latter condition, when the balance of imports over exports is against us. For under free trade we cannot conserve the industries of the country. These decline, as agriculture has declined; and the order in which they decline depends upon the forces they have at their disposal to resist the adverse consequences of unequal competition. -SHAKESPEARE. THE UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT OF COBDEN'S FREE IMPORTS-INSTEAD OF GROWING 20,000,000 QUARTERS, WE IMPORT 16,000,000 QUARTERS OF WHEAT-COBDEN AND THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT— THE NATURE OF THE SUPPORT GIVEN TO COBDEN-HOW IT WAS HE AND HIS COLLEAGUES COULD MENACE THE PRIME MINISTER WITH CIVIL DISTURBANCE-CORN IMPORTS FORM THE GREAT BULK OF OUR IMPORT TRADE EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXPORTS AND IMPORTS-OUR ABILITY TO PAY FOR IMPORTS DEPENDS IN GREAT MEASURE UPON STATE OF OUR EXPORT TRADE-BUT LABOUR INTERESTS ENCROACHED UPON BY STATE AIDS TO FOREIGN MANUFACTURES-UNIVERSAL FREE TRADE WOULD BEAR UNEQUALLY UPON SMALL AND UNFAVOURABLY PLACED PEOPLES-FREE TRADE AND RACE ANTIPATHIES -FOREIGN SECURITIES DISCHARGE OUR CORN-BILL—TENDENCY TO DISPLACEMENT OF BRITISH LABOUR SLOW, AND THEREFORE INSIDIOUS. § 28. Free trade does not tend to induce commercial equality among nations whose original surrounding con latter condition, when the balance of imports over exports is against us. For under free trade we cannot conserve the industries of the country. These decline, as agriculture has declined; and the order in which they decline depends upon the forces they have at their disposal to resist the adverse consequences of unequal competition. THE "The world is still deceived with ornament." "There is no vice so simple but assumes "Thus ornament is but the guiled shore To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf The seeming truth which cunning times put on -SHAKESPEARE. UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT OF COBDEN'S FREE IMPORTS-INSTEAD OF GROWING 20,000,000 QUARTERS, WE IMPORT 16,000,000 QUARTERS OF WHEAT-COBDEN AND THE CHARTIST MOVEMENTTHE NATURE OF THE SUPPORT GIVEN TO COBDEN-HOW IT WAS HE AND HIS COLLEAGUES COULD MENACE THE PRIME MINISTER WITH CIVIL DISTURBANCE-CORN IMPORTS FORM THE GREAT BULK OF OUR IMPORT TRADE -EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXPORTS AND IMPORTS-OUR ABILITY TO PAY FOR IMPORTS DEPENDS IN GREAT MEASURE UPON STATE OF OUR EXPORT TRADE-BUT LABOUR INTERESTS ENCROACHED UPON BY STATE AIDS TO FOREIGN MANUFACTURES-UNIVERSAL FREE TRADE WOULD BEAR UNEQUALLY UPON SMALL AND UNFAVOURABLY PLACED PEOPLES-FREE TRADE AND RACE ANTIPATHIES - FOREIGN SECURITIES DISCHARGE OUR CORN-BILL-TENDENCY TO DISPLACEMENT OF BRITISH LABOUR SLOW, AND THEREFORE INSIDIOUS. § 28. Free trade does not tend to induce commercial equality among nations whose original surrounding con ditions are unequal.-We know that Richard Cobden never expected that the imports of corn into the country would assume a formidable amount, under a free intercourse in that commodity. And we know, too, that he pointed in the direction of Russia, as being the principal source whence we were to derive our additional supplies. How he ridiculed the idea of "valleys of corn "1 growing in the western hemisphere! And as to our colonial supply, it was so insignificant that it was scarce worth keeping up. 2 But on this, as on so many other occasions, though he peered into the immediate future, he did not dip far enough. The remote future—that period involving the first generation after him—was a blank. What were Cobden's sentiments in 1847 and 1848, when the corn imports were respectively 11,912,864 quarters, and 7,528,472 quarters ? 3 and whether they underwent any change or not from that original and enthusiastic frame of mind, in which he set forth his convictions that a free trade in corn would stimulate the British farmer to produce more extensively, we do not know. For Cobden never alluded to this " unexpected" development of his favourite policy. But it is 1 To this end Cobden quotes from the 'Times': "And we make no doubt whatever that reasonable and candid men will be astonished above measure at the universal nakedness of the land. The Baltic and the Euxine, the Mississippi, are names of terror to some minds."-P. 152. But were the alarms of the protectionists unfounded? Who was in the right, Cobden or Lord Stanley? In 1841 Sir Robert Peel advocated the policy of introducing colonial wheat free of duty. 3 Kolb's 'Condition of Nations,' translated by Mrs Emma Brewer, p. 76: G. Bell & Sons. Parts of these large quantities were due to the hoarding up of the surpluses of previous harvests. |