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conditions than it is? Protective nations take what they want of us, and no more. If we place a duty upon their goods, it by no means follows that we shall produce less, and supply them with less. Not certainly till they are self-supporting will this be effected. On the other hand, by conserving our interests, and drawing our colonies into a closer commercial union, it is more than probable that our export trade would be increased.

But in the meantime, while other nations are conserving each its own interests; while the chances of mutual free trade and universal peace are as distant as ever they were, it suits the policy of a party which has commenced the descent from its high position of popularity to keep the labour of the country unemployed.

But it is for the labourers to choose whether they shall have as full employment as their case admits of, and not be scared at the many delusions originating from high prices, or have provisions at a cheap rate and starve. Whether they will protect the sources of labour, and create a general circulation, or contribute only to the circulation of capital amongst the wealthy classes. Whether, lastly, they will prefer internal cohesion, with all the chances of war (nor are these directly affected by commercial policies), to the alarming spectacle of internal disorder, induced by the exhaustion of the national resources.

Richard Cobden taught the masses to look forward towards an increase of their political power. But that power, it will be conceded, can never be wielded suc

cessfully unless it is supported by material prosperity. For if it is exercised in the promotion of extravagant and partial measures, it will with certainty be opposed. The nation was on the brink of a civil commotion in 1846.1 For "free trade," this worst of all national calamities was hazarded. It was met by concession.

But even changes in the surrounding conditions of political parties, and the foundations of law and order, have come about since that time. The democracy may be urged headlong by impetuous and selfish leaders; but the greater part of the middle classes are steadily opposing its violent course. Besides, the system of organisation has been absorbed into those institutions which preside over the maintenance of law and order in the community. As times change and improvements continue, these become all the stronger. But the consideration of these important matters does not deter the demagogue from rashly staking all success of his schemes upon a single throw. In a former time he effected a destructive cheapness, and bought popularity. In another dress, to-day, he would convince the labouring classes that they have the same power they were supposed to have in 1846. But let them not be mistaken. The source of that power was in the manufacturers.

There is sufficient reason, then, for the working classes

1 So thought the Duke of Wellington and many others. The noble Duke had, as he thought, to decide between the Corn Law and the Queen's Government. Although he recognised the utility of the Corn Law, he abandoned it for the cause of order.

to reconsider their position. And if free trade makes them accurately regard their condition from strictly economical, social, moral, and political points of view, it will have been the means of ensuring contentment and prosperity to future generations at least, if not to their own. For prosperity will require time for its production. And a sure prosperity is of slow growth.

INDEX.

ABUNDANCE-depends upon favourable conditions, 42; "Plenty is our motto" (Cobden), 106; sought after by free-traders without reference to demand for labour, 44; one of the intended results of free trade, 41 (note); taxes interfered with, 248.

Ambiguity respecting, 109; labouring classes hindered from acquiring, through excessive imports of foreign goods, 40.

Promise of, nullified in 1887, 109; associated with low price of bread, 118; commencing to decline as regards wheat, 121. AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS-demand for their labour to be increased by a free trade in corn, 53 (note); to have four millions more to spend upon manufacture, if bread were made cheap, 137; how Cobden gained them over, 87.

Forced to desert the soil through unequal competition with foreign producers, 16.

The rise in wages of, 291.

AGRICULTURE Cobden and the corn-producing capacity of British soil, 111 (note); destroyed by protection, 88.

Free trade to increase by one-fourth the produce of the soil, 103 (note).

Injured from the very first by free imports of corn, 39.

The natural protection to, 73; has disappeared, 76; no nation can be prosperous without a flourishing, 261.

Gain to, resulting from campaign in Crimea, 290; loss from free imports (1850-1865), ib. (note).

ARISTOCRACY, THE-their tyranny, 116; ground down the wages of labour, 92; grew rich at the expense of the national labour interests, 209; Cobden aimed at lessening political influence of, 237.

Cobden's charges against, founded on error, 54 et seq.

BARBOUR, MR D.-'The Theory of Bimetallism' quoted, 5. BIMETALLISM-a remedy for depression, 318 et seq.; would be followed by evils of its own creation, 321.

BOUNTY SYSTEM-used by the foreigner as a means of retaliating, 166. BREAD-cheapness of, and prosperity of labour, synonymous according to Cobden, 150; effect of cheap, upon producers, 277; low price of, and low wages, 309; "at famine prices," used by Cobden to inflame the people, 257.

Dear between 1850 and 1860, yet labour prospered, 177. With decline in price of, appear stationary exports, 178. Effort to raise the price of, received with ridicule, 305. BREAD-RIOTS-value of, as indicating character of social distempers, 95 (note); the outcome of Chartism, 117.

BRIGHT, RIGHT HON. JOHN-the richest and most powerful class not to sacrifice the rights of a whole people, 90 (note); free trade, the commandment of God, 124 (note).

Sentiments of, concerning British agriculture, 86; no nation can be prosperous without a flourishing agriculture, 261.

An advocate of the general reduction in wages, 51.

BULLION-increased in Bank of England, 1850, erroneously ascribed

by free-traders to action of free trade in reality the result of the withdrawal of capital from agriculture, 184.

BURKE, EDMUND on the side of making trade more free under protection, 241.

CAIRNES, THE LATE PROFESSOR-opinion concerning the nature of prosperity, 54; and of rent, 79.

Biassed by primary and favourable operation of free trade, 46 (note). CAPITAL-diverted from less (agricultural) to more (manufacturing) remunerative sources, 1850, 186 (note); acquired by a free trade, 70; foreign consumption to, averse of labouring interests at home, 270.

CAPITALISTS-free trade created a brood of, 279.

CHARTISM originally political and opposed to free trade, 54 (note); Chartist leaders did not demand any alteration in the Corn Laws, 95 (note); took advantage of high prices of bread to advance their ends, 117 (note).

CLEVELAND, PRESIDENT-recent reforms of, erroneously styled a freetrade policy, 164 (note).

COBDEN, RICHARD denounced trade under protection as not legitimate because English exports were exchanged for the railway shares and State bonds of other countries, 4 (note); protection, the destroyer of agriculture, 88; the farmer's friend, 71; his "natural regulator" of trade has broken down, 246.

An advocate, not a judge, 87; his insolent attitude towards the aristocracy, 13 (note); his contempt for the protectionists, 89. The means he used to advance the national cause unsound, 16; and insecure, 172; but his end-object praiseworthy, 99, 161. His errors, 54; misapprehension respecting Huskisson, 62; and the Corn Laws, 14; did not refer to contracted currency as a cause of distress, 28; thought erroneously that home industries were depressed owing to high price of bread, 56; supposed that cost of transit of wheat from foreign ports would always remain the same,

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