TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 159 



sided over by Mr. Fonblauque, the statistics of trade have formed the basis of a 

 large field of economical reasoning. They guided Huskisson, Peel, Graham, and 

 Gladstone in legislation, by showing the exact effects of rates of duty on the 

 revenue, and on the property of the coimtry. Yes, the statistics of Deacon Hume, 

 of Porter, of Tooke, ot Newmarch, of Wilson, of M'GuUoch, and of our blue 

 books, have accelerated the march of free trade, and banished Protection from the 

 shores of England. Statistics, pm-suiug her through the world, are demonstrating 

 her disastrous influences in every land. Figures show, year after year, that every 

 country which isolates itself from mankind by prohibition, no matter what may be 

 the natm-al riches of its soil and climate, withers under the influences of protective 

 tariffs. The people out of the open air of competition grow idle and weak. The 

 imports of 1861 (in England) were of the value of 217 millions sterling, and the 

 exports of 160 millions, including 35 millions of foreign and colonial merchandise ; 

 the revenue was £70,600,000, and exceeded the expenditure. What do the sta- 

 tistics of Austria show us ? Why in 1861-62 her total imports were 22 millions 

 sterling, her exports 34 millions ; her revenue 40 millions, her expenditure 51 mil- 

 lions ; and as a consequence her debt is accunmlating in geometric progression ; 

 her credit is low, and her paper is depreciated. This magnificent empire, of 36 

 millions of the finest races of Europe, ^vith minerals in the Garpathiaiis, Bohemia, 

 and the Alps, with 64 million hectars of land stretching over the rich plains ou the 

 Upper Elbe and the Danube, is thus crippled by a good Emperor and a patriotic 

 Chamber, on the speculation that certain manufactures will prosper ultimately in 

 Austria if they are nursed and encouraged at the expense of the nation for some 

 indefinite time. 



France has been drawn towards free trade by statistics ; her exports are 123 mil- 

 lions sterling in value; and by the de'Nelopment of her resources, she does not yet 

 falter under an annual expenditure of 83 millions sterling. 



Spain, which has broken the chains of the Inquisition, is still in the fetters of 

 protection, that is, still makes her people pay dear for goods to satisfy their wants ; 

 her imports are of the value of only 15 millions sterling, her revenue is only 20 

 millions, and she is unable to pay her debts, so that she is without the legitimate 

 credit which a nation containing many men of the nicest honour can justly claim. 



The United States' statistics offer the saddest illustration of the effects of levy- 

 ing protective duties; their imports (1860-61) were 67 millions sterling; their 

 revenue was 10 millions in 1861-62, exclusive of loans, and their expenditure, it is 

 said, was 114 millions ; and higher rates of import duties on the class of articles 

 manufactured in New England will necessarily reduce the amount of revenue. The 

 present war was kindled by combustible materials, of which protective duties form 

 no insignificant item. 



The statistical argument in favour of free ti-ade is accumulating : it gains fresh 

 force in eveiy table, and will in the end lead all nations to exchange their products 

 freely. 



Another thing statistics does ; it enables Governments to coimt the cost of war, 

 and to weigh its results against its expenses. 



There can be no doubt that statistics, by disclosing the laws of life and repro- 

 duction, tends to improve the health and mornl condition of the people, to point 

 out the causes of disease, and to prove so plainly the utility of sanitary measm'es, 

 that the people become willing to pay the expenses. In England the Registrar- 

 General has, during twenty-seven years, shown how much the public health is 

 deteriorated by destructive causes ; so in our towns they are in the cour.se of re- 

 moval ; the Registrar-General of Scotland and Dr. Stark have lately done the same 

 there, and in the present year the Registrar-General of Ireland and Dr. Burke, fol- 

 lowing Sir William Wilde, have entered the field. Our anny has been invigorated 

 by statistics ; and the Commission over which Lord Herbei-t first, and after his 

 death. Lord Stanley so ably presided, has proposed to endow India with the sani- 

 tary institutions of England. Under the eminent man who now governs India, the 

 English race, which has hitherto languished in that paradise, will, we may hope, 

 taste the fruits of the tree of life, and perpetuate itself in the tropics among the 

 natives who also descend from the original Aryan stock. 



Statistics, it must be confessed, has done little for mankind yet, in compaiison 



