THE HOME MARKET 285 



Which of the two policies has been found to be right, 

 the policy of Cobden or that of Henry Clay? The 

 great patriotic man who is now President of the 

 United States, who presides over eighty millions of 

 people, mostly of the English race, has answered the 

 question. " Our present phenomenal prosperity," he 

 says, " was won under a tariff made in accordance 

 with certain fixed and definite principles, the most 

 important of which is our avowed determination to 

 protect the interests of the American producer, business 

 man, wage- worker, and farmer alike." 



The manner in which British agriculture has been 

 treated during the past two generations may be aptly 

 likened, so far as folly and short-sightedness go, to 

 the action of the man in the fable who killed the 

 goose that laid the golden eggs. Commercialism has 

 for so long a time governed the policy of the country, 

 the people have for so long a time been used to look 

 to trade and manufactures for their livelihood, that 

 agriculture has gradually taken an inferior place, if it 

 has not dropped out of sight altogether. 



It is simply astonishing to note the indifference 

 shown by the manufacturing and trading classes to 

 the condition of this the greatest of all industries. 

 The importation of a few steam-engines, or some tons 

 of iron girders, is noted with alarm by our Chambers of 

 Commerce and by trade journals ; but the importation, 

 say, of cheese to the value of above seven millions 

 sterling per annum excites little or no attention. We 

 pay without a murmur this sum, which is about equal 

 to the value of our exports to Norway and Sweden 

 put together, for an article which this country is as 

 fitted to produce as it is to manufacture steam-engines 

 and girders. 



