474 On Technical Education. [August, 
balance is largely against us. No just comparison, in my 
opinion, can be instituted between the three countries ; they 
are unlike in all essential conditions, — unlike in race, unlike 
in industrial resources, and in almost every commercial and 
manufacturing aspect. 
The United States are more exactly comparable — whether 
as regards race, raw materials, commerce, or manufactures — 
with England than the countries Mr. Mulhall has selected 
for comparison. And the balance of trade is now in her 
favour : the exports were 31 per cent in 1880 over her im- 
ports. The consumption of raw material in that country rose 
404 million lbs. against 468 millions in Great Britain ; but 
the United States grew 95 per cent of theirs, whilst we had 
to import 93 per cent of all consumed in our factories. The 
manufacture of iron and steel has increased enormously in 
that country : the Americans now make one-fifth of the iron, 
and one-fourth of the steel of the world. The aCtual increase 
of American industry in the decade was 525 millions, whereas 
the maximum among European nations, that of Great 
Britain, was only 337 millions. And we had a national debt 
in 1880 amounting to 774 millions sterling, or £22 9 s. ratio 
per inhabitant ; whilst in the same year America had a 
national debt amounting to £390,100,000, or £7 13s. ratio 
per inhabitant. And our national and local expenditure has 
increased during the last decade 20 per cent, and our national 
expenditure increases yearly by an enormous sum. Well 
might the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Hon. 
Wm. Ewart Gladstone, heave a deep sigh, and wish there 
were now some Joseph Humes in the House of Commons to 
assist in checking these enormous yearly increases, when he 
had to announce that he estimated that the national ex- 
penditure this year would be eighty-five and a half millions. 
America has adopted free trade for agricultural produce, 
and will continue it, as she has nothing to fear from any 
other country in that branch of production ; but it is all but 
certain she will continue to be a protectionist, as regards 
manufactured goods, until she feels she has attained that 
perfection in this branch of industry that will enable her to 
compete with us successfully both in quality and price, and 
in this she is supported in her view, to a certain extent, by 
that late eminent practical economist John Stuart Mill. 
He states, in his “ Principles of Political Economy,” under 
the head of “ Protection to Native Industry,” — “ The only 
case in which, on mere principles of political economy, pro- 
tecting duties can be defensible, is when they are imposed 
temporarily (especially in a young and rising nation) in hopes 
