THE FISCAL QUESTION 149 



imperative and binds those who come under it through 

 their own conscience, which is the only bondage that is also 

 freedom ; and it transfigures natural into moral relations, 

 converting antagonism into competition in the arts of 

 peace, the successful pursuit of which is at once the good 

 of each and the good of all. 



From jthis point of view it is difficult not to regard a 

 poljqLji^icnpIaces_obstacles in the way of thejree inter- 

 change_ of benefits amongst nations as a crime against 

 civilisation. And, though there may be circumstances 

 which render such a course imperative, just as there are 

 circumstances in which an individual must assert his rights 

 against his country, for the narrower and nearer loyalties 

 sometimes come first, still it is a wrong and a folly to 

 invite the collision. And it is not possible to maintain 

 that it is forced upon this country, either by its poverty or 

 by any other unhappy fact. On the contrary, the political 

 insight of our forefathers, and their wise regard for the 

 welfare of their country, led them to open its ports to all 

 the world, with advantages to itself that it is not possible 

 to measure, and of which those which are material are not 

 the greatest ; and by a law that seems to be written in the 

 very nature of things, its own good has spread in an ever- 

 widening circle to other great communities, and most of 

 all to those which share its enterprising spirit most fully 

 and are its worthiest rivals. 



To ask us to change all this is as supererogatory a task 

 as ever an eminent politician took in hand. To change 

 our open into restricted markets, to set up barriers against 

 the free interchange of utilities so far as that lies in our 

 power, to adopt methods of antagonism to other nations, 

 to endanger our own larger patriotism by making our 



