits on the one hand, and a low price of bread 
 and small wages on the other, are invariably associated ; 
 therefore, low rents are the cause of small profits, and 
 a low price of bread is the cause of small wages ! What 
 objection can the free-trade economists entertain re- 
 specting this mode of reasoning ? 
 
 14. Besults of the sophistry of the free-trade rhetoric. — 
 The free-trade doctrine, which was nursed in the cradle 
 of selfishness while developing into its manhood, was 
 exposed to the evils of a disease to which it was prone ; 
 
FREE TRADE. 141 
 
 but these were carefully concealed from the public eye 
 by its physicians, who descanted only on the splendid 
 career that was open to its mature growth. Yes — pos- 
 sibly open ! }^>ut surely, if free trade is to attain the 
 plenitude of its glory and prosperity, surrounding cir- 
 cumstances must be favourable to its continued develop- 
 ment. The atmosphere in which it continues to exist 
 must remain free from all these sources that may inter- 
 vene to impede its healthy function. And such is ex- 
 pressed in the event that all foreign nations should 
 agree to become free-traders. Such was the original 
 intention of the founder of the doctrine ; the idea never 
 entered his head that a single nation alone should un- 
 dertake the responsibility of becoming a free - trader ! 
 by which measure so great a source of disturbance 
 would be introduced into the existing mutual harmony 
 of international commercial relations as must essen- 
 tially result in a new distribution of energies, the out- 
 come of all which could not possibly be advantageous 
 to the nation which so arbitrarily interrupted the 
 smooth and equable course of her commerce. It w^as 
 in its early development that the splendid achieve- 
 ments, portrayed by the vivid imaginations of its 
 ardent and enthusiastic protectors, were to happen. 
 But of its mature state nothing was said, because noth- 
 ing was properly anticipated. 
 
 And it is marvellous to relate that even the leaders 
 of the opposite parties in the State were the subjects of 
 perhaps the cleverest piece of logical juggling that has 
 ever been perpetrated on a nation. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel himself assented to the conclusion 
 that the rise in the price of corn went directly to in- 
 
142 FREE TRADE. 
 
 crease rent; and naturally remarked upon the per- 
 nicious tendency of this presumed state of things. 
 Even that astute politician, who entered into the com- 
 plex causation of national distress, and who, after 
 analysing it into its several elements, separated those 
 of a temporary from those of a more permanent dura- 
 tion — though year after year he continued to openly 
 assert that the operation of the Corn Laws did not in 
 any material degree contribute to the national de- 
 pression, till in 1846 he finally abolished the Corn Laws 
 as a remedy to cure the existing distress ; — even Sir 
 Eobert Peel was led into the extremity of supporting 
 the most extravagant and fallacious doctrine that has 
 ever been enunciated in the whole history of political 
 economy ! But we have already observed the expe- 
 diency of Sir Robert Peel's action, and the fact that 
 the repeal of the Corn Laws formed part only of a com- 
 plex system to relieve the general evils of the country. 
 But the free-trade doctrine, nurtured by self-interest, 
 was carried by a haste which was characteristic of the 
 conduct of those who presided over its cradle. The 
 free-traders were not wanting in those arts which 
 appeal to the feelings of others, by the sense of injus- 
 tice conveyed, while they succeed in effecting their own 
 selfish purpose. The populace was appeased; they 
 were taught to believe that under the new condition of 
 things they would never again want bread, because 
 bread would be so cheap ! The farmers were entrapped 
 into the belief that the natural and existing order of 
 affairs would be effectively altered for their benefit by 
 the new principle ! What was established by custom, 
 and founded on the springs of human action — what had 
 
FREE TRADE. 143 
 
 years and reason on its side, was to be abolished for 
 — what ? For the introduction of a new system, entirely 
 devoid of experience, based upon imperfect knowledge 
 of its subsequent course, promoted by partiality, and 
 flaunted before an ignorant mob as the only remedy 
 which could remove the source of their protracted suf- 
 ferings. As if the principle of free trade could change 
 the origin from which human actions flow ! 
 
 These were the methods the free-traders employed 
 to gain over the ignorant. And they were unscrupulous 
 in the supply of arrogant and false promises. But for 
 the educated another course was pursued. They were 
 not wanting in the insidious arts of a spurious logic to 
 convince the legislators of the country that free trade 
 was both to be a national benefit and the one great 
 stroke of domestic policy which was to mark the na- 
 tion's history of this century. Well might Sir Kobert 
 Peel jump at the bait thus thrown out to him. But 
 might he not have paused ere he swallowed the noxious 
 morsel ? The landlords obtain their proportionate 
 share of the general produce of the land of which they 
 are the owners; and did not Sir Eobert Peel's fatlier 
 amass an enormous fortune by means of another's 
 genius and with the assistance of labour ? What was 
 the relation of Sir Kobert Peel's father to his workmen ? 
 and compare this with the conduct of the landlord to 
 his tenants. 
 
 There was no restriction of hours in those days ; 
 against such legislative interference the first Sir Ptobert 
 directed the whole weight of his authority. Nor can the 
 conduct of that illustrious gentleman be called humane, 
 relative to the notions which we now entertain. Did 
 
144 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the labourer, in his days, gain a proportionate share of 
 the produce of his labour ? Test the surroundings of 
 the workman then with those of the present time. A 
 vast change has been sweeping their entire character. 
 But did Sir Eobert Peel the first effect any important 
 result for good in the domestic affairs of his labourers ? 
 Look at the immense fortune he amassed — the first in- 
 stance in which a commoner was rated at the upper 
 value ; what was the source of it ? — the labour of his 
 workmen. Compare the position of the landlord and his 
 property with that of the master and his labour. Pro- 
 perty and labour are the sources by which the landlord 
 and the manufacturer respectively gain their wealth. Is 
 not the same rule that applies to one to apply to the 
 other ? Is there any reason why the landowner should 
 rest contented with a constant rental, when he sees 
 around men less scrupulous in their efforts to grind the 
 wages of labour to their lowest point ? Are the land- 
 lords constituted in a fashion different from other men ? 
 The second Sir Eobert Peel, when he cast a wrathful 
 glance towards the landowners, who did not regard him 
 with any degree of favour, forgot for a while that in the 
 policy he was pursuing towards them, he was disturbing 
 that very principle by which his own father was, by a 
 fortunate chain of events, enabled to become the mas- 
 ter of an almost fabulous wealth. 
 
 But the free-traders were peculiarly happy in their 
 choice ! The son of the manufacturer played inadver- 
 tently into the hands of manufacture ! 
 
 Have the results so foolishly predicted by the free- 
 trade rhetors been verified ? 
 
 Have wars diminished ? No, will reply the free- 
 
FREE TRADE. 145 
 
 trader. And the reason ? Because free trade has not 
 become universal. Wliy has not free trade become 
 universal ? Because in the opinion of foreign nations 
 it is not calculated to attain the object which has 
 been predicted of it. Hence is the original selfishness 
 of the free-trade impulse laid bare, even to its base ! 
 
 But if free trade has not abolished war, it has tended 
 to diminish trade depression. Is this a fact ? Take 
 forty years before 1842 and forty years after 1846, and 
 contrast the number of years of distress in each period. 
 Will such a result ensue as to justify the virtue of the 
 principle ? 
 
 Lastly, has free trade continued the prosperity of the 
 country, as it was boasted it would ? There was, cer- 
 tainly, the immediate stimulus to the markets ; there 
 was a temporary period of excitement, a phase of 
 feverish activity, which occupied all liands, and raised 
 wages. But then depression appeared, and this has so 
 gradually and almost imperceptibly increased, that now 
 profits have reached their lowest level — or perhaps 
 there may be none at all. In such a state of affairs, 
 can the condition of labour be called prosperous ? And 
 yet free trade still reigns, and the labouring man was 
 to be for ever enriched by it ! 
 
 15. llie introduction of free tirade into the commercial 
 itse of this country, — After the sliding-scale had settled 
 in 1842 the agitated feeling of the country respecting 
 the admission of foreign corn, Sir Robert Peel pro- 
 ceeded to the introduction of the free-trade principle 
 into our commercial system. This was taken in con- 
 junction with a Bill to renew the income-tax for a 
 
 K 
 
146 FREE TRADE. 
 
 period of three years. For both these measures formed 
 part of a scheme designed by the Prime Minister, as 
 well to relieve the nation from a constantly recurring 
 deficiency in its revenue as to remove the burden of 
 distress under which the trade of the country was then 
 suffering. Which of these events was present with the 
 greater force to the mind of Sir Eobert Peel ? 
 
 The taxation of several imported articles, mainly 
 concerned in manufacturing industries, was remitted 
 Live cattle, which before had been prohibited, were 
 now permitted an admission duty free ; the impost was 
 removed from salted meat, and the duty on fresh meat 
 reduced. The remission of taxes was continued during 
 the next and following sessions, and thus the gradual 
 application of a new principle was effected, according 
 to the previous declaration of the Prime Minister, in 
 order that customary and existing rights might become 
 slowly, and with the least disturbance, adjusted to the 
 new system. After the year 1845, the amount re- 
 mitted in taxation reached £1,961,000. Then came 
 the period during which the question of the Corn Laws 
 occupied the whole attention of the people. 
 
 On account of the change in his attitude to the 
 operation of laws which Sir Eobert, in the year pre- 
 vious, had definitely asserted admitted of no amend- 
 ment, in the judgment of himself and colleagues, and 
 which, he reiterated, were not responsible for the dis- 
 tress of the country — the Prime Minister, having 
 effected a final rupture with his party, found it 
 necessary to resign. This was in December 1845. A 
 few weeks antecedent to Sir Eobert Peel's resignation, 
 Lord John Eussell had written a letter, dated from 
 
FREE TRADE. 147 
 
 Edinburgh (and known as the " Edinburgh letter "), to 
 his constituents in the metropolis, in which he gave 
 his final views on the absorbing question of the day. 
 Lord John Eussell was prevented from forming an 
 Administration owing to the opposition which he met 
 with in the House of Lords, and depending on the 
 unwillingness of Lord Grey to assist the new Min- 
 istry. Sir Ptobert Peel consequently reassumed the 
 reins of power, with the well-known intention of pro- 
 ceeding immediately to the repeal of those laws which, 
 in 1822, Lord John Eussell had upheld as necessary 
 to maintain the prosperity of our agriculture, and 
 which the Prime Minister had regarded, but a moment 
 before with an indulgent eye. 
 
 The mission — extraordinary both in its origin and 
 method of accomplishment — of Sir Eobert Peel suc- 
 ceeded, and the Corn Laws were abolished, after an 
 opposition on the part of the main body of the Con- 
 servative party which has become historical. But in 
 order to harmonise with the sentiments of Sir Eobert 
 Peel respecting the mode of application of a new prin- 
 ciple, abolition was not to take effect till three years 
 had elapsed since the date of their repeal ; and in the 
 meanwhile, foreign imported corn, with colonial, was 
 subjected to a reduced but fixed duty. 
 
 On the same night that the Bill to suspend the 
 operation of the Corn Laws became an Act of Parlia- 
 ment, the Government of Sir Eobert Peel was defeated 
 on the Irish Arms (Coercion) Bill. The House of 
 Lords rejected the measure framed by the Prime Min- 
 ister for the pacification of Ireland, as being too severe 
 even for the requirements of the disordered state of 
 
148 FKEE TRADE. 
 
 that country. The Arms Bill appeared as a strange 
 corollary to the messages of peace which Sir Eobert 
 Peel had triumphantly transmitted to Ireland at the 
 end of the previous year, 1845. The apparent state 
 of quietude into which Ireland for a time had fallen, 
 was translated by the Ministry into the happy meaning 
 that Ireland was at last recovering from her chronic 
 malady. Even measures had been taken for a visit of 
 the Queen to that turbulent country: but the regal 
 visit was at the last moment and quite unexpectedly 
 abandoned, for sedition and outrage had once more 
 appeared. The previous quiet had been but the lull 
 before the storm — a period in which fresh energies 
 might be acquired and developed. Sir Eobert was 
 rudely dispossessed of his favourable opinion of the 
 country ; and his message of peace took, as it has been 
 well described by a late and illustrious nobleman, the 
 form of a Coercion Bill. 
 
 But in the speech announcing his resignation. Sir 
 Eobert was not without the means of being able to 
 point to the beneficial results that had already attended 
 the partial operation of the new principle. Distress 
 had disappeared, trade was becoming more active, and 
 the whole country wore a more contented aspect. 
 
 He had also concluded a foreign dispute successfully, 
 so that he had the advantage of being able to leave to 
 his successor the external relations of the country in 
 a quiet and satisfactory condition, and its domestic 
 affairs slowly improving. 
 
 The change of Ministry, however, did not interfere 
 with the reformation of our commercial code. The 
 thin edge of reform had been almost silently intro- 
 
FREE TRADE. 149 
 
 duced, and the body of the wedge was being driven 
 rapidly home. The taxation remitted during the 
 sessions 1845-46 and 1846-47 amounted to £5,662,000 ; 
 so that, from the moment of its first introduction, the 
 free-trade principle lost to the revenues of the country 
 the enormous sum of £7,623,000. The sugar duties 
 formed the field on which the Whig Ministry had to 
 fight tlie battle of its existence. The sturdy phalanx 
 of protectionists withstood the reckless onslaught of the 
 new reform. Nor was it till after every inch of ground 
 had been disputed, that the quondam champion of pro- 
 tection, shielding the vigorous efforts of his former op- 
 ponents, caused the final rout of the Conservative party. 
 Thus, with the assistance of Sir Eobert Peel and his 
 small but faithful band of followers, the Whigs suc- 
 ceeded in consummating the work of reform. 
 
 16. The conditions surrounding the gradiuxl applica- 
 tion of the free- trade principle. — Nothing could have 
 been more favourable than the condition of the com- 
 mercial world in 1842 for the application of the new 
 principle to the system of our commerce. The country 
 had been suffering for some five or six years from one 
 of these recurrent depressions which are natural to the 
 progress of trade. A war had lately terminated, and 
 thus one element in the causation of distress was re- 
 moved. As the operation of the principle was only 
 partial, and increased in intensity during the following 
 years till 1848, the immediate and beneficial effects of 
 free trade slowly but surely increased; and in 1845 
 trade had once more assumed a prosperous state. 
 
 But no sooner had it reached this satisfactory condi- 
 
150 FREE TRADE. 
 
 tion, than it was again, in spite of the continued and 
 increased action of the free-trade principle, subjected 
 to a temporary decline. For a famine was impending, 
 uncertainty prevailed, and the progress of our renascent 
 trade was consequently retarded. But when, towards the 
 autumn of 1846, a deficiency appeared in the harvests 
 all over the continent of Europe, the commercial ac- 
 tivity of the nation was reduced to its lowest ebb. 
 
 This unfavourable state of the markets, coming on so 
 suddenly after the previous depression, naturally led 
 men to consider the nature of the operation of free 
 trade, and to doubt of its beneficial efficacy. But the 
 causation of this depression was in no wise connected 
 with the influence of free trade. It is possible, indeed, 
 that the operation of the new system tended to mitigate 
 the hardships of distress — an opinion which was enter- 
 tained by Sir Eobert Peel, and advanced by him as an 
 argument against the attacks of those who attempted 
 to deny its benign action. It was dependent upon a 
 deficiency of the harvests throughout Europe. This 
 determined the time at which depression began; and 
 it was intensified and prolonged by a failure in the 
 cotton crop, and by a monetary crisis which, in 1847, 
 resulting from the railway mania, locked up a large part 
 of the wealth of the country. The capital which, in 
 ordinary circumstances, would have gone to the im- 
 provement of trade, was deflected by an inordinate spec- 
 ulation in railways from its proper channels ; and thus 
 the markets suffered from a dearth of money, while the 
 wages of labour were similarly affected. 
 
 With such a deplorable state of the trade-markets, 
 brought about by causes some of which were within 
 
FREE TRADE. 151 
 
 control, while others, as the general scarcity of corn 
 and the failure of the cotton crop, were without the 
 power of man, the action of the free-trade principle, or 
 any other principle, would be without any or but little 
 result. 
 
 But when those causes which thus disturbed so seri- 
 ously the disposition of commerce generally had dis- 
 appeared; when the harvests reached their former 
 abundance, and money began to circulate more freely 
 after the tension wliich existed in monetary circles to- 
 wards the end of 1847 had been relieved; when the 
 action of free trade was allowed to proceed without the 
 prejudicial influence of adverse forces, — then its im- 
 mediate beneficial operation became very evident. 
 
 All the markets reached a state of activity which was 
 never before known to them. The condition of com- 
 mercial excitement was intense. Such a state of ac- 
 tivity was unfamiliar even to the most experienced in 
 commercial affairs. Supply could scarce be equalled to 
 demand. The trade circulation throughout the country 
 became so quickened, that the simile capable alone of 
 describing it, is the condition of fever. 
 
 So rapidly was this feverish activity induced, when 
 the free-trade principle acted unrestrictedly and with- 
 out restraint, that in the year 1848 the exports alone 
 reached the immense value of £133,000,000. This ex- 
 traordinary result becomes all the more remarkable 
 when it is compared with the exports of the preced- 
 ing year, which amounted to £57,000,000 ; and the ex- 
 ports ten years earlier, 1837, which were of the value of 
 £43,000,000. Thus it will be seen that the amount of 
 exported goods in 1848 very nearly trebled their value 
 
152 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of the previous year, and more than quadrupled those 
 in 1837. 
 
 Was such an increase in trade activity preportionate 
 to the increase of the population during this period ? 
 It was far beyond it: for a moment the relation be- 
 tween an increased trade and an increasing population 
 was unhinged ; and there were evils necessary to such 
 a disturbance of a natural relationship which seem to 
 have been overlooked by those who brought the inter- 
 ruption about. 
 
 But the beneficial action of the principle was freely 
 established; and while the surrounding circumstances 
 continued favourable to its action, it is obvious that so 
 long as these responded to its stimulating influence, so 
 long would the prosperity of our commerce, under its 
 guidance be maintained. 
 
 Men do not, as a rule, stay to reason during a season 
 of prosperity. As much do they inquire into the causes 
 of that prosperity as they do into the foundations of 
 principles in which, perhaps, they may have been bred. 
 
 What treacherous prosperity was that which gave 
 more than enough employment to every hand, and in- 
 creased wages to almost a fabulous amount ? Was it 
 likely to be associated with the continued blessings of 
 free trade, predicted by the free-traders ? 
 
 Such a phenomenon of an extraordinary state of stim- 
 ulation being maintained for any very lengthened period 
 of time is without its fellow in nature ! 
 
 And what does experience teach ? that over-action is 
 followed by reaction, which is the same in amount, but 
 opposite in tendency. 
 
 But a state of fictitious prosperity is favourable to 
 
FREE TRADE. 153 
 
 the deduction of false causation. Yree trade being as- 
 sociated now witli real prosperity, as it was predicted 
 by the free-trade rhetors, the association would become 
 still more closely riveted in the intellect of the igno- 
 rant ; and a common notion would be spread abroad, to 
 be universally believed, that free trade is the immediate 
 cause of prosperity. Such a false conclusion, however, 
 is easily seen to be the product of those who do not 
 analyse, and who care not to trace effects to their 
 proper cause. 
 
 But to the prescient eye it was clear that the time 
 would come when the effects of the principle, accumu- 
 lating, would react unfavourably to the constant action 
 of the principle. For at the first, the free-trade prin- 
 ciple acted throughout a sphere which was new to its 
 action, and therefore unencumbered by its effects. But 
 after a time, these effects, and among them " increased 
 circulation," the mainspring whence the free -trade 
 principle confers the blessings of its virtue upon our 
 trade, are the direct causes of those external complica- 
 tions, the proper objects of legislative foresight, which 
 intervene gradually, but none the less certainly, to 
 disturb the original and beneficial effects of free 
 trade. 
 
 When is the period at which the free-trade principle 
 begins to use its former efficacious influence upon our 
 trade ? 
 
 At that time, when the increased circulation of our 
 markets begins to diminisli, owing to the demand of 
 neutral markets being supplied by foreign competition 
 at a relatively smaller cost. 
 
 The circulation of our markets will then fall to a 
 
154 FREE TRADE. 
 
 point at which certain branches of industry are just 
 maintained in existence. 
 
 There is less demand now ; therefore our supplies are 
 less. The field of our commercial operations has be- 
 come contracted. 
 
 But not only will the amount of goods before supplied 
 by our trade-markets be thus unfortunately decreased 
 by the unequal competition of the foreigner, but the 
 profits before reaped by our merchants will become 
 correspondingly reduced, and then both master and 
 man alike come to suffer, but gradually and wellnigh 
 imperceptibly at first, from the accumulating effects of 
 the free-trade principle. 
 
155 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PRIMARY AND BENEFICIAL ACTION OF THE FREE- 
 TRADE PRINCIPLE: TO WHAT IT WAS DUE. 
 
 17. Graphic description of early operation of free- 
 trade principle. — (See next page.) 
 
 18. The immediate effects of the free-trade principle, — 
 It cannot be denied that, when all those sources which 
 tended to counteract its primary action were removed, 
 the application of the free-trade principle to our com- 
 mercial relations was attended with an extraordinary 
 and rapid prosperity. 
 
 It appeared as if the prediction of the free-trade 
 rhetors had come true, and that the nation had at last, 
 according to their forecast, started on a path of pros- 
 perity, in which no obstacles were to impede its progress. 
 
 But we shall soon observe how their forecast was 
 verified only in part. There was, indeed, an initial 
 period of prosperity ; but this was to affect but a com- 
 paratively small tract of the whole course of our indus- 
 tries. Obstacles had already appeared; the free- 
 trade principle had been put to a severe strain and 
 
156 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 o ^ 
 
FREE TRADE. 157 
 
 had been found wanting. What if other obstacles were 
 slowly to come into existence as the direct effects of 
 the constant action of the new principle ? The free- 
 trade principle had failed once to answer the expecta- 
 tions of its sanguine promoters ; the same influences 
 which brought about the first failure were just as 
 probable to effect a second; and there were others 
 which, looming in the remoter distance of the sphere 
 of its operation, were appreciable only by tliose who 
 were far-seeing. Was it likely to overcome those ob- 
 stacles which had already caused its failure, the more 
 especially when the virtue of the new principle was 
 diminished by its constant action ? 
 
 The gain to the nation — by a principle which was 
 vaunted as the instrument of the welfare of mankind 
 — was diffused even to the lowest levels of the 
 labouring classes. Wages were raised as much as 20, 
 and in some instances 25, per cent! The prosperity 
 which was then spasmodic was universal throughout 
 the body of the people. But the very circumstance 
 of its appearance, and especially its rapid occurrence, 
 formed dangerous symptoms, from a mature considera- 
 tion of which the thoughtful politician would refrain 
 from prognosticating for it a long continuance. 
 
 It is difficult, no matter how powerful may be the art 
 of persuasion, to convince a populace that can call to 
 mind the blessings of the temporary content which free 
 trade brought in its train, that what is at once the 
 initial and favourable action of the principle, shall ever 
 cease to be otherwise, even when the circumstances 
 which surround its sphere of operation gradually be- 
 come adverse to the former benign influence of its 
 
158 FREE TRADE. 
 
 action. And the reasons are not far to seek. An 
 erroneous association is established ; it is believed to be 
 true. And more than this, people are brought up in 
 the belief of this false connection of cause and effect. 
 Early impressions, it is well known, are held fast — and 
 the faster, the less the rational faculty is trained. Thus 
 a temporary content becomes the forerunner of a per- 
 manent content, and observation is blinded to the 
 gradual induction of adversity. And while impercep- 
 tible changes are being wrought, the populace are pru- 
 dently advised by Platonic legislators " to sit still and 
 wait for better times." What, then, will be the grand 
 cause of agitation on the part of the people — an agitation 
 which will be real, as it will be founded on the wants 
 of the people, and not upon the desires of a section of 
 the community, manufacturing or otherwise ? It will 
 be — distress. Distress — or a supposed distress — oper- 
 ated by insidious means to overthrow the system of 
 protection, the principle which presided over the equable 
 advance of our trade — a principle which was impartial, 
 and which did not cast an indulgent eye upon any of 
 the industries of the realm. It will be a real distress, 
 which will move the body of the people at large, and 
 will form the lever of compulsion to force unwilling 
 legislators to recognise its true causation ! 
 
 What was once the source of an initial prosperity can 
 scarcely be conceived by an unthinking people ever to 
 be the cause of a subsequent distress. For the succes- 
 sive links by which so opposite a condition is effected 
 are unexplored. It is with a nation as with an indi- 
 vidual, impulse is obeyed; and reason, the guide and 
 prompter of all that is sound and good, is either 
 
FREE TRADE. 159 
 
 neglected, or, if used, is basely used as the auxiliary to 
 passion. 
 
 The time must surely come when the body of the 
 people, having become too grossly enlarged by a liberal 
 movement, — supposed to be a liberal movement at the 
 time, but which had neither the character of a real nor 
 the quality of a sound advancement, which was rather 
 remarkable for an individual selfishness, — its wants are 
 unsatisfied. A liberal overgrowth has resulted, but the 
 strong circulation necessary to effect its healthy and 
 contented state is absent. And what is the conse- 
 quence ? Instead of the people being happy, they are 
 burdened with distress, and a distress for which they 
 are not directly responsible. And the seeds of a true 
 agitation grow in the depression which a false agitation 
 has so successfully created — but after a period of time 1 
 
 The alteration which time and the ever-fluctuating 
 condition of elements around effect in the constant 
 action of a principle are very slightly, and, for the most 
 part, where partiality is insinuated, very erroneously 
 considered in its subsequent progress. What compre- 
 hensive survey can be taken by a mob which at one 
 time is banded against the merchant, as being the origin 
 whence the poverty of their condition flows ; and by the 
 working classes, who shortly afterwards, as the direct 
 result of the teaching of their masters, combine with 
 those masters to oppose the common tyrant which 
 oppresses both. The free-trade rhetors of 1845 would 
 answer this query by referring to the sensitiveness of 
 the feelings of the multitude 1 
 
 And a similar course might be entered here, did not 
 the magnitude of the question require a more worthy 
 
160 FREE TRADE. 
 
 regard for its solution. The feelings of the populace 
 will be sedulously set aside, and illustration, a rational 
 product, assume the place of pathos, the source perhaps 
 of more than half the evils of the world ! 
 
 Such an action of a principle can only be displayed 
 to the growing reason of the mob by means of a simile ; 
 and this, in the present instance, is not far to seek. 
 
 It is universally a matter of experience that in the 
 body organism, the quantity of a medicine to maintain 
 a constant amount of stimulation has gradually to be 
 increased. The drug itself, circulating in the veins of 
 the body, has the immediate effect of a pleasing stimu- 
 lation; but this result cannot be maintained without 
 such an alteration of the tissue elements, which, if kept 
 constantly in this abnormal condition, first leads to their 
 debility and finally ends in their decay. 
 
 To effect a similar amount of stimulation by means 
 of an increased circulation, the drug has to be slowly 
 increased ; and the physician, in those cases of disease 
 where stimulation is needed and has to be maintained, 
 wisely proceeds by small degrees, so that he has always 
 the power of increasing it largely when the occasion 
 demands. 
 
 But the political quack, who recognised a state of 
 disease of our commerce which never existed, and who 
 was prejudiced into a belief that under free trade only 
 could our commerce compete successfully with that of 
 other nations, in a few doses, extending over a portion 
 of time which is as nothing compared with tlie whole 
 course of our trade, which he applies to the system by 
 which our industries were for the future to be conducted, 
 recklessly exhausted his means of effecting that inter- 
 
FREE TRADE. 161 
 
 mediate condition by which his object was to be main- 
 tained. Was this treatment devised to save the life 
 of our failing trades and industries, or was it for the 
 good of mankind at large ? Was it partial or disin- 
 terested ? 
 
 In such a deplorable instance, therefore, when our 
 trade-circulation began to decline — and no one can deny- 
 that influences liave been called forth to bring about 
 this end — what remedy was at hand to cause the 
 renewal of its stimulation ? 
 
 The action of the legislator who introduced the stim- 
 ulative principle of free trade into our system of com- 
 mercial relations, resembles the conduct of a man whose 
 constitution is being slowly undermined by the constant 
 and noxious effects of a stimulant. Increased circula- 
 tion is at last followed by exhaustion; and that ex- 
 haustion, when the means which induce it are always 
 present, surely leads to decay. 
 
 The reference of this illustration to the constant 
 action of the free-trade principle is evident. The action 
 of the principle wanes, because the conditions of growth 
 soon become adjusted to its new mode of action. But 
 if the action of the principle remains constant, there 
 must be something to supply the demands of the stim- 
 ulating influence. Trade - circulation decreases, and 
 hence the evil falls upon the trade-markets themselves, 
 which become slowly exhausted, and pass slowly into a 
 state of decay. 
 
 The prosperity which was associated with the early 
 operation of the free-trade principle, and which, from 
 the nature of our experience, could possibly last for a 
 definite period only, was hailed with thanksgiving by 
 
 L 
 
162 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the free trade rhetors, as certain to extend over an in- 
 definite tract of time ! 
 
 But cause and effect were designedly constructed to 
 serve their immediate purpose. And when prosperity 
 appeared, their reason became clouded, in their out- 
 bursts of enthusiasm, to the ultimate disasters of un- 
 equal free trade ! What was the cause of this pros- 
 perity ? The free-trade rhetor replied exultingly. Free 
 trade ! the people believed, without attempting to make 
 the inquiry, that it was free trade. 
 
 He points to the blessings and content which he sees 
 around him ; and with all the more lively feeling of an 
 intense satisfaction, because what he had predicted has 
 come to pass. But the rhetor, in the exuberance of his 
 emotion, was drawn into the fatal error of supposing 
 that all the possible effects of a principle are direct. 
 The prosperity of the commercial parts of the com- 
 munity was undoubtedly due, but ultimately and in an 
 indirect fashion, to the operation of the free-trade prin- 
 ciple. But there is a chain of phenomena which extends 
 between the commencement of the action of a principle 
 and its subsequent effects. And the links of this chain 
 of events were either unobserved or unexplained. 
 
 Free trade is a principle, and as such it is helpless ; 
 for every cause acts through the effect it is capable of 
 inducing. Free trade, therefore, must act by means of 
 the disturbance which it creates in the system of rela- 
 tions to which it is applied. Such a primary disturb- 
 ance is called its immediate effect. What is, or was, 
 this immediate disturbance, in the instance of free 
 trade ? Increased circulation. 
 
 In what way, then, does the free-trade principle lead 
 
FREE TRADE. 163 
 
 to a state of prosperity ? By inducing increased circu- 
 lation of the markets. And the chain of phenomena is 
 thus — free-trade principle, operating under favourable 
 circumstances, so as to cause an increased circulation of 
 the markets, which leads to the prosperity of trade. 
 
 Thus, if the free-trade rhetors had made it known 
 that it was not the principle itself but its immediate 
 effect, increased circulation, which was the source of 
 trade activity, and therefore of trade prosperity, they 
 would have done much to clear the way before them, 
 for anticipating those dangers which might, and under 
 certain conditions certainly would, beset the subsequent 
 progress of the principle. For their attention would 
 have been directed to the study of the question, whether 
 an increased circulation, so brought about, was likely to 
 be attended with a healthy state of the development of 
 our markets, — in a word, to determine the essential dif- 
 ference between a natural and an abnormal increase of 
 activity. 
 
 But it was not, in the views of the free-trade rhetors, 
 increased circulation, but free trade itself, to which the 
 flourishing condition of our commerce was due. They 
 groped about for a cause, and grasped the nearest which 
 was present to them. Nor did their bias help them to 
 discover their mistake. 
 
 Free trade, therefore, came to be erroneously asso- 
 ciated with the prosperous state of the country as its 
 obvious cause ; when the true statement of the fact was 
 that prosperity results from increased circulation, of 
 which the free-trade principle is but one of the nu- 
 merous causes, and then effects it only when the sur- 
 rounding circumstances are favourable. 
 
164 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 For the principle of free trade is helpless to bring 
 about an increased circulation, without a favourable 
 condition of surrounding circumstances. Helpless ! 
 when these circumstances become unfavourable to the 
 attainment of this desirable effect, the operation of the 
 free-trade principle becomes absolutely pernicious ! 
 
 Then the glory which has been shed upon the move- 
 ment of free trade will be considerably dimmed, when it 
 is understood that free trade is not the only cause of 
 increased circulation, and that it is incapable of effect- 
 ing increased circulation in all those conditions which 
 may possibly influence its action. 
 
 A principle has been sacrificed ; the true immediate 
 •cause of prosperity has been ignored. Free trade still 
 •operates ; but the practical advantages of a healthy in- 
 crease in circulation have, on the part of Whig poli- 
 ticians, been unfortunately ignored ! 
 
 19. Graphic explanation of the favouraUe action of the 
 free-trade 'principle. 
 
 Surrounding circumstances, affecting its action 
 pointing to 
 
 Favourable. 
 
 Several causes of increased ^ 
 circulation : ) 
 
 ( Normal : ) 
 
 { Unhealthy : 
 Free trade classed under latter. 
 
 Unfavourable. 
 
 Increased circulation. 
 Trade prosperity. 
 
 Continued operation of 
 free trade disastrous ! 
 
 20. The attitude of the protectionists, — The criticism 
 of the free-trade policy on the part of the protectionists 
 
FREE TRADE. 165 
 
 was sadly deficient ; still the germ of the true b^^,^iiig 
 of the principle was indicated. ^^f^'^ 
 
 The protectionists, as a body, were in the position of 
 men who were fighting for those rights which they had 
 enjoyed for a considerable period of time, and they had 
 come to regard as justly their own. It was obvious, 
 therefore, that they should be inspired by feelings of 
 animosity towards those whose object it was to rob 
 them of their time-honoured privileges. They, too, 
 were impelled by self-interest. Why should not Agri- 
 culture have her self-interests as well as Manufacture ? 
 But the protectionists, in order that their interests 
 might be sacrificed with the least amount of ill-feeling, 
 were curiously enough charged with standing in the 
 way of the general progress of the nation, — that is, of 
 manufacture. The relative importance of these two 
 branches of industry were contrasted, and opposition 
 induced, when their forces should have been concurrent. 
 Men of intellectual ability and philanthropic disposi- 
 tion were called upon to sacrifice the smaller in favour 
 of the larger element of industrial activity ! Why ? 
 Because such a conclusion was the inevitable outcome 
 of a logical deduction. Men's lives and their happiness 
 were placed in one scale, and a logical fallacy in the 
 other; and the balance descended in favour of the 
 sacrifice of a small but important industry of the coun- 
 try, for the logical conclusions of the free-traders were 
 swelled with the hopes of individual self-aggrandise- 
 ment ! 
 
 But if the main body of the protectionists were thus 
 for their own interests, their leaders, who saw a glimpse 
 of the ultimate disasters which would be associated 
 
166 FREE TRADE. 
 
 with the constant operation of the free-trade principle, 
 led the charge in the interests of the nation. These 
 men may be likened to those who, having an insight 
 into the comprehensive and continuous progress of a 
 principle, imagine the various junctures when com- 
 plications may arise and disasters appear. But they 
 failed to expose in its simplicity the error upon which 
 the new system, that was to regulate our commerce, 
 was introduced by a former Tory Premier, aided by the 
 united endeavours of the Whig party. 
 
 But "the selfishness of the manufacturers was ex- 
 posed ; " a selfishness that will be expiated by a sub- 
 sequent generation. "The utter ruin of the country 
 was predicted," but the series of connecting links were 
 wanting. 
 
 When the free-trader was reproached by the pro- 
 tectionist, inasmuch as his principle contained within 
 itself the seed of future disaster, the former replied, 
 "Eegard the present and prosperous state of the 
 country." When the protectionist predicted that the 
 funds would be diminished, the free-trader brought 
 forward the actual fact of there being increased bul- 
 lion in the Bank of England. And when the protec- 
 tionist foretold that the poor-rates would be increased, 
 the free-trader answered that, at the moment he was 
 speaking, they were lowered universally throughout 
 the country. 
 
 The free-trader replied to the future queries of the 
 protectionist with facts derived from the present, as if 
 he was thoroughly convinced that the present state of 
 commercial prosperity and the happiness of the people 
 would continue in their favourable condition. 
 
