A BRIEF EXAMINATION OP FREE-TllADE PlUNCirLES 307 



indeed, than those ties which bind man and wife. They should 

 have been allied, not separated ; wedded, not divorced. But, 

 alas ! Cobden and his followers thrust them asunder so that 

 neither could assist the other, and both have sull'cred. Com- 

 mercial-industrialism prospered for a time and became rich, 

 but it might have become richer, because its wealth is enjoyed 

 by tlie few ratlier than shared by the many ; while it is 

 becoming poorer each year as foreign nations put their goods in 

 competition with our own. Agriculture, on the other hand, 

 never recovered from the shock of separation ; it lost the sup- 

 port of its sister-iudustrics, and it languished and faded away 

 into the poor pallid thing wo know it for to-day — a maimed 

 industry, weak and helpless as a palsied limb. 



Does it not, then, become clear to every man outside the 

 narrow influence of party politics, or the equally narrow sphere of 

 that influence wliich the arbitrary doctrines of economic science 

 cast over its followers, that in losing our agriculture we have 

 lost the enormous internal purchasing power which such a loss 

 necessarily involves, and that although this loss can never be 

 redeemed, never recovered from the profound depths of a 

 calamitous past, it may yet be considerably mitigated by building 

 up a sensible, provident agricultural system which, while con- 

 serving the best of our manhood and womanhood, would bestow 

 a general mead of prosperity upon the people of this country 

 which they have certainly not experienced for the last century 

 or more ? 



Fkee-trade Opposed to Successful AoPvicuLTurvE 



Tree-traders, political economists, and others of that ilk tell 

 the people that these things cannot be ; that a universal pros- 

 perous agricultural industry is incompatible with manufactures 

 and commerce ; that the two cannot exist side by side, and that 

 the nation must actually "Put Back its PitoriKESS " * the 

 moment it commences to grow its own food supplies. 



But what avails discussion on a fundamental error in 

 theoretical economics of so obvious a nature, since Germany, the 

 United States, Belgium, and every civilised country in Europe, 

 or the Western world, which enter into competition with us in 

 the world's markets, offer object-lessons in ijractical economy 

 which cannot be denied, contradicted, or upset ? All these 

 countries have a universal system of agriculture working har- 

 moniously with, and to the mutual benefit of, commerce and 

 manufactures. All these industries work side by side to the 

 benefit of the people and to the prosperity of the country, and 



* " The Freo-trade Movcmout," p. 193. 



