PAUPERISM AS A RESULT OF FREE TRADE 105 



We are the only people in the world who have at- 

 tempted to make manufactures rank first in the national 

 industries and place agriculture as of secondary import- 

 ance in the economy of life. Ours is the only country in 

 the world that has attempted to alter the course of a 

 natural law by making the great land industry sub- 

 servient to minor industries. 



That we have signally failed, as we deserved to fail, 

 needs no further proof than is afforded by the many 

 signs of the times, which are manifest enough even to 

 the most casual observer. 



Ours is a nation that stands apart from all others, in 

 that we have been infatuated enough to believe that we 

 should find universal riches and prosperity in Cobden's 

 singularly bold idea that we should become the lords of 

 manufacture ; and that we could live and become great 

 on these alone. 



Richard Cobden's was truly a lofty ideal, but only an 

 ideal. He left out of calculation the simple fact that 

 before we could become lords of manufacture we must 

 first of all become lords of the earth — and that we are a 

 long way off that consummation needs no emphasising 

 — and because we are not lords of the earth we must 

 obviously fail in compelling the nations to come our 

 way, to do as we do, to do in fact as we should like them 

 to do. 



That we have failed all along the line; that our 

 splendid schemes and soaring aspirations after a unique 

 position in the history of the world have burst like airy 

 bubbles is, alas, too visible to even the meanest in- 

 telligence. 