FREE TRADE. 167 
 
 But the protectionist, baffled by the inordinate dis- 
 play of increasing wealth and prosj)erity of the nation, 
 and still viewing this abnormal state of trade with a 
 jealous and unbelieving spirit, — ^jealous, because it there- 
 by absorbed the attention of the country in favour of 
 liberal reform — unbelieving, because he foresaw that 
 this state of convulsion was not to the interest of the 
 community in general, as being a sudden and violent 
 interruption in the course of a gradual growth, and as 
 tending to be followed by the opposite condition of 
 adversity and depression, — continued his efforts to 
 weaken the position of his arbitrary adversaries, but 
 without avail. 
 
 For he did not trace the unerring steps by which 
 the neutral markets would be won from us ; and these 
 were within liis grasp. Our markets were in a flourish- 
 ing state. ]^ut would they always continue to be so ? 
 That was the question. 
 
 And what were the collateral causes likely to effect 
 an adverse alteration in their prosperous condition ? 
 
 Energies ahead, unforeseen by either of the conflict- 
 ing parties in the State ! 
 
 The ability of the foreigner to become the equal of 
 the Englishman, contrary to the dogmatic teaching of 
 Mr Cobden, and the indication of perseverance to give 
 it effect ! 
 
 The extension of fields of industries in foreign coun- 
 tries, and the occasional development of new resources 
 of nature ! 
 
 The time was fast approaching when the foreign 
 labourer would become as efficient and willing as his 
 English compeer. 
 
168 FREE TRADE. 
 
 And when that arrived, foreign goods would be pro- 
 duced at a cost less than that of corresponding English 
 ones, by virtue of the lower wages of Continental labour. 
 
 Then would the period be at hand when our markets 
 would be filled with the manufactured articles of the 
 foreigner, — articles which are within the sphere of 
 English production, but denied production because of 
 their comparatively high cost; and their recovery 
 taking place from the blow which Sir Eobert Peel 
 dealt to the industries of the foreigner, its ultimate 
 effect would thus be diverted to our own industries 
 of a succeedino^ generation ! 
 
 'O &^ 
 
 21. The character of Lord George Bentinck. — We have 
 already remarked how the action of Sir Eobert Peel 
 respecting the Corn Laws led, for the second time in 
 his career, to the disruption of the Conservative party. 
 Those who had so generously trusted, but who had 
 been so ruthlessly betrayed, could scarce find suffi- 
 ciently powerful language with which to hurl their 
 defiance and scorn at the apostate leader. 
 
 Of the importance of the services of Sir Eobert Peel 
 to the Conservatives there is no room left to doubt; 
 but such, even if they reached so far as the reconstruc- 
 tion of the whole party, could hardly justify too ex- 
 tensive an independence ; how much less, then, an open 
 rupture ? 
 
 But if our party system of government, essentially 
 founded upon representation, and expressive of the 
 notions whether progress is to be slow and stable or 
 rapid and insecure, is to continue efficacious, it follows 
 that arbitrariness of power in a leader, as it can be only 
 
FREE TRADE. 169 
 
 associated with injury to those interests represented by 
 the body of the party, is to be condemned ; and that it 
 is the first duty of the leader of a party to govern, not 
 for his own individual glory, but for the whole interests 
 of the nation, with the consent of each. For the dis- 
 turbance which arbitrary procedure effects is limited 
 not to the position or reputation of the leader, nor to 
 the interests of his party, but it extends far and wide 
 throughout all that section of the community which is 
 directly represented by the party. The opinion of such 
 a section of the community is worthy of respect; the 
 members act according to the views of their own self- 
 interests, and these, united, are placed confidently in 
 the hands of that leader for protection. What ill is 
 done, then, by a breach of political faith ? How is con- 
 fidence, the basis of security, respected ? and how is a 
 fresh sort of dissatisfaction introduced into the State ? 
 
 But the precedent of Sir Kobert Peel, surrounded 
 with so much fatality, cannot be the parent of many 
 similar examples. The morality of a conduct which is 
 liable to so large an amount of adverse criticism is so 
 precarious, that it is probable no statesman, even of the 
 most self-willed type, however much he may aspire, 
 but wrongly, to complete independency of action, would 
 hazard both power and reputation by its practice. 
 
 With the desertion of Sir Kobert Peel the protec- 
 tionists felt, as they naturally w^ould feel, very bitterly 
 the isolation of their cause. They were now a party 
 without a leader. Faith had been broken; and they 
 experienced all the severest disappointment of having 
 allowed themselves to be deceived, while they vented 
 their spleen upon the means which had been used to 
 
170 FREE TRADE. 
 
 cause that self-deception. But even in such an appa- 
 rently fatal extremity all hope was not excluded ; no, 
 not even when their former leader had marshalled his 
 column against them. 
 
 The times were critical, and the cause of protection 
 was becoming desperate. In such an emergency, and 
 when a redistribution of opinion had swept through 
 the mind of Parliament, there was sore need of a leader 
 to guide the abandoned party of protection through the 
 shoals of the free-trade struggle, to avoid the mud-banks 
 of free-trade fallacies, and to subject the facts of the 
 free-trader to a searching examination and analysis. 
 
 And such a leader arose ! In Lord George Bentinck 
 the protectionists found an English nobleman who was 
 true to his cause, who had the requisite qualities of 
 pertinacity and endurance, and who adapted himself 
 with facility to the pressing demands of the conditions 
 of his party. 
 
 His delivery in the House is reported not to have 
 been attractive ; but what he lost in brilliancy he more 
 than recovered in the accurate and multitudinous array 
 of his facts, and the cogency of his arguments. 
 
 No member of Parliament was more assiduous in his 
 duties ; no leader more devoted to the interests of his 
 followers, and these, as being concerned with the policy 
 of protection, he identified with the interests of the 
 whole nation. 
 
 Earnest in his manner, and fully aware of his own 
 natural deficiencies, such was the modesty of this noble- 
 man, called at a critical moment to a chief place in 
 the work of legislation, that when the protectionists 
 applied to him to be their leader, he excused himself 
 
FREE TRADE. 171 
 
 on the grounds of the inadequacy of his ability for the 
 appointment. 
 
 On a subsequent occasion, however, he accepted the 
 leadership provisionally, till another should appear who 
 possessed the necessary qualities of an able leader. Nor 
 was it to be long before that event took place. But 
 before it hapjDened, the marvellous and unexampled 
 career of Lord George Bentinck had come to an un- 
 timely end. He was found dead one afternoon in a 
 field near his fatlier's manor. 
 
 It is impossible to suppose that the hardships whicli 
 this accomplished nobleman was inspired, like a hero, 
 to endure for the sake of what he believed to be for the 
 national prosperity, were without a prejudicial influence 
 upon his constitution. 
 
 The small amount of sleep which he set apart to re- 
 pair the wear and tear of a more than usually active 
 intellect, called apparently out of a state of indolence, 
 was less than enough to counteract the evil tendency of 
 exhaustion which is* consequent on a serious applica- 
 tion of the mind to any subject, continued for a length- 
 ened period of time. 
 
 But the grandeur of the object which he had in view 
 seems to have sustained his powers. The wants of the 
 body organism were drowned in the dangers which he 
 foresaw would beset the wholesome progress of the Com- 
 merce of his country. 
 
 And it will be to the lasting honour of this memor- 
 able politician that he died while in the service of that 
 cause which he loved so well, and for which he worked 
 so hard ! 
 
 His self-abnegation — that quality whicli is the beauti- 
 
172 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ful feature of noble minds — was remarkably displayed 
 in his immediate desertion of those fascinating pursuits 
 which had been the sole occupation of his life. But 
 his duties required that they should be sacrificed ; and 
 now all his time and energies were concentrated upon 
 a single object, and that, the fithire as well as present 
 welfare of his country. And not the least extraordi- 
 nary incident in his life is the instance which it affords 
 to those who are students of mental development, of 
 great talents lying buried beneath an impenetrable de- 
 fect of indolence for so long a time, till they were called 
 into existence by the requisite stimulus which the attack 
 on the Corn Laws and sugar duties originated. 
 
 But when fully aroused, he showed the true English 
 character in adhering to the task which he had taken 
 in hand. But though the arguments which Lord George 
 Bentinck used in opposition to free trade proceeded 
 to the conclusion that the general tendency of free 
 trade was pernicious to the trade of the country, he 
 failed to answer the purpose for which he laboured so 
 studiously. This was to expose the nature and mode 
 of most of those external circumstances which would 
 inevitably lead to the disastrous operation of the free- 
 trade principle. But though the germ was indicated, 
 the development of his vast design was incomplete. 
 And the explanation may perhaps be found in the 
 difficulty which some experience in moulding thought, 
 when comprehensive, into language. And therefore it 
 was with no great difficulty that the free-traders ap- 
 parently refuted his arguments by appealing to the 
 present facts of free-trade prosperity. How much more 
 successfully would Lord George Bentinck have con- 
 
FREE TRADE. 173 
 
 ducted his case had he exposed the circumstances that 
 were favourable and those that were unfavourable to 
 the influence of free trade ? — had he shown that free 
 trade might possibly, and would certainly, under given 
 conditions, become adverse to the commercial interests 
 of the nation, owing to the fluctuating tendency of sur- 
 rounding relations ? and had he developed, in anticipa- 
 tion, the successive steps through which the circum- 
 stances which relate to the action of the principle pass 
 from the state of being favourable to its operation into 
 the condition when they become pernicious ? 
 
 The value of Lord George Bentinck's labour in the 
 cause of protection w^as due to insight; but for this 
 insight — which is essentially dependent on the faculty 
 of arranging the various possible results of an event, 
 :and of selecting that one which will most probably 
 happen — to be appreciated, the individual who is blest 
 with its possession must be known and must be 
 esteemed. 
 
 And it cannot be remarked without a feeling of dis- 
 <appointment, that the ability of Lord George Bentinck 
 did not command the respect of the Wliig party; it 
 may be on account of the difficulty which he experi- 
 enced in gaining the sympathies of his audience. 
 
 While Lord George Bentinck was engaged upon ques- 
 tions of fact and arguments bearing upon the subject of 
 free trade in corn and sugar, his able lieutenant, Mr 
 Benjamin Disraeli, led a merciless attack on Sir Eobert 
 Peel, by exposing the inconsistencies of his conduct. 
 But at the same time, he defended the grounds on which 
 the so-called protectionist fallacies were based, and 
 stated the reasons which induced him to retain them. 
 
174 FREE TRADE. 
 
 The free-traders laughed to scorn the idea that from 
 henceforth a low price of bread would ever be associ- 
 ated with low wages. It is true that, when the free- 
 trade principle was in operation, as a disturbance of 
 previously existing relations had thereby taken place, 
 the statement of this doctrine ought to have undergone 
 a modification. It would not be true so long as sur- 
 rounding circumstances were being adjusted to its action. 
 And it was during this time — and it was a prosperous 
 time — that the free-trader was asked to believe that the 
 association of a low price of bread with low wages was 
 inevitable. But how long would this period of adjust- 
 ment be ? 
 
 Thus when it was stated that a low price of bread 
 was necessarily associated (what should have been 
 stated is, a low price of bread has a tendency, if it is 
 not checked for a time, as by the early operation of the 
 free-trade principle, to be associated) with low wages, 
 it must be confessed that the advantage of the argu- 
 ment as thus stated, and without emendation, was on 
 the side of the free-trader, who relied upon the evidence 
 of facts before him, which proved that at that actual 
 moment a low price of bread was associated with 
 greatly increased wages. 
 
 But if the protectionist failed in the accurate state- 
 ment of his case — if the ultimate progress of the free- 
 trade principle was discerned by him, while the inter- 
 mediate steps by which such a termination was to be 
 effected were concealed from those who demanded the 
 nature of the means to this end — the free-trader erred 
 in rashly hazarding all upon a present prosperity, and 
 in supposing, without any proper foundation, that a 
 
FREE TRADE. 175 
 
 rapidly induced prosperity would continue wlien once 
 begun. 
 
 So, too, with reference to the poor-rates: the argu- 
 ments of the protectionists conveyed that the poor- 
 rates would be largely increased within a short time. 
 But was it likely, in such a forced state of prosper- 
 ity of the country, that those who had advocated and 
 succeeded in carrying the application of free trade to 
 our system of commerce, could possibly conceive that, 
 within their own time, the poor-rates would increase 
 as rapidly as the protectionists, perhaps with design, 
 predicted ? 
 
 The appeal should have been made with greater in- 
 tensity to a succeeding generation ; the imagination of 
 the free-traders should have been aroused, and the con- 
 sideration of the influences which might check their 
 temporary prosperity undertaken ! 
 
 After the premature decease of Lord George Ben- 
 tinck, the chief bulwark of their strength, it might 
 have been thought that the position of the party of pro- 
 tection, previously weakened, would now be paralysed. 
 
 But his immediate successor proved himself a man 
 capable of constructing a great party, and inspiring it 
 with single and disinterested purposes. Mr Benjamin 
 Disraeli kept alive the spirit of the old party, while he 
 was repairing the foundations of the new one ; and in 
 a motion which, in 1850, he tendered to the House for 
 a committee to inquire into the state of tlie nation, he 
 reiterated — and it is characteristic of the courage of his 
 opinions that these adverse sentiments were delivered 
 in a period of the most unexampled prosperity — all 
 the arguments which had been advanced before by the 
 
176 FREE TRADE. 
 
 party of protection against the continued operation of 
 the free-trade principle. 
 
 But it was a herculean task to attempt to convince 
 men, tasting the blessings of a long-deferred prosperity, 
 and especially those who were directly concerned in its 
 causation, of the fatal nature of the enjoyments they 
 were experiencing — not fatal to their own generation, 
 and herein was contained the insidious nature of this 
 prosperity, but to the one after. And much of the 
 value of the speech was lost in the bitter sarcasm he 
 launched at the head of Sir Eobert Peel. It exposes 
 more the contradictory nature of tlie late Prime Min- 
 ister's conduct rather than the grounds on which the 
 foundation of the free-trade principle might have been 
 destroyed. One of the two chief features, however, of 
 the w^hole of the free -trade controversy, consists in 
 the fact that the protectionist did not separate clearly 
 enough the near from the remote effects of the opera- 
 tion of the free-trade principle, while the other rests 
 upon the attitude of the free-traders who refrained 
 from regarding its action in a comprehensive fashion 
 from the prospective point of view. No anticipations 
 of danger were made, and consequently no provisions 
 for it. 
 
 Between antagonists thus pursuing so obviously dif- 
 ferent courses, it is not to be expected that there was 
 much in common. 
 
 As Sir Eobert Peel met w^ith an unfortunate death 
 in this year, it is just to observe that the speech above 
 alluded to, by Mr Benjamin Disraeli, was made before 
 the accident which led to a fatal termination. 
 
177 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CRITICISM OF THE INDIRECT AND DIRECT OPERATIONS 
 OF FREE TRADE. 
 
 22. The origin of the free - trade principle, — The 
 principle of free trade had its source in the fertile 
 imagination of Adam Smith. The initial success which 
 attended its operation has added more than a due share 
 to the lustre of the author of the ' Wealth of Nations ' ; 
 but let the precarious state of conditional truths be 
 kept in mind. Adam Smith himself fell into an error 
 respecting the definition of the element of rent — an 
 error which was pointed out to him by his countryman, 
 the philosopher and historian, David Hume. 
 
 The free-trade principle, as propounded by its author, 
 was an abstract principle. There had been ijo previous 
 experience of it ; and its efficacy was altogether depen- 
 dent upon the development of certain conditions which 
 were assumed to accompany its progress. 
 
 These previous conditions were definite in the ima- 
 gination of the founder of the doctrine of free trade. 
 And are they to be overlooked in the subsequent and 
 arbitrary application of the principle to the development 
 of fresh conditions ? 
 
 M 
 
178 FKEE TRADE. 
 
 What were the original conditions ? That England 
 should take the lead in giving universal effect to the 
 principle of free trade ; and that the advantage to her 
 trade by such action would be such as to force surround- 
 ing nations to follow her example. 
 
 It is possible that when first enunciated, the course 
 of subsequent events, if free trade had been introduced, 
 might have been that which was depicted by the great 
 economist. But it is also clear that, with the addition 
 of new factors and the modification of old ones, the pro- 
 babilities affecting the subsequent application of free 
 trade would be greatly varied. 
 
 In the opinion of Adam Smith, the gain to Great 
 Britain accruing from free trade was fully established. 
 The doctrine was essentially founded on the basis that 
 the change in international commercial policy would be 
 associated with an increased prosperity to all nations, 
 but to England more especially than all the rest, be- 
 cause she would recover, by the lead, a certain su- 
 premacy which she would afterwards be able to 
 maintain. 
 
 But let the relative considerations of such an action 
 on the part of England, and actions on the part of sur- 
 rounding nations, be carefully analysed, and what is the 
 result? That by this manoeuvre England has raised 
 the level of her commercial basis, while the bases of 
 surrounding nations remain relatively to England lower 
 after the introduction of the free-trade system univer- 
 sally, even though they may have undergone, so far as 
 they are themselves concerned, an absolute elevation. 
 
 If therefore, before the application of the free-trade 
 principle, there was anything approaching to equality 
 
FREE TRADE. 179 
 
 between the commerce of England and surrounding 
 nations, it is obvious that after its introduction that 
 equality — a semblance of equality — would be converted 
 into a disadvantageous inequality. 
 
 Is it possible, then, that under circumstances which 
 must inevitably terminate in this increased inequality, 
 the legislators of those nations should, in the promo- 
 tion of the happiness of mankind, according to the 
 theory of the free-traders, which in this case means 
 the advancement of the commercial prosperity of the 
 people of Great Britain and Ireland, voluntarily abandon 
 the interests of their respective countries ? 
 
 Are we to suppose that men are to be found in high 
 stations who will contradict the fundamental law on 
 which all commercial transactions are based ? 
 
 So flagrant a selfish action could not fail to be seen 
 in its true bearing by those who watch over with a 
 jealous eye the prosperity of their country. Such 
 prefer the more certain course prescribed by a long 
 experience, and estimate the vast difference between 
 a slow and constant advance and a bound, which for 
 the time being might bring them the enjoyment of 
 extended action, but the end of which, perhaps unrec- 
 ognised, is threatened with the uncertainty of a fall. 
 
 To follow the progress of the principle as it was de- 
 lineated by Adam Smith, leads, as truly as a hypotheti- 
 cal case can, to the prosperity of this country. 
 
 But then it is a hypothetical case, in which the im- 
 mediate and the remote future will have to be taken into 
 consideration. And was it certain that when applied 
 to all possible conditions, of which those of 1842 formed 
 one, the event would take that course which Adam 
 
180 FREE TRADE. 
 
 Smith portrayed ? For Adam Smith's opinion was 
 limited to the existing state of commercial relations 
 which obtained in his day. 
 
 And if not, and if this country found itself in the 
 solitary position of being the free-trader of the universe, 
 was it not the duty of Adam Smith, the parent of the 
 doctrine, and who therefore, we may suppose, was filled 
 with the natural affection of the father for the normal 
 development of his child, — was it not his duty to fore- 
 see how these alterations in surrounding conditions 
 might intervene to spoil the growtli of free trade ? for 
 he, if any man knew, was well acquainted with the 
 fluctuations to which the commercial elements of 
 nations are prone. And thus picturing all the pos- 
 sibilities of these future conditions which might at 
 a subsequent period attend its progress, if put into 
 practice, ought he not to have separated those which 
 would assuredly be associated with disaster to its 
 operation ? Ought he not to have pointed out where 
 danger may assail, and the extreme instance in which 
 the principle involves in ruin that nation which, 
 under peculiarly unfavourable circumstances, may have 
 adopted it ? 
 
 But what says Adam Smith of the ultimate condi- 
 tion of that country which alone embarks upon the 
 system of free trade ? Tlie conditions under which 
 the free-trade principle was promulgated and effectu- 
 ally put into practice, had undergone an immense 
 change as compared with what they were in the 
 times of the author of the doctrine. This country 
 then depended largely upon its own agriculture for 
 the sujDply of corn ; manufacture had not yet ab- 
 
FREE TRADE. 181 
 
 sorbed nearly the whole of the attention of the 
 nation ; steam had not yet appeared to add its dis- 
 turbing influence upon the commercial relations of 
 nations. 
 
 It is a fair question to propound whether, under 
 the vastly altered circumstances, the weight of Adam 
 Smith's authority would have been found on the 
 side of those who introduced his favoured principle 
 into our commercial code ? For it is clear that tlie 
 action of a principle is bound to alter with an altera- 
 tion in those circumstances which surround its sphere 
 of operation ; and therefore the imaginary influence 
 of the free-trade principle in the days of Adam Smith 
 could not, by any means, be similar to its real action 
 in 1842-47. 
 
 But there is difficulty about the virtues of prin- 
 ciples. What is predicated of the efficacy of a given 
 principle in one century is liable to be maintained 
 as true by a generation of a succeeding one ; and the 
 tendency is aggravated when those who are to gain 
 by the application of the principle advance their cause 
 by the influence of those whose sentiments respecting 
 its action refer to a state of affairs totally different 
 from that in which the principle is promulgated. 
 
 But a fatal error hangs round this tendency to such 
 a belief and the arbitrary procedure of those who force 
 authority to their side. 
 
 For such, who give an indisputable assent to prin- 
 ciples so enunciated, do not readily understand that 
 principles which may be efficacious at one particular 
 period of time may at another be adverse, owing to the 
 fluctuation of old and the appearance of new elements 
 
182 FREE TRADE. 
 
 to complicate their operation. And thus by an inad- 
 vertence, which is removable, to the exact functions of 
 a principle, much hurt may ensue ! 
 
 Another ground presents a site for the attack on 
 Adam Smith's doctrine, the more particularly in the 
 case where this country alone is a free-trader, but also, 
 though in a less degree, if free trade reigned universal 
 throughout the world. This ground is the tendency 
 of the principle to act perniciously upon the native 
 industries of the country. For the principle directly 
 tends to the consequence mostly of supplying the 
 demands of neutral markets, to the neglect of less 
 extensive branches of industry, and to the inordinate 
 exhaustion of our resources. Nor is this the only way 
 in which the smaller industries of the country suffer by 
 the system of free trade. The foreigner is able, by 
 means of the cheapness of Continental labour — and it 
 is questionable whether those who were responsible for 
 the introduction of free trade properly anticipated the 
 evil results which would ensue upon too rapid an ad- 
 vance in wa^^ies in their own countrv, when contrasted 
 with the comparatively low wages of European coun- 
 tries, and the effect of this difference upon the price 
 of various productions of labour — nowadays to send 
 over to this country more than our demands require as 
 far as these smaller markets are concerned, with the 
 natural consequence that such industries are gradually 
 being pushed out of the great labour-market of the king- 
 dom. And thus it comes about that the workmen of our 
 country are denied the opportunity, and this the Legis- 
 lature should see is efficiently afforded, of contributing 
 the produce of their labour to the welfare of the com- 
 
FREE TRADE. 183 
 
 muuity. Small prices rule this system of commercial 
 transactions to such an extent, that the English labourer, 
 shut out by the foreigner's competition from the market 
 which has been familiar to him, is compelled to seek 
 some other mode of employment or starve ! 
 
 And when other means of occupation are restrict- 
 ed, and depression, constant and paroxysmal, reigns 
 throughout the labour-markets, how are his chances 
 of starving considerably enhanced ! 
 
 With such an adverse criticism of the prospect of 
 free trade under given conditions, and supposing that 
 it was known to Adam Smith that in 1842 the agri- 
 cultural interests of the country were undergoing a 
 steady decline since the commencement of the century; 
 supposing, too, that no means had as yet been devised 
 to counteract the gradually increasing unproductivity 
 of the soil, but that he had by the aid of his powerful 
 imagination depicted the gigantic development of our 
 colonies, and their ability to supply the mother country 
 with the requisite amount of corn, can it be believed 
 that Adam Smith, with such a \iew of the future pos- 
 sibilities of the action of a fresh system, w^ould have 
 given his consent to the introduction of a new prin- 
 ciple, even should it have been his favourite principle 
 of free trade, when the dangers which beset its progress 
 were, after the initial disturbances of its action had 
 passed off, like to become so numerous and so great ? 
 Is it to be expected that the illustrious economist 
 would have legislated so disastrously for his country ? 
 
 23. The morality of tlie free-trade system. — Judging 
 the question purely upon a scientific basis, the grounds 
 
184 FREE TRADE. 
 
 on which the legislator introduced the free-trade prin- 
 ciple into our system of commerce, were not founded 
 on the propositions of its original inventor. It was 
 applied as a supposed remedy for the evils of the times 
 — evils which had been unjustly and arbitrarily laid at 
 the door of protection. Adam Smith enunciated his 
 principle as being peculiarly applicable to an already 
 prosperous state of our commerce. But of this nearly 
 all could be certain, that its first effects would be asso- 
 ciated, — whether our commerce were in a state of pros- 
 perity, as in the times of Adam Smith, who discovered 
 the principle — or in a condition of depression, as in the 
 second Administration of Sir Robert Peel, who applied 
 it, — with a temporary elevation of the fortunes of our 
 trade. And in the latter instance, how easy was it to 
 dissipate, for the time being, present difficulties ; and 
 how fatal to the future progress of the nation would be 
 the association, then erected, of free trade with pros- 
 perity ! But this future progress — well, time would 
 witness the ultimate development of the principle. 
 
 We have already seen how it happened, that Sir 
 Robert Peel adopted the free -trade principle to our 
 commercial relations on the ground of expediency. 
 
 What a contrast this new legislation to all that pre- 
 ceded it ! Before, practice was based upon experience 
 of the needs of individual interests of the community ; 
 the sum of these formed the total interests of the 
 nation. But the policy of Sir Robert Peel undid all 
 that previous legislation had done for the welfare of 
 our commercial interests ; the State now interfered to 
 settle what the individual interests of the nation re- 
 quired. And the information upon which the author- 
 
FREE TEADE. 185 
 
 ities of the State proceeded was derived exclusively 
 from an interested source — the demands of only one 
 of the numerous interests of the country, the present 
 interest of manufacture. 
 
 It is strange that England, the country which had 
 set the example of protection in her international 
 commercial relations, and which nations in their own 
 self-defence so prudently followed, should be the first 
 to interrupt the slow and equable, and, better than all 
 else, the certain advancement of her trade I 
 
 To interrupt the continuance of relations which had 
 existed for so long a time, and which had proved them- 
 selves capable of bearing the strains of the severest 
 depression, on the authority of Sir Eobert Peel, for the 
 sake of an abstract principle, the early action of which 
 was predicted as the sure cause of so much prosperity, 
 but prosperity of an unwholesome nature, but whose 
 remoter effects were hidden in the clouds of the future, 
 the course and magnitude of whicli were not even so 
 much as described, was an experience, the future 
 hazardous character of which was risked for the sake 
 of tiding over present difficulties and dangers; the 
 difficulties being the disordered state of the revenues, 
 which had been progressively increasing in the hands 
 of the Whig Chancellor — and the dangers arising from 
 the growth of the popular agitation with reference to 
 the false notions then propounded regarding free trade. 
 But the real basis of that agitation might have been 
 exposed, and the agitation dissipated in a moment ! 
 
 But Sir Robert Peel, as Prime Minister, stood between 
 his duties to the party as their leader, and his duties to 
 his country as its guide. He found the influence of 
 
186 FREE TRADE. 
 
 manufacture overwhelming; and instead of analysing 
 the causes of the agitation, he determined to make use 
 of the popular enthusiasm to effect a double purpose. 
 And thus the political machinations of the manufac- 
 turers succeeded at last ! 
 
 To satisfy the thirst for gold of the manufacturers, 
 and indirectly to gain the applause of the mob, this 
 interruption in our trade was undertaken, at the certain 
 risk of destroying the agricultural prospects of the 
 country, and with the certainty of receiving the con- 
 tinued opposition of all foreign nations. 
 
 Our trade relations with other nations formed part 
 of a whole, the harmony of whose action was rudely 
 broken. 
 
 Why ? To fill the pockets of the manufacturers. Is 
 this in accordance with political morality, to act un- 
 justly and arbitrarily towards the commercial prospects 
 of other countries; to destroy their industries, in the 
 words of Sir Kobert Peel ; to increase discontentment 
 among foreign neighbours, and thereby increase rather 
 than diminish the enmity of race ? 
 
 Is it a moral action on the part of the Legislature to 
 destroy a weaker industry in order that a larger one 
 may be solely benefited by its destruction ? Would 
 Englishmen have agreed to this course at the time, had 
 they been cognisant of the future distress that was to 
 follow prosperity so unnaturally acquired ? 
 
 Is peace to extend throughout the world by the 
 operation of such a principle, the immediate effect of 
 which was to create a feeling of animosity among the 
 rival industries of that country in which it was first 
 introduced ? 
 
FREE TRADE. 187 
 
 24. Why have surroundiiiy nations remained protec- 
 tive ? — The boasted efficacy of the free-trade principle 
 had blinded the greater part of the nation to the pos- 
 sibility, under certain circumstances, of the pernicious 
 results of its future action. It is not difficult to assign 
 to each of the several parties to its contraction — the 
 legislators, the manufacturers, and a large part of the 
 body of the people — their respective shares in eftect- 
 ing its introduction into the commercial code of the 
 country. 
 
 But, generally speaking, its application was asso- 
 ciated with one of two alternatives — either the people, 
 or the majority of them, who were forced to believe in 
 it, allowed themselves to be self-deceived ; or the glories 
 of the free-trade principle were so extravagantly and 
 baselessly portrayed, for the ulterior purpose of con- 
 cealing the partial selfish motive which formed tlie 
 source of its advocacy. And the expression, partial 
 selfish motive, is made use of to indicate the attitude 
 of a section of the community which, instead of ad- 
 vancing with equal steps all the interests of the nation, 
 pleaded with so much success the cause of only a part 
 of them, — the larger part, it is true. 
 
 But the fact remains that, notwithstanding the 
 almost supernatural virtues ascribed to the operation 
 of the free -trade principle, surrounding nations have 
 remained protective; and the grounds on which they 
 have retained the system of protection may well be 
 considered, especially when the initial and successful 
 course of the principle of free trade must liave tended 
 to shake the confidence of those who failed to foresee 
 its final results. 
 
188 FEEE TRADE. 
 
 The conduct of surrounding nations, at the time of 
 the introduction of the free-trade principle, was founded 
 on the basis of national self-interest. It regarded rather 
 the equable progress of their industries, with the 
 gradual advancement of the people under it, than a 
 sudden and violent interruption, the consequences of 
 which, if they did not attend their own, would certainly 
 reach the next generation. 
 
 It fully proves that the wise legislators who pre- 
 scribed it foresaw the time, not far distant, when the 
 free -trade country, having spent the produce of the 
 energy of surrounding nations, would begin to prey 
 upon its own vitals. For now there was the oppor- 
 tunity presented to the foreigner of applying protected 
 labour to free -trade machinery; and not only of at- 
 tracting the mechanical inventions of the free - trade 
 country, but also trained artisans, who are induced to 
 convey the knowledge of their arts to the workmen of 
 foreign countries. 
 
 But it was only natural that the countries under the 
 protective system should suffer during the early period 
 of the operation of the free-trade principle on the com- 
 mercial system of England, and should continue to^ 
 suffer, till they had learnt at the hands of the free-trade 
 nation to supply all their wants. The gain thereby to 
 England, though temporary and surrounded with every 
 kind of danger, would be the corresponding loss to 
 other nations. And an immense increase in capital in 
 consequence accrued to the nation whose commercial 
 system was thus disturbed from out of its former and 
 steady course. And the increase of capital has not 
 been without its advantages, for it has served to enable 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 i^x^ 
 
 our merchants to pursue their trade at a disadvantage. 
 Profits have been gradually diminishing, and their 
 capital has been slowly consumed ; and thus, what the 
 father gained in his successful commerce with foreign 
 countries, the son slowly returns, but in an indirect 
 manner; for he paid high wages so long as the hope 
 remained of the accumulation of profits, and some of 
 these high wages go to the purchase of foreign manu- 
 factured goods. 
 
 But this damaging influence upon the industries of 
 the foreigners by the early operation of free trade was 
 not unknown to the promoters of the principle. Sir 
 Eobert Peel himself declared that many of the indus- 
 tries of foreign countries would be destroyed, and 
 pointed to this result in an exulting manner as being 
 the immediate outcome of free trade ; just as if this 
 was one of the means by which free trade was to spread 
 peace and goodwill over the face of the earth ! 
 
 By free trade, therefore, we should become the great 
 market of the world ; by the free importation of raw 
 materials we should be the better able, as a manufac- 
 turing community, to cope with the rival trade and 
 commerce of other countries. 
 
 By increasing competition of the markets, out of 
 labour, we should raise the wages of the labourer, and 
 therefore add to the prosperity of the masses of the 
 country. 
 
 But what errors led Sir Robert Peel to incline to 
 this prospective action of free trade, for must he not 
 have held this to be the permanent result, however 
 insufficiently grounded, of the principle ? 
 
 The error, propounded by Mr Richard Cobden, that 
 
190 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the energy of the English labourer, and the superior 
 kind of his work, would always bear the same relation 
 which they then had to the indolence of the foreigner 
 and the inferior quality of his labour. But is not this 
 to suppose that relations shall continue fixed, which we 
 know must be ever fluctuating, from the mobile nature 
 of the elements related ? 
 
 We are to suppose that the distance between the 
 Englishman and the foreigner, in their relative capacity 
 to work, is to be always maintained; and this, too, 
 whether improvement takes place or not ; for if the 
 foreigner improves, so does the Englishman. But 
 although there is no absolute limit to improvement, 
 there is a relative limit, and in the race to this goal 
 there is no means on the part of the Legislature of this 
 country of checking the pace of different nations. 
 These means were removed when we permitted our 
 machinery to leave the country, against the ulterior 
 purpose of the manufacturers ! There being no check 
 then, we are to suppose that the same features which 
 had characterised our own industries, and the work- 
 men employed in them, are to be denied to others, who 
 are in every respect gifted with all these forces, the 
 usage of which has led to the advancement of the 
 English artisan. But does not the supposition compel 
 us to the belief that similar forces in the foreigner, 
 other conditions being equal, cannot admit of the same 
 degree of development as they can in ourselves ? Is 
 not such a notion altogether absurd, and based upon 
 an absolute want of knowledge of the comparative 
 progress of the elements of society ? Because we 
 advanced slowly, the means to that advancement being 
 
FREE TRADE. 191 
 
 gradually evolved, is this an argument that the people 
 of other nations shall also undergo a slow progress, 
 when the means for their development are ready at 
 hand and have but to be utilised ? 
 
 The free-traders would have had a good argument 
 had they been able to show that, in the relative ad- 
 vancement of the commercial interests of their own 
 and other countries, tliese means were developed with 
 unequal strength, and that their own means would be 
 always more eflicient and more powerful than those of 
 their neighbours. But how can such a result be gained 
 when our machinery, the produce of the genius of the 
 nation, is exported duty free, and our artisans leave 
 this country to advance the industries of foreign 
 climes ? 
 
 And yet this is the doctrine which Mr Cobden 
 held, and maintained in the Parliament of the United 
 Kingdom ! This, however, was not the only error ; 
 there was another one which was brought into the 
 foreground. It was that this country would continue 
 to be the central market for all the goods of the world. 
 Neutral markets would remain for ever open to our 
 commerce, and therefore the prosperous career of that 
 was established on a firm basis — as firm as the free- 
 traders could make it. Why ? Because we could now 
 compete to greater advantage with our foreign rivals, 
 for we had crushed them, and thus were left without 
 any rivals 1 The work of free trade was done when it 
 was shown that our markets had reached a height of 
 prosperity which they never would lose. 
 
 But besides the falling into error in these particular 
 directions, where I the power of the imagination was 
 
192 FREE TRADE. 
 
 needed to vary the possible combination of the conse- 
 quences, immediate and remote, of phenomena, and to 
 provide for dangerous results, it was taken for granted 
 that no new and unforeseen difficulties would arise to 
 complicate and probably to endanger the progress of 
 our trade. In short, the conditions surrounding the 
 operation of the free- trade principle were supposed to 
 remain in a state similar to what they presented during 
 the first period of its action to subsequent generations ! 
 Such a treacherous conclusion, however, based as it is 
 upon the assumption that relations will continue to 
 remain as they are, in spite of the disturbance already 
 introduced into their midst and the Liberal notion of 
 continual reform, obviously lent itself to credulity. 
 Although the conditions on which these relations were 
 based were admitted by the free-traders to be capable 
 of fluctuation, still these relations were supposed to 
 remain for ever the same ! 
 
