RECIPROCITY THE ESSENCE OF FREE TRADE 169 



once in motion an equally groat force is requisite in order 

 to stop or even to turn us. After spending so much 

 mental effort and so much national agitation in deciding 

 to adopt a new principle, we hate to have to review our 

 decision, to think we have done wrong, or even that any 

 limitations or conditions are to be taken into account in 

 the application of it. This rigid conservatism is well 

 shown in the treatment of the demand of many of our 

 manufacturers and some of our politicians for a fresh in- 

 vestigation of the subject of free trade by the light of the 

 experience of the last fifty years. They put forward 

 " reciprocity " as the principle on which we should act, 

 and they are simply treated with derision or contempt. 

 They are spoken of as weak, or foolish, or ignorant people, 

 wanting in self-reliance, and seeking to bolster up home 

 productions by a return to protection ; and this is the tone 

 adopted by the press generally, and by all the chief 

 politicians, both Liberal and Conservative. Little argu- 

 ment is attempted ; the facts of increased imports and 

 diminished exports, and of widespread commercial distress, 

 are explained away, as all facts in such a complex question 

 can be, and the names of Adam Smith and Cobden are 

 quoted as having settled the question once and for ever. 



Now this mode of treating an important subject which 

 affects the well being of the nation is not satisfactory. No 

 one believes more completely than myself in the benefits 

 of free trade, and the impolicy of restricting free intercourse 

 between nation and nation any more than between indi- 

 vidual and individual ; but, like most other principles, it 

 must be subject in its application to the conditions im- 

 posed upon us by the state of civilization and the mutual 

 relations of the independent countries with whom we have 

 dealings. Nobody advocates free trade in poisons, or 

 explosives, or even in alcoholic drinks ; and few believe 

 that we are bound to allow Zulus or Chinese to become 

 armed with breech-loaders and rifled cannons if we can 

 prevent it ; and the mere fact that restriction in these 

 cases is admitted to be necessary should make us see that 

 no commercial principle, however good in itself, can be 

 of universal application in an imperfect human society. 



