LITERARY NOTICES, 



707 



posite system. The difficulty is, how far 

 this policy can be carried. Will the author- 

 ities of Cornell University permit Mr. Igna- 

 tius Donnelly, author of " Ragnarok," to go 

 before its classes and present the other side 

 of the accredited geology ? Mr. Donnelly's 

 case is of the same kind, and quite as strong 

 as Mr. Roberts's. 



Mr. Roberts's theme is, " The Subject of 

 Revenue, especially the getting of Money 

 for the Public Treasury." It "relates to 

 filling the Treasury, and not to emptying it ; 

 we are to find out about the income of 

 states"; and this "will bring us immedi- 

 ately upon the relations of government to 

 the people." We infer, from looking over 

 his book, what seems to be confirmed by all 

 history, that it is the great, primary, uni- 

 versal business of all government to get 

 money out of the people ; and the question 

 is, as to the easiest and most effectual way 

 of accomplishing this object. Mr. Roberts 

 maintains, and we think he proves, that the 

 most successful way of extracting money 

 from the people is not openly to demand it, 

 as something honestly due to government, 

 but by the indirect process of levying exac- 

 tions upon commerce. Mr. Roberts shows 

 that this is the ancient, the favorite, and 

 most extensively employed method; and, 

 if the object of government be Solely to 

 raise money, without regard to any other 

 consideration, beyond doubt the taxation of 

 commerce is the best method. But the tax- 

 ation of commerce is a burden upon it, re- 

 stricting its freedom, and disturbing the 

 price of the commodities taxed. This con- 

 sequence of the repression of foreign com- 

 merce has been utilized for the regulation 

 of the home industries of nations by the so- 

 called protective system, which is a natural 

 result of the revenue system expounded by 

 Mr, Roberts, and they are accordingly both 

 defended together. 



There is one feature of our author's ar- 

 gument which at this time is something of 

 a curiosity. He calls this old system of re- 

 striction and protection, which has been a 

 favorite with kings, tyrants, and oligarchies 

 from the beginning for plundering the peo- 

 ple, "the American System." Many will 

 remember the brilliant passage in Daniel 

 Webster's celebrated free-trade speech of 

 1324 (left out of Everett's edition of Web- 



ster's works), in which he exposed with 

 merciless invective the absurdity of Henry 

 Clay in calling the ancient policy of com- 

 mercial restriction " the American System." 

 Yet sixty years later Mr. Roberts finds this 

 designation quite as available as ever. But, 

 after proclaiming " the American System " 

 on his title-page, Mr. Roberts proceeds in 

 the very first paragraph of his first chapter 

 to show that the policy is as old as the Pha- 

 raohs. The King of Egypt " took his trib- 

 ute also from ail merchants who entered his 

 land." Among the various despotic ways 

 of extorting money from the Egyptian peo- 

 ple, " commerce contributed its full share by 

 traffic in the name of the ruler, by charges 

 on traders, and the first example of an ex- 

 port duty is traced to that ancient land." 

 Not only the people, but both kings and 

 priests, " were forbidden to use any article 

 not produced in the country. The develop- 

 ment of all classes of production was thus 

 persistently fostered." The policy, it would 

 seem, might thus be properly named the 

 Egypto-American policy, but that our au- 

 thor shows that it has been substantially 

 adopted by all governments from the time 

 of the earliest Pharaoh to President Arthur. 



Our author's reasoning upon this subject 

 reminds us of the logic prevalent among the 

 American people a quarter of a century ago 

 in regard to the peculiar system of protect- 

 ing the negro. It was maintained that this 

 is best done by his enslavement, inasmuch 

 as the enslavement of man, in one form or 

 another, has been practiced in all communi- 

 ties and at all times. The restrictions upon 

 trade and the regulation of industry by levies 

 upon commerce are urged as having precisely 

 this sanction, for, as Mr. Roberts says : 



"No axiom of morals, no doctrine of 

 any creed, hardly any fact in science out- 

 side of pure mathematics, has ever been so 

 uniformly sustained by the teachings and 

 practice, certainly not by such a consent of 

 legislation, of mankind in all ages," as re- 

 straints upon the liberty of trade and the 

 freedom of industry. 



But Mr. Roberts evidently does not rel- 

 ish the idea of being ranked as an enemy 

 of all freedom in the business affairs of the 

 people in this country and in this age. He 

 proclaims that men should be free to work 

 or that they should be at liberty to produce 



