CHAPTER XVIII 



THE HOME MARKET AND THE 

 INDUSTRIAL CLASSES 



" The Home Market is first in order and paramount 

 in importance." Thus said Henry Clay when in 1844 

 he stood as candidate for the Presidency of the United 

 States and was beaten. At that time the Anti-Corn 

 Law agitation in England was at its height. Cobden, 

 always apt to enlist public occurrences into the service 

 of his cause, spoke of Clay's defeat as follows : — 



" He stood as a candidate for that high honour at 

 the hands of three millions of citizens on the ground 

 of his being the author and father of the protective 

 system in America. , . . The speeches of Henry Clay 

 and Daniel Webster might have done credit to the 

 Dukes of Buckingham and Richmond themselves. 

 All the banners at their processions were inscribed 

 with such mottoes as, ' Protection to Native Industry,' 

 ' Protection against the Pauper Labour of Europe,* 

 ' Stand by the American System,' ' Henry Clay and 

 Protection to Native Industry.' Yes, all this was said 

 to the American democracy. And what said three 

 millions of the American people, voting in the ballot- 

 box? Why, they rejected Henry Clay and sent him 

 back to his retirement."^ 



Sixty years have passed away since then, and in 

 the light of this long experience it may well be asked, 



' "Cobden's Speeches." Edited by John Bright and J. Thorold 

 Rogers (Speech, 11 December, 1844). 



28a 