 But what would be the true course of the disturbed 
 relationship is as follows : the surrounding conditions 
 would remain, for a time only, favourable to the opera- 
 tion of the free-trade principle. It required foresight 
 to enable the legislator to anticipate how much and in 
 what direction these fluctuating conditions might change 
 — what new elements might appear, whether to stimu- 
 late or to counteract the action of the principle — and 
 what consequences such possible alterations might have 
 upon the future progress of free trade. 
 
 Such a foresight was seen in the resentment with 
 which the free-trade manufacturers regarded the too 
 enlarged policy of Sir Eobert Peel, when he allowed 
 the mechanical implements of the country to be ex- 
 
FREE TRADE. 193 
 
 ported free of duty. And it was practised by those who 
 presided over the commercial welfare of surrounding 
 nations, when, uninfluenced by the primary beneficial 
 action of free trade as saviour of this country, they 
 judged that its prosperty was of but a temporary dura- 
 tion ; and that the present sufferings under which they 
 groaned at the hands of the powerful but arbitrary 
 Minister of England, would be slowly but certainly 
 turned into content and happiness, as their trades and 
 industries gradually recovered from their former state 
 of depression and partial arrest. For they perceived 
 the seeds of inherent growth in their industries, and 
 determined the direction in which that growth should 
 take place. 
 
 Let it be admitted that the present state of their com- 
 merce was injured by this attitude of England ; if they 
 followed in the train of free trade, would their relative 
 position be one jot improved ? Not in the least. Be- 
 sides, by such an action, the prospects of the future 
 gain to be derived from the maintenance of the protec- 
 tive system would be dissipated. Better to undergo 
 the temporary crush of this arbitrary procedure, and 
 be certain of the future and not far-distant spoils of a 
 spendthrift and extravagant policy ! If free trade be 
 capable of conferring the immense advantages ascribed 
 to it, upon the trade and commerce of nations, why did 
 not the nations in 1842-47 follow the lead which Eng- 
 land gave ? Because the so-called glories surrounding 
 the free-trade principle were dissected with the cold 
 hands of reason ; because the consequences of its action 
 were analysed ; and because the possible combinations 
 which might affect its future course were arranged in 
 
 N 
 
194 FREE TRADE. 
 
 order, and their policy for good or evil ascertained. 
 And to what did such a treatment of so important a 
 problem tend ? That it was far better to be content 
 with the gradual progress of trade and industries. 
 Besides, was there not the consolation, that their present 
 loss will surely be counteracted by future gain ? A 
 stimulus was thus afforded, and new energies were 
 called forth ; fresh powers were awakened to remove 
 the injustice that had been so cruelly, and apparently 
 so wantonly, thrown upon them. 
 
 Do men ever work with so much patience and so 
 much force, as when they are urged to wipe off some 
 evil which they have never deserved ? 
 
 Thus what the British politician failed to discern — 
 for his action proceeded to a greater extent than his 
 advisers had determined and hoped — the wise legislators 
 of surrounding nations observed in silence. They per- 
 ceived the tendency towards improvement in the in- 
 dustries of their countries ; and foresaw the time when 
 their national energies would have undergone such 
 considerable extension as to place them upon the foot- 
 ing of equality with the first commercial nation in the 
 universe ; and when the labour of the foreigner would 
 equal, if not excel, that of the free-trader, because not 
 spoilt by the excesses into which a temporary but in- 
 ordinate prosperity has thrown him. They predicted 
 the time when the neutral markets would gradually 
 become the sole emporium of their merchandise, in the 
 same way as before the free-trader absorbed all the 
 profits of the commercial world ; for they would be 
 able to supply the customary articles under the protec- 
 tive system at a cost much less than that of the free- 
 
FREE TRADE. 195 
 
 trader. And not only would tliey have the satisfac- 
 tion of underselling the free-trader in neutral markets, 
 and of replying to the original message of free trade, 
 but there would be the possibility of invading even the 
 markets of the free-trade country itself; a procedure 
 which would be assisted by the extension of bounties 
 in the instance of those industries, grown and growing, 
 which could not, by virtue of their inferior state of 
 development, compete unaided against their stronger 
 rivals ! 
 
 All thought of the former crushing of their trade 
 and industries would be, for the nonce, forgotten, in the 
 intense satisfaction that all this they would be enabled 
 to do with the direct assistance of the free-trader. 
 Free-trade goods they tax, and this taxation is set aside 
 to assist and improve the growing industries of their 
 country. 
 
 What gain then has England made in the long-run 
 by the action of the free-trade principle ? 
 
 Our markets abroad are disappearing, because com- 
 petition has appeared in sudi strength as to shut our 
 merchants out of their former monopoly ; our trade is 
 shrinking, profits diminish to such an extent that in 
 some markets it is impossible to make any profits, and 
 wages proportionately decrease. 
 
 And still the forces are constantly acting which have 
 brought about these grave and alarming signs ! 
 
 If they continue, with their potency for evil, as they 
 are likely to do, unless some phenomenon appears to act 
 in our favour, can it be otherwise than that this decline 
 in the trades and industries of our country will lead to 
 a fatal decay ? 
 
196 FREE TRADE. 
 
 25. Philosophical considerations of free trade. — The 
 difference in the origins of the protective and free-trade 
 systems is this, — while tlie former gradually grew out 
 •of the requirements of the commercial relations of the 
 nation, and therefore had for its basis the process of 
 induction, free trade was altogether the product of the 
 imagination, and is classified amongst the deductive 
 principles. 
 
 Before the introduction of free trade into our com- 
 mercial code, our legislators based their actions upon 
 the experience of the past. What experience was there 
 •of the efficacy of the free -trade principle, and what 
 certainty of the ultimate results of its operation, 
 •except what was secured from the selfish calculating 
 process of the enthusiastic free-traders ? 
 
 And upon what foundation was that calculation 
 iDased ? That the circumstances which surrounded its 
 action would continue much in a similar condition to 
 what they then stood. But w^as such an assumption 
 based upon a true determination of the subsequent 
 alterations which these surrounding circumstances 
 must in the natural course of affairs undergo ? 
 
 When Sir Eobert Peel posed as the theoretic legis- 
 lator in 1842-46, he administered a remedy, the imme- 
 diate consequences of which were foretold almost to 
 the very letter. But what measures were taken to 
 •elucidate the subsequent action of the principle ? Such 
 Avere hidden in obscurity ! 
 
 The protectionists, on the other hand, pursued the 
 method of practical politicians. They based their 
 measures upon what had gone before — upon experience 
 therefore ; and they were content to follow the paths of 
 
FREE TRADE. 197 
 
 experience, on which they could rely with greater 
 certainty, than step into the partially explored territory 
 of theory. But they had the mortification of discover- 
 ing, too late, that the Minister who had delivered great 
 speeches in favour of protection, and who had on in- 
 numerable occasions entirely exonerated the Corn Laws 
 from the unjust charge of being the cause of distress, 
 had in the meanwhile been maturing plans for the 
 reversal of a policy in which he had taught his fol- 
 lowers to maintain the highest trust. 
 
 But it is to be presumed that Sir Robert had satisfied 
 his scruples for logical accuracy, when after having 
 pursued the experimental method for three years, and 
 having escaped the observation that the period over 
 which the action of the principle had extended was 
 favourable to its operation, he arrived at the final con- 
 clusion that the free-trade principle, being right in the 
 abstract, and also successful so far as he had up to that 
 time allowed it scope of action, ought therefore to be 
 admitted, free and unrestricted, into all the commer- 
 cial relations of the country. 
 
 As if the observations prolonged over the ridiculously 
 short period of three years w^ere sufficient to interrupt 
 the course of a system which had been found equal to 
 the discharge of the embarrassments that had been 
 thrown upon it, and, in the words of Sir Robert Peel, 
 had already successfully overcome greater strains than 
 the present distress placed upon it ! 
 
 But the final conclusion was not based upon this 
 single observation alone, there were some other con- 
 siderations as well. But amongst them is not to 
 be found the favourable state of surrounding condi- 
 
198 FREE TRADE. 
 
 tions. The new principle was growing, as it were, 
 upon a virgin soil. But no means were devised to 
 renew the exhaustion which the principle would in 
 time effect. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel allowed the free-trade principle to be 
 right in the abstract ; and though his admission was 
 apparently an honest one, yet in the same speech that 
 he makes the admission, he noticed the contra-indica- 
 tions to its application. But what is the meaning of 
 a principle being right in the abstract ? It means 
 simply this, that, with given conditions, a principle is 
 found to work with the greatest possible benefit to the 
 system into which it is introduced. It is exactly upon 
 these given conditions that the whole of the merits of 
 an abstract principle is placed. 
 
 But do these given conditions remain constant? 
 What sound statesman would legislate recklessly upon 
 a measure, when the direction in which the given con- 
 ditions might fluctuate were not wholly within his 
 grasp ? No consideration of abstractedness would 
 have impelled the intemperate Fox to legislate on the 
 basis of abstract principles. And the evidence to be 
 derived from the attitude of William Pitt during the 
 first illness of the King in 1788, suffices to indicate his 
 opinion upon the nature of the abstract in politics. 
 For what he inculcated was, to collect from past 
 history what had happened on occasions which had 
 more or less resemblance to the one with which he had 
 to deal, and with the assistance of such material, to 
 legislate on the lines which had already been laid down 
 by his predecessors. 
 
 Thus Sir Eobert Peel could find no precedent, either 
 
FREE TRADE. 199 
 
 in the career of the greatest statesman of the party 
 he had deserted can boast, or in the opinion of the 
 champion of the party of reform, to which for a time 
 lie became attached, and by which, since, he has been 
 claimed, despite his want of moral courage to resist 
 the Tory opposition to Eoman Catholic emancipation. 
 
 Is it possible that Sir Eobert, acknowledging the 
 times to be critical, and therefore applying an extra- 
 ordinary remedy, and finding no precedent for the 
 arbitrary application of an abstract principle to our 
 commercial system, established one on the questionable 
 grounds that other Ministers would have acted in the 
 same way if they had admitted the state of the nation 
 required it ? 
 
 It is obvious that, whether or not a principle is right 
 in the abstract, this mere rectitude is not sufficient to 
 justify its introduction into practice. 
 
 When we state that a principle is right in the ab- 
 stract, we refer to all those possible conditions which 
 we revolve in our minds when we consider the principle 
 as being in operation at a certain point of time. 
 
 But the power of reading the future is a peculiar 
 one ! Will not those conditions alter ? have they not 
 the sources of fluctuation within them ? And who 
 without the possession of profound knowledge and the 
 liveliest imagination can portray the appearance of 
 new conditions, with the decline, and it may be the dis- 
 appearance, of some of the older ones ? And when the 
 surroundings thus change, is it to be supposed that the 
 original effect of the principle is to continue uniform ? 
 Such is obviously contradictory. It is absurd to con- 
 clude that the total results of the action of a principle 
 
200 FREE TRADE. 
 
 shall remain constant, when the conditions which sur- 
 round it are subject to variation. 
 
 Kegarding, therefore, the free-trade principle from the 
 abstract point of view. Sir Kobert Peel could only be 
 convinced of its favourable action just so long as the 
 circumstances which related to its operation remained 
 in a state similar to that in which they were when the 
 principle first commenced its progress. 
 
 To suppose that this state would remain constant, was 
 to suppose that the course of things, which are ever 
 fluctuating, shall remain fixed and uniform; and to 
 evince an ignorance of the progress, if not of this, at any 
 rate of the commerce of other countries. 
 
 Was Sir Eobert Peel aware of the inconstant char- 
 acter of the function of the free-trade principle ? 
 
 And did he take any means to prevent the principle 
 from assuming an appearance of a pernicious nature ? 
 
 It is an error which, it has already been remarked, 
 is with difficulty eradicated, to suppose that free trade, 
 being a cause constantly in operation, must always be 
 associated with that degree of prosperity which marked 
 its initial action, or any prosperity at all ! And we 
 have adverted to the circumstance that a principle is of 
 itself powerless either for good or evil. It begins only 
 to have effect when it is applied to certain conditions. 
 
 That effect which characterised the appearance of the 
 free-trade principle, and to which is undoubtedly due 
 the stimulus which all our markets received at the 
 time, was " increased circulation." And " increased cir- 
 culation" was the immediate cause of the prosperity 
 of our trade. Now the relation between free trade and 
 increased circulation is that of cause and effect. But 
 
FREE TRADE. 201 
 
 how is free trade in reality related to the condition of 
 prosperity ? Obviously through increased circulation. 
 
 Thus free trade is not the proximal cause of pros- 
 perity, but the source of its origin, increased circulation ; 
 and this only during the existence of conditions fa- 
 vourable to its appearance. 
 
 But though the same cause must always have the 
 same effect, this effect is concealed by the contingent 
 appearance of collateral causes. The total immediate 
 effect of a cause, then, depends altogether upon the 
 nature of the external conditions upon w^hich the cause 
 first begins to operate. 
 
 We have seen how these conditions may be favour- 
 able to the induction of increased circulation, the source 
 of prosperity, by means of the free-trade principle. 
 
 But these conditions do not always remain favour- 
 able. Why ? Because collateral effects in the com- 
 mercial world appear, as the immediate results of the 
 operation of the free-trade principle, to counteract tlie 
 tendency of the countries where the consequences of 
 its early operation were adverse to the progress of 
 their industries, with this final result, that forces are 
 at length established in those countries which are op- 
 posed to the pernicious influence of the principle upon 
 them — pernicious for a while to them, but favourable 
 to us. As, therefore, the influence of the principle in 
 these countries ceased to be less and less pernicious, so 
 must its real nature become more and more disadvan- 
 tageous to the commercial interests of the free-trade 
 country. 
 
 What means, it may be inquired again, were taken 
 by Sir Robert Peel to grapple with such probabilities 
 
202 FREE TRADE. 
 
 supposing that any one of them, or all together, came 
 into action ? How did he contemplate the adverse effect 
 of the other protective nations upon the isolated free- 
 trader ? The free-traders themselves, to their credit, 
 thought that they were safe and secure in the posses- 
 sion of one ally, and that — the monopoly of the native 
 machinery of their country. 
 
 Such an extraordinary piece of legislation was never 
 for the moment entertained by Pitt, Canning, Huskis- 
 son, or any other statesmen who held the present 
 interests as well as future welfare of their country in 
 their hands. But what was the previous attitude of 
 Sir Eobert Peel to this abstract principle of free-trade ? 
 Sir Eobert, when discussing the relative merits of the 
 abstract principle, himself declared that, in a new state 
 of society, its application would without any doubt be 
 desirable. 
 
 What was the place, then, of this abstract principle in 
 all the old conditions of the community in which rights 
 of a general nature had grown up, and in which a 
 branch of industry, founded upon those rights, ought to 
 be maintained, and which both himself and Lord John 
 Kussell had already declared should be maintained ? 
 For is it not the object of good government to advance 
 the industries of the nation, in order to diminish the 
 sources of discontent ? 
 
 Now Sir Eobert Peel asserted clearly, and apparently 
 without hesitation, that such rights ought to be main- 
 tained ! Was it with a view to appease the growing 
 distrust which the party of protection were beginning 
 to display against them ? 
 
 But whatever may have been his motive, it is certain 
 
FREE TRADE. 203 
 
 that what Sir Eobert Peel proclaimed one year as being 
 essentially bound up with the interests of the nation at 
 large, his action contradicted in the next ! 
 
 Had the consequences, remote as well as immediate, 
 been subjected to a larger amount of analysis, is it 
 probable that Sir Eobert would have hazarded the 
 prospects of his country's commerce upon the slender 
 amount of experimental observation which was avail- 
 able ? And was sufficient attention afforded to the 
 operation of the principle when surrounding circum- 
 stances were, as they certainly would become, adverse 
 to its action ? 
 
 Was it safe to trust to the insecure hypothesis that 
 surrounding nations would follow in the train of free 
 trade ? Ajid if they did not — as there were more 
 than enough grounds to suppose that they would not 
 — after the loss they had sustained by the powerful 
 disturbance produced by the first period of action of 
 the principle, in what way would this principle react 
 upon our own trades and industries eventually, when, 
 as there was no solid reason to expect the contrary, 
 instead of increased circulation of the markets, there 
 should happen in some future time to be depression of 
 these markets, or, it might be, absolute stagnation ? 
 
 When the source of demand was being gradually cut 
 off, would there not be a tendency to a congested state 
 of the markets — a condition implying an inordinate 
 production? Would not such a congested state be 
 the first sign of the ultimate pernicious action of the 
 principle ? 
 
 But such an alarming disturbance would be read 
 differently by different minds. Thus one might suggest 
 
204 FREE TRADE. 
 
 that it was the fault of the producer — he produces too 
 rapidly. 
 
 But upon what does he exert his powers to stimulate 
 production ? Upon expectation. It is expectation 
 which really fails him; an expectation based upon a 
 previous experience of the demand of his market. 
 
 Such a congestion points to the local arrest of the 
 former increased circulation of our trade. What follows ? 
 The congestion must be relieved. But this can be done 
 only by diminishing the degree of production ; of cor- 
 relating the amount of supplies to the smaller demands. 
 Hence, with the diminution of supplies, the large 
 number of workmen thrown out of employment. 
 
 Now does the pernicious action of the free-trade 
 principle appear naked for the first time. Before, this 
 adverse action w^as concealed, and its effect counteracted 
 by the adventitious increase of the circulation of the 
 trade-markets. But this wanes, and the exhaustive in- 
 fluence of the principle becomes gradually perceptible. 
 
 But the same forces are still at work w^hich caused 
 the temporary congestion of our markets, leading to 
 reduced activity. It is clear that what has then caused 
 congestion in the first instance, will, if not checked, 
 produce decline in the next. Thus the amount of trade 
 production will generally diminish ; and to decline will 
 succeed an inevitable decay ! 
 
 26. Effects of free trade. — When any change is con- 
 templated in the ordinary progress of things, it is requi- 
 site that, however much their ordinary, and therefore 
 regarded as common, progress may be scoffed at by 
 certain reformers, whose motives for such a destructive 
 
FREE TRADE. 205 
 
 purpose are not always upon the surface, the exact 
 nature and working, immediate and remote as well, of 
 the change should be narrowly discriminated. And all 
 the more needed is this process of discrimination, when 
 the primary effects of any alteration are of a favourable 
 kind. For under these circumstances, those w^ho are to 
 be the present gainers by the new system, are likely to 
 be blinded to the possibility of its future and prejudicial 
 action. But the keen discernment of the legislator 
 here interposes to balance the various actions of the 
 new principle. It is his to regard the ultimate as w^ell 
 as the near consequences of a falsely introduced princi- 
 ple ; to analyse the constant action of that principle, 
 as well as its fluctuating operation ; to imagine the 
 possible changes its application may effect in those 
 circumstances which surround its action ; to determine 
 which, if any, of these circumstances are constant; 
 and, most of all, to maintain the equable growth of 
 the various elements of his country's industry, and to 
 foresee evil results ! He w^ill not be entrapped into the 
 ■espousal of a system, however fair it may be in appear- 
 ance, because it confers prosperity on the present, but 
 is likely to be associated with disaster in the future. 
 Eather than introduce such changes into the midst of 
 affairs, the termination of which he cannot gauge, will 
 he, in the language of Bishop Berkeley, " leave things as 
 he found them," and be wise. For is not the future of 
 his country his especial care ? Are not violent measures 
 avoided in the instance where too powerful a stimu- 
 lation follows the application of any particular remedy, 
 because he well knows that this must be followed, 
 if the condition of surrounding circumstances are 
 
206 FREE TRADE. 
 
 capable of fluctuation, by a corresponding reaction in 
 the opposite direction ? Thus will exhaustion ensue ; 
 and where is the wisdom of interrupting the natural 
 progress of affairs, when the results of such an inter- 
 ruption are without his control ? Is it prudent for a 
 legislator, who has the interests of millions of his 
 fellow-creatures to serve, to risk the future for the sake 
 of the present ? 
 
 But such apposite reasoning, depending not upon the 
 immediate, but upon the remote effects of the free-trade 
 principle, working under restriction, seems never to 
 have entered the heads of those who took the most 
 prominent place in the free-trade controversy ; whether 
 in or out of Parliament. What only concerned those 
 who were amazed at the wonderful operation of free 
 trade, as it was described at the time, was the pros- 
 pect of immediate prosperity which its action would 
 certainly, but it was not stated indirectljy effect. It 
 was sufficient to know that free trade would be followed 
 by blessings which would be bestowed upon the greater 
 portion of the community. 
 
 Thus the near effects of free trade, acting partially on 
 the whole commercial world, were described as altogether 
 tending to the growth and welfare of our manufacture. 
 Then was the opportunity afforded of lauding the 
 relative importance of manufacture and agriculture, and 
 it was abundantly embraced. But only the immediate 
 prospects of the manufacturers were considered. It 
 was supposed that these foreshadowed the whole of the 
 future of free- trade prosperity. It was the fatal method 
 of arguing from insufficiently known grounds, and 
 without the assistance of all possible data — thought of 
 
FREE TRADE. 207 
 
 the future was drowned in the enjoyment of the pres- 
 ent ! It is worthy of observation that the immediate 
 effects of free trade upon agriculture were admitted 
 by the free-traders to be adverse to the interests of 
 agriculture. Even the free-traders could not shut their 
 eyes to the fact, that the free-trade principle, when 
 acting partially, brought disasters in its train. The 
 immediate operation, therefore, of the free-trade princi- 
 ple may be summarised as acting beneficially towards 
 manufacture, but adversely against agriculture. And 
 it is of importance to recognise the double influence of 
 the principle. It is as if the true ultimate action of 
 the principle in all directions had been portrayed, at 
 the commencement, in one only ; to offer a sign, which 
 might or might not be accepted, of its disastrous 
 tendencies ! 
 
 But the free-traders were not at a loss to persuade 
 the farmers that the certain reduction of their rents 
 would recoup them for the losses which a fall in the 
 price of corn would entail upon them. Eents would be 
 lower ; therefore profits would be higher, according to 
 the opinion of some economists, who, however, appear 
 to have no regard for the rigid conditions which such a 
 generalisation demands. It is obvious that for profits 
 to remain high when rent falls, the conditions which 
 effect this reduction must have no prejudicial influence 
 upon one of the factors of which the relationship is 
 composed. It is clear that the circumstances which 
 attend the sources of profit must remain in a state 
 similar to what they were before rent was reduced, or, 
 if they do continue in a similar condition, to be at any 
 rate favourable to the production of profit. 
 
208 FREE TRADE. 
 
 But suppose the case in which the sources whence 
 profit flows become gradually dried up by the applica- 
 tion of a new principle to the ordinary system, and 
 imagine the extreme instance where the sources of pro- 
 fit remain idle in the hands of the farmer, and t^annot 
 become converted into profit, when there is no remu- 
 nerative market for his corn, will any amount of reduc- 
 tion of rent compensate the farmer in such a deplorable 
 state of his affairs ? 
 
 However, the farmers, like everybody else, were de- 
 ceived by the false and interested arguments of the free- 
 traders, and the deception once begun has, continuously 
 proceeded with the prosperity of the misled Liberal 
 party. For the results of error can only be escaped by 
 a further addition to error ! 
 
 Was it certain that rents would fall ? It was certain 
 enough that the tendency to fall in the price of corn 
 would continue to operate and gradually ingravesce, and 
 the farmer acted upon the hypothesis " that rent would 
 fall," and admitted the source of his own destruction. 
 
 As the price of corn fell, so would the actual value 
 of arable land tend to recede. But the question was, 
 When would the tendency begin to operate ? Though 
 the tendency existed, rents might still, and would most 
 probably, in the generality of instances, remain about 
 the same as they had done during the system of protec- 
 tion, for the immediate necessity for reduction was not 
 at hand. The gradual and almost imperceptible lower- 
 ing of the price of corn would scarcely, after the first 
 and sudden reduction in level, be felt by the farmer. 
 Capital would come to his assistance in a bad year, and 
 
FREE TRADE. 209 
 
 the deficient harvests, blamed as the source of his mis- 
 fortunes by the free-trader, ever ready to advance a 
 false cause. Thus his hopes would be flattered, and the 
 farmer reduced to the uncertain position of relying 
 upon the sufficiency of his harvest for his income. And 
 so would the several links in the chain of a downward 
 progress be passed, till the corn-markets of his own 
 country were closed to the admission of his corn. The 
 corn-markets of a nation shut to the admission of home- 
 grown wheat ! This was the event to which the action 
 of the free-trade principle led ! Ye wise legislators in 
 times past, who filled the mouths of the people with 
 cheap bread in one generation, and closed the avenues 
 to labour in the next ! 
 
 Thus the fortunes of the farmer, being grounded on 
 so insecure a basis, his ruin was slowly, but none the 
 less surely, being wrought, and with him the material 
 prosperity of the owners of arable land. 
 
 For the rents of farms would, in course of time, under- 
 go an actual decrease, though the actual value of land 
 would, by the united endeavours of the landowners, be 
 maintained at the nominal value. 
 
 Such is obviously the outcome of that self-interest 
 which is common to all the members of the human 
 species. 
 
 But the reduction would not happen in a way which 
 the free-trader anticipated, and which the statesman, 
 concerned in the interests of his country, would re- 
 gard with favour, nor would the terminal result of 
 this untoward course of affairs meet with his appro- 
 bation. 
 
 o 
 
210 FUEE TRADE. 
 
 If the tendency of the free-trade principle acted in 
 the direction of decreasing the value of the arable land 
 of the country, and thus verified the actual prediction 
 of free trade, but not the method by which that event 
 was to take place, the free-traders could hardly have 
 foreseen that such a downward course in the level of 
 rents, when it began to happen in a manner entirely 
 unconceived by them, would be necessarily associated 
 with the downfall of the prospects of the agricultural 
 labourer. Nor did the free-trader, in his gigantic en- 
 deavour to effect a redistribution in the spoils of labour, 
 and to direct a large proportion into the channel of the 
 producers themselves — but, nevertheless, not a just pro- 
 portion, for the manufacturers amassed more than their 
 proper share — anticipate that the alteration he was 
 intent on inducing would inevitably result in a far 
 greater aggrandisement of the landowners than the 
 mere increased rent of farms would of itself effect. 
 The manufacturers were hoarding up riches in one age 
 that the landowners might become so much the more 
 prosperous in the next. 
 
 For the value of town land, the rents of offices and 
 manufacturing mills, would gradually increase. The 
 landowner, shut off in one direction in making up his 
 income, would find, if he were fortunate in the posses- 
 sion of town land, his account balanced by the increase 
 of his town rents, which would be slowly raised, accord- 
 ing to the increased ability of occupiers to pay a higher 
 rent. At first there would be a strong current flowing 
 from the springs of the landowner ; but when the eddy 
 had subsided, the exaction of produce w^ould find its 
 
FREE TRADE. 211 
 
 natural path into the purse of the owners of the soil. For 
 where there was the ability to pay increasingly higher 
 rents, as in the case of the flourishing state of manufac- 
 ture, this would be utilised, and the time surely arrive 
 when, as the inevitable outcome of these temporary de- 
 pressions to which all trade is naturally subject, some of 
 the manufacturers would early find themselves, and all 
 subsequently, in a position similar to that poor situation 
 of agriculture during the initial operation of the free- 
 trade principle. There would be no profits, because of 
 the temporary or permanent contraction of business, but 
 their rents, nevertheless, would continue the same. 
 
 Thus the remote effects of the constant influence of 
 the free-trade principle may be portrayed. They are 
 beneficial as well as adverse. But the tendency of its 
 beneficial action is now diverted from the slowed stream 
 of Manufacture. 
 
 Before, Manufacture was prosperous, and Agriculture 
 the sufterer, and through her, but indirectly, the landed 
 interest. But now, Manufacture is herself the sufferer, 
 and the suffering she undergoes at her own hands ; those 
 who presided over her welfare in 1846 sowed the seeds 
 which now bloom, and they end in a fatal strangula- 
 tion. And what gains ? The landed interest. What 
 is the final production of the monstrous free -trade 
 birth ? The fortunate manufacturer whose prosperity 
 has been established, and whose wealth has been ac- 
 quired by virtue of the primary and prosperous action 
 of the free-trade principle. 
 
 But when Manufacture was in such a flourishing 
 condition as at this early period, what was the ten- 
 
212 FREE TRADE. 
 
 dency ? To reduce the price of all manufactured arti- 
 cles — a tendency which apparently has scarcely any 
 limits. And what is the essential nature of this ten- 
 dency ? It is replete with dangers : the danger of mak- 
 ing everything as cheap as possible does not end at 
 itself — it leads to others. It leads to the production 
 of inferior articles, with the expectation from a large 
 sale of making greater profits. The energies of the 
 workman are concentrated upon labours in which his 
 peculiar talents are of no avail. The tendency acts 
 prejudicially upon the skill and handicraft of the 
 artisan. 
 
 And if the markets become unfavourable, there is 
 opened up the source of fraud, whereby the materials 
 of which manufactured goods are made undergo a 
 deterioration in quality. And the ignorant buyer is 
 unconsciously drawn into the trap of taking a relatively 
 cheap article, with the expectation that it possesses all 
 the qualities of the former more expensive ones. 
 
 Such purchasers, attracted by the cheapness of the 
 goods which they buy, do not readily understand that 
 the amount which they yield to the profits of the manu- 
 facturers of these trumpery articles exceeds that which 
 a dearer one is called upon to contribute. And the 
 reason is at hand. They yield their sources of profit 
 in frequently increasing purchases. 
 
 By such dangers was this tendency to indefinite 
 cheapening of manufactured goods surrounded ; articles 
 deteriorate in quality as they diminish in price ; skilled 
 workmanship declines. But what is the result of the 
 decline of manufacture upon the working classes ? 
 
FREE TRADE. 213 
 
 And may not that be called a sign of decline, when the 
 possibility was presented of enabling foreign goods to 
 be supplied to neutral markets on account of the rela- 
 tive dearness of free-trade labour ? 
 
 Wliat mercy is to be shown to Manufacture in this 
 decline, when she showed no compassion upon the 
 precarious state into which her elder sister Agriculture 
 was thrown by the influence of free trade ? 
 
 Then, Agriculture was sacrificed for the aggrandise- 
 ment of the younger sister ; now, she dies by her own 
 hands ! 
 
 The effect on the labouring classes is easy enough to 
 depict. Trade undergoes a compulsory shrinkage in 
 volume, and a relative decrease, when the increasing 
 population of the country is taken into the account, 
 and in some branches an absolute decrease. Why ? 
 because neutral markets are supplied with cheaper goods- 
 by the foreigner. Hence the field of labour is restricted,, 
 fewer labourers are employed, and increased competition 
 of labour sends receding wages, owing to the diminution 
 of profits, to a lower point — namely, the starvation-point,, 
 of which the free-traders made so much account, when 
 the injustice of the landlords was arbitrarily, and with- 
 out any foundation, tendered as their false cause ; but 
 now the real cause is observed to be resident in that very 
 method which the free-traders employed to bring about 
 the solution of the difficulty with which they tried to 
 grapple, and which they have so unnaturally deformed. 
 
 To this extraordinary state has the free-trade prin- 
 ciple reduced the labouring classes of this community ; 
 there is less labour for the country, for there is less de- 
 
214 FREE TRADE. 
 
 mand from outside. Former supplies are checked, the 
 markets are turgid ; but their abnormal expansion, so 
 ■strained for a while, rapidly declines, when no outlet 
 ;appears for the discharge of these goods. Thus the 
 means of utilising her resources are diminished ; and 
 wages, where these are present, are continually being 
 •decreased. 
 
 What, then, is the total effect of the course of the 
 free-trade principle in this country ? It has been the 
 'Custom, and it still is maintained by that party in the 
 ■State which is interested in the permanence of the 
 falsehood, to declare that free trade is associated with 
 nothing else than the prosperity of the nation. Where 
 is the prosperity at the present day ? 
 
 But those who care, if able, to conceive the compre- 
 liensive working of a principle through successive 
 periods of time, some favourable, others unfavour- 
 able to its action, while surrounding circumstances are 
 constantly fluctuating, will recognise that the path of 
 free trade has been entangled with disaster from the 
 very first moment of the commencement of its operation, 
 though these were obscured by its initial but indirect 
 .success. 
 
 The immediate effect of free trade in corn upon agri- 
 culture was disastrous, but the sphere of its influence 
 throughout the nation partial. 
 
 The remote effects of free trade upon manufacture, 
 the ultimate result of buying in the cheapest market 
 .and selling in the dearest, the most insidious doctrine 
 that has ever been preached to the world, is still dis- 
 astrous ; but the sphere of its operation is general 
 throughout the land. 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 215 
 
 27. Scheme of tlie continued opercition of the free-trade 
 principle : — 
 
 The free - trade principle 
 acting with restriction: 
 surrounding nations 
 protective. 
 
 o Immediate effect. 
 
 /3 Remote effect. 
 
 7 Total effect. 
 
 Manufacture. 
 Prosperity. 
 
 Neutralised by col- 
 lateral policy of 
 surrounding na- 
 tions, who act in 
 their own self-in- 
 terest, as we did in 
 1846 ; and leading 
 to subsequent 
 
 I 
 
 Loss. 
 
 Loss to the nation. 
 
 Agriculture. 
 Loss. 
 
 Loss increased, be- 
 cause soil cannot 
 be cultivated at a 
 profit. 
 
 Free-trade goods are subjected to an import duty in 
 foreign ports, and to counterbalance the cost of an in- 
 creasing consumption of corn, there remains the pro- 
 duce of a constantly diminishing manufacture. 
 
 28. Effect of the doctrine of free trade upon sefceral 
 parties ^^riVy to it. — The party of reform, as was to 
 be expected, came in for a full share of the popular 
 ovation which followed the successful operation of the 
 free-trade principle when it began to act freely and 
 without any restriction in the commercial circles of this 
 country, and after the primary sources of disturbance 
 to its beneficial influence had been removed. The lib.- 
 eral spirit had effected so great a change in the whole 
 aspect of the trades and industries of the nation — the 
 liberal reform in our commercial code had been the 
 
216 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ultimate means of conferring the blessings of plenty 
 and content upon so large a proportion of the inhab- 
 itants of the country — that it was not extraordinary to 
 predict that the Liberal party would enjoy a lasting 
 popularity among the labouring classes ! Yes ; free 
 trade and prosperity, being arbitrarily associated in the 
 public mind, the Liberal party would retain the con- 
 fidence of the country so long as the prospects of com- 
 merce remained favourable. But just as in the period 
 of depression, which was wantonly exaggerated to meet 
 a special object, the free-trade party grasped the oppor- 
 tunity presented to them to further their own interests, 
 in their selfish view that these were the interests of the 
 nation, so when free trade came to be intimately asso- 
 ciated with a constant decline, would thinking men turn 
 the channel of their meditations, and with more or less 
 compulsion, into the causation of the present distress, 
 in order to determine the successive links which thus 
 have been brought about. In 1845 and 1846, the Lib- 
 erals, and among them Sir Eobert Peel and his followers, 
 discovered the cause of the then depression, which can- 
 not be compared in its magnitude to the present decline, 
 in the adverse operation of the laws which related to the 
 importation of corn. And what cause have the Liberal 
 party to account for the distress of to-day ? 
 
 The Corn Laws have been abolished — the source of 
 all depression, the origin of the starvation wages of 
 the labourer. Still depression reigns, and with it, un- 
 happily, decline. We have seen free trade associated 
 with prosperity to the manufacturing interests of the 
 country, and we are experiencing the unfortunate co- 
 existence of free trade with distress, from the decline in 
 
FREE TRADE. 217 
 
 all our manufacturing industries. Can free trade, then, 
 alone be the cause of prosperity and decline ? Obvi- 
 ously not. Free trade as a constant cause has a con- 
 stant effect. But it may have other evanescent effects, 
 due to the action of the principle upon surrounding 
 conditions, to the disturbance in them leading to an 
 increase of trade circulation. And when these collateral 
 effects have had time to subside, then the real and con- 
 stant tendency of the principle becomes apparent even 
 to the prejudiced eye. But it is clear that tlie Liberal 
 party are not in a position to advance the true cause of 
 the present distress. For if once they yield to the 
 consideration of the working of their favourite principle, 
 they begin to doubt their chances of continuing the 
 government of the country ! And thus is explained 
 one of the objects of the Liberal party in discrediting 
 the means by which tlie cause of the distress can only 
 be deduced — by observation and inference. 
 
