A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF FREE-TllADE PIIINCIPLES 3G7 



based upon the abstract principles of a very inexact " science," 

 rather than upon the practical, up-to-date needs of a strenuous 

 people, it would be impossible in this work to do more than 

 give, as has been done, a low examples of the fallaciousness of 

 its autlior's reasoning. 



To attempt to determine the many, ever-varying, and far- 

 reaching domestic requirements even of a single family, by the 

 hard-and-fast rules of " economic science," would be foolish ; 

 but to attempt to confine the multitudinous ramifications of the 

 domestic economy of A People, by the narrow, inflexible, and 

 absolutely inapplicable " laws " of such a very slippery " science " 

 as political economy, economics, or whatever term may be used, 

 would be to try to confine the waters of an onrushing river in a 

 fishing-net. The thing is obviously impossible, yet it is being 

 attempted every day by men who devote their undoubtedly 

 high mental powers to " scientific " research. " / have en- 

 deavoured to deal wllk the suhject in the scientific sjnrit of 

 inquiry," said the writer of the book we quote from ; and it is 

 just this spirit which has done Great Britain incalculable harm, 

 as we have explained in other chapters. 



Scientific Legerdemain 



If a man be " scientific " enough he can solve any problem 

 and expound any subject " scientifically " ; and although his 

 hearers may not be smart enough to controvert liis conclusions, 

 they nevertheless believe that though they may appear "scientific- 

 ally " right, they know them to be fundamentally and practically 

 wrong. The man who convinces people by his " laws," " isms," 

 and " ologies," that it is better to allow the fertile lands of 

 Great Britain to lie waste and unproductive than to convert 

 them to the use and benefit of the nation, does irreparable harm 

 to the people, and the time has come for plain speaking and 

 hard hitting. 



Fortunately others, having discerned the danger of this 

 " scientific " teaching, have taken up the cudgels in behalf of 

 common-sense. The following is from a recently published 

 economical Chart, entitled, " National llemedies for Unemploy- 

 ment and Low Wages," published by Mr. B. Sansome of East 

 Finchley, in March, 1909, and forms one of the many examples 

 that might be cited : — 



"ARE IMPORTS PAID FOR BY EXPORTS? 



The Professor's Answer 



" Some time ago I received an invitation card to hear Professor 

 Arraitage Smith on Free-trade at the National Liberal Club, White- 

 hall. Mr. Smith, in the course of his lecture, said : * If the London 



