FREETOWN 



3336 



" Freetown, Sierra Leone. The sea front and harbour of the W. African port 



both the temper and the social 

 basis of persecution ; and Churches 

 whose clergy are in most cases 

 pronounced heretics from the point 

 of view of their own official creeds 

 are largely incapacitated for sup- 

 pressive measures. Many eminent 

 literary men of the last generation 

 having committed technical " blas- 

 phemy " in a supreme degree, that 

 offence is now never prosecuted in 

 this country save when accom- 

 panied by contravention of ordin- 

 ary police regulations. 



Bibliography. Hist, of the War- 

 fare of Science with Theology in 

 Christendom, A. D. White, 1896; 

 The History of English Rationalism 

 in the Nineteenth Century, A. W. 

 Benn, 1906 ; The Censorship of 

 i the Church of Rome, G. H. Putnam, 

 1906-7 ; Hist, of the Rise and In- 

 fluence of the Spirit of Rationalism 

 in Europe, W. E. H. Lecky, 1865, 

 repr. 1910; A History of Freedom of 

 Thought, J. B. Bury, 1914 ; A 

 Short Hist, of Freethought, J. M. 

 Robertson, 3rd ed. 1915. 



Freetown. Port, coaling station 

 and capital of Sierra Leone, British 

 W. Africa. The city is situated on 

 the Sierra Leone river, with 

 wooded mountains to the S. and 

 E., at the N.W. extremitv of the 



Sierra Leone peninsula. The cli- 

 mate was unhealthy for Europeans, 

 but now that the malarial marshes 

 are drained and the principal 

 European residences built on the 

 highlands, reached by the moun- 

 tain rly., the conditions have been 

 much improved. Freetown was 

 founded as Granvilletown in 1788 

 as a residence for freed African 

 slaves. 



The harbour is the best on the 

 W. coast of Africa, and is con- 

 nected with the interior by a nar- 

 row-gauge rly., running in one 

 direction towards the N.E. of the 

 Protectorate, and in the other 

 towards the S.E., near the frontiers 

 of Liberia and French Guinea. 

 Should the proposed western 

 branch of the Trans-Sahara Rly. be 

 built, Freetown, as one of the 

 nearest points to S. America, 

 would, if joined to this Rly., be- 

 come of great importance as a 

 through route. The town possesses 

 a cathedral and several educa- 

 tional establishments. The chief 

 exports through the port are palm- 

 kernels and oil, kola nuts, rubber, 

 gums, and ginger. There is a wire- 

 less station. Pop. 34,090, includ- 

 ing 558 Europeans. 



FREE TRADE : THE THEORY & ITS GROWTH 



Harold Cox, Editor of The Edinburgh Review 



With this article should be read those on Protection and Tariff Reform, 

 the two sides of the question being thus brought together. See Smith, 

 Adam; Wealthof Nations; also Political Economy, Wages, and articles 

 on other economic questions: Industrial Revolution; Mercantile System 



Free trade is a term meaning, in 

 general, the absence of restrictions 

 of any kind on trade. In modern 

 speech it refers particularly to the 

 system by which goods are allowed 

 to enter one country from another 

 without paying customs duty for 

 the protection of home producers. 



The intellectual revolt against 

 protection began with the publica- 

 tion of Adam Smith's Wealth of 

 Nations in 1776. Pitt was con- 

 verted by Smith's arguments, and 

 England was beginning to move 

 in the direction of freer trade with 

 France when the outbreak of war 

 in 1793 put a stop to all legitimate 

 trade between the two countries. 

 It was not until after Waterloo 

 that the agitation against protec- 



tion was revived. In 1820 a notable 

 statement of the free trade case 

 was drawn up by the .merchants 

 of the cities of London and Edin- 

 burgh. The proposals embodied in 

 this document popularly known 

 as the Merchants' Petition 

 formed the basis of reforms in the 

 direction of free trade carried out 

 by Huskisson in 1823 and the 

 years immediately following. But 

 the most drastic reforms were 

 effected in the 'forties. In 1842 a 

 large number of protective duties 

 were swept away ; in 1846 the 

 Corn Laws were abolished ; and in 

 1849 the Navigation Acts were re- 

 pealed. The victory of the free 

 traders was, by the end of the 

 'forties, so complete that political 



FREE TRADE 



controversy on tariff questions 

 died down. 



Fifty years went by before any 

 renewed attempt was made to 

 disturb free imports. During these 

 years the population of the 

 United Kingdom increased from 

 28,000,000 in 1851 to 42,000,000 in 

 1901 ; its total overseas trade per 

 head of the population increased 

 from 6 10s. in 1850 to 21 6s. 5d. 

 in 1900 ; the yield of a penny in 

 the income tax increased from 

 1,200,000 in 1861 to 2,500,000 in 

 1901 ; merchant shipping regis- 

 tered in the United Kingdom in- 

 creased from 3,600,000 tons in 1850 

 to 9,600,000 tons in 1901. During 

 the same period immense additions 

 were made to the Empire and its 

 unity was demonstrated. 



During the twelve years that 

 elapsed between 1902 and the out- 

 break of the Great War the com- 

 mercial progress of the kingdom 

 was in many respects relatively 

 even more rapid than in the pre- 

 vious half century, and in 1914 the 

 spontaneous action of the Do- 

 minions finally disposed of the sug- 

 gestion that their loyalty was 

 dependent on tariff favours. 



These broad historical facts show 

 that since the free trade theory 

 has been put into practice England 

 has had little reason to be dis- 

 satisfied with the results. 

 British Free Trade 



Concisely stated, the free trade 

 theory is that the prosperity of 

 Great Britain and Ireland and the 

 unity of the British Empire are 

 best advanced by leaving the ports 

 of the United Kingdom open to 

 the goods and the shipping of all 

 the world, subject only to such 

 charges as may be imposed for 

 revenue purposes, and to such 

 measures as may be necessary to 

 guard the country against injury 

 at the hands of an actual or a po- 

 tential enemy. That a similar pro- 

 position is true for other countries 

 most other countries have denied. 



It was no mere accident that 

 brought England to adopt the 

 policy of free imports while most 

 other nations remained protec- 

 tionist. There are both mental and 

 material causes for the difference. 

 The principal mental cause is the 

 long English tradition of individ- 

 ual liberty. That tradition makes 

 government interference less toler- 

 able to Englishmen than to other 

 peoples. Americans share this 

 English mentality, but their mater- 

 ial circumstances are different. 



The U.S.A. is a vast area con- 

 taining within its confines most of 

 the requisites for civilized human 

 life ; it is, therefore, possible for its 

 citizens to live and flourish with an 

 external trade which is very small 