 But the false remedy which the Liberals used has 
 been and still is assiduously so wrapt round with an 
 apparent disinterestedness on the part of the Liberal 
 leaders, and obscured by a primary success, that there 
 is needed only this presence of distress to dispossess 
 the public mind of a false association. For the Liberal 
 leaders are naturally concerned in the bolstering up of a 
 false idol, at which they have persuaded the ignorant 
 man to kneel. 
 
 The mercantile classes have had their desire; and 
 what now have the manufacturers themselves to say ? 
 Free trade caused Manchester and other industrial 
 towns to rise rapidly in the scale of prosperity. But 
 what has become of that prosperity, which was to 
 
218 FREE TRADE. 
 
 continue always, at the present day ? What prevents 
 Manchester from still increasing at the same rate she 
 did during the early period of the action of free trade ? 
 Her markets are contracted ; her labour is unoccupied ; 
 her wages are reduced. The place which not long since 
 was the scene of a feverish activity is now compara- 
 tively inactive ; exhaustion of her efforts has succeeded 
 to their too severe stimulation. What prevents Man- 
 chester from even reaching such a degree of prosperity 
 which the relation of her population to the amount of 
 her trade demands, is the difficulty of obtaining markets 
 for her goods. And this arises from an unequal and 
 therefore unfair competition. 
 
 But when markets fail in one direction, ought they 
 not to be sought in others ? And what is left to this 
 country except the opening up of new fields, of extend- 
 ing the region of our former commercial activity in 
 new countries ? But against this humane system of 
 colonisation — the only remedy near at hand to rid us 
 of a redundant population — against the means of ex- 
 tending our colonial possessions, — what is raised ? The 
 whole voice of the Kadical section of the Liberal party. 
 The system is denounced as a pernicious one, when in 
 reality it contains the germ of new powers — for does it 
 not increase the responsibility of the Imperial Govern- 
 ment at home ? 
 
 The means of relieving distress at home and of in- 
 creasing the extent of Christian civilisation are denied, 
 because the enormous benefits which they confer upon 
 the nation are counterbalanced by the increased re- 
 sponsibility of the Ministers in power — as if such an 
 increase in responsibility was so heavy to bear ! and 
 
FREE TRADE. 219 
 
 as if any comparison between this increase of responsi- 
 bility and the good accruing to the nation from the 
 development of our colonies could with any show of 
 reason be maintained. But what is to be said of such 
 a shrinking from the burden of responsibility, which 
 naturally devolves upon us with the increasing growth 
 of the empire, when those who refuse to recognise the 
 relationship are concerned at home in the design of 
 means for destroying those proper relations, on the recog- 
 nition and maintenance of which, this kingdom reached 
 formerly such a high degree of prosperity ? Is it difh- 
 •cult to analyse the efforts of these extreme politicians 
 — the failure to construct abroad, but the energy to 
 destroy at home ? It would indeed be an extraordinary 
 phenomenon if Manchester, the cradle of free trade, as 
 she has been falsely called, should be the first to dis- 
 cern the unequal place she and her compeers have in 
 the commercial markets of the world, and to demand 
 ihat protection for her markets and her labour which 
 the legislatures of other nations grant to theirs. 
 
 Does it not sound stmnge in the ears of the short- 
 sighted reformer, that free- trade labour starves, while 
 labour under protection enjoys its steady and onward 
 <30urse of prosperity ? 
 
 But this free-trade labour was once prosperous, and 
 was the source of much injury to labour which was 
 <5onducted under the natural system of protection. Now 
 it seems as if labour under protection is the cause of 
 the premature decay of free-trade labour. It is an end- 
 less repetition ; the effects of our adverse attitude towards 
 other protective nations in one generation, recoil upon 
 ourselves in the next ! 
 
220 FREE TRADE. 
 
 Labour once enjoyed a high wage under the operation 
 of free trade, while surrounding circumstances helped 
 this to remain benign. The increase in the wage of 
 the labourer rose too rapidly to offer the idea of the 
 increment being founded on a secure basis. All the 
 elements of stability were wanting; and the working 
 classes, with the legislative assistance of the country, 
 entered upon a mushroom-like progress. Their acme 
 of prosperity was reached ; they had choked all the 
 springs whence their supplies were fed ; there was 
 the large superstructure overground; the stem which 
 supported was fragile ; free trade had induced too rapid 
 a circulation, with a consequent overgrowth; and the 
 foreign markets which supplied it with nourishment 
 were fast disappearing. Must such a structure fall 
 with a crash ? 
 
 But before the period of the limitation of the markets 
 had arrived, the penalty of stimulation and a forced 
 prosperity had to be paid. The labouring classes, while 
 they were receiving constantly diminishing wages, 
 yet had the same rents to pay. And the result of 
 this untoward change was evident. His expenditure 
 was reduced, the means of bringing up his little 
 children contracted ! What a contrast, this rise and 
 fall, to the steady progress of labour under the protec- 
 tive system ! And what is the ultimate effect upon the 
 condition of the labouring classes ? After having been 
 rudely taken out from their normal position in the 
 chain of a natural progress, and advanced to a position 
 for which they are unprepared, they have receded 
 further back than they were at the commencement of 
 the action of free trade. In this lower condition has 
 
FREE TRADE. 221 
 
 the continued operation of the free -trade principle 
 plunged them ; and is not this abnormal descent hard 
 to bear, after the slight glimpses they have had of 
 better things ? Let the two methods of progress, under 
 the natural means of protection, and the artificial 
 system of free trade, be contrasted by the unprejudiced 
 intellect, and which will be chosen ? That which has 
 stability and certainty ! 
 
 How dearly those farmers, who were led into self- 
 deception by the arts of the free-traders practising 
 upon their credulity, paid the penalty of their ignorant 
 folly, very soon became apparent when they discovered 
 that the course of events as depicted by their seducers 
 did not come to pass. The price of corn was lowered, 
 but the level of their rents remained the same ; nor 
 was this changed during a long period when the fall 
 in the price of corn was gradually increasing, for this was 
 imperceptible. Nevertheless the farmers were roused 
 into a condition of alarm for their future welfare, as 
 well as that of the agricultural labourers, whose pros- 
 perity was dependent upon their own. But the natural 
 relationship between master and man was broken, and 
 the Liberal party lost all hope of the subsequent 
 support, what little was left, of the agricultural interest. 
 The agricultural labourer was taught by the party of 
 reform to look to legislation as the sovereign cure for 
 his ills. And what remedy have the Liberals advanced 
 to entrap the support of the starving agricultural 
 labourer ? What can be honestly put forward as a 
 means of improving his precarious position, by those 
 who have regard for knowledge and for truth ? But the 
 ignorant agricultural labourer is impelled by the very 
 
222 FREE TRADE. 
 
 insecurity of his situation to accept any promise, how- 
 ever falsely it may be founded. And thus he falls into 
 the net which Liberal stratagem has purposely con- 
 structed for him. But for what ? To advance his 
 cause ? ISTot by any means, but to keep the Liberals in 
 power. For the town Liberals are supposed, by the 
 greater advantages which they enjoy, to be on the side of 
 progress, and therefore to belong naturally to the great 
 Liberal party. But education will slowly evince the . 
 means of distinguishing between what is true reform, 
 founded on a firm basis, and what is artificial progress, 
 supported on the — swelling phrases of the Liberal 
 leaders ! 
 
 The agricultural labourer is compelled to desert the 
 soil ! he feels the hardship ; the separation of a lifelong 
 intimacy is keen. He cries against the injustice under 
 which he suffers. And his cry is taken up, and echoed 
 by the Eadical party. Sympathy is aroused. But let 
 us examine the grounds of this sympathy. Before we 
 begin to feel, let us proceed to reason. For on what 
 are we to display emotion ? On what is false ? 
 
 The Eadical leaders endeavour to rouse enthusiasm, 
 of course based upon injustice. But what is the true 
 source of the agricultural labourer's distressful state ? 
 Is it the unjust action of the farmers, who deny a proper 
 share of their profits, as the former manufacturers did, 
 to the labourers on their farms ? No ; the farmers 
 are not in a position to make any profit at all. Is it 
 the consequence of the legislation of the old party of 
 protection ? How can it be this, when it can be 
 fully proved that when Sir Eobert Peel introduced the 
 principle of free trade into our commercial relations. 
 
FREE TRADE. 223 
 
 our commerce was increasing at the rate of five millions 
 of exports during each period of five years under the 
 protective system, more than sufficient to provide for 
 the natural increase of the population during that time. 
 Wliat, then, is the cause ? It is the free-trade principle, 
 harboured by a Conservative Premier, and safely landed 
 by the Liberal party into our commercial code. It is 
 free trade which has been the source of aU the disasters 
 to our agricultural interest. 
 
 And is it not strange to discern at this time of day a 
 Eadical leader still censuring the system on which the 
 ownership of land is founded ? But it is easily expli- 
 cable. He has to fasten on some cause, and he cannot 
 blame the free-trade principle. He must, like his pre- 
 decessors, only in a more extravagant degree, call up 
 to his side false causes, and support them by as false 
 arguments. He must instil enthusiasm, create sym- 
 pathy, and deceive those who are willing to foUow in 
 the path which he so skilfully, and with such obvious 
 designs, opens out to them. For he knows that when 
 he has gained, by any means whatever, the sympathy 
 of the masses, he will be powerful enough to guide 
 them ; but to other fields than those of their ultimate 
 prosperity, as the action of liis immediate predecessors, 
 the free-traders, sufficiently proves. 
 
224 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DESCRIPTION OF THE DIRECT EFFECTS OF 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 29. Chuphic delineation of the effect of the principle of 
 free trade upon the progress of our commerce. — On the 
 opposite page is the course, graphically depicted, of 
 the free-trade principle upon the progress of our com- 
 merce. It will be observed that it is divided into two 
 parts — the upward curve corresponding to that period 
 when the principle was acting with surrounding favour- 
 able conditions ; the downward curve representing the 
 adverse operation of the principle, after equilibrium 
 had been established, and the pernicious tendency 
 began to operate, uninfluenced by the beneficial 
 operation of the most advantageous collateral effect 
 of the principle, increased circulation. 
 
 It is important to observe that, during the ascent of 
 these small curves, a false argument might be raised, 
 and it was on some occasions, tending to the conclusion 
 that our commerce was once more in a state of increased 
 activity. So it was with reference to the paroxysmal 
 falls of which they form a part, and to which they are 
 
FHEE TRADE. 
 
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226 FREE TRADE. 
 
 necessarily related ; but it is quite clear that of them- 
 selves they form no trustworthy guide to the true 
 elucidation of the course of our trades. For this to be 
 effected, regard must be had for the highest level our 
 trade line reached during the most prosperous career 
 of the free-trade principle, and for the normal line of ad- 
 vancement of our trade under the system of protection ; 
 where, too, our trade is stated to be undergoing a re- 
 vival, this increase must carefully be compared with 
 the volume of our trade in previous years, an allow- 
 ance being made for the proper increment which be- 
 longs to the addition to the population of the country 
 during the period in which the revival has or is taking- 
 place; and likewise a comparison of profits must be 
 instituted, for although trade may undergo an increase 
 in volume, if the value of an equal amount of manu- 
 factured goods decreases in succeeding years, it is obvi- 
 ous that the loss must be borne in part or wholly by 
 the producers, and therefore that labour must in reality 
 suffer, though the markets may remain in a buoyant 
 state. It is by allusion to these elements that error is 
 only to be avoided. For it is tempting for the Liberal 
 party to point to an increased volume in any branch of 
 our trade, and forget to add at the same time, because 
 it would dim the hopes their unconditional statements 
 create, that the increase is merely a relative one, and 
 not absolute; that it is relative to a former level of 
 depression; and that though the increase means a 
 greater activity to the markets, yet it is not associated 
 with higher profits, nor with the increment of any 
 prosperity to the labourer's reduced condition. 
 
 But in all instances it is of paramount importance to 
 
FREE TRADE. 227 
 
 detect the constant tendency to decline ; and when 
 speaking of the action of free trade under unfavourable 
 conditions, to separate the constant element of decline 
 from those other causes which tend to raise the fortunes 
 of the markets and raise the expectations of the manu- 
 facturers for a while. 
 
 30. Tlic congested state of the iiiarhets. — The immedi- 
 ate effect of the free-trade principle when it began to 
 act without any external impediment, as that which 
 occurred in the years 1846 and 1847, was a congested 
 state of tlie markets ; and this congestion was the direct 
 result of increased circulation. It was a congestion of 
 a kind wliich came not within the experience of any — 
 it was the reply to the increased and increasing demands 
 from foreign sources. And so long as these demands 
 continued, so long would the trade circulation continue 
 active. 
 
 But the growing industries of neighbouring nations 
 were either unheeded, or, if taken into consideration, 
 regarded with a contemptuous eye. For the majority 
 of Englishmen — and amongst them men of political 
 fame — never for the moment thought that the labour 
 of Continental nations could ever compete, on a level 
 even of equality, much less than on terms of superiority, 
 with the advanced and well-established labour of Eng- 
 land. And so it was, but for a time only. What the 
 free-traders expected to have an indefinite course, w^as 
 very soon found to have limits assigned to it ; and 
 among these limits, the bounties which foreign protec- 
 tive nations confer upon their growing industries. Cob- 
 den's dictum, the result of his comparative researches 
 
228 FREE TRADE. 
 
 into the relative value of English and Continental 
 labour, was taken to be true eternally. It was a bold 
 statement to offer that, because an Englishman's labour 
 was three or four times the value of that of the Conti- 
 nental labourer, that this same difference should prac- 
 tically remain a constant quantity. And it must be 
 added that the dictum required credulity alone to be- 
 come convinced of its truth. 
 
 Then no thought was taken of comparing these 
 possible conditions where Continental labour was equal 
 in value to that of the Englishman, but of less cost, and 
 was competing with English free- trade labour in those 
 markets which had been for so long the monopoly of 
 this country ; and no proper consideration was given to 
 the bounty-system of protective nations, which would 
 afford the foreigner an earlier opportunity of competing 
 on terms of equality with his English rival. How clear 
 it would have been that only one result could follow so 
 unequal a competition, and that in the labour-market 
 the race for supremacy between free trade and protec- 
 tion is won easily by the latter ! 
 
 Let us contrast for a while the tendency of England's 
 arbitrary procedure in the application of free trade to 
 her commerce, to the actual injury of foreign trade and 
 industries, with regard to its possible influence on our 
 national spirit and the feelings of other nations. 
 
 The consequences upon the wages of the English 
 labourer were remarkable, and the labouring classes 
 entered upon a path of prosperity, which, alas ! was to 
 terminate but too early. English labour then was 
 dear, but that on the Continent remained, relatively to 
 a slow advance, checked by a sudden arrest of their 
 
FREE TRADE. 229 
 
 industrial activity, much the same as before. With 
 what a longing eye, therefore, would the foreign 
 labourer regard the more successful condition of his 
 English brother I Wliy should he not be as prosperous ? 
 Why does not the foreign Government, which presides 
 over his welfare, effect for him what the British Legis- 
 lature did for the labour of this country ? Why ? 
 Simply because the course which may be adapted, 
 apparently with success, to one country is not suited ta 
 the requirements of another, on account of their national 
 condition as regards means of subsistence and the 
 ability to supply each its own wants, being present in 
 varying degrees. 
 
 When the Englishman's labour came, therefore, to 
 be the especial object of a legislative interference, was 
 there not a ground presented on which the foreigner 
 might stand and raise the cry of despotism against the 
 Government of his country ? There was but a seeming 
 one only : it was a ground which a temporary feeling 
 of relative injustice created ; but, as it was based upon 
 emotion, so it could be removed by reason. Foreign 
 labour might be cheap, but there could be no doubt of 
 the security of the advance of her prosperity. It would 
 be slow, that was true, but yet it would be equable. Let 
 this certain state of things be compared with the un- 
 stable condition of labour in England, and what was the 
 result ? That the course of Britisli labour was surround- 
 ed with dangers, one of which would be supplied by the 
 gradually increasing ability of the foreigner to compete 
 with and eventually to outrun the Englishman. 
 
 And what kind of danger is nourished by that party 
 in the State, the end-result of whose legislation is the 
 
230 FREE TRADE. 
 
 decline of labour after it has experienced so great a 
 degree of prosperity ? Does not this downward ten- 
 dency create a feeling of dissatisfaction amongst the 
 working classes ? Does not dissatisfaction at home 
 become heightened by the knowledge of the continuance 
 of a normal prosperity abroad ? and does not this dis- 
 satisfaction lead to discontentment ? and discontent- 
 ment form the germ of agitation, the result of which 
 alone is determined by popular enthusiasm ? May not 
 this popular enthusiasm be directed into a wrong chan- 
 nel? May it not be utilised by designing men to work 
 out their own particular objects ? 
 
 The English labourer now turns his anxious eye in 
 the direction of those markets which have despoiled 
 him of his occupation which, before, in his day of pros- 
 perity, had regarded him with jealousy ! What if this 
 procedure on the part of a single nation, the leading- 
 nation in the commercial world, had terminated in the 
 rupture of the customary relations between a foreign 
 people and its Government ? What a hollow and 
 wicked movement it would have been ! But the diffi- 
 culty was overcome by convincing those who, by reason 
 of their limited powers, cannot take a comprehensive 
 view of the progress of their affairs, of the paramount 
 necessity of a gradual and equable advance in their 
 onward course, if they are to hope for security in the 
 present, and if they have a proper concern for the well- 
 being of their children in the future ! But how often 
 is it to be expected that such a view, grounded upon 
 the natural progress of one of the elements of society, 
 will be entertained by a mob, whose thoughts are only 
 for the present, and whose movements are under the 
 
FREE TRADE. 231 
 
 influence of a predominant passion ? Is not their passion 
 liable to be inflamed by the specious declamation of 
 would-be demagogues ? 
 
 To effect a calm reasoning where the emotions are in 
 a state of violent perturbation, is perhaps impossible ; 
 but it is certain that if the feelings of the multitude can 
 be aroused through the influence of a supposed injustice, 
 they can be commanded by a regard for its ultimate and 
 best interests. If the control of the people was difficult 
 in bygone ages, because of their illiterate character, it 
 is, or ought to be, capable of being more easily effected 
 nowadays, if this age of education has brought forth 
 the results which those look for who preside over the 
 improvement of the masses ! It is a question whether, 
 under the system of protection, there was ever the 
 opportunity presented for a congestion of the markets : 
 the tendency, however, existed, but it was never brought 
 so powerfully into action as to be associated with harm. 
 But the congestion which was effected by the introduc- 
 tion of the free-trade principle took time to subside, 
 and in its course towards a diminishing degi'ee of local 
 activity of the markets, the original impetus remained 
 for some time without control. What was this impetus ? 
 The expectation of the merchants, based upon their be- 
 lief that events would pursue a course similar to that 
 which they had just experienced; a belief which de- 
 pended upon the false predictions of the free-traders. 
 And when this expectation of a continued prosperity — 
 it is hardly credible that men should have been found 
 to believe so obvious a contradiction to the laws of j)ro- 
 gress — was associated with the desire for gain, what a 
 powerful impetus it supplied ! But when the demands 
 
232 FREE TRADE. 
 
 from the neutral markets began to decrease, while the 
 supplies to the home markets continued the same in 
 amount as before, then the tension of the latter would 
 gradually become evident. And would it not increase 
 till those who controlled the circulation of the expanded 
 markets perceived that there was an over-production 
 going forward, and that such could only react with dis- 
 advantage to trade ? 
 
 What an opportunity was here afforded for the 
 Liberal party to step in and give their solution of this 
 economical phenomenon of over-production ! For was 
 not this over - production directly the fault of the 
 manufacturers themselves ? How generous for the 
 Liberals to censure those whom they were most anxious 
 to befriend ! But blame must be localised, and localised 
 early, so that the diffusion of a false cause may turn to 
 the advantage of the Liberals themselves. For it is 
 easy to see there is another explanation of this phenom- 
 enon of over-production, which has its source in the 
 original disturbance which the free-trade principle, ever 
 shielded by the reform party, effected. 
 
 But what kind of over-production was this which is 
 blamed by the Liberal economists as one of the chief 
 sources of derangement of the markets leading to de- 
 pression ? It was clearly a relative over-production — 
 relative to the amount of production, which had oc- 
 curred previously, during the initial period of prosperity 
 of the free-trade principle. 
 
 Demand was diminishing ; but it requires some time 
 to elapse before those who formerly supplied recognise 
 the fact that there are now fewer calls upon them. The 
 markets were capable of supplying the same amount of 
 
FREE TRADE. 233 
 
 goods as before; but what was happening was that a 
 less and less proportion of goods were sold. Hence the 
 markets became overstocked; and the cry was raised, 
 " Over-production is the origin of the malady affecting 
 our trade." 
 
 But those who raised the cry care not to trace the 
 source of over-production to its proper cause — which 
 was the increased circulation which followed the stim- 
 ulus given by the free-trade principle to all our trades. 
 What was regarded as the fault of the manufacturers, 
 and for which they were freely blamed by the free- 
 trade economists, was in reality one of the collateral 
 results of the free-trade principle. For assuredly there 
 must have been some ground for the merchant to con- 
 tinue his powers of production. Men do not, except 
 in the fancy of the free-traders, continue to produce for 
 an imaginary market ! What ground, then, had the 
 merchants to continue this relative over-production of 
 their stock ? Expectation. They did not perceive the 
 true course the affairs of their markets were pursuing : 
 a constant tendency, become for the first time apparent, 
 though its previous action had been obscured, was mis- 
 taken for a temporary and minor adverse influence. 
 They were urged on by the hope of better times. The 
 fatal conclusion was embraced, " the tide will turn " ; 
 and then, with the disappearance of impediments, their 
 swelling markets must be relieved. 
 
 Now, would this expectation, thus falsely raised upon 
 a tendency, supposed to be constant, of the free-trade 
 principle, be admitted to have failed them till the tide 
 of demand had continued far in its ebb, and when 
 during a period of depression they were led to consider 
 
234 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the causes of their misfortune ? Then they would be 
 compelled to admit that the neutral markets were no 
 longer their monopoly ; that they had ascribed a false 
 cause to the origin of their falling markets ; and that 
 they had reasoned wrongly because they had decided 
 erroneously. The present depression was the com- 
 mencement of the decline of their trade. The down- 
 ward course might on occasions be interrupted by the 
 appearance of temporary causes which would tend to 
 raise the drooping spirits of those who had already 
 hazarded an adverse forecast respecting the ultimate 
 condition of our industries, and to weaken their former 
 opinions ; and these would certainly be utilised by the 
 politician as a present indication of the revival of 
 trade. But the decline had been brought about by an 
 unfavourable competition ; and when unequal competi- 
 tion thus appeared to be gaining in strength, and when 
 its influence was recognised as a factor in the causation 
 of the depression of our markets, then the tendency to 
 a relative over-production forthwith disappeared ; and 
 instead now of there being an expanded market, this 
 became contracted, and with the contraction of the 
 markets the sphere of labour tended to diminish and 
 wages to decrease. 
 
 But is there any over-production nowadays ? If 
 there is, there must be some cause for it. But can it 
 be present in any large amount sufficient to disturb the 
 course of our trade in any material degree ? For a 
 general tendency to exist there must be some general 
 cause which is able when conditions are favourable 
 to give it eftect. And we have just traced how 
 this general tendency to a prejudicial over-produc- 
 
FREE TRADE. 235 
 
 tion lias disappeared : it is now a phenomenon of the 
 past ! 
 
 Tliere may, however, be some local tendencies which 
 confine their operation within a limited sphere of 
 action. Is it just to bring forward local and minor 
 causes to explain general and large results ? How can 
 a tendency of small intensity produce an effect of great 
 magnitude ? 
 
 To the argument that over-production leads as a 
 chief cause to the depressed state of the markets of 
 to-day, the reply is forthcoming that, though over-pro- 
 duction may have some influence in a few particular 
 branches, yet that it has no appreciable influence upon 
 the whole downward tendency of our trade. It is ob- 
 vious that when over-production is advanced as a chief 
 cause of depression, a partial cause, and one very minor 
 in its influence, is mistaken for a general and more 
 powerful one ! 
 
 Increasing and unequal competition in neutral mar- 
 kets has gradually limited the area of our supplies — 
 it has even encroached upon the supply of our home 
 markets. Thus when our merchants enter the mon- 
 opolised markets of old, they leave them with con- 
 stantly diminisliing profits. But if the volume of any 
 particular trade does not actually shrink because the 
 tendency is checked, it is evident its conduct is not so 
 successful because profits are not so large. And it mat- 
 ters not whether the volume of trade begins to contract 
 and goes on contracting, whether profits are reduced, 
 or whether both these factors are continuing their ex- 
 istence side by side, the end-result is the same. The 
 total loss is borne wholly or proportionately by labour ! 
 
236 FREE TRADE. 
 
 31. Decline folloivs congestion. — There is abundant 
 evidence to show, and this on the figures which the 
 great master of British commerce himself supplied, that 
 the progress of our trade, even during the troublous 
 times of 1837-41, was normally and therefore gradu- 
 ally increasing. And who will deny that extraordinary 
 increase in circulation, in an already increasing trade, 
 which pervaded every department of our industries, im- 
 mediately after the free-trade principle — which, while 
 its beneficial action was being impeded by adverse 
 forces, was regarded with distrust — had begun to oper- 
 ate without any restriction, and when every source of 
 opposition had been removed ? 
 
 The comparative ideas of the course of events may 
 thus be described. A normal progress, called normal 
 inasmuch as its source is inherent within the sphere 
 of our trade-activity — an internal force of growth as 
 opposed to a temporary stimulation applied from 
 without — was going forward in all our trades and 
 industries, though, at the period 1837-41, the line of 
 advance was interrupted for the moment by one of 
 those depressions called paroxysmal and dependent upon 
 normal causes. And this kind of progress was regarded 
 by the party of protection as being the true progress of 
 our industries. But the other party in the State, which 
 has taken up the position of being the reformer of the 
 nation, foresaw the increased activity which would 
 result if free trade were applied as an external stim- 
 ulant to our trade relations. This species of progress, 
 associated with an unhealthy congestion of the markets 
 — the effects of which could not be induced without a 
 proportionate damage to the markets — was styled the 
 
FREE TRADE. 237 
 
 real progress of the nation, and therefore its cause was 
 introduced as the reform of the age into our commercial 
 code. But on the demand of whom ? Why the manu- 
 facturers themselves. Well, then, was not this a force 
 inherent within the sphere of our trade-activity ? Did 
 not the protectionists apply for the protection of the State, 
 and was their application refused by the Legislature ? 
 
 Now, the demand is, instead of protection, " give us 
 free trade." And we granted the application, coming 
 from within our growing industries, say the Liberals, 
 just as the protectionists did in days gone by. 
 
 But this specious reasoning is of the Liberal type ; 
 it is on the same level as the increased profits and re- 
 duced rents, and the false association which they made 
 between free trade and prosperity. The whole aspect 
 of the question changes when the differences in the 
 nature of these demands, for protection and free trade 
 respectively, are taken into consideration. For the 
 older legislators perceived that the call for protec- 
 tion was universal throughout all the industries of the 
 country ; besides, what was the nature of that protection 
 which they demanded ? Did it introduce an element of 
 disturbance into the normal growth of our trade ? No ; 
 it rather prevented external forces from interfering 
 with its proper development. Compare the grounds 
 upon which protection was based with those by which 
 free trade was introduced. Free trade was granted on 
 the application of the manufacturing interest alone, 
 for those farmers who consented to its introduction were 
 persuaded by false promises ; and it operated after the 
 fashion of an external stimulant. Thus the difference 
 between protection and free trade may be summarised : 
 
238 FREE TRADE. 
 
 protection offered the best condition of surrounding cir- 
 cumstances for inherent normal growth of our trade ; 
 adverse external influences were neutralised ; while free 
 trade, on the contrary, acted not upon the ordinary 
 powers of growth of our trade, but upon its extraordi- 
 nary capacity to respond to intense stimulation, with the 
 result that in the overgrowth which was produced, those 
 proper sources of its natural development were con- 
 sumed. And thus the overgrowth was left to decline. 
 
 We have already traced the normal progress of our 
 trade ; we have seen an external stimulant applied 
 to it, with the consequence of congestion due to over- 
 stocking of the markets ; we have deduced the cause of 
 this over-production, the offspring of a false expectation ; 
 we are experiencing now the contraction of our markets 
 and labour declining. 
 
 The relation between " increased circulation," con- 
 gestion, and decline throughout the field of development, 
 is a well-known phenomenon ; it is observed in every 
 kind of growth, whether of the individual organism or 
 of the concurrent action of various forces spread over 
 the area of society ; nor can trade-growth be excepted 
 from its general tendency. 
 
 And what is this tendency ? It is that, within cer- 
 tain limits, activity of forces may increase to the ad- 
 vantage of the community within which they operate ; 
 but that if they extend beyond these limits, over-activity 
 surely leads to exhaustion and then decay. And what 
 is the means by which nature effects this result ? A 
 fatal congestion, the product of excessive stimulation. 
 
 But before the adverse course of our trade can be 
 studied, it is necessary to recollect the features of its 
 
FREE TRADE. 239 
 
 natural growth. And these are : first, that it is slow, 
 due to the gradual operation of forces which thereby 
 gain in stability and strength ; and secondly, that it is 
 equable — that is, adjusted to the increasing demands of 
 an increasing population. What, then, happens, when 
 this steady line of advance, due to inherent activity, 
 and agreeable to the practice of the majority, is inter- 
 rupted by an artifice wliich is designed by a few to have 
 certain effects, amongst which are enrolled their own 
 selfish interests ? This happens — that the future 
 growth of our trade is disturbed from its former groove, 
 because the conditions which relate to its development 
 have undergone an entire alteration. Her future, there- 
 fore, is thus disjointed from the past ; she enters upon 
 a new course. But upon what does the continuance 
 of her prosperous career essentially depend ? On the 
 favourable condition of surrounding circumstances. 
 Are these conditions within our control? Obviously 
 not, for they are the outcome of the attitude of foreign 
 Ministers and the progress of foreign trades. Thus the 
 progress of our trade now depends upon the stimulation 
 which it receives from outside sources ! What a strange 
 contrast to the course of affairs under protection, when 
 the growth of our trade was dependent on inherent 
 forces ; what a curious sequence of the true and the 
 false ! 
 
 We are thus led to the point where the Liberal spirit 
 of the nation forsook the old lines of a steady and 
 equable advancement as unsuited to the times, and re- 
 placed it by a state of activity, the consequences of 
 which they could not gauge, and the cause of which 
 they could not increase nor diminish. But if develop- 
 
240 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ment was going on, as it was declared by Sir Eobert 
 Peel ; if this gradual increase of growth was certain, as 
 the increasing exports of the country fully proved, was 
 not such a secure condition far better than a temporary 
 increased activity of growth, which assumed so large a 
 proportion, that the wants of the labouring classes were 
 far more than comfortably supplied ? And what was 
 the character of this precocity in our trade growth ? 
 It was fundamentally insecure; and the reason — be- 
 cause we no longer held the means of its growth within 
 our control. 
 
 Was it a prudent piece of legislation to hazard a 
 certain growth for an unstable activity, however much 
 prosperity this miglit have been the means of creating ? 
 But the die was cast, and prosperity reigned. 
 
 The consequences of such an artificial disturbance to 
 a normal growth, we are led to gather from an inquiry 
 into the altered working of the many smaller laws, 
 which are collected into the general law of the develop- 
 ment of trade. One of these laws is that the trade- 
 markets must be maintained in an efficient state of 
 activity. But the new system of free trade entirely 
 interfered with the normal circulation of the markets, 
 and left them in the future to be the prey of an unequal 
 competition, which gradually shut off the sources of 
 their supplies. Hence deficient circulation in the long- 
 run, and this would be associated with decline. 
 
 But let it be admitted in favour of this Liberal free- 
 trade reform in our commercial code that there are ex- 
 ceptions to the general association in natural productions 
 between slowness of growth and durability of structure, 
 are not such exceptions in the region of a much less 
 
FREE TRADE. 241 
 
 certain degree of knowledge than the vast number of 
 instances which conform to the law ? 
 
 And under such circumstances was it wise to risk the 
 certain advancement of our trade, under a system which 
 has seen this island attain a degree of prosperity un- 
 exampled in the pages of trade history, for its present 
 excessive stimulation, the terminal results of which 
 could only be disastrous, if the disturbing influence, 
 which was the ultimate cause of that activity, were 
 turned, by the united endeavours of protective nations, 
 into a lever, by which they could effect the gradual 
 descent of our trade? 
 
 But what man, in the common affairs of life, risks his 
 fortune on the chance of an exceptional result ? Such 
 an one, without any dependants, would be enthralled 
 by folly ! But let him be surrounded by wife and 
 children. What man, gifted with domestic affection, 
 if he were of sane intellect, would gamble away the 
 prospects of his home. Would he not be called reckless, 
 abandoned, frenzied ? What is to be said of that party, 
 then, who risked the subsequent trade progress of their 
 country upon the chance of an artificial remedy being 
 able to supply a sufficient amount of stimulation to 
 maintain the increased development of our industries, 
 upon the hollow prospect that an increased circulation, 
 thus induced, would continue for ever ; and upon the 
 false foundation that the remedy thus applied was the 
 cure for the existing distress of the country ? Does 
 any man speculate with such little foresight, fenced 
 round with such slender data, in the ordinary affairs of 
 life, who is characterised by the qualities of wisdom 
 and prudence ? Can a legislator be called wise who 
 
 Q 
 
242 FREE TRADE. 
 
 deserts the known paths of experience, a better mistress 
 and teacher than free-trade economists ; or a patriot, who 
 thus evinces so little regard for the ultimate welfare 
 of his countrymen, however much he may have been 
 gratified by the temporary wellbeing of the labouring 
 classes, whose evanescent prosperity he lived to see ? 
 
 If there had been nothing else to guide the politician 
 in the conduct of the commercial affairs of his time, 
 might he not have looked around him and ascertained 
 the working of parallel forces in other spheres, and the 
 effect on them of the change he contemplated in our 
 commercial relations ? To deduce the generalisation 
 might perhaps have been impossible, for this would 
 require an extensive knowledge of many sciences. 
 But the tendency of the sequence of stimulation and 
 permanent decay, when the former is excessive, might 
 have been detected in many instances ; and this had 
 proved an argument why a new principle should be 
 shunned, whose working is associated with so much 
 disaster. 
 
 Such an act of observation and comparison was 
 apparently ignored ; but the observation of those who 
 succeeded the free-traders of 1842, and who were still 
 wildly attracted by the abstract fascinations of the 
 new principle, has hardly been conducted with that 
 accuracy and impartiality which the study of a science 
 demands. 
 
 Thus, when a clamour arose amongst the trades-people 
 respecting the depression of their markets, it was merely 
 a temporary affair, a paroxysm, a natural recurrence of 
 depression. 
 
 Thus the free-trade principle has not interfered with 
 
FREE TRADE. 243 
 
 the tendency of natural forces to create depression. 
 Temporary depressions are admitted, even during the 
 progress of the free-trade principle ! But what comes 
 of the boast of the original supporters of the free-trade 
 system, that it would wipe away all depression for ever 
 from our markets ? It is left for their more sanguine 
 successors to palliate and to distort. And yet in one 
 sense the prediction of the older free-traders may be said 
 to have come true; depression has been swept away 
 from the face of trade, for the means to its causation 
 are being continually narrowed, but in its place free 
 trade has left — decline ! 
 
 But the signs of decline the free-traders totally fail 
 to see. They admit the fluctuations in the onward 
 course of trade ; but to the factor of decline they deny 
 an existence. Under these circumstances it may be 
 observed, that though our trade-line undergoes a recur- 
 rent rise, this rise is inadequate to meet the require- 
 ments of the labouring classes, for its highest point is 
 continually receding. 
 
