40 TIMEHRL. 
experiments would be fairly compensated, until the best 
process became familiar and easy of execution. A most 
important point would also be gained by the Legislature 
being bound to nothing, direétly or indire€tly, but the 
payment of the bounty for the limited period assigned, 
at the expiration of which it would be in possession of 
all the experience and information derived from the 
experiment, and at full liberty to continue, modify, or 
conclude it, as of due consideration might be deemed 
most desirable; no vested interests could possibly be 
created with power to embarrass the decision, and no 
individual could raise the shadow of a claim for compen- 
sation, under the plea of having embarked property 
in expensive pursuits on faith of legislative promises, 
subsequently broken. I am not aware of any bounty or 
protection having been granted by Government in the 
limited and restri€ted mode I have described. A measure 
analogous to it in principle, exists in the American 
Tariff of Duties on imported manufa€tures, which varied 
annually in a decreasing scale until 1842, when, by the 
letter of the aé&t in force, it assumes the form of a fixed and 
permanent proteétion. But no one acquainted with the 
charaéter of the people, or the spirit of their institutions, 
imagine that the progress of redu€tion will then cease, 
and this general impression is equivalent in its results to 
a positive provision in the present Aét of Congress for 
its continuance. New manufacturing establishment are, 
notwithstanding, rising in various parts of the Union, 
founded upon no idea of permanent legislative protec- 
tion, but upon a considerate calculation that, in a few 
years, they will be able alone and unassisted to support 
themselves; and in no instances whatever from the 
