112 NOTES ON ECONOMICAL SCIENCE. 



them, never doubting but that our people can find enough to do pro- 

 fitably, and determined not to attempt controlling according to our 

 fancies the natural course of trade, or to force amongst ourselves any 

 kind of production, on any pretence, which cannot sustain itself 

 against fair competition. 



The part of the question which has now been discussed does not 

 appear to me to involve any serious difficulty, though there are strong 

 popular prejudices against the view I have taken, and many who 

 think themselves favourable to freedom of trade justify exclusion 

 against those who will not admit our produce, but it is when we 

 come to consider the general adaptation of our own tariff to our 

 present relations with our neighbours that some difficulty arises, not so 

 much I think from any obscurity hanging over the economical questions 

 as from other circumstances, which must be taken into account. If 

 I could see any course possible to be chosen by us which would 

 assist our neighbours in carrying out the policy they have chosen, 

 and, at the same time, lessen amongst ourselves the temptation to 

 the demoralizing and pernicious practice of smuggling, I should 

 earnestly recommend it, as on the whole to be preferred, even if 

 scarcely defensible on grounds of economical science. I fail to per- 

 ceive, however, how we could support the policy of our neighbours 

 unless by adopting nearly similar duties on imported articles, a thing 

 totally and ob"viously impossible, because those duties amount in 

 many cases nearly to prohibition, and we, requiring revenue from 

 our tariff to the greatest attainable extent, and having no desire to 

 force unprofitable production by the protection such duties would 

 afford ; being also bound by our strongest and dearest interests to 

 the British empire, and therefore incapable of intentionally prevent- 

 ing trade with it, have no choice but to arrange our duties so as 

 without sensibly checking consumption, to yield the necessary income. 

 We ought perhaps to lay a moderate duty on some articles recently 

 received free from the States, certainly we cannot consistently with 

 our obvious interests depart in other respects from the system we 

 have adopted, though we may possibly make that system more per- 

 fect. If two adjoining nations entertain widely different ideas of 

 what is right, just, and wise, the perseverance of 'each in its own 

 plan will in time show which is really most advantageous, thus 

 giving a lesson to the world. The United States has chosen the 

 policy of protection which its opponents believe to be authorised 