 And in the case of the upward tendency of our trade- 
 curve under protection, and its downward tendency 
 under free-trade, how is the difference in direction ex- 
 plained by the free-trade economists ? 
 
 This general tendency to decline has been in opera- 
 tion for many years ; its presence is irresistibly demon- 
 strated by the gradually increasing number of the 
 labouring classes without occupation ; and what grounds 
 are there for an immediate revival ? Sir Ilobert Peel 
 depended upon the inherent energies of the country, 
 while the nation was suffering a temporary distress 
 under protection. He offered the highest hopes of a 
 
244 FREE TRADE. 
 
 near revival; perhaps he had the stimulant of free 
 trade ready for application ! What is the attitude of 
 the Liberal leaders of to-day ? There is distress, a con- 
 stantly increasing distress, and free trade does not 
 operate with stimulation, for it has lost its former 
 efficacy. What other stimulant can the Liberals 
 provide ? 
 
 32. Differences hetween the present tirade conditions and 
 those of 1842. — In every instance of the operation of a 
 principle, it is requisite, if that operation is to continue 
 successful, to examine the various stages through which 
 these external conditions which influence its action are 
 likely to pass ; and thus to determine the sources of its 
 mischievous bearing, leading either to means which will 
 check their prejudicial tendency, or to the abandonment 
 of the new principle. For it is not enough to assume 
 that because those circumstances were favourable to its 
 initial operation, that therefore they shall continue in a 
 similar state. Such an arbitrary conclusion, as we have 
 already observed, is totally opposed to experience. For 
 the merest examination of the disturbance which was 
 created by the application of the free-trade principle to 
 the ordinary existing system of our course, would lead 
 to the observation that, in the course of its action, 
 collateral tendencies were being called into being which 
 might or might not react disadvantageously at some 
 period of its future operation. 
 
 What were some of these collateral tendencies ? They 
 were the forces which protective nations were gradually 
 putting forth — to aid England in the continued develop- 
 ment of her prosperous career ? Rather to divert some 
 
FREE TRADE. 245 
 
 of the sources of that prosperity which attached at that 
 time to this nation, into the industrial channels of their 
 own country ! This was, and is still, the immediate 
 object of the legislatures of foreign nations. Each 
 naturally tends to protect the development of its own 
 internal resources; to promote the occupation of the 
 people; to increase the markets; and by maintaining 
 the contentment of the masses, to deflect the popular 
 attention from theories dangerous to the safety of the 
 State. For this reason, if for no other, is it the object 
 of good government to afford as tranquil a condition of 
 the people as is possible under given circumstances ; 
 and the best means employed to attain this end is the 
 maintenance' of the normal progress of native industries,, 
 and their protection from external injury ; the sources 
 of which were so violently increased by the application 
 of free trade. For it is a historical inference that no 
 people rise against their governing body, except when 
 they are in a state of distress; except when some 
 calamity, perhaps unforeseen, has attended them to the 
 deprivation of the ordinary means of their subsistence. 
 Thus the future being involved in darkness, there being 
 nothing to expect but the continuance of distress, 
 numbers combine to defeat, as they suppose, the tyr- 
 annous designs of their governors, and where strength 
 is, there will be victory. 
 
 The attitude of surrounding protective nations is, 
 therefore, easily explicable. Is the free-trade principle 
 as suited to the requirements of the development of 
 their native industries, as it was to our own for a time? 
 Will the free-trade principle, when applied to their 
 commercial systems, assist them in the attainment of 
 
246 FREE TRADE. 
 
 that object which is closest to the hearts of true j^atriots ? 
 Ill other words, is the free-trade principle capable of 
 producing those beneficial consequences w^iich some 
 enthusiasts, during the free-trade agitation of the third 
 and fourth decades of this century, predicted of it ? We 
 have the reply to those vain boasts of a former generation 
 in the present action of protective nations. Are the 
 conditions relating to the trade-development of those 
 nations the same as those which aiBPected our own at 
 the time when free trade was introduced into our com- 
 mercial code ? Obviously not, on account of the vast 
 differences between the relative internal resources of 
 different countries. The system of free trade was 
 peculiarly suited to a particular phase of our industrial 
 growth ; that is not an argument why it should be 
 associated with the same result when it is applied to 
 far different trade conditions. And this is the main 
 reason why not a single nation has followed England in 
 the so-called progressive, but unknown, path of free 
 trade. Progressive in what direction ? Free trade 
 leaves the issue to be decided by the course of time: 
 protection decides in favour of a steady but certain 
 advance 1 
 
 But the inquiry may be made, Why have protective 
 nations, whom many ill-reasoning and unforeseeing en- 
 thusiasts of 1842 judged would be pressed to follow 
 the glorious (but insecure) example of free trade in this 
 country, taken the advantage of enriching themselves, 
 as they certainly do by virtue of the imposts which 
 they place upon imported articles, instead of spreading 
 peace throughout the world ? Because, although they 
 may enrich themselves, the increase of each is but 
 
FREE TRADE. 247 
 
 relative as compared with that of other nations who 
 likewise pursue the policy of protection by a unani- 
 mous consent. In this way they discover a method of 
 turning the arbitrary procedure of the isolated free- 
 trader into tlie direction, of that object, which was 
 one of the grounds for the introduction of free trade 
 universally, and this is effected at the expense of the 
 free-trader. They have retained a present security, 
 with the opportunity presented to them of increasing 
 its effects, after they had overcome the initial hurt 
 which free trade inflicted upon them ; a certain progress, 
 so far as this can be certain, to the chance of running 
 into decay after a period of unusual activity — in a w^ord, 
 they have preferred the substance of true development 
 to the shadow, rendered inordinately fascinating by a 
 fluctuating prosperity, of artificial growtli ! 
 
 With such considerations as these, it was easy to 
 foresee that the subsequent progress of the free-trade 
 principle would be beset with difficulties, and dangers 
 arising from the attempt, which has been followed with 
 success, to dissociate the pernicious tendency of the 
 principle from its inconstant beneficial consequences, 
 and to lay bare, in all their nakedness, the evil results 
 which would assuredly be associated with its partial 
 operation in the international world of commerce ! 
 
 We have already seen how the free-trade principle 
 was checked in its early operation by the adverse in- 
 fluence of a combination of causes. Towards the end 
 of 1845, after being in restricted action for three years, 
 its results were regarded as satisfactory, though no 
 account was taken of the normal element of our trade 
 increase. But in 1846 and 1847, when there was a 
 
248 FREE TRADE. 
 
 deficiency of the crops throughout the continent of 
 Europe, people began to think that, after all, the free- 
 trade principle was no more efficacious than any other 
 principle. Then came the commencement of the period 
 in which free trade acted without external restraint, in 
 which the normal element of the trade-development of 
 the country was consumed. Commercial circles doubted 
 the potency of the free-trade principle for good ; and to 
 explain the distress of the country, other causes, perhaps 
 advanced for ulterior designs, w^ere introduced, and 
 amongst them, the Bank Eestriction Act of 1844. But 
 if the efficacy of the principle was doubted, there can 
 be no defence for the error. Nobody can hold that the 
 free-trade principle was inefficacious. But what is to 
 be called in question is the ultimate advantages to be 
 derived from that efficacy, and the ability of the 
 principle to continue its efficacy ? 
 
 For after a time, when surrounding conditions came 
 gradually to a state of equilibrium out of the disturb- 
 ance into which they had been thrown by the appearance 
 of a new force, and during which period of disturbance a 
 spurious good was done to the commercial interests of 
 the nation, it was obvious that the resultant effect of 
 the free-trade principle could not be similar to what it 
 was at the outset of its action. Why ? Because those 
 conditions, capable of fluctuating within themselves, 
 which tended to modify its operation have varied. 
 They are now no longer the same as they were before. 
 But in what direction have they varied ? Towards the 
 interests of this country ? To answer this question in 
 the affirmative is to assume that nations are not self- 
 interested, and that the commercial intercourse between 
 
FKEE TRADE. 249 
 
 nation and nation is not what Sir Eobert Peel declared 
 it to be, similar to that between individual and indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 But is there any particular reason why protective na- 
 tions should treat us kindly, a nation, or the legislators 
 of that nation, who showed no mercy to foreign trades 
 and industries on the authority of Sir Eobert Peel ? 
 
 It is impossible to suppose, from a comprehensive 
 view of the question, and taking into consideration the 
 working of several forces all acting simultaneously, and 
 all concurring to oppose the trade-prosperity of this 
 country, that the principle of free trade can be associated 
 for ever with those successful results which it exhibited 
 during the early period of its progress. Increased 
 circulation was an inconstant effect of the original action 
 of the free-trade principle, and formed part of the dis- 
 turbance above described. Where is that increased 
 circulation now ? Is not this sufficient to demonstrate 
 that surrounding conditions vary, and that the action of 
 the free-trade principle will tend to become restricted 
 to its constant result ^ 
 
 To create an increased circulation there must be some 
 force. Where is that force ? Free trade, it will be 
 replied. But the principle of itself is powerless : it can 
 only act for good through one of its effects, and that 
 particular effect is increased circulation. 
 
 Are the present conditions relating to the operation 
 of the free-trade principle favourable to the production 
 of increased circulation ? We have traced the reasons 
 why they are not. 
 
 The great difference, then, between the conditions of 
 1842 and the present is, that in 1842 the principle was 
 
250 FREE TRADE. 
 
 untrammelled by the ultimate consequences of its own 
 effects, the chief of which was increased circulation. 
 Now the free-trade principle is in constant action, with 
 the same constant result wdiich it had in 1842, but 
 which is not obscured by the beneficial consequences of 
 the contingent effect of increased circulation, for the 
 favourable conditions, on which that effect was contin- 
 gent, have disappeared. 
 
 Tliat increased circulation, the cause of prosperity, 
 has passed away, but it has left the markets in a far 
 deeper depression than if they had been subject to an 
 ordinary recurrent or paroxysmal depression. Nor is it 
 difficult to perceive that free trade without increased 
 circulation is a political bauble; but a bauble fraught 
 with the surest danger to the unhappy people who 
 groan beneath its burden. 
 
 It may be inquired, on the part of those who defend 
 tlie operation of the free-trade principle. If free-trade 
 once caused an increased circulation, can it not do so 
 again? And the reply will be. Yes; if the conditions which 
 relate to its action can be reduced to their former state ! 
 
 But if this is impossible, cannot our trade receive 
 some other legislative stimulus ? The additional stimu- 
 lus to increase the circulation of our trade may, indeed, 
 be looked for from the Liberal party, who were the 
 chief means of applying to it the free-trade stimulant. 
 But it will be looked for in vain. 
 
 The truth is, that free trade has stimulated till it 
 has lost its original power. Our trade, therefore, with- 
 out external stimulation, lapses into a sluggish condi- 
 tion; some stronger stimulant is needed to arouse it 
 from inactivity. 
 
FREE TRADE. 251 
 
 Has the nature of this extra stimulant been indicated 
 by the Liberal party — the stimulators of trade ? 
 
 When Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Eussell stimu- 
 lated the trade-activity of their country in the fifth 
 decade of the century, did they keep back in hand 
 some other remedy to take its place after free trade 
 had failed to do its work ? Did they recognise this 
 stimulant property of the free-trade principle ? And 
 did they forecast the final results of undue stimulation ? 
 
 33. Observations on the i^resent decline. — The great 
 difference between the present depressed state of our 
 markets and their previous states of depression lies in 
 the absence of the " use " of capital nowadays. Capital 
 is idle, or diverted into other channels, which should be 
 utilised in the circulation of trade, because experience 
 shows that its returns are less favourable than if applied 
 in other directions. The importance of this observation 
 is unquestionable; of its accuracy there can be no 
 doubt. 
 
 If we look around and search for these elements, 
 which, in the opinion of Sir Eobert Peel, invariably lead 
 to depression, do we find an apparently favourable con- 
 dition of the trade-markets ? Not the most sanguine 
 of the free-traders in the country can admit such a 
 state ! Is the money-market regulated by a low state 
 of interest ? By no means. 
 
 The factors, therefore, which were constantly asso- 
 ciated by Sir Robert Peel, and which led him to make 
 the generalisation that an apparently prosperous state 
 of the markets, combined with low interest, results in- 
 variably in inordinate or " insane " speculation, which 
 
252 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ends in depression, are absent in the present day. They 
 cannot be adduced as the- causes, therefore, of the pres- 
 ent depression. 
 
 And this simple observation would of itself tend to 
 the conclusion that the present depression might be 
 different in its character; that it would not present 
 the same features which characterised those periods 
 of depression induced by the method described by Sir 
 Eobert Peel. 
 
 What is the nature, then, of the present depression 
 which accounts for its being thus different from its pre- 
 decessors ? We will proceed to the solution of this 
 question by the comparison of instances. 
 
 The period of depression between 1837 and 1842 was 
 brought about mainly by inordinate speculation. There 
 were other minor causes which operated to increase the 
 result, but these are too insufficient in themselves to 
 require a separate discussion. The conditions favour- 
 able to the acquisition of capital led to an extraordi- 
 nary circulation of it ; but this circulation of capital, 
 though at first it diffused to the labour-markets, finally 
 resulted in the disordered relations of supply and de- 
 mand, because the grounds in the generality of cases 
 of speculation were fictitious ones. But there was no 
 dearth of capital at the commencement, and it was not 
 until more capital was required to complete the object 
 of the speculations of the merchants that interest rose, 
 and then the burden of the speculation fell upon the 
 originators of it. And thus the designs of the specula- 
 tors became frustrated, and the labour-markets suffered 
 as the result. But the new element of the present 
 depression is not that capital is wanting, or is locked 
 
FREE TRADE. 253 
 
 up, as it was during the railway mania of 1846-47, by 
 which the trade activities were made to suffer from a 
 diminution in the supply of capital, while the labour- 
 market was kept in a flourishing state. There is no 
 dearth of capital at the present day, the new element 
 continuing the depression and leading to decline is that 
 capital is not forthcoming ; it is locked up, but not in 
 railways ; it is put out to those more certain specula- 
 tions which yield a larger return than the languishing 
 trade activities of the country. 
 
 This capital is a real quantity ; it expresses in part 
 the gigantic addition to the wealth of the country which 
 the early application of the free-trade principle yielded 
 to manufacture. It is idle now, or diverted from its 
 proper channel, to increase the industrial activity of 
 the nation by the inequality of competition. The same 
 amount of profit is no longer possible — and this was 
 large — and even a remunerative profit is becoming by 
 degrees more scarce. What then ? Are not the capi- 
 talists self-interested ? If capital yields not a sufficient 
 return in one direction, it is diverted into more favour- 
 able ones. But though this gigantic increase to the 
 wealth of the nation was gained at the expense of the 
 foreigner, let it not be supposed that it is remaining at 
 the same level. How can it, when the pernicious action 
 of free trade, now a source of exhaustion, is constant ? 
 
 But this source of exhaustion is slow, and therefore 
 tends to be wellnigh imperceptible in its operation. 
 And what a danger there is in this gradual tendency 
 towards decline ! for the true gravity of the condition of 
 affairs is thereby apt to be neglected or misrepresented. 
 
 Let the evils of the system of protection which the 
 
254 FREE TRADE. 
 
 free-traders were so ready to exaggerate be compared 
 with the evils derived from the constant operation of 
 the free-trade principle. Will it be denied that the 
 free-trade principle has its evil effects as well as other 
 principles ? 
 
 But in the eyes of the Liberals the free-trade prin- 
 ciple is the only known exception to this universal rule • 
 Attack the virtues of the free-trade principle, and they 
 at once refer you to the prosperity of its initial action ; 
 they point to the increase in the wealth of the country ; 
 continue the false association between free trade and 
 trade prosperity ; proclaim that as free trade has already 
 operated advantageously to the interests of the country, 
 it must always do so — for how can free trade cause both 
 prosperity and distress ? and promulgate the fatal error 
 of ascribing to the cause itself the consequences of one 
 of its effects — and an effect, too, which is possible only 
 when surrounding conditions are favourable to its action. 
 Where can the free-traders point and say that there is 
 increased circulation of the markets ? And when they 
 have discovered the fortunate market, let them compare 
 this increase with that increase which characterised the 
 same market during the first period of the operation of 
 free trade. Will they then contend that the free-trade 
 principle still retains, in the same degree, the property 
 of stimulating the markets ? Will not the conclusion 
 be, Does the free-trade principle at present stimulate 
 at all ? 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel's generalisation demonstrates that, 
 during the course of the protective policy (leaving out 
 the unproductivity in various degrees and kinds of the 
 resources of nature), one main element tended to the 
 
FREE TRADE. 255 
 
 causation of depression. There might be other sources, 
 but speculation carried to an inordinate extent was the 
 chief factor leading to distress. 
 
 And it is curious, here, to remark on the expression of 
 opinion entertained by that great authority on domestic 
 affairs, respecting the continuance of the system of pro- 
 tection. Sir Kobert Peel himself proved as certainly as 
 it could be proved that the activity of our industries 
 was gradually increasing. Who knew so well the im- 
 mediate effect of free trade upon our trade-markets, but 
 who judged so ill its ultimate results ? 
 
 It was in reference to this difference between the 
 constant progress under protection, and an artificial rise 
 through the influence of free trade, that he let fall that 
 explanation which now so unfortunately can be turned 
 against himself. He said, in one of those memorable 
 speeches immediately antecedent to the introduction 
 of free trade into our commercial relations — speeches 
 which are characterised more by their endeavour to 
 cloak his own inconsistencies than by any real attempt 
 to discover truths — that " a constant and injurious pro- 
 cess was going forward." 
 
 As an absolute statement, his own observations proved 
 it to be false. It was relative therefore, and relative to 
 the " what might be " of our commerce under the influ- 
 ence of free- trade. 
 
 And now let us turn to the actual facts which the 
 study of the progress of free trade supplies us with. 
 We perceive that the main elements leading to depres- 
 sion are two, as compared with the single chief element 
 under protection. And these, speculation, as in the 
 course of our trade when protected ; and " a constant and 
 
256 FREE TRADE. 
 
 injurious process," which is the ultimate outcome of the 
 continued operation of the free-trade principle, as we 
 have already and sufficiently shown. Inordinate spec- 
 ulation still determines the ups and downs of the trade- 
 curves of the nation ; but the constant exhaustion of 
 the free-trade principle leads to a permanent depression, 
 which, as it increases, ends in decline. 
 
 It is of the first importance to recognise the existence 
 of this latter element relative to the course of our 
 trade, and to deduce its single cause. For accuracy of 
 observation, in fields which are open to misrepresenta- 
 tion which is unlimited, apparently in the case of the 
 prejudiced, and to confusion, which finally ends in com- 
 plete obscurity, is paramount. Look around and discern 
 the various circumstances which relate to the stunted 
 development of our trades, gather all the indications in 
 which such a procedure terminates, and then collate 
 these with accurate observation of existing facts. 
 
 For before the cause of decline can be certainly de- 
 duced, the single observation on which it is based must 
 be acknowledged as true. 
 
 How like to that course of decline in agriculture will 
 the present advanced depression of our manufacture 
 now appear — how strict the parallel ! And the cause of 
 the decline in both, unequal competition. 
 
 But it will be asked. If free trade thus results in 
 unequal competition, and is the direct cause of the 
 exhausted condition of the trade-markets, why was not 
 the tendency observed before ? And the answer has 
 been given. 
 
 It was not observed before, because not felt ; the 
 tendency, though present, was checked — by an increased 
 
FREE TRADE. 257 
 
 circulation, which was temporary. Wlien this ceased to 
 counteract the influence of an adverse tendency, this 
 latter grew into power ; and it will begin to be the more 
 observed when its consequences have been experienced 
 in an increased and increasing degree. 
 
 34. The more simple explanation of the pJien/)7ncna 
 above described, — To explain the constant tendency of 
 the free-trade principle, partially operating to the pre- 
 judice of the free-trade nation, it is necessary to revert 
 once more to an illustration, which served a similar 
 purpose in a former section. But let it not be supposed 
 that any subtle analogy is intended to be drawn by the 
 usage of a simpler means of illustrating our present 
 meaning. 
 
 Nor is there any opportunity for the merest reasoner 
 to fall of his own accord into a possible trap, which it 
 might be supposed has been constructed for him ! Our 
 purpose is to explain what is less known by means of 
 that which is more known : and this, we presume, is 
 the object of explanation by illustration. Keasoning 
 from analogy, it may be stated, is beyond the scope of 
 the following description. 
 
 We may compare our markets to the tissue-elements 
 of the body-organism, and free trade applied as a stim- 
 ulant to them. Free trade acts by increasing the cir- 
 culation of the trade-markets, and by raising, therefore, 
 the functional activity of those markets. Is there any 
 harm resulting from too excessive a stimulation leading 
 to an excessive display of functional activity ? Yes ; 
 for maintenance and growth on the one side and func- 
 tion on the other proceed with an inverse proportion. 
 
 B 
 
258 FREE TRADE. 
 
 If function be inordinately developed, maintenance 
 suffers the loss. And thus in the case of the trade- 
 markets, whose growth and function proceed in a 
 similar manner, if the solid element of gradual growth 
 is sacrificed for a temporary and excessive stimulation, 
 expressed in the over-activity of the tissue-elements of 
 the body of our trade, the maintenance of those elements 
 becomes proportionately depressed, and perhaps their 
 growth impossible. And what results ? In the first 
 place, exhaustion; and in the second, if the power of 
 repairing the mischief which has been done be inter- 
 fered with by the constant demands of stimulation, 
 decay. 
 
 By the aid of this illustration we have attempted to 
 show that the action of free trade upon our commerce 
 was not directly upon the trade-markets, but through 
 the intermediate means of increasing the trade-circula- 
 tion. This species of commercial activity, therefore, 
 inasmuch as it is derived from without, and the result 
 of legislative interference, must obviously vary with 
 the constant action of the free-trade principle ; it must, 
 from the knowledge which our experience supplies us 
 with in parallel] instances of stimulation, decrease — for 
 there is no instance of any force in natural operations 
 not tending to seek a condition of equilibrium with sur- 
 rounding forces, and in the effort decline may ensue. 
 
 From greater activity, the free-trade principle lias 
 already passed through a phase of diminishing activ- 
 ity, till it reached a period when its action was, for 
 a moment, adjusted to the operation of surrounding 
 influences. 
 
 When this period was attained, fortunate would it 
 
FREE TRADE. 259 
 
 have been for the trade interests of this country had 
 these surrounding influences remained the same. 
 
 But these influences were, by their fluctuation, the 
 very means by which equihbrium was effected, and by 
 which the activity of the free - trade principle was 
 reduced. 
 
 Did anything appear to check the adverse operation 
 of this principle ? Nothing ; and therefore what had 
 already diminished the potency of a principle for our 
 good would, if they still continued to advance in- the 
 same direction, eventually destroy its beneficial action 
 altogether — that is, that part of the operation of the 
 free-trade principle which reacted to the prejudice of 
 foreign nations. It was by these means that those 
 nations, remaining protective, and originally depressed 
 by the initial action of free trade, succeeded in remov- 
 ing the burden which an arbitrary procedure unjustly 
 placed upon them. 
 
 Let the different states of the progress of an element 
 be contrasted in the two opposite instances, in one of 
 which the forces leading to an increased activity are 
 applied from without, and in the other, where they are 
 derived from witliin. 
 
 In the former case, it is seen that the amount of pro- 
 gress must certainly vary with the degree of stimulation 
 to which the element is subjected ; and it is well known 
 that the rapid tendency of elements, whose nature is 
 marked by a great degree of mobility, to reach a state 
 of equilibrium, to adjust themselves to the action of a 
 constant force, is particularly characteristic of them. 
 
 In those instances, therefore, in which such elements 
 become habituated to the action of a constant stimulant 
 
260 FREE TRADE. 
 
 force, some other means must be devised to continue their 
 stimulation; and, of course, some force of greater in- 
 tensity than the last one applied. But in the second 
 case, the source of activity is inherent in the elements 
 themselves; and the extra supply of energy which it 
 is capable of inducing is diverted into the channel of 
 growth. Hence we have the means both of activity 
 and growth resident within the tissue-elements of the 
 markets of our commercial body; but their course is 
 gradual, as the survey of the career of our trade under 
 protection clearly defaonstrates. Whereas free trade 
 acts as an external stimulant, which, if recklessly admin- 
 istered, tends to be followed by exhaustion and decay. 
 
 And here we may interpose the explanation how it 
 was that the excessive activity of the initial operation 
 of free trade interfered adversely with the normal pro- 
 gress of our markets. All their energies were consumed 
 in increased functional activity ; there was nothing left 
 for their proper maintenance and for their ultimate 
 growth. This view of the operation of the free-trade 
 principle it is important to keep in mind : that it acted 
 solely upon the trade-circulation of the markets, first 
 causing their inordinate activity, and finally ending in 
 decline, because trade-circulation is depressed — the de- 
 pression being caused by the accumulation of those 
 other collateral influences which the principle calls up 
 in its train. 
 
 There is another point to be considered, as regards its 
 explanation, with respect to the operation of free trade. 
 
 We have already observed what were the effects of 
 this principle upon its surrounding conditions at its first 
 introduction, and how it created in them such disturb- 
 
FREE TRADE. 261 
 
 ance as led to a very remarkable determination of the 
 trade - circulation to our markets. The subsequent 
 operation of the force, however, which brought about 
 this sudden alteration, was without our control, though 
 the expediency of its application was determined by the 
 judgment of our legislators. How, then, should we be left 
 if the ultimate action of the principle tended against us, 
 and we were powerless to destroy its pernicious influence ? 
 
 It is not difficult to see that the Legislature of 
 1842-47 was in this position. It had, in itself, the 
 power to call certain effects into existence by the appli- 
 cation of the free-trade principle. But having done 
 this, it stood aside helpless, to observe the course of 
 those effects over which now it had not control ! It 
 had supplied the only stimulant that it possibly could 
 to the supposed (but falsely supposed) sinking condition 
 of our trade, with the result that the subsequent pro- 
 gress of the body of our trade was left entirely in the 
 control of those foreign Powers who should determine 
 the special direction some of the effects of that stimula- 
 tion were to take. 
 
 Each nation, like each individual, in commercial affairs 
 is bound to act in accordance with its own self-interest. 
 And if the free-trade system, which regulates the com- 
 merce of these realms (and the principle of which was 
 applied because, at the outset, it was perceived to act 
 for our own advantage), thus reacted to the prejudice 
 of foreign industries, is it wonderful that protective 
 nations should offer such resistance as is in their power 
 to these evil influences upon their commercial welfare ? 
 
 And when all protective nations combine, and are of 
 the same mind still, in spite of the praise which has 
 
262 FREE TRADE. 
 
 been so lavishly but so uselessly conferred upon free 
 trade, will not the united effect be all the more dis- 
 astrous to our own interests — those interests which we 
 served so well for such a short time, but which thereby 
 we appear to have ultimately sacrificed ? 
 
 And here the true character of Mr Pitt's legislation 
 comes more strikingly into the foreground. It was his 
 great ambition that the two nations should be placed on 
 a level of equality, that thus the sources of jealousy 
 between them might be destroyed. By his endeavour, 
 free trade with some restriction was granted to Ireland 
 in 1786 ; but though a great step had been made, yet 
 the final one had to be taken, for the commercial affairs 
 between the sister islands, though apparently improved, 
 were not yet in a satisfactory condition. For there 
 were still two centres whence the subsequent progress 
 of British and Irish commerce might be directed, and 
 these might at any time be opposed. It was essential, 
 therefore, to the combined prosperity of both countries, 
 that these two centres should be reduced to a single 
 one, in order that they might preside with all the 
 greater effect over the entire commercial prosperity of 
 the United Kingdom. 
 
 When Mr Pitt introduced the free -trade system 
 between Great Britain and Ireland, he saw that the 
 legislative union of the two kingdoms was not far dis- 
 tant. There could therefore be no possibility of any 
 alteration in the commercial union so happily inaugu- 
 rated, when legislative union was at last completed, 
 though in the interval between commercial and legis- 
 lative union there were some remote chances of the 
 scheme becoming destroyed. 
 
FREE TRADE. 263 
 
 But when Sir Kobert Peel introduced free trade into 
 our relations with surrounding nations, what security 
 had he that tlie adverse conditions, which would 
 certainly come into existence, if we alone remained 
 free-traders (and that event at the time must liave been 
 regarded as something more than possible), would be 
 under the sphere of his or his successors* removal ? 
 
 And if such removal was not within the highest 
 degree of being probably effected, into what an ex- 
 traordinary danger did he allow the course of our 
 commerce to enter ! 
 
 35. The analogy of tJie free-trade principle partially 
 operating, as it has worked thrmigJwiot the ivorld of com- 
 merce, in a single town, — As the course of the free- 
 trade principle, and the method by which it works, has 
 been illustrated by examples which are more or less 
 well known, and as the ground of analogy has not 
 been assumed ; so, now, in order that the operation of 
 the principle may be the better understood, it is pro- 
 posed to give a description of the analogous action of 
 the principle of free trade, working within as small 
 dimensions as we can conveniently take, but still sur- 
 rounded by the same influences as exist within the 
 larger sphere. In this way, we shall endeavour to 
 afford a comprehensive survey of the continued progress 
 of the free-trade principle. 
 
 Let there be a large town which shall represent the 
 whole commercial world, and in it trade-institutions for 
 the mutual interchange of goods, in various stages of 
 growth and activity. These trade-institutions are rep- 
 resentative of national commercial interests ; and we 
 
264 FREE TRADE. 
 
 will suppose that all of them have, up to a certain 
 stage of their development, proceeded under a com- 
 mon rule, and this rule is expressed in the term pro- 
 tection. Each institution has protected itself, so far 
 as it could, from the dangerous tendencies of external 
 forces. 
 
 But at a certain epoch, when that trade -institution 
 which had reached a higher level of activity and pros- 
 perity than all the others, looked on its advancing rivals, 
 a convulsion of opinion took place within it. Some of 
 those concerned for the welfare of their institution are 
 inclined to continue the same system, by which they 
 have already attained their present state of prosperity. 
 But others, too eager to magnify the first indications of 
 alarm, cast about to devise some means by which 
 dangers, which only their disordered imagination felt 
 were looming in the distance, might be dispelled for a 
 time, and their sources, with the greatest probability, 
 removed for ever ! 
 
 And they find the measure for the prevention of 
 danger in this remedy. It had been the custom to 
 place an impost on all articles, including raw materials 
 coming from another trade-institution into their own. 
 It was these imposts that they intended to remit. This, 
 then, was the remedy. Instead of continuing to protect 
 the native industries of their own institution, they saw 
 their account in the free importation of those articles 
 which were mainly concerned in the development of 
 their chief industry, manufacture. But they still kept, 
 at one period, a restriction on the admission of produce 
 of manufacture ; such a slight restriction, however, that 
 in course of time its infiuence would inevitably come to 
 
FREE TRADE. 265 
 
 be nugatory, and hence, not in accord with the inten- 
 tion by which it was maintained; for it was main- 
 tained to "protect" manufacture. 
 
 The immediate effect of such a change of policy was 
 instantly grasped by the manufacturers. They saw at 
 once that a larger share of the whole trade of the 
 town would be deflected towards their own trade-insti- 
 tution ; and endeavoured to secure for themselves a foot- 
 ing on the path towards prosperity. Thus their action 
 became peculiarly selfish. But this they succeeded in 
 hiding, by attracting the notice of those who really had 
 the whole of the interests of the institution at heart. 
 Thus they strengthened themselves at home, by ex- 
 aggerating the tendencies of the future of their trade ; 
 and amongst their neighbours, they still appeared to 
 w^ear the garb of disinterestedness ; for those sentiments 
 of hostility, which the rivalry between the various trade- 
 institutions created in the town, would, by the introduc- 
 tion of this new principle of governing their commercial 
 relations, soon be dissipated in the increased activity 
 which it would succeed in giving to all. 
 
 But her neighbours did not regard tliis policy of their 
 leader with kindness. For they saw that, as the con- 
 ditions which afiected the growtli of each varied, what 
 was applicable with advantage to one was not certain 
 to be followed with advantage to all. They therefore 
 kept aloof, and smiled at the apparently disinterested 
 fashion in which the fresh scheme had been advocated ; 
 while they shuddered at the loss which so unjust and 
 arbitrary a measure would assuredly inflict upon them. 
 Thus what was pleaded the requirements of the civilisa- 
 tion of the town demanded, came, by the adverse attitude 
 
266 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of the majority of the trade-institutions in it, to have a 
 partial operation. 
 
 Let us now revert to the conditions in which the 
 older institution found herself at the time, when many 
 who were attracted solely by their own self-interest, 
 discovered dangers which had nearly reached, and were 
 still rapidly approaching, the whole community. 
 
 She had to rely upon outside sources for the materials 
 of her manufacturing industries, as well as for a large 
 proportion of the necessaries of life. She was unable 
 to supply enough corn to feed her people. The conse- 
 quence of this was, that the price of bread was rela- 
 tively higher than among her rivals, who depended in 
 this respect upon their own resources. But then, the 
 product of her manufactories had acquired so great a 
 reputation, and commanded so large an external market, 
 that by the gain which accrued to her from her increas- 
 ing exports, she was more than enabled to counter- 
 balance the loss which a foreign supply of corn entailed. 
 Then, again, the wages of her labourers were relatively 
 much higher than those of surrounding institutions. 
 
 These two factors, therefore, were those which were 
 taken most into consideration — the importation of corn 
 and the exportation of our manufactured produce. And 
 it was easily seen that if the price of corn was reduced, 
 while the exportation of our manufactured goods was 
 increased, there would result a high condition of pros- 
 perity to the institution. For the labourers now would 
 receive a proportionally higher wage, and their income 
 would come, in an additional manner, to exceed their 
 expenditure in the fall which the price of corn would 
 undergo, if the tax upon its admission were removed. 
 
FREE TRADE. 267 
 
 The bearing of the new system thus involved, in the 
 main, these two events. To hasten the acquisition of 
 the one, it was considered wise to inordinately raise the 
 industrial activity of but one of the branches of her 
 trade, that by these means she might compete to 
 greater advantage with her younger rivals. Thus one 
 source of immediate danger would be removed, and in 
 the interval following the initial operation of the new 
 principle, it would be expected that either surrounding 
 nations would be compelled to offer us the same ad- 
 vantages as she had given them, or else some new means 
 elucidated to prevent the onset of future dangers. 
 
 And to sanction the demand of the other, it was 
 brought forward that an agitation then on foot, and 
 founded on a supposed injustice by wliich the price of 
 corn was kept at a high level, would thereby be dis- 
 sipated, for conflicting opinions would cease to work ill 
 when the trade-institution was surrounded with peace 
 and plenty. 
 
 Thus came it about that the present only was re- 
 garded by the legislators of that trade-institution at 
 the epoch of the introduction of free trade. It was 
 certain that the measure would be associated at the 
 first with an increased prosperity to the community. 
 But the causation of this increased prosperity was un- 
 recognised. And the consequence was, that certain 
 avenues to a subsequent depression, and, it may be, the 
 decline of the institution, were left open. And it was 
 these which the legislators of the surrounding institu- 
 tions detected and utilised. 
 
 Finding herself at this disadvantage with reference 
 to the question, and fearing that in the subsequent 
 
268 FREE TRADE. 
 
 growth of the institutions she might be shut out of 
 these markets which were neutral to both, she pro- 
 ceeded to apply what she considered to be the best 
 remedy to counteract so pressing a probability. Nor 
 was she without advisers, and those popular ones, on 
 the paramount value of the course she was pursuing. 
 For they argued that the reputation of their manufacture 
 must continue ; and that with the advantage which the 
 new policy would afford them, they need fear nothing, 
 for the quality of the work of their labourers exceeded 
 that of the working classes of her rival institutions. ^ 
 
 There can be no doubt that by forcing such a system, 
 there was the probability, but it was a very remote one, 
 that the neighbouring institutions, whose development 
 had come to be regarded as of some importance, might 
 follow in the same path. But observe how greatly the 
 new principle would operate in her own favour. For 
 now she would be able to procure her raw materials at 
 the least possible cost — that is, in other words, she would 
 buy in the cheapest market, while the exportation of 
 her manufactured goods would still command the same 
 high price in neutral markets ; and in cases of com- 
 petition, by means of this new policy, she would be 
 enabled to undersell her rival neighbours. 
 
