168 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



Act of Parliament. At length a change came. Public 

 opinion and the legislature alike agreed that to educate 

 the people was a national duty ; and so thoroughly was this 

 idea carried out that, till a few years ago, food for the mind 

 was looked upon as of more importance than food or clothing 

 for the body, and parents who could not earn sufficient to 

 keep their children in health were fined, or at all events 

 made to lose time, which was to them often the cost of a 

 meal, because they did not send their children to school, 

 and either themselves pay the schoolfees or become paupers. 



An even more remarkable instance of devotion to a 

 principle might be adduced in our action with regard to 

 free trade. Till a generation ago we put heavy import 

 duties on food of all kinds, as well as on many other raw 

 products and manufactured articles. On this question of 

 the free import of food for the people, the battle of free 

 trade was fought, and, after a severe struggle, was won. 

 The result was that the principle of universal free trade 

 gradually became a fixed idea, as something supremely 

 good and constantly to be sought after for its own sake. 

 Its benefits were, theoretically, so clear and indisputable 

 to us, that we thought we had only to set the example 

 to other nations less wise than ourselves, who would be 

 sure to adopt it before long, and thus bring about a kind 

 of commercial millennium. We did set the example. 

 We threw open our ports, not only to food for our people, 

 but to the manufactured goods of all other nations, though 

 those goods often competed with our own productions, and 

 their unrestricted import sometimes produced immediate 

 misery and starvation among our manufacturing classes. 

 But, firm to a great principle, we continued our course, 

 and notwithstanding that after fifty years' trial other 

 nations have not followed our example, we still admit their 

 manufactures free, while they shut out ours by protective 

 duties. 



These various instances do not support the view that 

 we are especially practical in oar politics, but rather that 

 we are essentially conservative. We possess as a nation an 

 enormous vis inertice. A tremendous motive force is 

 required to set us going in any new direction, but when 



