A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF FREE-TRADE PRlNCirLEK 369 



in respect to com, because of the extra fertility of our soil ; wo 

 cau convert every waste field into highly productive land ; we 

 can stop the wasteful drain of excessive emigration which is 

 sapping the virility of the nation : and, by creating in our midst 

 a great agricultural industry, with numbers of subsidiary 

 industries which must necessarily spring therefrom, we can 

 give such an impulse to manufactures as would considerably 

 Advance national progress, instead of throwing it back. 



Every man who ha])pens to remain in possession of his 

 sober senses, and is absolutely unbiassed by political considera- 

 tions, untainted by the sordid infhieuces of the Manchester 

 School, and unaffected by the glamour which economic " science " 

 casts over some of its students, knows perfectly well that all 

 these things, and more, cau be accomplished, and easily accom- 

 plished too, by the simple a])plication of common-sense methods. 

 He has no further inclination to listen to false teachers who 

 have already done immeasurable harm to the British people, and 

 who will surely in the end cause the economic destruction of the 

 ])ritisli Empire, unless the meretriciousness of their doctrines 

 be explained and exposed by the strenuous efforts of those who 

 have no purpose to serve, save to show the people how the 

 application of common-sense methods to this, as to everything 

 else in life, will serve them to far better purpose than listening 

 to the nonsensical farrago about the necessity of applying the 

 shifting laws of a slippery " science " to the simple require- 

 ments of everyday life. 



No Man derides IiEal Science 



^ No sane man would lightly deride the enormous benefits that 

 real science has bestowed upon the human race, nor would ho 

 deny the possibility of its application to many of life's affjiii's ; 

 ho would, on the contrary, be ready to admit that unless the 

 very latest discoveries in mechanical and other science be at 

 once applied to many of our industries they are apt to fall 

 behind the times and lose their place in the race. He would 

 not even stop at agricultural progression, but would frankly 

 admit that in agriculture, as in other pursuits, the industry 

 must be equipped and brought up-to-date by the application 

 of the latest scientific discoveries in practical agriculture. There, 

 however, he would draw a hard-and-fast line, beyond which his 

 sanity would not permit him to go. For example — 



(«) He would not admit for a single moment that there 

 are two opinions as to whether the people of this 

 country, or that, should, or should not, cultivate 

 their lands. 



2 B 