 Indeed it may be inquired of this free-trade insti- 
 tution, was not her free-trade system made use of to 
 undersell expressly her protective rivals ? Did not this 
 idea of underselling underlie the wdiole scheme of in- 
 creasing the chances of a successful competition, when 
 all these chances were at first in her own favour ? 
 
 But for a time only would such an arbitrary pro- 
 cedure succeed, and the surrounding institutions be 
 
FREE TRADE. 269 
 
 forced to bear the burden of a loss which the evanes- 
 cent prosperity of their successful reform entailed ! 
 
 But for a time only would they suffer the burden of 
 distress ! Some means would be discovered by which 
 they would escape out of the difficulty into which the 
 appearance of a new principle in their mutual com- 
 mercial relations had plunged them. 
 
 What were the means, then, which presented an out- 
 let to this temporary inequality ? 
 
 The rival institutions, which remained protective, had 
 you til and a relatively greater power of growing on their 
 side. Their labouring classes were lower in the scale 
 of civilisation than those of the community which was 
 leading the van of civilisation in the town, and, con- 
 sequently, their wages were lower. 
 
 It was on this point of wages that those who guided 
 the fortunes of the growing institutions depended. The 
 wages of the older institution were high, and would be 
 increased by the immediate effect of the free-trade 
 policy ; and therefore when prices were lowered, the 
 opportunity of making such large profits as before 
 would be diminished, and one of two alternatives 
 would present — 
 
 1. Either the older institution must decide to rest 
 
 content with a diminishing profit ; or — 
 
 2. Wages must inevitably be reduced, or else both 
 
 these phenomena will exist simultaneously. 
 Now, what dangers involved the reduction of wages 
 in the case of the older institution ? And what com- 
 parison would be framed between the slow progress of 
 the protective institution, in which wages would grad- 
 ually increase, and the dissolute condition into which 
 
270 FREE TRADE. 
 
 the commercial affairs of the free-trade institution had 
 fallen ? 
 
 These formed the foundations of the attitude which the 
 protective institutions determined to assume. In the 
 course of time, their means of producing manufactured 
 goods would be enlarged, the more especially as the free- 
 trade institution suffered its native machinery to leave 
 its manufacturing centres. Perhaps this action was 
 impelled by a desire on the part of free-trade legislators 
 to appear less selfish than they might be thought to be, 
 as well as to give some opportunity to their neighbours 
 to do likewise. 
 
 But besides the increasing power of producing the 
 free-trade manufactured goods, they would be in a posi- 
 tion to pay high wages to competent workmen from the 
 free-trade institution to teach their labouring classes 
 some of those manufacturing arts which were unknown 
 to them. And when these began to flourish, and when 
 they began to gain a footing of equality with their more 
 fortunate free-trade rivals, then would the central autho- 
 rity step in, and give that material assistance which the 
 growing industries of the respective nations required. 
 Their early struggles would be assisted by bounties. 
 But how do these bounties arise ? From the taxes 
 which are imposed upon free-trade goods. And the 
 final result arrives, that the product of these protective 
 industries can be raised at a cost less than that by free- 
 trade labour ; and hence are exported to neutral markets, 
 where it conies, by a curious change of place, to be the 
 turn of the protectionist to undersell the free-trader ! 
 
 What, then, must eventually become of that free-trade 
 institution, which thus may truly be said to have sown 
 
FREE TRADE. 271 
 
 the seed of her own misfortunes ? Can she any longer 
 depend upon the produce of her manufactures for the 
 raw materials of neighbouring institutions ? And what 
 results, when the value (not the amount at first — that 
 will follow) becomes seriously diminished (as it is bound 
 to do when unequal competition appears in neutral 
 markets to send down the price) ? The contraction of 
 the sphere of her operations at home. And with what 
 alarming conditions is such a distressing state associ- 
 ated ? Wages reduced ; labour unoccupied, and profits 
 gradually diminishing, or, it may be, profits impossible 
 to be acquired ! 
 
 But the protective institutions still remain protective, 
 and, from the taxes which they impose upon all goods 
 admitted into their community, derive an important 
 source of their revenue. Besides, as these increased — and 
 they did increase largely during the early operation of 
 the new principle — the legislatures of those institutions 
 would be enabled to remit certain duties levied upon 
 articles produced within their own industrial spheres ; 
 and thus would they be able to lighten the burdens of 
 their respective communities. 
 
 But the free-trade institution relies upon her mer- 
 chandise to supply that wealth which is necessary to 
 procure her raw materials, and to assist in the main- 
 tenance of her general wants. If this merchandise is 
 reduced in value, if the markets are depressed, if 
 labour is thrown out of employment by reason of the 
 unequal competition abroad of rival institutions, how 
 is she to continue the wellbeing of the social elements 
 of which she is composed ? 
 
 She has less wealth now, by reason of the cumulative 
 
272 FREE TRADE. 
 
 exhaustion effected by her commercial principle, to 
 purchase raw materials. What capital would, if the cir- 
 cumstances were favourable, circulate in the trade- 
 markets, is diverted from them, because other sources 
 of speculation yield larger returns. Hence those insti- 
 tutions must obviously suffer which have been wont 
 to export a large amount of their raw materials into 
 the free-trade community. With a diminution of man- 
 ufacturing industry, labour becomes proliferous, and 
 therefore cheap. But the free-trade institution is a 
 manufacturers' institution; and the free-trade system 
 was introduced to indulge the expectations of the 
 manufacturers of a past age! For manufacture, the 
 other industry of the country was sacrificed ! And 
 now, see manufacture on the altar of Doom ! 
 
 Without manufacture, at the present, as the free- 
 trade community cannot grow their own corn at a 
 profit (and it seems that the same disastrous result is 
 attaching to the prospects of the manufacturers, who 
 find it more and more difficult to make any profit), the 
 free -trade institution is placed in a pitiable plight. 
 But her misfortunes do not end in herself, for they 
 extend to those other institutions which have to depend 
 for their own upon the prosperity of the free-trade 
 community. What, then, becomes the ultimate situa- 
 tion of the free-trade institution ? She passes gradu- 
 ally into a state of decline ! The determined opposition 
 of her protective rivals has been of a nature to overcome 
 the severe but temporary blow free trade, partially 
 operating, dealt to them. 
 
 They have recovered from these. Still they are not 
 exempt from the occurrence of natural phenomena. 
 
FREE TRADE. 273 
 
 Each of the protective trade-institutions is liable to the 
 recurrence of depression ; and it is well for those insti- 
 tutions to be able to distinguish between a paroxysmal 
 depression, which is more or less partial, and remediable 
 by natural processes, and the serious existence of a 
 decline in all her trades and industries. 
 
 Periods of depression of the trade - curve of the 
 various protective institutions may coexist, and may 
 be associated in their causation. But will it not be 
 difficult to discern between the effects of a temporary 
 depression and the beginning of a constant decline ? 
 
 It is of paramount importance to make accurate 
 observations with respect to those antecedent condi- 
 tions which end a temporary and permanent depression 
 respectively ; and in those instances in which depression 
 in one trade-institution is associated with depression in 
 another, to determine the sequence of their occurrence. 
 Then, when all the facts are collected, and in parti- 
 cular the exact succession of the wave of depression 
 through the whole of the town, the cause may be 
 deduced. 
 
 But there must be no blindness to the fact that 
 when a large connnercial institution begins to fall, its 
 decline must of necessity be implicated with the distress 
 of many branches of industry in neighbouring institu- 
 tions, especially those on whom she formerly so largely 
 relied. 
 
 To observe this succession of the wave of depression 
 following on the downfall of a large manufacturing 
 community is of the utmost importance ; for it is clear 
 that depression will be coexistent in many trade-insti- 
 tutions, and this mere fact of coexistence may be taken 
 
 s 
 
274 FREE TRADE. 
 
 as an argument to show that the free-trade principle is 
 not the cause of depression. Thus in the free-trade 
 community there is observed to be depression, which 
 has the character of permanency, and therefore takes 
 on the nature of decline ; there is also a depressed state 
 of the trade-markets in surrounding protective com- 
 munities. Hence free trade cannot be the cause of 
 depression, because depression exists in protective insti- 
 tutions. But against this argument may be adduced 
 the truth, that the same effect may have very different 
 causes, and that protection was blamed by the free- 
 traders as being the chief source of depression in the 
 fifth decade of this century. This reasoning, therefore, 
 is not sufficient to show that free trade is blameless in 
 the matter of depression ; and the fact that England 
 first began to suffer from the effects of depression during 
 this present long and continued period, and that this 
 depression travelled to those countries which looked to 
 her for support, rather inclines the just reasoner to con- 
 clude that the initial cause of depression was, and is 
 now, resident in the free-trade community, and that it 
 is essentially involved in the alteration w^hich was 
 effected in the ordinary progress of her commerce. 
 
 Thus will it be seen how the policy of this free- 
 trade institution ultimately retarded its growth; that 
 the huge overgrowth, which it succeeded at first in con- 
 structing, decays from want of sufficient maintenance, 
 inasmuch as the sources of its nourishment are being 
 slowly dried up. 
 
 When we apply this analogy to the actual commercial 
 affairs of the universe, it is easily perceived that Eng- 
 land is the free-trade institution. 
 
FREE TRADE. 275 
 
 36. Causation of the ^present distress, — There have 
 been, and are still, many explanations of the causation 
 of distress. 
 
 One was, that agi^icultural depression precedes and is 
 the source of all other depressions. 
 
 But though a deficiency in the produce of the soil 
 may enter into the causation of paroxysmal depression, 
 it must not be forgotten that its intensity is as the 
 extent to which the deficiency reaches; and that, al- 
 though a poor harvest may for a season be associated 
 with a certain amount of depression, it cannot, except 
 in the case of a famine, possibly be the cause of subse- 
 quent distress. For agricultural depression to become 
 a prime factor in the causation of distress, it must be 
 that the harvests continue deficient for a period of years, 
 and that the deficiency reaches below a given level. 
 
 Such, liowever, is contrary to experience. For har- 
 vests may be deficient owing to the inclemency of the 
 seasons ; but agriculture and every other industry de- 
 pending upon similar relations, is prone to be char- 
 acterised by rises and falls in its progress, hence there 
 appear the increased product of the good years to coun- 
 teract the deficiency of the bad. 
 
 But as regards the importance of agriculture to enter 
 as the prime factor in the causation of distress, a special 
 feature which has marked its course must be taken into 
 consideration. 
 
 There is to be considered the fact that, since 1800, 
 the agriculture of this country has been undergoing a 
 gradual decline, according to the economic law (which is 
 still retained) of the gradually increasing unproductiv- 
 ity of the soil, and the recurrency of depressed harvests. 
 
276 FREE TRADE. 
 
 Now, although agricultural depression cannot have, 
 generally speaking, any influence in the causation of 
 trade-depression — though it may tend to increase the 
 ill consequences of the latter, but only in those very 
 sparse instances where villages are dependent entirely 
 for their corn upon the sufficiency of the harvest — let 
 us assume that agricultural depression is the chief factor 
 in the causation of distress. We have, then, to believe 
 that a force which has been continually diminishing in 
 intensity can produce the same results as when it existed 
 with increased powers. 
 
 But paroxysmal trade-depressions renew their course 
 in spite of agricultural depression — the distress of 
 1837-41 is stated to be as severe as any of tliose 
 which had preceded it. Was the cause of this, then, 
 agricultural depression ? 
 
 But let us take the period of our agricultural pro- 
 gress since 1842, when the free-trade principle began 
 partially to be applied, and let us compare the gradual 
 course of the decay of agriculture up to this period 
 with the rapidity of its decline subsequent to it. 
 
 What conclusion are we to infer ? That before 1842 
 corn could be produced at a remunerative profit to the 
 farmer; and that, after a certain time, during which 
 the farmers of this country struggled manfully to keep 
 alive an industry, doomed to destruction by reason of 
 an unequal competition brought about by free-trade, 
 the soil can uo longer be cultivated at a profit; and 
 therefore, that agricultural depression becomes constant, 
 relative to the inability to cultivate, not to the scarcity 
 of produce. 
 
 The legislative policy of 1842 and subsequent years 
 
FREE TRADE. 277 
 
 has thus resulted in a permanent phase of agricultural 
 depression. And if agricultural depression be the cause 
 of the whole depression of the country, the policy of the 
 head of the Tory party, supported by the body of the 
 Whigs, is to blame ! 
 
 But of this there can be no doubt: that however 
 certainly the agricultural prospects of the country were 
 undergoing a natural decline, this decline has been 
 greatly exaggerated by legislative interference of a mis- 
 chievous character. Thus in the downward curve of 
 agriculture since 1842, two elements must be enumer- 
 ated ; the gradual tendency, due to natural processes — 
 and the rapid tendency, derived from the pernicious 
 action of the free-trade principle. The price of wheat 
 has fallen from 60s. in 1850 to 30s. in 1886 ! Under 
 such a slow but continued fall, what chances has the 
 farmer had of maintaining the importance of the agri- 
 cultural industry of the country ? 
 
 The introduction of this rapid element of decline into 
 the course of our agriculture was the inevitable out- 
 come of Liberal reform — a peculiar kind of reform 
 which had for its object the elevation of manufacture 
 by the depression of agriculture. And what is the 
 final result of the free-trade principle ? It has suc- 
 ceeded in ruining first the prospects of agriculture, and 
 then those of manufacture. 
 
 Then the Liberal spirit of Parliament, assisted by a 
 show of disinterestedness, but stimulated underneath 
 the cloak of selfishness, pronounced against agriculture. 
 But the means they devised were to further the con- 
 dition of the agricultural labourer. What is the fact ? 
 As the natural consequence of their reckless policy the 
 
278 FREE TRADE. 
 
 farmers are ruined, and hundreds of thousands of la- 
 bourers have deserted the soil. 
 
 And now, as the cause of their poor condition can be 
 directly traced to the former Liberal reform in our com- 
 mercial code, it seems marvellously inconsistent that 
 the pioneers of this species of reform, called the Eadical 
 section of the great Liberal party, should be making out 
 a case for the claim of those who have been so much 
 injured already by their experimental policy. 
 
 But do not the Eadicals forget, for the while, that the 
 agricultural labourer has already been under the pro- 
 tection of the Liberal party ? In 1842, there w^as no 
 end to the declamation that the agricultural labourer 
 was to be enormously benefited by the new reform. 
 What is his position now ? But the Liberals will reply, 
 " Yes, but events have not turned out as we anticipated 
 they would ! " Then who is to blame ? the Liberals, for 
 their false prognostications ! What, too, is the position 
 of agriculture ? 
 
 But the example of the free-traders of 1842 is still 
 followed, and the agricultural labourer is still deceived ! 
 Certainly the times are changed. Then it was the cry 
 for cheap bread — as visions of foreign corn, freely ad- 
 mitted, floated through the fancy of the bewildered mob, 
 and home-grown wheat was neglected. JSIoiv, where is 
 the use of crying out for cheap bread, when there are 
 no wages with which to buy it ? Bread is cheaper; the 
 Liberals are proud of this one effect of their reform. 
 
 But they little imagine the immense disturbance 
 they have made in the machinery by which wages are 
 derived, and which has resulted in the paralysis of 
 labour. Bread is cheap because corn is admitted free. 
 
FKEE TRADE. 279 
 
 But corn cannot be admitted free without a prejudicial 
 influence upon agriculture ! The free admission of corn 
 is but part of a general principle ; and the total results 
 of that free-trade principle are a loss gradually accruing 
 to the country. 
 
 Bread is cheap ! and so something else must be 
 thrown out as a bait to catch the disappointed agricul- 
 tural labourer. And now the Radical section cries up 
 the enormous importance of cultivating the soil. Arable 
 land is going into disuse. Why ? because it does not 
 yield a profit. But in the hands of the Radicals, and 
 with the assistance of division, the land is once more 
 going to give up her increase, and peace and plenty 
 shall bless the cottage of the agricultural labourer. The 
 free-trade breeze is beginning to blow cold ; and the 
 Radicals are beginning to trim their sails. Their course 
 is already changed. It is not the low price of wheat 
 that tends to the destruction of the farmer; foreign 
 competition is not unequal in their eyes. How can 
 the Liberal party ever be convicted of protecting the 
 interests of their country ! 
 
 The cause they say is to be found in the high rents, 
 and the solution of the problem is dexterously shifted 
 on to the subject of land. 
 
 If there is any unequal competition, cry out the 
 Liberal reformers, you will find it at home ! 
 
 But if anything is to be gained by the competition, 
 equal or unequal, of the present day, you will find the 
 balance making its way out of the country, replies the 
 Tory. 
 
 And thus we are forced to a consideration of the dis- 
 abilities of land. The contention of the Radical party 
 
280 FREE TRADE. 
 
 and those who are mainly connected witli the so-called 
 reform movement, is that rents are too high. They too, 
 like their Liberal predecessors, place all the burden of 
 the distress at the door of the landlords. Before, the 
 landlords kept up the price of corn so as to ensure a high 
 rent ; now, the landlords keep the rents high, in order 
 to prevent the greatest possible cultivation of the soil. 
 
 But the arguments of those who entertain so incon- 
 sequent a notion want experience only to confute them. 
 Just like the false notion propagated in the early days 
 of the free-trade movement, that with low rents profits 
 would be higher, so now the startling doctrine is dif- 
 fused that high rents are the cause of the agricultural 
 labourer's distress. 
 
 But the plain error which pervades this mode of 
 reasoning, of ascribing to the phenomena which may be 
 associated, but which are not invariably associated, the 
 relation of cause and effect, is sufficiently laid bare by 
 a cool and impartial examination of the natural succes- 
 sion of facts. For if high rent is the reason why no 
 profits are possible to the farmer, and therefore no 
 wages to the labourer, how is it that, with the present 
 low price of corn, farms cannot be worked to advantage 
 with a very small rent or no rent at all. But such a 
 doctrine is sufficiently refuted by the endeavours of the 
 landlords themselves to protect their own interests, 
 there having been a tendency in operation for some 
 years toward an actual reduction, if there has been no 
 nominal reduction, of rents. 
 
 But from this actual reduction, which has been grad- 
 ually increasing, what has been the result ? the exact 
 reverse of the Liberal prognostication ; for instead of 
 
FREE TEADE. 281 
 
 profits accumulating, they have been rapidly diminish- 
 ing. And this leads to the real ground on which is 
 placed the obstacle to the agricultural prosperity of the 
 country ; and that is, the increasing difficulty with 
 which the farmers have to contend, not to make a 
 profit, but to be able to sell their corn. This is the 
 fountainhead whence flows all the inequality which 
 surrounds the unprotected position of the farmer. It 
 is not that he has a high rent to pay, it is that he is not 
 in a sufficiently secure position so as to be able to rely 
 upon remunerative profits, and therefore be able to pay 
 a rent at all. 
 
 And this unfortunate position of the farmer, and 
 with liim the agricultural labourer, is the last link in 
 the chain of disastrous events which have attended 
 agriculture since the palmy days of protection, wliile 
 yet there was a market open to them. There was the 
 possibility of his selling his corn, even though the price 
 at whicli lie was accustomed to sell was gradually 
 receding. Still, even this unhappy prospect was borne 
 without a nmrmur ; and while the farmer s corn was 
 selling for a less price, the farmer's capital was grad- 
 ually becoming used up. And with so strong a tide 
 against him, the time could not be far distant when all 
 his capital would be consumed. And then, when the 
 corn-markets at home are shut to him, when the un- 
 equal race in which he is taking a mock part comes to 
 a sort of termination, what is to be his end ? How is 
 it possible that, with the present surrounding conditions 
 of our agriculture, he can still ply his trade without 
 the hope of being rewarded with even a small profit ? 
 And this is the pass to which the free-trade principle 
 
282 FREE TRADE. 
 
 has led the farmer, and with him the prosperity of the 
 agricultural labourers. And while this is proceeding, 
 while the labourers are deserting the soil, what a cry 
 is raised against those unequal conditions which compel 
 the farmer to dismiss his labourers ? How is the fact, 
 declaimed from the polling-booth, that the agricultural 
 labourer, originally attached to the soil, cannot main- 
 tain himself, because rents are too high for profits to be 
 made, and therefore is forced to seek an outlet from 
 his distress in the town which he invades, and tends to 
 depreciate the town labourers' wages, already reduced 
 by depression, by increasing labour competition, — how 
 is this fact set forth in all its injustice : " force is used 
 to drive the tiller of the soil away from his native 
 hamlet " ! Such a condition must be false, and can have 
 no real foundation in the true nature of things ; and 
 we are the party who set things to rights !, It is true 
 this is not a real state of affairs, but then what can 
 be effected from the interested efforts of the artifice 
 of man ? In what w^ay did the Liberal reform of our 
 commercial tariff in 1842-47 set things to rights ? In- 
 adequately and for a time only. The Liberals deplore 
 the condition of the labouring man ; this is the trick to 
 catch his vote ; for they know that the landed and agri- 
 cultural interest are set against their party. Those of 
 the farmers who gave their adhesion to the disastrous 
 policy of 1842 have had their eyes widely opened. The 
 Liberal reformers do not point to the farmers, for they 
 well know they will find no sympathy in that direction ; 
 and political sympathy is a mighty engine 1 
 
 The farmer and agricultural labourer both have been 
 and are now ignored. But the agricultural labourer's 
 
FREE TRADE. 283 
 
 aid is sought to maintain the Liberals in power ; and 
 now the same scheme is made use of as in 1842, but in 
 a modified form. The agricultural labourer must be 
 made to feel that he suffers unjustly, and that injustice 
 is made to lie at the door of those who are opposed to 
 the Liberals in politics. The landlords and moneyed 
 interests are held up to the public eye as the origin of 
 all their distress, though now the landlords are de- 
 claimed against as acting not directly in opposition to 
 the welfare of the nation as in 1842, but indirectly, by 
 preventing the cultivation of the soil. 
 
 But how comes it that the Liberal party of to-day 
 does not directly appeal to the farming interest of the 
 country ? Because the interruption of the natural rela- 
 tionship between master and man has been effected. 
 This the farmer knows, and thinks his interests and 
 position have been cruelly and unjustly neglected. The 
 agricultural labourer was taught to believe in 1842 that 
 his progress with free-trade was certain. But how has 
 that forecast been verified ? The Liberals, however, who 
 first laid the train, and saw the spark which was 
 gradually to destroy in its development both farmer 
 and labourer, assume the air of injured men. They 
 have done their best ; they wished for the best ; they 
 sympathised with the poor condition of the agricultural 
 labourers. What is the outcome of all this false sym- 
 pathy ? The condition of the labouring man is worse 
 than ever it was before, and this during the opera- 
 tion of the free-trade principle, the source of every 
 blessing and every content. He ought to look to the 
 master for the means of his improvement. Each ought 
 to see in his own interests the welfare of both. But 
 
284 FREE TRADE. 
 
 no ; Liberal reform, with characteristic meddlesome 
 interference, has stepped in between them ; and the 
 result is, that the interruption of a natural relationship, 
 once begun, has been continued by a Liberal political 
 manoeuvre. The agricultural labourer is taught not to 
 regard the position of his master : he is to look to the 
 Legislature for the means of redress. And thus we are 
 led to the explanation of the extraordinary conclusion 
 which some Eadicals have reached respecting the rela- 
 tion of our dependent colonies to the mother country. 
 They are to be cast off, because presumably the Eadicals 
 find enough difficulty in adjusting the disordered rela- 
 tions at home which their predecessors have effected 
 for the benefit of the nation ! 
 
 What should be left to be settled by natural force, 
 the Eadicals, out of a new species of sympathy, decide 
 shall be settled by the Legislature. What ought to be 
 determined by the central authority, the Eadicals aban- 
 don as being wrought with the ruin of the nation I 
 And thus the Eadicals fall into an error, which is fre- 
 quent, of the practical man, who interferes when he 
 ought not, and abstains where it is duty. But in an 
 age of a do -something policy this is not surprising. 
 Agricultural depression and land disabilities are there- 
 fore seen not to be the real causes of the present dis- 
 tress, however much they may be distorted into an 
 apparent source of it. It rests, therefore, by a process of 
 exclusion, between speculation and the influence of the 
 free-trade principle to account for the present distress. 
 It is not speculation ; for the effects of speculation are 
 limited to one market, and the depression spreads with 
 diminishing intervals to those most intimate with it ; 
 
FREE TRADE. 285 
 
 and after the evil tendencies of speculation have dis- 
 appeared, the trade and industries of the countries rise 
 to their former level, or near it, in our present circum- 
 stances of free trade. 
 
 Speculation could only be cause of so large a distress 
 as the present, where it is general and when it affects 
 all the markets. But there must be antecedents of 
 such a general speculation, called inordinate and insane 
 by Sir liobert Peel ; there must liave been the previ- 
 ously healthy condition of the markets and a low rate of 
 interest. Such a general depression from speculation 
 is 'characterised by scarcity of capital ; there is no such 
 dearth of money in the present day. 
 
 The element of speculation, therefore, is incapable, 
 from its magnitude and force, its inconstant — and an 
 inconstant cause cannot cause a constant result — but 
 paroxysmal nature, to explain the present constant 
 decline in our trade ; it causes the ups and downs in 
 the downward curve. It remains, therefore, that free 
 trade is the cause, and we shall learn this is able to 
 effect it by its magnitude and constancy. 
 
 37. Effect of reduction of EiiglaiuVs demands upon 
 foreign nations. — When a large and growing institu- 
 tion ceases to demand not only the same amount, but 
 a gradually increasing amount, of those raw materials 
 which other countries have been accustomed to export 
 in her favour, it follows that these countries must suffer, 
 and suffer according to the degree of diminution in the 
 amount of supplies. It is not enough to be told that 
 given imports remain the same in total amount : they 
 may vary in value, and they have done this to an 
 
286 FREE TRADE. 
 
 alarming extent ; and if they even remain the same in 
 amount, when they have previously shown an upward 
 tendency, does not this indicate that retardation has 
 taken place ? For in what way has an increasing pop- 
 ulation been affecting the stationary phase of our trade 
 with other export countries ? 
 
 And these countries, too, suffer, if not an absolute 
 loss, yet a relative one, by reason of the fact that a 
 growing industry has been checked in its development, 
 and therefore a possible means of employment to a 
 portion of their increased population destroyed. But 
 in such a case, where there is this disturbance in the 
 amount of imports into a country which is gradually 
 feeling the perilous effects of decline, it is clear that 
 there must be a period of transition in which a species 
 of equilibrium may be established. During that period 
 depression will reign in foreign countries on account of 
 the reduction in the supply of labour. Competition 
 will thereby be increased, for there will be more hands 
 than labour to supply them, and wages will consequently 
 be diminished. 
 
 Thus, then, foreign depression may to a certain ex- 
 tent be explained, and so far as it is concerned with 
 depression at home. But the sequence of depression 
 must be observed. The course of depression in this 
 country tends to the appearance of depression in other 
 countries. The two depressions, therefore, stand in the 
 relation of cause and effect. 
 
 And now mark the direction of Liberal reasoning ! 
 The mere existence of depression in a foreign and pro- 
 tective country is adduced for a favourable comparison 
 with depression in our own. We are suffering; well, 
 
FREE TRADE. 287 
 
 then, so are other countries ! But nothing is said as to 
 the true causation of either of these separate depressions, 
 nor their immediate connection with one another ! 
 
 The Liberals then deduce the inevitable conclusion 
 from the following statement of these facts : We see 
 depression round about us, in those nations which are 
 protective, and we who are free-traders are likewise 
 suffering depression. It is obvious, therefore, that 
 neither protection nor free trade can be the cause of 
 these depressions. 
 
 This is a rather curious corollary to the free-trade 
 reasoning of 1842, for in that protection is the sole 
 source of depression. But sentiments alter with times, 
 and Liberal reasoning grows to a greater amount of 
 truth ! This Liberal reasoning is on a par with that of 
 the free-traders, " cheap bread causes high wages." 
 
 The grand cause, therefore, of depression is unknown, 
 or due to the seasons, or due to some trifling inconstant 
 influence, just to soothe the inflamed ear of a mob, 
 while they are being lectured about the injustice under 
 which they are suffering. 
 
 But it would be well if the populace were for a 
 while to view a matter dispassionately which so inti- 
 mately concerns their welfare. The cause of depres- 
 sion is unknown, because the Liberal demagogues are 
 unwilling to own to it. It is free trade or nothing ! 
 And how can any conscientious Liberal desert the flag 
 of free trade, under which the nation prospered so 
 magniflcently, but under which the nation is also suffer- 
 ing so egregiously I For every effect which is general 
 and of great magnitude, and constant, there must be a 
 cause, which is constant and sufficiently large to pro- 
 
288 FREE TRADE. 
 
 duce it. Wliat other cause is constant, what other 
 source is of sufficient magnitude to account for the 
 present depression ? Let the Liberals reply ! 
 
 But in the meantime the Liberal party inadvertently 
 allow themselves to fall into an error of observation. 
 In the comparison they institute between the depres- 
 sions of this and foreign nations, they presume that 
 the nature of the depression is similar in each ! But 
 such is not the case. The depression in those countries 
 which feel the downfall, gradually induced, of British 
 manufacture, is a temporary depression, and is capable 
 of being removed by the energies of their respective 
 peoples. But in the instance of our own, the Liberal 
 eye is shut to the fact that the depression is composed 
 of two elements, one of which, it is true, is temporary, 
 but the other, it is equally true, is constant. It is this 
 constant element of depression, this appearance of de- 
 cline, which is the chief characteristic of the distress 
 which the nation is at the present moment suffering. 
 It is this element which is so grossly and unfortunately 
 neglected. 
 
 Sir Ptobert Peel, somewhere in one of his speeches, said 
 that a constant and injurious process was going forward, 
 referring to the commercial policy of protection. And 
 the same sentiment was iterated by Mr Gladstone, who 
 described the old system as a system of robbing and 
 plundering ourselves. Sir Eobert Peel's remark was 
 made before the principle of free trade had commenced 
 with its primary extraordinary success, and when it was 
 certain that stimulation would be followed by increased 
 activity; Mr Gladstone's, when this successful nation 
 was nearing its acme of prosperity, so far as trade 
 
FKEE TRADE. 289 
 
 manufactures were concerned. Is it curious that 
 neither of these politicians disclosed the continuous 
 progress of free trade ? But it is certainly curious that 
 both these eminent politicians should have referred so 
 disparagingly to a system under which the commercial 
 policy of all surrounding nations was conducted, and 
 under which our own had reached so great a degree of 
 prosperity ! But evils are not removed by an alteration 
 of system — this Sir Eobert Peel acknowledged. And 
 what were the evils of his own free-trade principle ? 
 Did he unconsciously predict its ruinous bearing upon 
 the country in the unjustifiable attack (unjustifiable 
 for him !) which he made on protection ? 
 
 But yet the comparison between the protectionist 
 forecast and the Liberal policy must be carefully made. 
 
 The protectionists predicted that with a low price of 
 bread there would eventually be a low state of wages. 
 The Whigs and free-traders foretold the beginning of 
 the new reign of commercial prosperity! 
 
 But they did not predict that this reign of prosperity 
 would so soon come to an ignoble end ! 
 
 The present united Liberal party seem, however, 
 still in some doubt as to the proper apportionment of 
 the shares to each of the individual factors in the 
 causation of distress. Let us help them a little in this 
 instructive process. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel (and his authority is claimed by the 
 Liberals, and not contested by the Tories) very dis- 
 tinctly asserts that strained relations with foreign 
 Powers form an important barrier to some commercial 
 transactions, and therefore lead to a temporary depres- 
 sion. He instances the wars which had been conducted 
 
 T 
 
290 FREE TRADE. 
 
 by the second Melbourne Ministry just before liis 
 second advent to power. What may be urged against 
 the foreign policy of the Liberal Administration of 
 1880-85, which resulted in the isolation of England 
 among European nations ? How did these insecure 
 relations with foreign Powers interfere with the suffi- 
 ciently depressed commercial business of the country ? 
 When the country was already suffering severely from 
 distress, was it prudent to increase the causes of de- 
 pression ? And how might that have been main- 
 tained ? By the display of a firm attitude on our 
 Indian frontier. But an opening was made, and ad- 
 vantage taken of it. By this contrast it is seen how 
 Sir Eobert Peel, in his commercial policy, sinned against 
 a great doctrine, as a subsequent Prime Minister has 
 done in his foreign relations — " Do unto others as you 
 would they should do unto you." 
 
291 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF PARTIES IN THE STATE RESPECTING 
 THE PROGRESS OF OUR COMMERCE, AND THE PRIN- 
 CIPLES WHICH PRESIDE OVER IT. 
 
 38. Attitude of the parties in the State, — It is not a 
 little important to contrast the different methods em- 
 ployed by the Tory and Liberal parties in the investi- 
 gation of the causes of the present distress. The Lib- 
 erals seek to refer the main cause to the disabilities 
 under which property in land is placed in this country, 
 while they ignore altogether the htrden which is lying 
 so heavily upon our trade. The Tory party, giving to the 
 land question the minor importance which it possesses 
 in the solution of the problem, centre all their endeav- 
 ours on the ineqttalities which have for many years 
 surrounded, and are still surrounding, our commercial 
 system; and therefore recently afforded every facility 
 in their power in arriving at the true cause of distress, 
 through the means of a Com7nission to inquire into the 
 causes of the pi^esent depression in trade. 
 
 Thus the method followed by the Tory party is com- 
 plete and impartial, and further, bears the stamp of 
 accuracy. It includes both trade and agriculture, and 
 
292 FREE TRADE. 
 
 rightly gives the preference to the former, as being of 
 far greater magnitude and importance, and altogether 
 associated tvith the prosperity of this country. 
 
 The treatment of the Liberals, on the other hand, is 
 partial, and based upon prejudice and error ; the pre- 
 judice arising from a blind adhesion to an economic 
 principle which has become a tradition among their 
 party — the error due to the false assumption that, in 
 the present condition of society and generally, it is the 
 country that makes the town grow, 
 
 A relation between town and country is founded, 
 which is artificial as it is used by them. For the rela- 
 tionship only exists when the town is in an early phase 
 of its development, and ceases when its demands become 
 greater than the surrounding country can supply. But 
 it is not difficult to see why the Liberals offered an 
 ap'parent unconcern in the lately appointed Commission ; 
 for the soundness of their great economic principle is 
 called in question — a principle which has supplied them 
 with popularity, and has been the direct means of con- 
 ferring on them a long continuance of power. Hence, to 
 suppose that their great principle is no longer potent 
 for good, is at once resented ; they refer immediately to 
 the temporary rise which followed the introduction of 
 free trade into this country, under very favourable con- 
 ditions, and resulted for the time being in so much 
 prosperity. And they argue that this prosperity, being 
 associated with, and as they think the immediate cause 
 of, the rapid rise in the trade of this country, must 
 continue so long as their traditionary principle remains 
 in action. But the great bulwark behind which they 
 hide themselves is the cry of a tax on the people's food. 
 
FREE TRADE. 293 
 
 Perhaps it does not occur to the Liberal party that 
 their argument is insufficient ; that the principle of free 
 trade itself is not directly responsible for the sudden 
 rise in the markets which followed its early introduc- 
 tion into our commercial relations ; but that it is so 
 only indirectly by promoting an increased circulation, 
 which led to a more rapid exchange, and therefore a 
 stimulation which penetrated to all the branches of our 
 industry. Thus it is the effect of the principle of free 
 trade, and this effect an increased circulation, wliich was 
 the cause of the prosperity resulting from its early action, 
 when surrounding conditions were favourable to its devel- 
 opment. The principle of free trade was the cause of 
 an increased circulation in the markets, and this in- 
 creased circulation was the immediate cause of a sudden, 
 and, as it has happened, an umvholesome rise in our 
 trade. It is not, therefore, to the efficacy of the princi- 
 ple itself, hut only of one of its effects, which is possible 
 when external conditions are favourable to its action, 
 that the explanation of its success is to be referred. 
 In other words, the principle of free trade is potent for 
 good on for evil, according to the nature of the external 
 circumstances which surround its action, and is obvi- 
 ously potent for good alone when these circumstances 
 Sive favourable to an increased circulation, and for evil 
 when these circumstances have become modified and 
 adverse to the development of this effect. For it must 
 be remembered that these surrounding circumstances 
 are being slowly and gradually altered during the con- 
 tinued action of the principle, and that one of the causes 
 of such alteration is the remote consequence on the market 
 of a primary and inordinate increase in its circulation. 
 
