WHAT ANTI-FIlEE-TRADEllS THINK OF FREE-TllADE 23 



tremendous possilnlities ; and if those who were in the thick of 

 the fi.i^ht lost somewhat of that level-headedness which, as a 

 rule, characterises our business men, and in their arrogance, 

 begat of their country's commercial and industrial world-supre- 

 macy, took a wrong turn, there would certainly be " extenuating 

 circumstances " to plead. 



What Everybody admits 



Everybody will admit that it was absolutely essential in the 

 interests of the country that the freest possible scope should 

 have been given, at the time, to the development of trade, 

 manufactures, mining industries, progressive science, and the 

 application of mechanical contrivances to various industries ; 

 as, indeed, to the free development of all new ideas of a nature 

 to advance national interests and conduce to the permanent pros- 

 perity of the people. There is, however, not a single man to-day, 

 who stands outside the ranks of the more conservative section 

 of Free-traders, who would agree that, in the necessary accom- 

 plishment of all these desires, there was the slightest need to 

 create for Great Britain a separate economic existence, and, in 

 so doing, destroy the greatest of all industries — Agriculture. 



This unique departure from a perfectly natural law, which, 

 by-the-by, no nation or individual can set aside with impunity, 

 is now regarded as the monumental error of Cobden and his 

 followers ; and although enormous loss has resulted therefrom, 

 as will be subsetiuently shown, the blame for this rests, it is 

 held, rather with those up-to-date Free-traders who, it may be 

 for selfish motives, bolster up a system which is now known to 

 be inimical to national interests rather than with those who, 

 sixty-two years ago, forced upon the country a new and untried 

 fiscal system. 



Eesult of a Fundamental Blunder 



Out of this great fundamental economical error has, it is 

 contended, sprung many a minor error that lias served the 

 purpose of perpetuating the blunder. Free-trade economists, 

 in tabulating the economical statistics of the country, commit 

 the serious mistake of treating Great Britain's trade as a 

 separate thing and quite apart from that of other civilised 

 States, when, as a matter of fact, British trade, and the results 

 thereof, belong to, and form part of, the greater World Trade 

 which is being carried on and participated in by other nations 

 besides our own. Trade expansion, industrial progression, 

 the development of mineral resources, invention, scientific 



