competition of such odious and disagreeable rivals."* We are told, however, that a new and more liberal system has been inaugurated one more in harmony with the improved modes of thought of the present day. Is it so? For an answer to this question, we may turn to a recent official document before referred to, in which we are told that English capitalists voluntarily incur "immense losses" for the purpose of "destroying foreign competition," and thus "gaining and keeping possession of foreign markets" large capitals being "the great instruments of warfare," by means of which the prices of raw materials may be reduced, while those of manufactured articles are sustained.† What is this but a gigantic communism - placing the fortunes and the happiness of the whole people of the world at the mercy of a distant nation, the basis of whose system is found in the cheapening of all the raw materials of manufacture, labor included? Had M. Bastiat studied the subject more carefully, he would, we think, have seen that the question to be settled by measures of protection is, whether a people shall support foreign governments or their own. - France, and all the countries that follow in her lead, support their own-Ireland, India, Jamaica, Turkey, Portugal, and the United States, supporting those of foreign countries, while deprived of revenue themselves.

Protection having in view the production of diversity in the modes of employment, and that alone, protective duties are temporary in their character- the necessity for them tending gradually to pass away, leaving commerce free. Revenue duties having in view only the maintenance of government, they have a character of permanence not existing in the other. Nevertheless, M. Bastiat sees little to object to in these latter interferences with commerce, while protesting against the former. In this, there is the usual inconsistency of the modern school.‡

The real import of the laisser faire doctrine is so well described

*Wealth of Nations, Book IV., ch. viii.

† See ante, vol. i., p. 420.

Here M. Bastiat errs in common with the free trade school generallyrevenue duties at the gates of cities, and the ports of countries, being preferred by them to direct taxes, because they are "little felt."-(See Dictionnaire de l'Economie Politique, article "Octrois.")

M. Chevalier tells his readers, that, notwithstanding the collection of 500,000,000 francs of duties of customs, freedom of trade is an axiom of the British Government!-Examen, p. 163.

by a recent English writer, that we give it here in his own words. It is, says he, "nothing less than this - that government, divesting itself of every relic of moral character, of every claim upon those sentiments of reverence which the constitution of man in all ages has led him to feel for legal authority, should exercise no function but that of protecting the lives and properties of individuals. It means," as he continues, "that, the strong being prevented from enslaving the weak, and the poor from plundering *the rich, in all other respects, every man, woman, and child, should be left to rely upon self. If infancy is abandoned, let it perish. If old age is neglected, let it perish too. If strong men. habitually wither and die in the foul atmosphere of towns, which only a collective and authoritative force can purify, still let them perish. If the young, who in a few years will be the people of the land, are growing up with intellect and conscience torpid for want of culture, and passions stimulated by the sight of wealth, with mind and body depraved and debilitated by the premature and exhausting toil to which parental recklessness subjects them, even yet the sacred principle will not yield, but, with the coolness of an ancient inquisitor, while the tongues of flame were playing on the limbs of his victims, lays its hand upon the legislator, and tells him to be still-to let those victims go headlong down to the ruin which awaits them, because the partial evil will be the universal good, and all things will come right in the end. There is no doubt that the laisser faire dogmatism, though sometimes a cloak of selfishness, is often well meant. Indeed, it is never dangerous except when it is so. Its aspect is so hideous and revolting, that, except for the gleams of benevolence in its eyes, the world would have long ago chased it away as a monster. It is no doubt benevolent after its fashion. Torquemada did not love evil for its own sake; Pope Gregory XIII. was solicitous for the glory of God, when he ordered a thanksgiving for the massacre of St. Bartholomew; and Cromwell surely had noble ends in view, when he thought to shorten the way to them at Drogheda, by the slaughter of helpless women and their little ones. Neither the economical nor the religious fanaticism, therefore, when it is found to sanction acts of cruelty, should cause the actors to be viewed personally in the same light with those who violate moral laws from selfish impulses. But still, whenever benevolence

or policy, or a so-called social science, seeks to compass its object by tampering with those primary affections and sympathies which have been implanted in the heart of man, and with those moral laws which they disclose, the narrow and audacious presumption ought to be branded as rebellion against the supreme government of the universe."'*

Look where we may, we shall find evidence, that the necessity for the application of intelligence to the co-ordination of the movements of the various members of the societary body, grows with the growth of wealth and numbers, and that the more wisely it is exercised, the greater is the growth of production—the more rapid is the progress of accumulation - the more equitable is the distribution the longer is the duration of life-the more perfect is the development of local centres of action-and the greater is the tendency towards the creation of a sound morality, and towards the development of the real MAN, master of nature and of himself.†

We read in the Arabian Nights of a ship that had been carried by the current so near to a rock of adamant, that her bolts being all drawn out-she fell to pieces. Such precisely must become

*LALOR: Money and Morals, p. 135.