294 FREE TRADE. 
 
 It has been customary to account for the prosperity 
 attending the first application of the free-trade principle 
 to the commercial transactions of this country by ascrib- 
 ing it to the virtues of the principle itself. But this 
 is obviously erroneous; for a principle can only act 
 through its effects, and these are good or evil, according 
 as the nature of the surrounding conditions are favour- 
 able or adverse to the development of that ^particular 
 effect through which it becomes successful. And if 
 this effect is not developed, then must the principle lose 
 that part of its former and beneficial efficacy which was 
 attendant upon its initial action ; and if all the success 
 of the principle depends upon the existence of one effect 
 only, when that effect is absent, it follows that the prin- 
 ciple ceases to be associated with success. And when 
 the circulation in all the trade-markets is slowed or 
 stagnant, what does this express ? That the free-trade 
 principle — after excluding collateral influences of minor 
 importance, which naturally cannot continue to act as 
 efficiently so long as the present decline progresses — 
 does not, under the existing conditions, cause an in- 
 crease in circulation, hy tvhich it ivas originally intended 
 to act. The conditions, therefore, are not favourable 
 for its successful action, and have become different from 
 those which marked its first and successful application. 
 Thus an adjustment has taken place, and surrounding 
 relations have become imperceptibly modified, through 
 the action of a new principle upon them. And as Eng- 
 land alone remained a free-trader, it is obvious that 
 during its progress, after the primary beneficial action 
 of the Liberal principle had reached its limit, means 
 would be sought by surrounding nations to diminish the 
 
FREE TRADE. 295 
 
 feverish activity of our markets, and divert the traffic of 
 trade towards their own country. This is but the result 
 of self-interest , the motive which impelled the introduc- 
 tion of the free-trade principle into this countr}^ and 
 has been the cause of that change in surrounding condi- 
 tions, from favourable to adverse, which has led to the 
 inefhcacy of the principle by diminishing circulation, 
 and therefore to that constant but steadily increasing 
 drain upon the resources of this country. 
 
 When the conditions are no longer favourable to the 
 beneficial action of the free-trade principle, it is evident 
 that our trade cannot feel that prosperity which formerly 
 it experienced when our system was protective, and on 
 a level with surrounding nations. And now, in our 
 competition with foreign countries, wliich is carried on 
 so unequally to the interests of this country, when any- 
 thing is gained there must be somebody to lose ; and it 
 is clear tliat that nation which is under the greatest 
 disabilities will be the sufferer. But this suffering, or 
 the commencement of the decline in our trade, was not 
 likely to be appreciated, even when the circulation in 
 our markets was beginning to be depressed, wliile our 
 country was still enjoying those blessings which were 
 associated with a stimulation in every branch of her 
 commerce. It would take some time before even a 
 modicum of the rapid increase in the wealth of this 
 country was slowly and almost imperceptibly squan- 
 dered away by the gradual but constantly accumulating 
 drains upon the national resources. And England was 
 still allowed to pursue her spendthrift policy, and her 
 loss was unobserved or unrecognised. Yet slight fiuxtu- 
 ations would appear, due to the influence of collateral 
 
296 FREE TRADE. 
 
 and temporal causes, to raise the spirits of the despond- 
 ing merchants, while the Liberal politician would 'point 
 to them as the direct results of free trade. But these, 
 being for a time only, and resulting from the operation 
 of normal but inconstant causes, could not possibly 
 impede, in the event, the steady and downward course 
 our trade had begun to take, while the constant adverse 
 action of a principle which had lost its beneficial efficacy 
 remained at work. And it is obvious that the decline, 
 which some ivhile hack had heen in progress, would only 
 become perceptible in its fullest degree when much of 
 our former gain had been slowly drained away ; and 
 when our trade was placed, for the first time since the 
 introduction of the free-trade principle, face to face with 
 those disabilities, no longer opposed by prosperity, from 
 which it has not as yet been disencumbered. And thus 
 it is that our trade will reach a loiver level than that 
 on which it stood when it pursued a true and equable 
 advance under the safe guidance of protection. 
 
 With its former gain thus being recklessly thrown 
 away, and now suffering from the hardships of an 
 unequal competition, what hopes remain for our trade 
 while it is labouring under its present burden ? What 
 is there to expect but that there will surely be a still 
 further increase of the present distress ? And what 
 tendencies are developed, when thus trade is so un- 
 equally carried on between neighbouring countries, in 
 the direction of design and— fraud? 
 
 It cannot be denied that the present distress, com- 
 pared with our former unexampled prosperity, acts all 
 the more unfavourably upon the condition of the labour- 
 ing classes ; for they are chief partakers in the general 
 
FREE TRADE. 297 
 
 wave of depression which has spread over all the coun- 
 try, and become dissatisfied at the hopeless prospects 
 before them, and discontented. And thus they form the 
 soil of agitation, and are rendered an easy prey to all 
 those false notions and false ideas which are scattered 
 in their midst concerning the relations between labour 
 and capital, and to the erroneous theories concerning 
 property in land. 
 
 When a retrospective view is taken of the course of 
 our trade during the past generations — the sudden rise 
 accompanying the introduction of the free-trade prin- 
 ciple, followed by the present unexampled depression — 
 it may be inquired, Has this rise been really to the advan- 
 tage of the nation ? For much of our former gain by it 
 has been drained away. And has it been wholesome ? 
 For it has introduced a source of discontent, as being 
 one of the early links in the chain of causation of the 
 present distress which is evident in all levels of society, 
 but bears most unequally upon the working man, whose 
 prosperity it is the country's object to promote, by 
 adjusting our trade relations with foreign countries to 
 the principles of justice and right. 
 
 And how have these, the labourer's prosperity and 
 wellbeing, been fostered by the continued action of a 
 principle which has become ultimately pernicious in its 
 results ? 
 
 What is the main source of the present discontent 
 and distress ? The low wages, as compared with former 
 comparatively high ones. 
 
 Has the continued action of the free-trade principle 
 been rewarded with success, more especially in the 
 equable advancement of the labouring classes ? 
 
298 FREE TRADE. 
 
 And when there appeared first this tendency to hi- 
 equality in the condition of the labouring classes, when 
 period is compared with period, is it now, or was it 
 then, to the interests of the country to promote it ? 
 
 And how far has the principle of free trade acted in 
 this direction ? 
 
 When the welfare of the labouring classes depends, 
 and depends alone, upon fair and equal wages, what 
 need is there to adduce the deserted state of the country, 
 as it has been assumed to be deserted, and the decline 
 in agriculture, as the source of the present distress ? Is 
 it to be supposed for a moment that an increase in agri- 
 cultural activity in this country will have any influence 
 upon the labourer's wages in the towns ? The smaller 
 towns which have demands upon the surrounding coun- 
 try will always have these demands supplied as long 
 as the productivity of the soil is equal to the burden 
 upon it. The larger towns are, and have been for 
 many years, independent of the country for the supply 
 of many of those necessaries which, in an earlier phase 
 of its development, were solely derived from it. What 
 then ? It is in the larger towns, where the raw mate- 
 rial is manufactured into the various goods, that the 
 present distress is mainly evident, because it is con- 
 centrated ; and how will legislation respecting the cul- 
 tivation of land in this country influence the majority 
 of those who are in distress, and who depend for their 
 livelihood on successful trade or the promotion of enter- 
 prise in the towns ? For the proposed legislation affects 
 only a few ; and even supposing these new conditions 
 to be followed by success, what influence, more than 
 just an appreciable one, could agricultural prosperity in 
 
FREE TKADE. 299 
 
 this country have upon the welfare and wellbeing of 
 the working classes in the towns, when the great rela- 
 tive difference in their numbers is taken into consid- 
 eration ? 
 
 Thus the larger towns are denied any benefit which 
 can be appreciated from this species of legislation, of 
 attempting to increase the supplies of the country, so 
 that the town may grow ; and their present wants are 
 abandoned by the Liberal party, which refuses to in- 
 vestigate, in an impartial spirit, all the elements that 
 enter into the causation of the present distress, and 
 which widens the opportunity, therefore, of reaching 
 the true remedy, and, as we think, fails to reach it 
 altogether. 
 
 But whenever the principle of free trade is attacked, 
 the cry is immediately raised, '' Tax the food of the 
 people." The Liberals forget, in their haste to stifle 
 discussion, that the people's food would neither be un- 
 justly nor disadvantageously taxed by the introduction 
 of fairness in the conduct of our trade. For tlie penny 
 loaf will still remain relatively the penny loaf, in spite 
 of the renewal of the system of protection, based upon 
 the principles of justice and right. For by the protec- 
 tion of our industries the labour-market will be gradu- 
 ally extended, and the means to obtain a proper liveli- 
 hood proportionally increased. In what way, therefore, 
 can this principle of free trade, advantageous for a time, 
 but disastrous in the long-run, be regarded by those 
 who see the prosperity of their country in a true and 
 equable advancement of its trade ? 
 
 If the commercial relations of our country be studied, 
 before the application of the free-trade principle, it will 
 
300 FREE TRADE. 
 
 be discovered that on the whole they continued prosper- 
 ous under the protective system, in spite of temporary 
 depressions, which mark its even progress, and which 
 arise as the natural result of contingencies to which 
 men are prone. Nor must the opposition, with which 
 the introduction of the free-trade principle was stoutly 
 resisted by those who had the true interests of their 
 country at heart, be forgotten at this commercial crisis. 
 
 The Tory party, inspired by the true spirit of patri- 
 otism, predicted as the natural result of its action the 
 decline of our trade. This prediction was founded on 
 an inquiry into the continued operation of the principle 
 of free trade, but it loses its influence by reason of the 
 fact that the steps by which the fatal result was to be 
 brought about were involved in darkness. There would 
 be a temporary rise, followed by a period in which 
 surrounding conditions would be equilibrated to the 
 influence of this economic principle; and when this 
 equilibrium had become effected, the decline would 
 become perceptible. And how truly this Tory predic- 
 tion of old has been fulfilled ! Contrast the Tory 
 prediction with the Liberal anticipation ! It was 
 the boast of the Liberals that the free-trade principle 
 would become universally adopted ; for was it not by 
 this means that peace and happiness were to be diffused 
 over the earth ? and they shed glory upon themselves 
 by conferring upon England the merit of taking the 
 lead in an action which opened up to the nation the 
 whole trade of the world ; but, at the same time, added 
 an enormous increase to the wealth of this country. 
 
 The anticipation was based upon the fact that the 
 introduction of the principle of free trade into our com- 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 mercial relations with all other countries would be fol-c^^ ^^ 
 lowed by an increased prosperity, which was fulfilled, ' -< J 
 and that the same change would most probably be X*. 
 followed by other nations, which was false. The pros- ^ 
 perity which they anticipated, they must have known 
 would be temporary only, provided surrounding nations 
 remained protective ; and it is obvious that the principle 
 could never continue to act advantageously from the 
 point of view of trade-activity, not from the develop- 
 ment of increased skill, unless other countries become 
 free-traders. 
 
 The Liberal anticipation tliat it was only a question 
 of time for other nations to follow in the train of free 
 trade, has thus, up to the present, been disappointed. 
 And thus, from the nature of the Liberal reform in 
 trade, which was grounded upon expectations which 
 were in part right but partly false, a temporary pros- 
 perity was gained at the price of a subsequent adversity 
 — the present distress. 
 
 For neighbouring nations have preferred a true and 
 equable advance in their respective trades, in accordance 
 with the solid judgment and wisdom of their guides, to 
 a momentary rise, with all its serious ultimate results. 
 
 Means were easily discovered by which the effects of 
 so disastrous and isolated an introduction were made to 
 recoil upon itself ; and the continued existence of the 
 present protective system, which controls the trade re- 
 lations of the neighbouring nations, proves the Liberal 
 anticipation to have been based on a hasty and short- 
 sighted study of the results of their action. 
 
 Thus, what a vast difference there is between the 
 Tory prediction and the Liberal anticipation ! 
 
302 FREE TRADE. 
 
 For the Tories had the faculty of foreseeing the 
 disasters that would ultimately attend our trade if our 
 neighbours still remained protective, which have come 
 to pass ; and the opportunity, afforded them with such 
 temerity, of aggrandising themselves at the expense of 
 the free-trader. This opportunity has been taken, with 
 the result that the operation of our free-trade principle 
 has been continuously restricted to diminishing fields ; 
 and at the present is in full power, under such adverse 
 circumstances as the Liberal party has never taken the 
 proper measures to counteract. 
 
 How different the efficacy of the principle of free-trade 
 would be, were all other countries likewise free-traders t 
 It was with this intention that the Liberals became re- 
 sponsible for the lead in a hypothetical universal free 
 trade. For then they would have retained all that pros- 
 perity with which they started ; and the trade of this 
 country would have been raised to a higher level. But 
 not while there was anything to gain in the near future^ 
 would other nations follow suit ; they foresaw, or the 
 wise politicians among them, the advantages of remain- 
 ing protective, imder the new conditions which the 
 isolated action of England had introduced into her re- 
 lations with the commerce of the world — advantages- 
 which would accrue not at once, but slowly, and would 
 possess the further additional interest of being cumu- 
 lative. 
 
 Thus result those disasters, which follow sooner or 
 later the application of novel principles to systems, the 
 working of which in their entirety is without the control 
 of the advocates for reform. The old lines were deserted,, 
 but the prosperity which followed the interruption was. 
 
FREE TRADE. 303 
 
 enoiigli to claim for the principle a general belief in its 
 continued beneficial efficacy. 
 
 How fatally at fault the Liberal anticipation here, as 
 it was also disastrously at fault, in a late Liberal Admin- 
 istration — the Indian frontier and the Egyptian cam- 
 paign ! Can the Liberals do else than admit that their 
 great economic principle has ceased to be potent for 
 good, owing to the endeavours of other nations to pro- 
 mote the circulation of trade in their own countries. 
 There is a very great difference between the gross results 
 following our free trade with the protective system of 
 foreigners, and those which would be associated with 
 our free trade if surrounding nations had become free- 
 traders, the anticipation of the founder and promoters 
 of the doctrine ! 
 
 With what disastrous effect upon this country has the 
 initiative been marked in taking a course, which was 
 supposed, but upon insufficient grounds, would become 
 universal, it is needless to relate to those who recognise 
 the fact that the action of a principle must vary, when 
 the conditions surrounding its first introduction become 
 altered to meet the consequences of its efiects. For the 
 conditions now are no longer favourable to an increased 
 circulation ; the circulation of the trade of this country 
 has been slowly diverted into foreign channels. The 
 conditions which surround the operation of the free- 
 trade principle at the present day, present this difference 
 to those former ones, under which it became the source 
 of so much prosperity. Then, the principle was unen- 
 cumbered by the results of its own action, and increased 
 circulation had free play. Now, the consequences of 
 one of its effects, increased circulation, by the creation 
 
304 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of adverse external forces to weaken it, remain, to 
 interfere with its successful working. 
 
 The free-trade principle is thus rendered inefficacious ; 
 for increased circulation, the means by which it becomes 
 potent for good, is impossible. 
 
 And thus " to the operation of a principle, which con- 
 tains within itself the seeds of decline," the present stag- 
 nation in trade and the distress consequent thereon, 
 is directly traced. 
 
 It is with considerable reluctance that mistakes, per- 
 severed with by the individual, are ever acknowledged. 
 And with what force will the Liberal party resist the 
 detection of one of the sources, and a very important 
 one, if not the most, in the action of a pernicious policy, 
 which is based upon their great economic principle of 
 free trade. They will refuse to recognise its evil results 
 with as much force as the Tories of a past generation 
 opposed that temporary rise which was certain to follow 
 its introduction, and continued their opposition, even 
 while it was being attended with prosperity, as being of 
 a precarious nature, and as equally certain to be attended 
 with subsequent distress. The principle of free trade 
 was applied to the commerce of this country, without 
 the consent, and not in harmony with the trade-systems, 
 of foreign nations ! 
 
 And what will follow the recognition of the ultimate 
 pernicious action of this principle ? The Liberal party 
 know jthat to recognise the effects of their disastrous 
 policy would be to overwhelm them with ruin ! 
 
 And thus can be easily explained why the element 
 of free trade was not represented on the late Commis- 
 sion which inquired into the causes of the depression 
 
FREE TRADE. 305 
 
 in trade. The Liberals responsible for distress ! would 
 be quite inconsistent with their greatest hopes and 
 boastful proclamations ! 
 
 The principle has been in action a long time; and 
 the decline of our trade has been constant and steadily 
 increasing since the reaction of a former prosperous 
 period has passed off. There has been some opportunity, 
 therefore, to observe the tendency, to trace its true 
 source, and to provide some means by which it might 
 be counteracted, if not removed. But even this oppor- 
 tunity has not been taken; observation is perverted 
 into the direction of party interest ; the depression, con- 
 stant and increasing, is referred to false causes ; and the 
 Liberals still remain consistent, but — at the expense of 
 their country ! 
 
 It is a curious instance, where the Liberals have 
 shown no desire, as in all those other instances in which 
 they are involved m difficulty, they are moved by the 
 irresistible tendency to censure their opponents for hav- 
 ing made things so bad, while they do not refer to the 
 worse condition in which they leave them, to throw the 
 blame of the present distress on the shoulders of the 
 Tory party, who predicted it. 
 
 This, indeed, is the great exception to the Liberal 
 rule of ridiculing their antagonists, where they have 
 themselves no intimate cause by which to explain the 
 unfavourable state of affairs. But such a weakness, 
 despicable in an individual, is easily seen to be drawn 
 to its thinnest dimensions by a party which attempts 
 to excel itself in popularity ! 
 
 But the attitude of the Liberals, which is doubtfully 
 patriotic, is characteristic enough ; for though they can- 
 
 u 
 
306 FREE TRADE. 
 
 not blame the Tory party, they attempt to deride an 
 investigation which will go to the very centre of the 
 matter in question, and expose in its small confines, 
 and divested from the association of other and minor 
 causes, a principle which has acted, and still is acting, 
 adversely to the interests of the country. And when 
 the disabilities under which our commerce is suffering 
 are removed, and with them the distress which is pre- 
 vailing equally throughout the country, then will our 
 trade resume its former condition of prosperity, but by 
 slow degrees, and return to that true and equable ad- 
 vancement which has been, through the unfortunate 
 influence of a principle,'*so violently interrupted for a 
 while ! 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 307 
 
 39. Graphic display of the operation of the free-trade 
 principles, with variation of surrounding conditions. 
 
 I 
 
 > 
 
 * u 
 
 •II 
 
 > 
 
 I- 
 
 'T3 
 
 ^ 
 
 
308 
 
 FKEE TRADE. 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 309 
 
310 FREE TRADE. 
 
 42. The mitlooh. — It is to no purpose that the Liberals 
 continually refer to the past trade-prosperity enjoyed 
 by this country under the influence of a principle which 
 was for a short time benign ; and if by far the largest 
 part of the present distress can be directly traced to the 
 constant action of this principle, which has now become 
 pernicious, the interests of the country, which seem to 
 have been sacrificed, but sacrificed unintentionally, by 
 the Liberal party, and the spirit of true patriotism, 
 demand that the principle be forthwith abandoned. 
 
 The Liberals gain nothing by the prosperity which 
 was first effected by their great economic principle, 
 when it is compared with the constant and steady 
 decline which has of late years been so disastrously 
 evident in all branches of our commerce, and has spread 
 from the country to the town, and become responsible 
 for the unremunerative profits, of which the manufac- 
 turers now, as well as the farmers, complain. The 
 decline of agriculture is, equally with the decline in 
 other branches of industry, directly dependent upon an 
 unfair competition. 
 
 And what benefit is derived from cheapening bread 
 in o^e generation, when wages are reduced, through 
 these very means, in the next ? 
 
 The observations which have been made respecting 
 the present distress are: — 
 
 First, Its constancy and increase ; and. 
 
 Secondly, The large dimensions it has assumed. 
 
 It is quite evident that the accuracy of these observa- 
 tions is of the first importance. For, once admit them, 
 and let the state of the markets speak for themselves, 
 is not the next step to look for the cause ? And it is 
 
FREE TRADE. 311 
 
 due from the Liberal party, in favour of their economic 
 principle, to advance some cause which shall be suffi- 
 cient to account for the present constant and increasing 
 depression in trade, and the distress associated there- 
 with, which shall be of a magnitude that is capahle of 
 bringing it about, and which shall be co7istant. 
 
 It is obvious that the temporary influences of collat- 
 eral and contingent events are not sufficient to account 
 for the present intense depression ; for they bear only 
 partially upon the advancement of trade, their effect is 
 not general, nor do they reach a sufficient degree- of 
 strength to become permanent. 
 
 The causes, therefore, of former temporary and slight 
 depressions, affecting but one branch of trade in the 
 constant and downward course our commerce has taken, 
 are not available to explain the present large depression, 
 which is general over the country. Only one, inordinate 
 speculation, is possible : but there is no evidence of this. 
 
 The only other constant element that might be able 
 to bring about a constant depression is the land, the 
 source of all wealth. But it is evident tliat this element 
 does not reach sufficient dimensions to be capable of 
 effecting the large amount of distress existing at pres- 
 ent. The relation of agriculture to trade in this 
 country is expressed by stating that the amount of 
 home-grown wheat is insufficient to satisfy, at the 
 lowest computation, one-thirtieth part of the popula- 
 tion. Hence the necessity of depending so largely 
 upon a foreign supply, and placing ourselves in a con- 
 dition relatively independent of inclement seasons and 
 the " increasing unproductivity " of the soil of political 
 economists. The number of bushels of wheat which 
 
312 FREE TEADE. 
 
 were imported during the year 1884 reached beyond 
 fifty millions, the number of bushels yielded by the 
 last favourable crop less than one million and a half, 
 and the amount which overstocked the markets in 1884 
 was more than the next year's produce of the country. 
 
 Thus the people of to-day almost entirely depend for 
 their livelihood on the flourishing condition of trade ; 
 and hence the judgment and wisdom shown by the Tory 
 party in thoroughly investigating the causes of its 
 present decline. But the mistaking the collateral 
 effects of the same cause for cause and effect has led 
 the Liberals into their mischievous error; the decline 
 of agriculture was the immediate effect of free trade, 
 the decline of our manufacture the more remote. Thus 
 the decline in both agriculture and manufacture is the 
 result of free trade ; for if the rapid decline of agricul- 
 ture is the primary cause of the depression which is 
 sweeping over the country, they must prove that the 
 tendency to this rapid decline first appeared as the 
 result of inherent weakness in agriculture, and thence 
 spread to the towns and influenced their trades. And 
 have they done this ? Can the Liberals deny the truth 
 of the observation that agriculture, though gradually 
 declining before, has declined more rapidly since the 
 free admission of corn into this country ? 
 
 But it is not difficult to see that, from the slight rela- 
 tionship between the larger towns in the matter of corn, 
 no such disturbance as the effect just described can 
 possibly be created. The first effect of free trade upon 
 the agricultural prospects of the country, by sending 
 down the price of corn, was to add to the benefit of 
 manufacturers, not only by its influence upon manufac- 
 
FREE TRADE. 313 
 
 ture itself, but also by tending towards a relative increase 
 of wages. It is clear that the original depression of agri- 
 culture had no influence upon trade itself ; for if it had, 
 there must be some evidence, and where is it to be 
 found, during the early period of prosperity which our 
 manufacture experienced under free trade ? No ; the 
 evil source flows not from agriculture : it comes from 
 without. Nor is there any need to fear about the 
 future of agriculture in those parts of the country 
 remote from towns, and more or less in the state of 
 supplying their own wants in the matter of corn, except 
 from the inclemeslicy of the seasons and the diminish- 
 ing productivity of the soil; for wherever there is a 
 demand for com, there it will be met by a proper 
 supply ; and so in other districts, which miglit be inde- 
 pendent of the country's bounty, provided that the 
 disabilities under which the farmers work are removed. 
 Agriculture, as well as trade, should be allowed a proper 
 protection. It depends upon the disposition to culti- 
 vate the soil; and whenever this disposition can be 
 exerted with advantage, it will be carried into effect. 
 
 As regards the question of agriculture, therefore, the 
 Liberal legislation labours under the extraordinary de- 
 fect of not accounting, with a sufficiently powerful cause, 
 for the dimensions of the present distress. Tlieir mis- 
 take lies, not in the constancy of their cause, but in the 
 deficiency of its strength. Their legislation presents 
 some of the appearances of a compromise; for while 
 now, in the ordinary trade difficulties, the labourer is 
 unable to maintain himself, by becoming the owner of 
 a plot of ground he can succeed in doing so. But is 
 there any foresight in this measure ? Has trade already 
 
314 FREE TRADE 
 
 reached its lowest level, and is agriculture in unknown 
 hands at once to become profitable ? It is impossible, 
 under the existing disabilities which are felt all over 
 the country, that this Liberal legislation will have any, 
 even the slightest, influence for good. For the decline 
 of trade must be arrested, else the labourer will have to 
 depend entirely on the soil. And how unremunerative 
 farming has become, even when carried on extensively, 
 the experience of to-day declares. If unprofitable when 
 conducted over a large area, it is impossible to suppose 
 that the cultivation of the soil will become less so when 
 carried out on a smaller scale. And when agriculture 
 is still groaning beneath its present burdens, what are 
 the chances of the proposed class of small farmers, with 
 a relatively higher expenditure than the larger ones, and 
 left to the mercy of the inclement seasons, and the well- 
 known gradually increasing unproductivity of the soil ? 
 which, if to be arrested for a time, can only be attained 
 by an expensive means. 
 
 The scheme on page 315 will explain, more distinctly 
 than a mere verbal description, the relation which 
 agriculture has to the trade of this country, and the 
 exact limitation of the proposed Liberal legislation. 
 
 In this way the Liberal reform is referred to its 
 strictest limits. It is supposed that by virtue of this 
 species of legislation the trade-prosperity of the towns 
 will be restored. But how ? 
 
 Nor need there be any further remarks upon this 
 second instance of an experimental method, the intro- 
 duction of which, in the politics of this country, has 
 already been to the disadvantage of the welfare, the 
 prestige, and the wellbeing of this country — there 
 
FREE TRADE. 
 
 315 
 
 B Activity of 
 trade (a) 
 corn 50 
 (imported) ; 
 raw material; 
 imported ; 
 labour ; 
 
 Seaport towns. 
 
 manufactured 
 goods ; ex- 
 ported. 
 
 A flourishing 
 trade promotes 
 enterprise, (jS). 
 
 (a) and (/8) form 
 sources of 
 wages ; influ- 
 ence of capital 
 supreme when 
 slight relations 
 with country 
 are considered. 
 
 Shows influence of country upon 
 growth of smallest towns. 
 
 A Activity of 
 agriculture, 
 corn 1'5. 
 
 C Pasturage 
 and woods ; 
 
 Site of Liberal legislation ; class legislation ; 
 effect upon rest of the country and trade 
 — imperceptible. 
 
 Is this to the interests of the country at 
 large ? 
 
 A and B represent relation in numbers be- 
 tween agricultural and town labourers ; 
 according as transition of material is 
 facilitated ; this acts favourably to growth 
 and development of those towns ; whose 
 demands the surrounding country, either 
 from natural or artificial conditions, is 
 unable to supply. 
 
 have been lately some sort of experiments in foreign 
 policy, and some are now being considered respecting 
 the relations between Church and State — were it not to 
 point out a few of the dangers which are entangled in 
 its procedure. For the independence of our country- 
 men is engaged to the means whereby this legislation is 
 proposed to be rendered effective. There is to be a 
 State aid ; and man no longer remains dependent on 
 his own powers. Besides, all cannot be satisfied, and 
 who are to be the first to taste the insidious benefits of 
 legislative happiness ? It is certain that there is, in 
 
316 FKEE TRADE. 
 
 this proposal of allotment, a source of greater political 
 corruption than has ever yet been felt in this country ! 
 Yet the Liberal party, by means of its Eeform Bill, 
 pride themselves on having diminished political corrup- 
 tion, and on giving to each the power to vote as he 
 likes. As if this were possible ? For every one is im- 
 pelled by self-interest to protect himself, unless the dis- 
 positions of men are going to he reformed by a subsequent 
 Liberal bill. 
 
 To open up, then, a source of corruption, is an act of 
 inconsistency on the part of the Liberals which they 
 should abhor. For the Liberals, if they are not con- 
 sistent, are nothing. Even lately, when they had com- 
 menced a most hazardous enterprise, their consistency 
 led them to travel far on an inglorious path before their 
 error became flagrant enough to compel them to turn 
 their back. The history of the Egyptian campaign, and 
 the affair on our Indian frontier, show the ineptitude 
 of their foreign reforms. 
 
 It may now be inquired of the Liberal party whether 
 they admit that the distress at present is of large dimen- 
 sions, and general in all branches of industry ; and 
 whether they have recognised the constant and steady 
 decline in our trade during many years past, and which 
 has already reached to so low an ebb. 
 
 43. Pointing to the remedy. — There are many reasons 
 why Liberals exonerate from all responsibility the oper- 
 ation of the free-trade principle, which is fixed and 
 constant. But they must grasp at something, and 
 therefore they fasten upon the land, which is also con- 
 stant but fluctuating ; and refer to the decline in agri- 
 
FREE TRADE. 317 
 
 culture as the source of their present distress, which, as 
 we have already seen, is obviously a false cause. For, 
 first, this cause is not of sufficient dimensions to account 
 for the large effect. And secondly, decline in agricul- 
 ture proceeded, and proceeds still, equally with decline 
 in other branches of industry. If, therefore, after the 
 introduction of a new principle, its effect upon trade is 
 beneficial, while it is unfavourable upon agriculture, the 
 measure of the depression in one must be the measure 
 of the prosperity of the other, if these phenomena are 
 to stand in the relation of cause and effect. 
 
 But this is not so : agriculture has been steadily de- 
 clining. Trade has had an upward and now it has a 
 downward curve. Wliat in agriculture is to explain 
 the opposite states in trade ? They do not, therefore, 
 bear the relation of cause and effect, but are obviously 
 both collateral effects of the same cause ; and that 
 cause, the disability under which all branches of our 
 industry are placed by the continued and now per- 
 nicious, as we have abundantly proved, action of a 
 principle, which has become historical, and the intro- 
 duction of which formed an epoch in the progress of 
 our commerce — the principle of free trade. 
 
 But still, that the Liberals may hang upon the last 
 straw, the trade depressions in surrounding countries 
 are adduced to bolster up the efficacy of their economic 
 principle. The argument is delivered thus: There is 
 depression in several countries; their trade -systems 
 vary — one is a free-trader, the others protectionists : 
 therefore the depression is to be referred to some other 
 cause or causes than those which govern their respective 
 trades. But they do not tell what other cause or causes. 
 
318 FREE TRADE. 
 
 because they know that other cause and causes, except 
 the land, are not constant, and not equivalent to the 
 effect produced. 
 
 Their error follows from inaccurate or incomplete 
 observations. They start with the assumption that it 
 is the trade-system which is at fault, and prove in the 
 easiest manner possible that it cannot be. The accurate 
 method of pursuing the problem is to ascertain the times 
 at which the depressions of various countries first made 
 their appearance, and the order of their succession, if they 
 appear at different times ; and secondly, their relative 
 intensities. And the results of such a study show that 
 this constant trade-depression first appeared in England, 
 and has spread to all those countries with whom she 
 trades, and that the greater her trade with the for- 
 eigner, the more, relatively, for a certain period, is his 
 depression. 
 
 Thus the depression in England is the source of 
 depression throughout her trade relations, and thus the 
 mistake in the Liberal reasoning is manifested — for the 
 trade-depression at home stands in relation to the 
 depression existing in foreign countries, not as a collat- 
 eral effect, but as cause and effect. And what can be 
 more evident than that our general trade-depression 
 must make itself felt wherever our commercial activity 
 is sufficiently high enough to be influenced by the 
 change ? But this reflected depression is not permanent, 
 and the affected nations find other sources to supply 
 their demands, and thus are relieved in the course of 
 time from the temporary burden the remote consequence 
 of the principle of commercial reform has placed upon 
 them. 
 
FREE TRADE. 319 
 
 But it is not sufficient to demonstrate the falsity of 
 the Liberal cause of the present distress, and it remains 
 to inquire into the erroneous grounds upon which it is 
 based. This will be accomplished soon. It forms one 
 of the chief means which points to the true remedy for 
 distress. 
 
 44. Removal of misconception. — The Liberals have 
 nourished their consistency in the maintenance of a 
 principle which is thus surrounded with the greatest 
 danger to the country. For the continued operation of 
 the free-trade principle increases the distress of the 
 country, and to remove this distress false measures are 
 introduced, which involve the greatest disasters. 
 
 The Liberal party does not attempt to trace the true 
 source of the prevailing misery of the country, other- 
 wise it would reflect discredit upon itself. But this is 
 only one of the methods by which the Liberals sacrifice 
 the prosperity of their country to the interests of their 
 party. 
 
 To retain the popularity which they so falsely ac- 
 quired, they either affect to ignore the present trade 
 difficulties, or else refer them, as is fully shown above, 
 to a false cause. For in the new legislation which they 
 have introduced concerning property in land, which is 
 evidently proposed to benefit a class, and that a very 
 small one, what influence can be traced to have an 
 immediate or subsequent bearing upon the prosperity of 
 the towns ? Will this influence be at once felt ? And if 
 not, how is the present distress there going on to be met ? 
 The influence of this newly made class, which it is 
 presumed will be created by Act of Parliament, for its 
 
320 FREE TRADE. 
 
 birth is yet a thing of the future, can only be very 
 slight, if it is appreciated at all, upon the development 
 and welfare of the towns. For it will be admitted that 
 this influence must be caused by a rise in agricultural 
 activity. But how can even a large rise in this direction 
 make itself felt to any extent in the towns, which are 
 in a very large degree dependent upon foreign sources 
 for their supply of corn, and can easily derive all of it 
 from outside ? Is it not a fact that when all the agri- 
 cultural land of this country is brought into requisition, 
 the most favourable crop is insufficient to supply even 
 the thirtieth part of its inhabitants ? And what assurance 
 is there that the yield of corn is going to be greater ; and 
 if greater, great enough to have such an influence on the 
 amount of corn imported into this country as shall be 
 perceptible upon the price of corn, so as to warrant the 
 introduction of the proposed legislation with reference 
 to the land ? What does the history of the seasons and 
 the gradually increasing unproductivity of the soil tell 
 us ? And when, as in the present stage of our civilisa- 
 tion, as it must occur in all progressive civilisations, the 
 produce of the country is unequal to the demands of its 
 inhabitants, what an important influence has the foreign 
 supply upon the cultivation of wheat at home ? For 
 according as this is less or greater, so are the markets 
 high or low. And how unfavourable to the remunera- 
 tive cultivation of the soil, when the corn-markets are 
 overstocked, as they were during 1885 ! And when 
 an additional burden is yet added to the unhappy lot of 
 the farmer, in spite of the cheap prices which foreign 
 supplies tend to bring about, when his competition with 
 the foreigner is unequal, how can it be thought, when 
 
FREE TRADE. 321 
 
 all his capital has been expended in an unsuccessful 
 struggle against unfavourable circumstances, that the 
 farmer shall derive such beneficial profits from his 
 occupation as to enable him to proceed in its con- 
 tinuance ? But this has been done ! And better times 
 have been waited for ! and with what result ? That the 
 farmer's condition has fallen from bad to worse. And 
 can it possibly improve under the existing state of 
 things ? And under the same condition of things, is it 
 likely the allotment system, even if it opens up a larger 
 area of the soil to cultivation, will prove successful, 
 either for a time or in the long-run ? In the meanwhile 
 the sorry state of the farmer leads to the distressful 
 condition of the agricultural labourer ! It is impossible 
 this can be improved, unless the farmer enjoys pros- 
 perity. It is impossible this can be brought about, 
 unless the disability under which he labours be removed, 
 — in a word, unless he is 'protected. It is false to assert 
 that the decline of agriculture in this country is the 
 main cause, or any appreciable minor cause at all, of 
 the present distress. The decline in agriculture must 
 have some cause, or causes, but the importance of the 
 subject demands that the Liberal interpretation be 
 exposed, in order that the extent to which false doctrines 
 may be diffused shall be diminished ! 
 
