5 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



The early history of the colonies furnishes, we think, a re- 

 markable illustration of what can be done without the fostering 

 care and protection of a paternal government. In 1G0G there was 

 not a single English-speaking person in this country. A century 

 later a colony had sprung up numbering one million souls, with 

 industries established that bid fair to outrival those of England. 

 In 1700 the population exceeded one quarter the entire population 

 of England and Wales. Ships were being built and sent to Eng- 

 land. The ship-carpenters of Great Britain petitioned Parliament 

 to suppress an industry that threatened to supplant their own. 

 The wool manufacturers became alarmed as they found the colo- 

 nists rapidly acquiring their trade. Bar iron was manufactured 

 and shipped to England cheaper than that from Sweden. The 

 hat industry developed in the face of English rivalry. In 1700 

 the total exports amounted to $1,919,700, in 1730 it was $2,789,- 

 640, and in 17G0 it had grown to be $3,698,460. And all this was 

 in spite of acts of Parliament designed to cripple the colonial 

 trade and ruin its industries. Act after act was passed, forbidding 

 any one engaging in various manufactures under severe penalties. 

 At this time England was, as Mr. Blaine says, not only severely 

 but cruelly protective. Notwithstanding all this, the colonial 

 trade grew and prospered, and England felt that she had a keen 

 competitor in many of the manufactures in which she had hither- 

 to considered herself supreme. Surely we have here an answer 

 to those who ask " what industries would to-day be existing but 

 for the great system of protection ?" We present this period, 

 commencing from the arrival of the first colonist and extending 

 to the outbreak of the Revolution, and leave our high-tariff friends 

 to reconcile its teachings with their remarkable theories if they 

 can. One advantage, it will be noticed, has accrued to the free-trade 

 party by the recent controversy. It appears in the form of an 

 admission. Mr. Blaine admits with a certain degree of caution 

 that an insistence on the application of protection to all countries 

 as the wisest policy would be erroneous. He says : " Were I to 

 assume that protection is in all countries and under all circum- 

 stances, the wisest policy, I should be guilty of an error.'' This 

 will play sad havoc with our friends, the protectionist optimists, 

 who hold their system, as Mr. Gladstone says, "to be an economi- 

 cal good "good for all lands, all ages, and all people. But why 

 does Mr. Blaine not insist on the universal application of his 

 theory ? On what reasonable grounds does he restrict its field of 

 operation ? Science teaches us that the more applicable a theory 

 becomes, the nearer it approaches universality, the more certain 

 may we be of its truth ; and, conversely, the less applicable it be- 

 comes as its territory enlarges, the more its incorrectness is ex- 

 posed. The free-trader recognizes this law and refuses to restrict 



