204 ROOT MATTERS IN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. 



hands, and by legal facilities for land transfer ; and Mr. Lefevre 

 urges that England should follow her example. This matter 

 should receive the greatest attention at the hands of legislators 

 in these colonies, for mighty issues are at stake, socially and 

 politically. 



Can a Higher Gultctre be Maintained in any one 

 Country Without Regulating its Intercourse with 



OTHER EaCES of MeN IN A LoWER Pl^NE OP 



Civilisation ? 



There is still another difficulty to face, even if one en- 

 lightened country by providence had succeeded in adapting the 

 growth of that population to the means of subsistence. 



And this difficulty now presses hard upon the labourers of a 

 higher civilisation open by Free Trade to the competition of 

 the labour market of a lower or more degraded form of civili- 

 sation. The partial exclusion of cheap Chinese labour from 

 America and these colonies may, or may not, have been in 

 accord with the principle of Free Trade ; but it opens up a 

 grave subject. For if a higher culture could be enabled by pro- 

 vident moral or self-control to successfully grapple and overcome 

 the present enigmas of social science, how is it possible that such 

 a culture could be effectually preserved if it were open to be 

 disturbed by the cheap labour or the starvation price products 

 of other nations, who, by improvidence and lack of moral 

 control, were still sunk in the abyss of that wretchedness which 

 is due to over-population ? In this aspect I am humbly of 

 opinion the doctrines of Free Trade and Protection require 

 further consideration ; and it is with the hope that the reason- 

 able discussion of such matters may shed fresh light upon this 

 and related problems that I have had the courage to address 

 you upon these old, well-worn, but hitherto unsoluble difficul- 

 ties belonging to social and economic science. 



One thought impresses me not a little. It is this : All 

 truths that are painful are blindly and passionately resisted by 

 the majority, who also are ever proce to reward skill when it is 

 employed in opposing or obscuring what is hateful. It cannot 

 be hoped, therefore, that the warnings given with respect to 

 the danger that awaits rte in the near future will be much 

 heeded at present. The world's greatest intellects and genius 

 are, for the most part, su*pported in defending popular views ; 

 for it is not found to be a difficult matter for men of greatest 

 literary talent and skill to show, where complications abound, 

 that the true is false, and the false is true. Popular favour is a 

 terrible taskmaster, for she refuses bread to those who fail to 

 work her pleasure. I do not, therefore, undervalue the temp- 

 tation which ensnares the majority of able minds to continue 

 the defence of pleasant delusions, when these alone find a ready 

 market of exchange value. But the evil time draws too near 

 for delusive teaching. It is now necessary that those who 

 see the rocks ahead should speak out faithfully. 



