312 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



of St. Petersburg, and will soon bring us within ten 

 days of New York. A larger stretch of coast, in pro- 

 portion to our population and the superficies of our 

 soil, than is possessed by any other nation, ensures 

 for us maritime superiority and force. Coal and iron, 

 the nerves of industry, give our manufacturers great 

 advantages over those of our rivals. Our capital 

 exceeds that of which they dispose. In inventive 

 power, in skill, and in energy we are second to none. 

 Our national character, the free institutions under 

 which we live, our liberty of thought and action, an 

 unfettered press, which rapidly spreads abroad dis- 

 coveries and progress all this places us at the head 

 of the nations which naturally develop by the free 

 exchange of their produce. Is this the country to 

 dread trade, a country which can only prosper in the 

 artificial atmosphere of prohibition ? Choose your 

 motto, " Advance," or "Go back" ?' 



" It was on March 27th, 1846, that Sir Eobert Peel 

 made this speech, and when the Free Trade Bill 

 subsequently came back to the House of Commons, 

 having been passed by the House of Lords, he added : 



u 'The name which must and will be placed at the 

 head of this achievement is not that of the noble lord 

 (Lord John Eussell) who leads the party which has 

 voted with us, nor my name ; it is the name of one 

 who, by the purity of his motives and his indefatig- 

 able energy, has appealed to the reason of us all, and 

 who has compelled us to listen to him by force of an 