 There is a school of political economists which asserts 
 that the cause resides in the high rents which are paid 
 for a successful farm. And they strengthen their posi- 
 tion by further asserting that rents increase with the 
 productivity of the soil. It is both true that rents 
 become high, and that rents tend to increase ; but both 
 these are the results of a well-known law — the law of 
 
 X 
 
322 FREE TRADE. 
 
 competition — a law which it is impossible to destroy, 
 but which may, as in the instance of the free-trade 
 principle, be made unfavourable for the farmers. And 
 it is so in this country at the present time, so these 
 economists state, by reason of the diminishing produc- 
 tivity of the soil, and the influence of the inclement 
 seasons and unequal competition. What else explains 
 the low rents of the present day as compared with pre- 
 vious high ones, or these remissions in rents which are 
 so frequently made, but not so frequently recorded ? For 
 the landlord must protect himself by keeping up the 
 nominal rent of the farms, and more especially those 
 which yield a fair profit when circumstances are favour- 
 able. But it is these very circumstances that are ren- 
 dered so unfavourable in virtue of the unequal compe- 
 tition of the farmer of this country with the foreigner. 
 To state the fact that has been observed by all econo- 
 mists worthy of notice, that the cultivation of land is 
 never so prosperous as when the farmers can, out of 
 their profits, pay a high rent, and when these profits 
 increase, a still higher one ; and to refer to the present 
 actual condition to which farmers have been reduced, 
 when, with even a large reduction in rent, the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil becomes less and less profitable, and 
 when some farms are thrown out of cultivation, because 
 no profits at all are possible even when the rent is at 
 its lowest point, is quite enough to show that rent con- 
 sidered in itself, high or low, has nothing whatever to 
 do with the present decline in agriculture. 
 
 And is it not surprising, and the more so when 
 the facts are viewed in the order of their occurrence, 
 to discover a recent political economist making the 
 
FREE TRADE. 323 
 
 assertion that when rent is reduced profits are increased, 
 and therefore the agricultural labourer's wages raised ? 
 The existence of the present distress in this country 
 directly refutes such an assertion, based upon an erro- 
 neous relation between labour, wages, profits, and rent. 
 For now the agricultural labourers are experiencing the 
 severest distress, in spite of the fact that farms may be 
 occupied by paying the lowest rents, or no rent at all. 
 Is anything further required to demonstrate that the 
 fluctuation in rent has nothing whatever to do with the 
 causation of the distress which is so universally prev- 
 alent; and therefore, that the present conditions of 
 private property in land, which obtain in this country 
 and most others, is not responsible for the burden which 
 is weighing down the people ? 
 
 There is a cause far more potent than rent, for rent 
 possesses in itself the j^roperty of being adjusted to the 
 variations in the factors which go to form it, and it is 
 impossible to conceive, from motives of self-interest, 
 that rent could be the primary source of the present 
 distress. Besides, would not its fluctuation, if this were 
 so, have some impression on the steady decline ? But 
 this continues, and we are left to trace the main cause 
 not to the rent he pays, but to the disabilities surround- 
 ing the farmer, and which now prevent him, and have 
 prevented him for a long time back, from cultivating 
 the soil at a profit which shall be remunerative. The 
 farmer's depressed state arises from his not being able 
 to sell his corn at a profit. And this disability results 
 from the unequal competition under which he is placed, 
 and this inequality arises directly from the operation 
 of the free-trade principle. 
 
324 FUEE TRADE. 
 
 It should occur to the Liberal or Eadical party, so 
 desirous of bringing about the equality of mankind, 
 that they commence by making those conditions equal 
 which relate our farmers to foreign competition. Let 
 but these conditions be made so, and what will result ? 
 There will be once more a remunerative cultivation of 
 the soil, rents will be maintained, the labourers' wages 
 raised, and the source of distress removed. 
 
 Nor will this blessing be felt in the country alone : 
 by the removal of a principle which has become per- 
 nicious, much of the distress that is prevalent through- 
 out the land will disappear. 
 
 And then what need for any alteration in the present 
 and wise system of our land - ownership ? The dis- 
 tress has been removed, hence legislation for it is un- 
 necessary. 
 
 And when this unnecessary legislation becomes thus 
 rightly rejected, how will enterprise, which has well- 
 nigh become paralysed by the feeling of insecurity which 
 it engenders, be rapidly promoted ? 
 
 Then will the wealth which is now resting idle in 
 the banks be set in circulation again ; and from increase 
 of capital there will be more wages to pay, and labourers 
 out of employment ready to receive them. 
 
 And thus a minor source of the present distress will 
 disappear. 
 
 How strange that the Liberals, who are so fond of 
 reforming everything, should fail in the instance of their 
 famous economic principle of free trade ! But it is their 
 own creation, and is beyond the limits of reform there- 
 fore — in other words, it would be dangerous to the 
 prestige and interests of the party to tamper with it — 
 
FREE TRADE. 325 
 
 and what is of artificial origin cannot admit of mis- 
 take. But natural growths are full of evil, in the hands 
 of the Liberals or EadicalSy and hence are within the 
 sphere of reform — growths which have appeared in the 
 ordinary course of events as the results of wants, and 
 eminently adapted to the requirements of the state 
 of our society; the natural growths of the relations 
 between Church and State, and the House of Lords. 
 
 As these are competent to fulfil the special functions 
 for which they were originally intended, there must be 
 a peculiar reason why the Liberals should think them 
 worthy of being reformed, or, as the terms have almost 
 come to be synonymous, destroyed. 
 
 And what deeper reason than that the Liberals shall 
 take these measures to excite commotion, introduce a 
 conflict of opinions, and thus retain their popularity, 
 which is likely to be lost owing to their being responsible 
 for the interruption in the even advancement of our trade, 
 for the subsequent depression and the present distress ? 
 But is it possible that in the case of the disestablish- 
 ment and disendowment — ivhich are sure to come ! — the 
 Liberal party seeks to repair a little of the mischief it 
 has already done, by diminishing the burdens of the 
 country at the expense of the morality of the people ? 
 The State will gain by the transaction, and taxation 
 will be decreased, and the Liberals will confer upon 
 their country another treacherous prosperity, of which 
 their descendants will boast. But the evil day must 
 come ! And what the Liberals give, there must be 
 something to take away ; as their predecessors, who 
 introduced free trade into this country, in exchange for 
 a momentary rise with all its blessings, took away the 
 
326 FREE TRADE. 
 
 inestimable advantages of its slow and equable advance. 
 And is the moral grandeur of the nation to be sacrificed 
 for all time, to the advantage of the present generation 
 of the race ? 
 
 What species of legislation is this ? Is it thus we 
 display a generous concern for our posterity ? 
 
 And how is this concern for their posterity reflected 
 in the isolated action of the older Liberals, when by 
 their means the operation of the free-trade principle 
 was brought to bear upon the commercial system of this 
 country ? And how strangely contrasted are the legis- 
 lations of the older and the present Liberal party ! For 
 the former benefited their own age at the expense of a 
 subsequent one ; the latter shun the present wants of 
 the people, and apply themselves vigorously towards 
 the advantages of a future age ! Is this an instance 
 of Liberal consistency ? and is this kind of Liberal 
 consistency the equivalent of true patriotism? Past 
 Liberals erred in anticipating that surrounding nations 
 would become in course of time free-traders ; and pres- 
 ent ones err in the peculiar way in which they read 
 the immediate future ! For the disestablishment has 
 been finally pronounced to be still diiii on the political 
 horizon ! 
 
 And the reason for this usage of speculation in 
 politics, which is carried at the present day to a height 
 which has never been exceeded, and tends to strike at 
 the morality of our age, is not far to seek. 
 
 Attention must be diverted from the mistakes, old 
 and recent, of the Liberal party, and, therefore, from 
 the present distress. Instead of " How and when will 
 wages be raised and trade prosper ? " there is much 
 
FREE TRADE. 327 
 
 fascinating opinion on the future of the Established 
 Church and the House of Lords. And thus an oppor- 
 tunity is provided an expectant people to drown past 
 Liberal errors in a happy state of forgetfulness ! 
 
 45. Refutation of tlie hypothesis that distress is dice to 
 the nature of private property in land, — We have shown 
 how false it is to ascribe the present distress to the 
 decline in agriculture, which has been steadily in- 
 creasing for many years, and also to the nature of 
 private property in land, as bearing upon the question 
 of rent ; and it is of importance to determine how the 
 present distress undergoes a still further increase by 
 that arrest of enterprise which follows a condition of 
 insecurity, for which an injudicious Liberal legislation, 
 based upon false grounds, is directly responsible. 
 
 We proceed to examine the grounds which lead to 
 the conclusion that trade -depressions are dependent 
 upon private property in land ; to show their inade- 
 quacy, and to expose the hollow pretensions of the 
 Liberal or Eadical party to cope with the present 
 distress. 
 
 But, at the outset, it must be remembered that the 
 present decline is not merely paroxysmal or recurrent ; 
 it is constantly and steadily increasing. 
 
 And as, in deference to a great economic principle, it 
 will be convenient to omit this latter element for a 
 while, we pass on to consider, according to the Liberal 
 view, — which denies the constant element of exhaustion 
 induced by their free-trade principle — the recurrent 
 nature of the present depression in trade, which is 
 characterised by far larger dimensions than those of 
 
328 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 any other paroxysms known before. But we display, 
 for the purpose of clearness, the difference between the 
 Liberal and the true explanation of the progress of our 
 trade, with the operation of the free-trade principle in 
 full action : — 
 
 A /\ A 
 
 U U U 
 
 The Liberal explanation, showing fluctuations about a normal level. 
 A, The present depression ? to be followed by an equal rise. 
 
 Levels continually receding : 
 
 recurrent paroxysms mark 
 the downward course 
 
 The true explanation of the progress and depression of our trade, as 
 resulting from the action of the free-trade principle. The problem 
 is enunciated thus : recurrent paroxysms in trade-depression are 
 dependent on private property in land. 
 
 The relation between recurrent paroxysms in trade 
 and private property in land, that has been thought 
 sufficient to establish the trutli of the above generalisa- 
 
FREE TRADE. 329 
 
 tion, is easily seen, for these phenomena have but one 
 property in common, and that is periodicity. But the 
 nature of their periodicity is very different ; for while 
 the one tends to increase in a regidar manner, the result 
 of a law, with the increased productivity of the soil 
 where this is possible, the other happens irregularly^ 
 is due to the combined action of a few individuals, 
 and is of such a character that it cannot be predicted 
 by all, while increased rent under favourable condi- 
 tions is a well-known phenomenon, and is universally 
 expected. 
 
 High rent, diminished profits, and small wages, are 
 associated only when enterprise has been unsuccessful, 
 the causes of which may be enumerated under the two 
 heads of — 
 
 1. Faults in the individual ; and 
 
 2. Unequal conditions, permanent or temporary, wliich 
 
 surround the conduct of his trade. 
 With increase in rent, periodically arising from the 
 action of a well-known law, the alterations in surround- 
 ing circumstances are sloioly adjusted to it. This law is 
 the law of competition, and it becomes responsible for 
 the increase in rent, when the occupation of land be- 
 comes more profitable ; for thus the advantages of the 
 owner are recognised, while the interests of the present 
 tenant are maintained, in opposition to those who would 
 compete against him, did the rent remain fixed, and 
 increase the rent of themselves, in the hopes of greater 
 profits accruing. Nor does this increase in rent take 
 place equally throughout all the town or country, but 
 only when position is accidentally favourable to success 
 or the soil to a higher produce. 
 
330 FREE TRADE. 
 
 In the slow adjustment of mutual relations to a 
 change in any one of the related factors, how can in- 
 creased rent affect suddenly the prosperity of a trade ? 
 For the increase in rent is not limited to any one 
 particular branch of industry, with the exception of 
 agriculture; and we have seen how variation in rent 
 is insufficient to explain the present decline in it ; but 
 is spread over many, any one of which cannot become 
 so seriously affected, if affected for the worse at all, as 
 to lead to depression — the supposed cause of depression, 
 increased rent, being not sufficiently concentrated to 
 produce any perceptibly large effect. Besides, an in- 
 crease in rent operates over a length of time ; for there 
 must be the evidence of experience that it will not act 
 adversely to the interests of the tenant. When this 
 results, the property, now no longer profitable in his 
 hands, and perhaps because all its resources are not 
 explored, is quitted for one of a lower rent. Compare 
 the results of increased rent following the law of com- 
 petition with what occurs in trade-depressions. These 
 are nothing, if they are not sudden ; and it is well to 
 remark the accurate observation that has been made of 
 their paroxysmal character, even though their cause 
 has been wrongly deduced. 
 
 What is there to account for this suddenness or 
 paroxysm, but the influence of speculation, the combined 
 action of a few men to create a rise or fall in the mar- 
 kets? For the prosperity of a trade depends on the 
 steadiness of the markets, and when these fall suddenly, 
 as by a panic, the result of an adverse information, the 
 labour concerned in them becomes reduced, and thus 
 wages suffer, and depression reigns. But the cause of 
 
FREE TEADE. 331 
 
 the depression being temporary, the limited distress is 
 removed by a rise in the markets. 
 
 Thus a paroxysmal depression, generally speaking, 
 excepting those instances where the conditions are 
 favourable to universal speculation, is concentrated 
 upon one branch of industry, and according to its 
 relative importance, will affect collaterally, and in 
 different degrees, these other branches which are nearest 
 related to it. But while recurrent or paroxysmal de- 
 pressions bring about successive rises and falls in the 
 markets, it must be observed that the tendency of rent 
 is steadily to increase up to a certain point, when it 
 begins to descend. 
 
 Paroxysms in trade and increased rent are both 
 periodical ; but it is shown above that the former results 
 from the operation of the law of speculation — the latter 
 is due directly to the law of competition, which is 
 significant of progress, when equally effected. But the 
 law of speculation enters into the land question, and 
 obviously occupies but a minor position in it, when the 
 small amount of land, the object of speculation, is 
 referred to the whole. 
 
 For speculation in land is limited to those parts of 
 the town which are extending, and which, having 
 advantages not present in others, become the means of 
 promoting anticipation and foresight, or a plot of land 
 may be purchased witli a view to its becoming useful at 
 some future time, or because it may be required in the 
 promotion of some projected enterprise. But it is 
 obvious that the influence of these cannot impress the 
 value, to any perceptible degree, of the large amount 
 of town and country property which pays a certain, 
 
332 FREE TRADE. 
 
 and, under favourable circumstances, an increasing 
 rent. 
 
 Hence speculation in land, being of a minor import- 
 ance, can have no such influence on by far the larger 
 amount of private property generally as would lead to 
 a fluctuation in its rents, and therefore, to a possible 
 depression in trade. 
 
 But where does this element of speculation in land, 
 being associated with depression, obviously err ? Ob- 
 viously in mistaking " what is the exception '' to be the 
 rule. 
 
 And as it is impossible to suppose that a cause which 
 acts slowly and extends through many branches of 
 industry, can have sufficient intensity to create a sud- 
 den depression in any one of them, it follows that the 
 necessary relation between private property in land and 
 paroxysms in trade has not been adjusted to cause and 
 effect : both are coexisting effects, but they depend on 
 very diflerent causes. 
 
 And thus is demonstrated the insufficiency of the 
 argument that we are to consider private property in 
 land and trade-depressions as cause and effect, simply 
 because they both of them present the common feature 
 of periodicity. As if this slight foundation were strong 
 enough to support so vast a superstructure! But we 
 proceed to trace the erroneous relations which are sup- 
 posed to confer on these two phenomena the merit of 
 being cause and effect. 
 
 The generalisation is immediately dependent for its 
 truth on these two factors : 
 
 1. That wages are derived from the produce of labour ; 
 
 2. That it is the country which makes the town grow. 
 
FREE TRADE. 333 
 
 It is curious to observe that, if taken absolutely and 
 referable to all time, as regards the development and 
 progress of social relations, both these assertions are 
 false, with the exception of that particular period in 
 which they were in operation. 
 
 If limited to this period, they are both true ; but it is 
 not difficult to see that at such period their mutual 
 relations were extremely simple, and the error of sup- 
 posing that such simple relations still exist consists in 
 not recognising the progress of a gradual development 
 of complexity in these relations, which before were 
 simple, in the advance of society. It is as much as if 
 the political economist were to state that the present 
 system is disadvantageous to the interests of the com- 
 munity, and that in his opinion the proper relations 
 which ought to exist, but which do not really, are those 
 simple ones which obtained in a past period of our 
 civilisation. It seems to be an instance where the 
 imagination opposes itself to actual fact, of discussing 
 the nature of ivhat ought to he, and of not referring to 
 what actually is. 
 
 The scheme on the next page serves to display dis- 
 tinctly and clearly the changes in the transition from a 
 simple to a complex relation between labour and wages. 
 
 Thus the labourers' wages have been driven to capital 
 as their certain source; to meet the requirements of 
 that increase of change which has slowly developed 
 since wages were paid out of labour, and which now 
 has reached so great a height, that labourers have been 
 successful in their endeavours to remove even the slight 
 disability under which certain branches of industry were 
 burdened till quite recently, of being paid partly in kind. 
 
334 
 
 Simple relation- 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 ■Wages paid out of labour ; small farms ; wants thus 
 
 adjusted in early state of society 
 not rapid. 
 
 Complex relation- 
 
 Introduction of organisation ; 
 promotion of enterprise ; 
 depending upon brain-power 
 without wealth ; hence 
 capital borrowed ; interest. 
 
 ■Wages paid out of capital 
 certain; uncertainty 
 thus removed from (a) 
 being compelled to wait 
 for future effect of their 
 labour ; (j3) disability 
 under which they are 
 placed in disposing of 
 the products of their 
 labour. 
 
 for exchange 
 
 "V^^ages paid 
 partly in 
 kind and 
 partly in 
 money. 
 
 Payment in kind 
 the labourers 
 themselves 
 have been suc- 
 cessful in re- 
 moving as un- 
 profitable. 
 
 To assert, therefore, that wages are derived from 
 labours produce is to assume; and the assumption is 
 thus proved to be a false one, and based upon the error 
 of supposing that what has been, always will be. 
 
 It is needless to refer to the second assumption that 
 the town depends upon the country for its growth. Of 
 course, in the early phase of the development of the 
 town, it is entirely dependent upon the surrounding 
 country for its supplies, and remains so, till the rail- 
 ways or other means of facilitating transition appear to 
 compete with foreign produce. And this competition 
 commences when the supplies of the country, which is 
 fixed, are unequal to the demand of the town, whose 
 power of extension is practically unlimited. But when 
 the town has reached so large a dimension that all the 
 supplies of the country are too small to satisfy its 
 
FREE TRADE. 335 
 
 requirements, and when the produce of a whole island 
 is insufficient to supply the inhabitants of one city, can 
 it in sober earnest be advanced that the town depends 
 upon the country for its growth, when nearly all the 
 wheat it consumes is derived from a foreign source ? 
 And all of it might. And such being the case, and the 
 fact being recognised of the inability of this country to 
 supply its inhabitants, is it prudent to legislate for the 
 present distress by ignoring our dependency upon foreign 
 supply ? Is it not wiser far to strengthen those bonds 
 which unite us to other countries, and to improve our 
 relations with them, that we may hope to enjoy without 
 interruption in the future, as we have enjoyed success- 
 fully in the past, the many advantages accruing from 
 the bounty of their soil ? 
 
 Thus we have shown that the generalisation, " par- 
 oxysms in trade-depression are dependent on the nature 
 of private property in land," is inadequate to account 
 for the present distress, and this without referring to 
 the grounds upon which it is based. And, secondly, 
 we have just examined those grounds and discovered 
 them to be false. Is it probable that a generalisation 
 founded on such extraordinary factors is true in itself ? 
 Let us see. 
 
 The main grievance of a certain school of economists 
 is that rents are too high ; that they increase dispro- 
 portionately, and that remaining high, when profits 
 begin to diminish, and continue in a downward course, 
 they form a source of depression. 
 
 Are those statements more than mere expressions of 
 opinion ? And do those who make them inquire into 
 the cause of their grievance, and what it was that pro- 
 
336 FREE TRADE. 
 
 duced so great a disturbance in natural relationships, 
 the consequences of which they now deplore ? Let us 
 compare them with what has happened and is still 
 happening in our own country. 
 
 Here it is evident that an adjustment, and a natural 
 one, has taken place between the former rent which 
 was paid for a property and the continually decreasing 
 profits derived from it. Thus, even when the very 
 cause, of which this school boasts as being the prime 
 factor in the causation of all depression, varies, as rents 
 have varied all over this country, whether regarded 
 from a collective or an individual point of view, the 
 effect still remains. The present distress is not touched 
 even by a diminution in rent. 
 
 But the maxim of this school is very definite, and 
 there can be no mistaking its meaning. It is that 
 when rents diminish, profits increase. But it may be 
 observed that this statement depends upon an assump- 
 tion, and that assumption is that the source of profits 
 remains as proliferous as before. An absolute asser- 
 tion is founded on a fluctuating phenomenon. An 
 assertion is made absolute when it ought to be " condi- 
 tional." When such a statement is fabricated, it is 
 quite clear that all the conditions affecting it have not 
 been considered ; for w^hat is to account for the present 
 condition of things, when, with rents reduced to the 
 lowest pitch, or to nothing at all, the profits are so low 
 that wages cannot be paid, and thus effect the con- 
 tinuance of the distress, commenced by other causes 
 than those associated with rent ? It is true that when 
 the conditions are favourable for trade and the culti- 
 vation of the soil, that profits increase when rent is 
 
FREE TRADE. 337 
 
 diminished, and thus wages are raised. But in what 
 system of economy, political or otherwise, has such a 
 phenomenon appeared ? Is it the rule that the laws 
 governing the relations of rent, profits, and wages, are 
 interrupted ? Are not these dependent upon man's 
 disposition ? And what is this disposition but that of 
 gain ? — that desire of gain which has been characterised 
 by a noble and learned writer as a natural law of 
 society. Where is the inequality in the present law of 
 competition which governs the national affairs of our 
 country ? Compare the effects of this law of equal 
 competition operating in our own community with those 
 of the partial action of the free-trade principle, pro- 
 ducing such inequalities in our international relations. 
 The root of mischief, which has escaped most of our po- 
 litical economists, and which accounts for the curious 
 phenomenon that when rent is reduced even to nothing 
 at all, yet distress will continue, resides in the adverse 
 influence of the free-trade principle. But it is deeply 
 hidden under the barren soil which the Liberals have 
 heaped around it. Nor has the potency of this for evil 
 been properly recognised at the Commencement and 
 during the early period of its action, nor its final results 
 deduced and anticipated. 
 
 It is to the operation of the free-trade principle that 
 the distress of the present day is mostly due, and it is 
 due to this main consequence of the pernicious prin- 
 ciple that it has succeeded, and is still succeeding, in 
 destroying the springs of profit. There are, it is true, 
 some minor influences at work which add to the dis- 
 tress produced by free trade; but it remains alone 
 the chief source. It has the proper qualifications to 
 
 Y 
 
338 FREE TRADE. 
 
 account for the great distress of the country, for it is 
 constant and adequate to produce the effect. 
 
 But against the assumption that private property in 
 land is the cause of the present trade-depression pre- 
 dominant throughout the country, it may be inquired 
 '*How a fluctuating cause can have a constant effect ?" 
 for while rents have varied with a downward tendency, 
 the distress has continued and increased. 
 
 What is the tendency of the generalisation that 
 private property in land is the cause of paroxysmal 
 trade-depression ? 
 
 There must be some ultimate reason why an author 
 labours, with the help of observations which are in- 
 accurate, facts which are untrue, arguments which are 
 erroneous, and means which are unjust, to establish a 
 generalisation that carries falsehood in its very face. 
 Private property in land is the burden under which a 
 recent economist is suffering; it is, with how much 
 truth ! advanced to the chief place as the source of all 
 depression, temporary or continued. Private property 
 in land being thus iniquitous, the present civilisations 
 are warned of a near decay and ruin, unless an assumed 
 ancient system, described arbitrarily as having been 
 general throughout all society, is again practised, of 
 common property in land. 
 
 Then, when land is common property, will wealth be 
 more evenly distributed, poverty wiped away from the 
 face of the earth, and all taxation abolished ? besides, 
 the source of trade-depressions will be for ever re- 
 moved ! 
 
 But the author who exercises his imagination so wildly 
 must first of all be assured of the phenomenon that the 
 
FREE TRADE. 339 
 
 nature of man, which has continued nearly the same 
 for more than a thousand years, is going to experience 
 a gigantic reform ! It is easy to see that the so-called 
 reforms of such writers only remove some evils by 
 producing others to take their place. 
 
 But we must stay to examine into the nature of these 
 assumptions, for they are only assumptions after all ! 
 It is asserted by Eousseau and others that men are born 
 equal (it is supposed, so far as political rights are con- 
 cerned), that land is common property, and that man 
 has natural rights. But it is hardly necessary, in jus- 
 tice to the wisdom and judgment of our early ancestors, 
 and to their mental equilibrium, to deny that these 
 statements have no historical basis whatsoever; that 
 they are opinions merely, which struggle to rise to the 
 heights of truth, and that they can easily be run to earth 
 in the powerful imagination of a disordered mind. 
 
 For what does Caesar tell us of the early social rela- 
 tions of the Germanic tribes, from whom we are in large 
 part descended, and Tacitus after him ? The Nobiles, 
 the Ingenui, the Servi correspond with the levels of 
 society of the present day ; and that that inequality was 
 recognised among the early Germans as being in the 
 nature of things is proved in a passage from C^sar, 
 where it is stated that the land was not equally divided, 
 but that partition was proportioned to rank in society. 
 And in another passage it is asserted that those who 
 laboured most, acquired more land to till. And further, 
 that there was a tendency to intemperance, which is 
 strongly remarked by Tacitus, who says that idleness 
 led to their intemperate and slothful habits. What the 
 relations between land and tiller were in a later phase 
 
340 FREE TRADE. 
 
 of society, when the wandering tribes finally became 
 settled, it is impossible to say, for there are no data. 
 And as the stable growth of the elements of society 
 depends entirely upon antecedent facts, and not upon 
 the visionary ideas of enthusiasts, whose opinions must 
 be regarded as assumption till they are proved to be 
 true, we leave the wild ocean of hypothesis to troubled 
 and restless minds, and concern ourselves with the cir- 
 cumscribed area of historic truth. 
 
 And this is certain, that when the several kingdoms 
 into which this island was divided, by reason of the 
 influx of German tribes into different parts, were amal- 
 gamated into one, that no grant of land was made 
 without the consent of the Witenagemot. And as this 
 was the only representative assembly of these early 
 times (representative then, but not considered to be so 
 now, to serve the purpose of tracing the representative 
 assembly of the people), it follows that such grants 
 were made with the full consent of the people. For if 
 there were any objections to such grants, some one, or 
 a few of them, must have found an entry into the early 
 chronicles which note the events of those times. 
 
 But what reason is there that land should become 
 common property ? on what ground is the assumption 
 based ? 
 
 Upon the assertion that the present distribution of 
 wealth is adverse to the progress of civilisation, and 
 upon the assicmed fact that poverty is increasing, not 
 relatively merely but absolutely. 
 
 Does not the present distribution of wealth act as a 
 check to the accumulation of still larger fortunes and 
 estates? And when, suppose, the allotment system 
 
FREE TRADE. 341 
 
 becomes general (may the wisdom of our country avert 
 it !), how are such checks diminished, to the detriment 
 of the country ? Will there not then be far larger 
 accumulations of wealth than any we know of at pres- 
 ent, and what will be the tendencies of such further 
 increase ? — dependence, enervation, and degradation of 
 the intellect. For all these inequalities in social levels, 
 which characterise our present system, are there for a 
 good purpose. They supply talent with spurs, and 
 stimulate the lazy genius to pursue the arduous path 
 to the goal of his ambition ! 
 
 This is the grand opening which our system of society 
 presents to all, no matter how low his birth may be ! 
 It is the opportunity presented for the use of genius. 
 And without genius in all its degrees, what would 
 become of civilisation ? Must not genius, therefore, 
 have its proper cradle ? 
 
 It is the intention of such reforms as those of mak- 
 ing land common property, and of introducing allot- 
 ment systems, to diminish the evils which form the 
 subject of some pathos to a few who appear to derive 
 a personal satisfaction in their consummation. 
 
 They are legislating for the happiness of the people. 
 The end is the object of their legislation ; but the 
 means to that end, the adjustment of relations, are ig- 
 nored, because either they know not how to avoid them, 
 or else they are without their grasp. And it is strange 
 that with the goodness of their intentions they should 
 pursue the very means which will lead to results ex- 
 actly opposite to those that are expected of them. 
 
 But the influence of sentimentalism is at work, and 
 philanthropy, when justice ought to guide, diverts their 
 
342 FREE TRADE. 
 
 endeavours into a dangerous channel. For their feel- 
 ings become engaged in the solution of a problem which 
 demands that it shall be based upon rational grounds, 
 and conducted by rational arguments. Hence the 
 source of error which is resident within themselves ; 
 and how freely can errors and prejudice distort a fact 
 and turn an argument ! 
 
 It is to such sources as these to which certain poli- 
 ticians refer when they are discoursing on the extraor- 
 dinary advantages to be derived from the practice of 
 their hypotheses. A blind support is afforded to those 
 who have not yet learnt to reason without feeling, and 
 remove every source of those prejudices and errors which 
 the latter engenders. For when pathos is expressed in 
 every page, and a false sympathy with poverty guides 
 our conclusions, how can we reach the truth ? But 
 Eousseau knew so little of his own mind that he failed 
 to lead the prosperous career which was open to him ; 
 but preferred, in accordance with a personal object 
 which he did not control, to exhibit that spirit of an- 
 tagonism which wrecked his life. How then can a man 
 who knew not how to be happy himself be the source 
 of conveying the means of happiness to others ! 
 
 Such measures may be discussed, such sympathies 
 aroused, and the attention diverted by the apparent 
 injustice of what are strictly exceptional instances. But 
 with all this designed interference, with all the feelings 
 which may be called forth at the picture of a falling race, 
 if the cause of that decline be a false one, if it is true 
 that our society can continue with trade in a flourish- 
 ing condition, then neither the means to the happiness 
 nor the welfare of the people will be promoted so long 
 
FREE TRADE. 343 
 
 as the operation of a pernicious principle — the real cause 
 of distress — remains at work. 
 
 Can anything be more clear than that the main source 
 of the present distress is due to the disabilities under 
 which trade in all its branches is carried on ? But there 
 are other minor sources to add to the general distress, 
 and one of these we have mentioned already — the par- 
 alysis of enterprise following the state of insecurity 
 engendered by a late proposed legislation. And this is 
 found in the want of confidence and loss of reputation 
 our country underwent during the disastrous foreign 
 policy of a Liberal Administration. The Liberals found 
 it necessary to reform our foreign policy as regards our 
 relation with Egypt and the scientific frontier of India 
 which had been proposed (and its want how truly pre- 
 dicted !) by a late illustrious statesman. AVhat followed 
 this interruption in the natural progress of events ? 
 An inglorious campaign in tlie Soudan and the affair 
 on the Indian frontier. 
 
 And how were the Liberal anticipations fulfilled after 
 the commencement of their error ? The railway to 
 Quetta liad to be reconstructed, and the evacuation of 
 the Soudan accomplished. And how was this effected ? 
 At the cost of a hero, who undertook, at a critical junc- 
 ture, to relieve them from their embarrassment. And 
 so General Gordon set out for Khartoum. Wliat 
 measures were taken for his immediate relief, and to 
 protect those of the native inhabitants who had placed 
 themselves under his care ? And did he break that 
 solemn trust ? But it was destined that the Liberals 
 should pursue the shadow of events ; and when Khar- 
 toum was reached, General Gordon was dead ! So fatal 
 
344 FREE TRADE. 
 
 an error was immediately resented by an angry popu- 
 lace, and the national sentiment of justice and right 
 expressed its disgust at this last mistake of the Liberal 
 party. And when the history of those inglorious times 
 comes to be written, the historian will pause at the 
 death of Gordon, and think awhile of a patriot who, in 
 the discharge of his duties to his country and to a 
 Government which ignored his distress, as they ignore 
 still the general distress of the people — of an English- 
 man who suffered, as he must have suffered clieerfuUy 
 and contentedly, all the horrors of an approaching 
 starvation ! — but no : he proceeds to analyse the 
 Epimethean policy which led to his death. But not 
 even injustice can interrupt the course of a noble and 
 a well-ordered mind. Gordon preferred death in the 
 faithful discharge of his duties to an inglorious escape. 
 And the result of this disastrous foreign policy, in 
 depressing still further our already burdened trade by 
 weakening our relations with surrounding nations, and 
 in the increased expenditure of the country ? The 
 result of the reform in Egyptian policy cost this coun- 
 try close upon a hundred millions ; the termination of 
 the experiment on the Indian frontier concluded by a 
 vote of credit for fifteen millions. And these lavish 
 and unnecessary proceedings were directly brought 
 about by a party whose motto is Peace, Eetrenchment, 
 and Eeform ! If, therefore, such extraordinary results 
 appear from such apparently simple reforms in foreign 
 policy, what is the probability that the reform in the 
 land will be equally unsuccessful ? The Liberals inter- 
 rupted, or reformed, as they call it, the equable progress 
 of our trade. What results ? The present distress. 
 
FREE TRADE. 345 
 
 The Liberals interrupted our peaceful foreign policy. 
 What results? A costly war, with an increased ex- 
 penditure under an economic (!) Liberal Government. 
 
 And now the Liberals, or Eadicals, propose to inter- 
 rupt our relations respecting the ownership of the soil 
 in this country ? Is the result of this interruption at 
 all likely to accrue to the wellbeing of the nation ? Is 
 not the reference to interruption enough to make us 
 shun the very name ? 
 
 And how has the increased expenditure of the coun- 
 try been borne ? By raising the income-tax. 
 
 It appears ridiculous, yet is quite true, that the 
 very statesman who proposed the abolition of the 
 income-tax within no distant time, is the one to resort 
 to an increase of it, to meet an increased expenditure 
 which he had not foreseen ! 
 
 A costly and inglorious campaign, and nothing gained, 
 during a period of distress, which has now marked the 
 results of the downward progress of our trade during 
 many years ! How can the increased income-tax be 
 received by an indignant people under the present 
 so unfavourable conditions of distress ? 
 
 Yet the Liberal party liad the confidence of the 
 country, and the country pays for the popularity of 
 the party ! It cannot be conceived, seeing the nature 
 of the present general distress, directly dependent as it 
 is on the pernicious action of the Liberal economic 
 principle, intensified by their disastrous foreign policy 
 and aggravated by their projected land reforms, and 
 with a people placed under the unexpected burden of a 
 higher income-tax than is known to our experience, 
 discontented at the unequal competition which sur- 
 
346 FREE TRADE. 
 
 rounds their various trades — it cannot for a moment 
 be supposed that a thoughtful man can continue his 
 confidence in a party which has been at once reck- 
 less, extravagant, and weak. And it remains to see 
 whether the people, departing from the ways of their 
 fathers, will be captivated by promises which are as 
 unjustly made as they are unfairly founded ! 
 
 But if the country, recognising the ability and success 
 of the Tory leaders, continue them in ofi&ce, then will 
 the Tory party develop its old quality of being the true 
 reformer of the nation, by removing that evil which 
 bears so unequally upon all, while it strikes at the inde- 
 pendency and injures the interests of none ! 
 
 And the Tory party will gain the thanks of the 
 nation, after our trade has once again reached that con- 
 dition of prosperity which marked its progress before 
 the fatal application of free trade ! 
 
 Thus have we proved the hoUowness of those schemes 
 which are adduced to prevent an anticipated decline in 
 our civilisation — schemes that are characterised more 
 by their extravagance than their novelty ; original some- 
 times, as in the case of the peasant proprietor, but more 
 often obtained at second-hand — the working of which is 
 doubtfully confused, and the success thereof more than 
 obscure. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS. 
 
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