To all appearance, the railroad question is destined soon to furnish facts of high importance in reference to the necessity for the steady exercise of the societary powers. The construction of such roads tends towards the annihilation of competition for the performance of the work of transportation -thereby creating monopolies that may be rendered most oppressive. Throughout Continental Europe generally, the several communities have, therefore, deemed it necessary to exercise a sound discretion in reference to the roads that might be constructed-while retaining a controlling power in regard to the terms upon which they should be required to do their work. The consequences of this are seen in the facts, that, while their charges are moderate, they have, with few exceptions, been profitable to all-giving fair dividends to their owners, while facilitating intercourse, and thereby giving value to both land and labor.-In Great Britain, on the contrary, it has been held, that the interests of the community were to be promoted by the largest competition for the construction of roads - the result now exhibiting itself in ruinous competition for business at one moment, and high charges at another-in the general ruin of those who have made the roads - in expulsion of the population, and consolidation of the land.—As a remedy for these evils under which they suffer, the railroad companies are now engaged in the creation of a sort of Congres—an imperium in imperio- that will, probably, and at no distant day, control the legislation of the country.

So is it, even now, in these United States - railroad companies already controlling the legislation of many of the States. The day for general combination having not yet arrived, but there are many evidences of its near approach. When it shall arrive, it will furnish new proof of the fact, that of all governments the most exhausting and oppressive is that of the transporters.

the position of every community in which industrial development has still to be accomplished, and yet adopts the doctrine of laisser faire-manufactures being to the societary machine exactly what the bolts are to the ship. Turkey and Jamaica, Ireland and India, having been forced into its adoption, the result is seen in the facts, that the power of co-ordination has ceased to exist; that land and labor are almost valueless; that the over-population theory finds there its most available material; and that they steadily decline in their power to maintain commerce with the world—that decline being attended by corresponding increase in the proportions borne by the countries which follow in the lead of Colbert and of France.*

*Looking to the almost innumerable papers on various questions in social science, that crowd our daily, weekly, and other journals, and seeing the manner in which the words civilization, freedom, democracy, and the like, are used, the reader of Goethe is forcibly reminded of the following passage, in his tragedy of Faust:

"Mephistopheles. Here, again, it is best to attend but one master, and swear by his words. Generally speaking, stick to words; you will then pass through the safe gate into the temple of certainty.'

"Student. But there must be some meaning connected with the word.' "Mephistopheles.-Right; only we must not be too anxious about that; for it is precisely where meaning fails, that a word comes in most opportunely. Disputes may be admirably carried on with words; a system may be built with words; words form a capital subject for belief; a word admits not of an iota being taken from it.'"

Of all the terms in common use among modern economists, there is not even a single one in regard to the real value of which they are at all agreed, and hence it is, that we find them recommending the same treatment for diseases of an exactly opposite character. England suffers under the system denounced by Adam Smith, as certain to convert her whole people into a mass of shopkeepers and manufacturers. America suffers under one that almost forbids the existence of manufactures, yet is the free trade remedy prescribed for both.-What, however, is this freedom of trade? Does it consist in having but one market to which to go, as is the case with Ireland and India; or a thousand, as is the case with France and Belgium? Can there be any freedom of trade, in the absence of manufactures, and can manufactures be now built up, in the absence of protection? All experience says, that they cannot.

CHAPTER LIII.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

Of the Commerce of the World.

§ 1. THE man whose faculties remain undeveloped, can maintain but little commerce. His ideas being few in number, he can have little intercourse by means of speech or correspondence. His power over nature being small, he has few commodities to offer in exchange for those he needs. — The man of high development the real MAN on the contrary, can have commerce with nature in all her forms, animate and inanimate. Abounding in ideas, he is fully provided with the means of maintaining commerce with his fellow-men — giving them out at one moment by means of writing or of speech, and absorbing them at another by help of eye or ear. Go where he may, he finds occasion for augmenting his stock of knowledge- the power of accumulation being here, as every where, in the direct ratio of the rapidity of

circulation.

So, too, is it with societies—their power to maintain commerce with the world being dependent, altogether, upon the development of the various individualities of their many members, and consequent development of the latent powers of the earth. Purely agricultural communities, like the pauper, maintain intercourse where they must-those which are highly developed doing so, on the contrary, where they will. Look, therefore, where we may, we shall find evidence of the truth of the great general principle, that the power to maintain commerce is in the direct ratio of the perfection of the organization-that, in turn, becoming more complete as the power of co-ordination is more discreetly exercised.

§ 2. Organized bodies grow from within, and the greater their growth, the greater is their power to absorb and digest the elements by which they are surrounded applying them to their