XI RECIPROCITY THE ESSENCE OF FREE TRADE 181 



and broom makers starve.^ Yet this is the very argument 

 used (and almost the only argument) in favour of our 

 present system. The public (or a section of it) get iron 

 goods, and silk, and paper, and cotton, and sugar fraction- 

 ally cheaper, owing to the influx of foreign-manufactured 

 goods sold under cost price : therefore our manufacturers 

 of all these things, and the large proportion of our popu- 

 lation who are engaged directly or indirectly in such 

 manufactures, must alike suffer. The weakness of this 

 argument has already been exposed, while its inconsistency, 

 cruelty, and selfishness are no less obvious. 



I have now, as I believe, pointed out a mode of action 

 which we may, as free traders, consistently adopt ; which 

 will satisfy all the just claims of our manufacturers and 

 workmen ; which will give stability to our industries, and 

 inspire confidence in our capitalists ; and which, b}- neutra- 

 lising the effects of the protectionist policy of other 

 countries, will place us as nearly as possible in the position 

 we should occupy were they all to become free traders. I 

 have shown, that as long as we continue our present 

 course of action we really offer them the strongest 

 inducements to continue, or even to extend, their present 

 policy of protection ; while it is evident that if w^e simply 

 neutralize every step they take in this direction, they will 

 have no motive, so far as regards us, for continuing such a 

 system. Arguments in favour of free trade Avill then have 

 fair play, since they will not be rendered nugatory by the 

 bribe our policy now offers them to uphold protection. 



Objections Answered. 



The objections that I anticipate to my plan are : first, 

 that it is too complex, as it would compel us to adopt as 

 against each country its own tariff, however cumbersome ; 

 secondly, that it would not satisfy those who now ask for 

 another kind of reciprocity in the shape of special 

 protective duties ; thirdly, that it would diminish our 



^ Of late years this ground has been taken against any restriction in 

 the import of foreign prison-made goods. 



