A lUtlEF EXAMINATION OF FIlEE-TPtADE rillXClPLES 309 



added li^Iit of 133 years' experience, no man would be foolish 

 enough to attempt to lay down laios in regard to so slippery a 

 " science " as economics, because of the ever-varvin" conditions 

 ot national and international trade, and it may be taken for 

 granted that so far-sighted a man as Adam Smith would never 

 have attempted it. His famous maxim was intended to apply 

 only to fir d cusf, and was as applicable to Ids time as to ours, but 

 the whole nature of the man's great work reveals the fact that 

 he was not foolish enough to force his maxims down people's 

 throats if he found that a slight saving in first cost meant con- 

 sidei-al)lc loss in the .'second, third, and fourth cost. JUit this is 

 exactly wliat his followers have done. To secure some saving 

 in the first instance they have sacrificed so many interests as 

 not only to nullify the initial saving, but to cause a loss which 

 is so widespread and which ramifies among so many sections of 

 the people as to be hardly traceable. 



The questi(jn hero, as indeed it is in so many other instances 

 in connection with this momentous question, is — " How Long ? " 



Cobden's Boast tested by Time 



Let us further examine the doctrines upon which the 

 country's commercial and economical system have been founded 

 to see if they will bear other tests. Will they bear the test of 

 Time's corroding touch ? Can it be truly affirmed tliat Free- 

 trade has fulfilled the ardent hopes of its founder and vindi- 

 cated his sanguine expectations ? 



" I believe that if you abolish the Corn-laws honestly, and adopt 

 Free-trade iu its simplicity, there will not be a tariff in Europe 

 thut will not bo changed in less than five years to follow your 

 exampU'," * 



said Eichard Cobden sixty odd years ago, and yet in all this 

 time the nations have not come our way ; a few of the minor 

 States of Europe have partially adopted Free-trade principles, 

 but all the great countries of the earth which have become our 

 most formidable competitors for the world's markets, have 

 forged for themselves strong weapons of Protection against which 

 Britain's Free-trade principles may not prevail. 



Free-traders admit this, and in attempting to explain the 

 position they naturally do what they can to minimise the 

 disastrous and far-reaching elfects that this unfulfilled prophecy 

 of the great Free-trader has had upon the country. 



The failure of Cobden's famous prediction is freely acknow- 

 ledged in the following paragraph : — 



* Cobden's speech in the Hoiise of Commons, January 15, 184G., 



