reforms till "order" is obscured in the agitation for so-called progress. And thus it comes about that certain democratic politicians demand that the soil be forced into cultivation. Smaller farms are to be constructed, and wheat is to be grown. But how such farms are to remunerate their tenants, so long as the conditions surrounding our agriculture remain as they are at present, is what they do not explain.

It is quite clear that while the question of our depressed industries and agriculture is treated from the political view, no hope can be entertained of their ever being raised from the decline in which they are sinking. In 1846, when our trades were in a state of activity, and when the depression from which they had just suffered had passed off, as it always did pass off under protection, still the agitation for free trade continued. What was the reason? Why did the manufacturers proceed to legislate, when their business was in a state of activity again?

The reason is single.1 1 Free trade was but the harbinger of great political reforms. Those political reforms had, as their immediate object, the repression of the assumed tyranny of the landed proprietors, and the extension of the political power of the people.

Those reforms, too, had as their basis the advancement of the material wellbeing of the masses, and the

1 Before the return of prosperity Cobden had promised all sorts of reforms. When prosperity arrived, if he desired still to continue popular, he was compelled to go forward with them. See Cobden, p. 251: "We are financial reformers. We have a habit of doing one thing at a time." Then why were not a "proper currency and national sources of improvement allowed to operate untrammelled by free trade?

concomitant improvement in their education, so that they should become capable of discharging their functions as a political factor in the government of the country.

Now the political advancement of the people has been effected, but their material prosperity is being retarded. Hence the danger. The power which they have been invested with will be used, not to the self-interest of the nation as a whole, but to their own selfish ends. There are sufficient signs of this at the present day. When a member of the Ministry asserts that before long there will be returned to Parliament Socialist members, it is as much as to say that the old party lines have been rudely torn up; that the old Liberalism has become incorporated with Conservatism; and that the new Liberalism or Radicalism will foster Socialistic doctrines. This political phenomenon is the result of the unequal operation of free trade. It is a natural, though a disastrous, result of it. For a popular party to remain popular, it must in the end pander to the wants of the masses.

It has been stated that the verdict of 1846 is irresistible. But it is well known that Mr Disraeli in 1850, and again in 1851, attempted to dispute its soundness. How was it acquired? It was acquired mainly through the influence of the manufacturers.1 It was taken to be the will of the people. But the will of the people does not differ essentially from the will of an individual. It may therefore be supported on an erroneous foundation. It certainly springs from the opinion of their

1 In 1846 the free-trade agitation was supported by a quarter of a million of money out of the manufacturers' pockets.

advisers. And that opinion, in Cobden's instance, is assuredly constructed upon doctrines the most false and anticipations the most vain..

But on the assumption that the will of the people cannot be wrong, those who advocate free-trade doctrines, having already changed their front and argued contrary to their master's speculations, come forward and say that "things will right themselves." For this conclusion what proof do they possess? They cannot derive it from the experience which the course of free trade affords them. For this experience is composed of three stages: the prosperous stage, the stage of equilibration, and lastly, the stage of depression. They are bound, therefore, to argue upon general grounds and adduce tendencies. If there are tendencies towards recovery, let them enumerate them; if there are signs, let them bring them forward. And at the same time, let them also correlate these signs of improvement with their predecessors in the stage of prosperity. Let them inquire whether they reach the same significance. And lastly, let them wait awhile and compare those signs of increased vitality with increased depression sure to follow.1

A small sign is not enough to satisfy the labour interests of the nation. It must be a sign which shall indicate that our agricultural labour has not been destroyed in vain. But for such a sign, with present adverse forces in operation, we look in vain!

1 Cf., for the proof of this, the treatment of the question of free trade, in 'Free trade,' published by William Blackwood & Sons, 1887.

314

CHAPTER XV.

PARTIAL FREE TRADE AND THE LABOURING CLASSES-THE POSITION OF THE INCOME TAX PAYING

POLITICAL

CLASSES.

"But it may be that I shall leave a name sometime remembered with expressions of goodwill, in those places which are the abode of men whose lot it is to labour and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow -a name remembered with expressions of goodwill, when they shall recreate their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is no longer leavened with a sense of injustice."

-Sir ROBERT PEEL (1850).

RAILWAY RATES AND THE EXISTING DEPRESSION-THE DEPRECIATION OF SILVER AND ITS RELATION TO DISTRESS-BIMETALLISM NOT A LASTING REMEDY-THE APPEARANCE OF A NEW POWER IN THE STATE-THE INCOME-TAX-PAYING CLASSES-UNSOUND CHARACTER OF EARLY REFORMS EFFECTED THROUGH CONVERSION OF FIXED INTO FLOATING CAPITAL-MONEY NOW A DRUG IN THE MARKET BECAUSE THE SOURCES OF THE REMUNERATION OF CAPITAL ARE CONTRACTED-THE RELATIONS OF THE CAPITALIST AND LABOURER

TO (1) PRODUCTION, AND (2) CONSUMPTION THE PROSPERITY

EFFECTED BY FREE-TRADE CHEAPENING OF COMMODITIES A MUSHROOM PROSPERITY-ITS FOUNDATIONS INSECURE.

§ 37. The bimetallists and the cause of depression.— There is one other consideration of this question of depression, which is not always regarded with that respect which seems to be its due. It is the analysis

of the collateral effects of depression. The reader will recollect the importance ascribed to high railway rates by free-traders, in the causation of manufacturing depression. Admit that these rates are excessive. Reduce them by Act of Parliament. What does the freetrader say to this interference with the course of trade by the State? What difference is there between the interference on the part of the railway shareholder and that coming from a foreign rival? And if you check one, why, on broad principles, should you not diminish the other?

But these rates are reduced (let us suppose) !1 And it appears that even free-traders are not altogether free from protective propensities, when such assist either their cause or their party. What follows? The foreigner was able to compete favourably with us before the lowering of railway rates. He succeeded in underselling our merchants, who, by free trade, strove to blight his prospects. He did so by the assistance of a principle, where needed, which is still in operation. It is a principle which is capable of extension or contraction, according to the requirements of each particular industry. It is but the same policy which this country practised when she was protective. But, if it may be so stated, England has grown out of this principle. It did not, according to the free-traders, satisfy her conditions.2 What valid objection can we possibly make to a former policy of

1 A bill was under the consideration of Parliament in the course of last year's session; but, like many others, was transferred to the present one.

2 If it satisfies the conditions of other nations, on what grounds can we object to it? They cannot be economical, but they may be political.