QUEM JUPITER VULT PERDERE, PRIUS DEMENTAT.
I think you will admit, that if a statesman, pretending to govern
by rules of political economy, should make very gross, misleading
statements regarding the results of a particular line of policy
which he had pursued for years, such a man must be convicted of
hopeless incompetency or else of gross dishonesty, either of which
ought to disqualify him as an administrator; and your Free Trade
statesman certainly comes under such an indictment.
Your Right Hon’ble Ruler rises after a public dinner, and holds
forth with matchless eloquence, pointing out the blessings and
prosperity Free Trade has brought to the country. His statements
are received with thunders of applause, and the Right Hon’ble
Orator and his audience disperse mutually satisfied with each other.
I wonder whether it ever occurs to the orator, in the quiet
of his chamber, that to use his own words, he “has resorted
to the simple but effectual plan of pure falsification.”[40]
Can he possibly be so ignorant of current events, and of the
subjects with which he ought to be acquainted, as not to know
that other nations--_protectionist nations_--_have made greater
relative advance_ than ourselves; that the increase of wealth is
_universal_; that it is shared by all civilized nations in common
with us; and that it is due to improvements in science, art,
and manufacture--to improved communications by railways, steam
navigation, telegraphs, &c., which have made such enormous strides
since the date at which Free Trade was adopted. Even Mill admits
that--
“So rapid had been the extension of improved processes of
agriculture, that the average price of corn had become decidedly
lower even before the repeal of the Corn Laws.”[41]
There have been short periods of temporary prosperity in
agriculture, and your Right Hon’ble Free Trader has been jubilant
in hailing them as triumphs of Free Trade; but Adam Smith says:--
_Improvements in manufacture tend to raise the value of land._[42]
Dare you, my Friend, after examination of the statistics given in
the foregoing chapter, say, that the general increase of wealth
is due to Free Trade; when protectionist nations have shared it
in common with us? Aye! and taken the lion’s share too! You claim
the temporary prosperity of the years 1871-73 as a victory for
Free Trade, when in reality this prosperity is the most damning
evidence against it. Are you so utterly blinded, as not to perceive
that this prosperity was caused by the Franco-Prussian war, which,
by preventing the unlimited importation of French and German
commodities into England, caused, in fact, partial _suspension of
Free Trade_? Don’t you know that, in those years of prosperity, the
price of wheat rose to 58_s._ 8_d._ per quarter, and that, in the
present depressed condition of England, it is down to 41_s._ 5_d._
per quarter? Don’t you know that, during that time of prosperity,
the excess of imports beyond our exports was £60,000,000 less than
in the present depressed time? In other words, we were depressing
our industries by 60,000,000 sterling per annum less than at
present. Now, my Friend, give your verdict; is your Right Hon’ble
Free Trader guilty or not guilty, either of hopeless incompetence
or gross dishonesty in attributing the general increase of wealth
in the world to the agency of Free Trade?--Your friend, Bright,[43]
naively admits that “to return to protection under the name of
reciprocity, is to _confess to the protectionists abroad, that we
have been wrong, and they have been right_.” Verily! Friend Bright,
whether you confess it or not, the truth will out. Friend Bright!
you are like the ostrich, burying its head in the sand and thinking
no one can see you. The protectionist nations of Europe can see you
distinctly, and they are all laughing at your folly.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Applied to the Conservative Party by Mr. Gladstone, in 1879.
[41] Mill’s Political Economy, Bk. I. Chap. XII.
[42] Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. Chap. XI.
[43] Mr. Bright, when brought to bay by unanswerable arguments, is
in the habit of pleading that he has “neither time nor inclination”
to enter into discussion, and takes refuge in discourtesy. A choice
specimen is given in Appendix No. I.--correspondence with Mr. Lord.