310 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



"]\Inch attention has been drawn to the sanguine but unfor- 

 tunate prediction of Cobden that if England led the way other 

 European nations, convinced by her example, would follow within 

 five years. But fifty years have now passed, and not only have 

 the European nations failed to follow the example of Great Britain, 

 but some have increased their taiifFs, while the United States have 

 advanced still further on the lines of Protection, and even most of 

 our Colonies have rejected the policy of the mother-country in its 

 favour. This constitutes apparently a weighty expression of opinion 

 against the Free-trade doctrine, and calls for some examination." * 



Immediately after the above comes the following explana- 

 tion : — 



" In the first place, however, Cobden did not rest the argument 

 for this policy upon its adoption by others. His prediction was no 

 more than an expression of his own firm conviction that the merits 

 of a doctrine, so clearly grasped by his own mind, would be brought 

 home with equal force to others when its actual operation in Great 

 Britain afforded visible evidence of its advantages. But he did not 

 make sufficient allowance for difference of circumstances or for 

 interested opposition. Adam Smith had been more awake to these 

 difficulties when he wrote ; John Bright also had no expectation of 

 the sudden conversion of Europe ; and Peel distinctly stated that 

 his action rested on the conviction, slowly and surely attained, of 

 the necessity of Free-trade for Great Britain, and not upon any 

 anticipation of its becoming the policy of other countries." 



Clever Defence of Cobden's False Position 



This is unquestionably a clever defence of the Great 

 Eeformer, but wliatever may be said to the contrary it is clear 

 to all who are disposed to take an absolutely dispassionate 

 view of the matter that Cobden's Free-trade scheme did spring 

 out of the grand idea that it would prove to be the best 

 economic system upon which to conduct the world's trade, and 

 that the nations would adopt it as soon as they saw its many 

 advantages. Universal Free-trade was the basis upon which 

 Cobden built his economic structure ; it was the dream of his 

 middle age, and the j^'f^i'mum mobile of his ardent crusade ; it 

 moved him to indefatigal)le energy and animated his whole 

 being, and when, fired by his strong beliefs that his great scheme 

 would reKeve the poverty of the masses, create universal 

 employment, induce the inflow of enormous wealth, and lift 

 Great Britain into the exalted position of the foremost trading 

 country in the world, he naturally felt that the nations must 



* " The Free-trade Movement," p. 145. 



