An essay on the best way of developing improved political and commercial relations between Great Britain and the United States of America
^5 *A ', " ^^^ .^S^r #; % If «. 9i ^ 1^ ran^'-' 'V ,^-': •- C"^ m.7^,- '<7^. '"*. • v4 ^IBS J«^. ^ l#€v •^^fc^/ " ;*»^j ''-«*: l'^-*.-(< L I E) RARY OF THE UN IVER5ITY OY ILLI NOIS ESSAY. '^xtmxinimx Copg. AN ESSAY ON THE BEST WAY OF DEVELOPING I MP ROVE J) POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. By JOSHUA LEAVITT, D.D., OF NEW YORK. MACMILLAN AND CO. 1869. LONDON : R CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. PREFATORY NOTE. In the month of March 1868, the Committee of the Cobden Club resolved that a Gold Medal should be presented by the Club annually for the best Essay on some public question with which Mr. Cobden's political career had been identified ; and the subject chosen for the year 1868 was, ** On the best way of developing improved political and commercial rela- tions between Great Britain and the United States of America." The following Essay, being that to which the prize (for 1868) was awarded, is published by the Committee, in accordance with the conditions of competition. For the particular statements and views contained in it the Author is alone responsible. London, March 1869. , UIUC "1 ESSAY. These two great Protestant nations, sprung of the same stock, and identical in language, religion, and jurisprudence, have the greatest possible interest in the continuance of mutual good-will. Being so nearly alike in the principal elements of national character, and so nearly equal in all that constitutes national greatness, no other two nations can do so much by mutual friendship to build each other up ; and no other tw^o nations can do so much to injure and degrade each other. And there is hardly a possibilit}' that either should benefit itself by the other's ruin. Having the lead of all nations in many elements of the highest civilization, no other two nations can do so much to extend the influence of their common principles. Our systems of religion, of law, and policy are calculated to diffuse over the whole earth the bless- ings we enjoy, and would unite all nations in relations of amity and commerce. And these, if continued, would eventually make peace and prosperity, liberty and refinement, the common property of all mankind. Nations are but larger families ; only there is this 8 ESSAV. difference, that families acknowledge their subjection to the government of the State, while nations know no superior but God. Some light may be thrown upon the subject before us by looking at the relations of a couple of neigh- bouring families. We will suppose them to be of the same lineage, but independent of each other, and therefore equal before the law. Let one be of modern growth, but intelligent, ambitious, and enterprising, with an immense and compact domain, of vast resources, and rapidly rising in all that constitutes true worth and dignity; — the other, with a still wider domain, but circum- scribed in a homestead, having vast accumulations of wealth, and ennobled with the highest titles achieved through a history of a thousand years. In what way are the most friendly relations to be developed and preserved between two such families ? We shall have to provide against the influence of mutual rivalries, the intrigues of mutual enemies, and the errors and wrongs inseparable from poor human nature. The success of our experiment will depend upon the full and constant recognition of two facts : first, that the families are wholly distinct — that they are two, and not one ; and, secondly, that for all the purposes of this inquiry they are to be regarded as on equal ground. No assumptions of superiority in the one, no admissions of inferiority in the other, are allowable, because, by the supposition, each is as independent as the other; and each in its voluntary relations is subject only to its own will. Practically, ESS A V. 9 of course, the lead will be taken by the older family, as to the manner and form of mutual intercourse. Comity consists in mutual concession, and conces- sion comes with grace from those who have in some sense the advantage. Advances which would be courtesy in one would be servility in the other. The terms of intercourse, the degree of familiarity, the frequency and intimacy of visits, the multiplication of common pursuits and interests, the line between familiarity and reserve, would be regulated by the wishes of the older family. Many things can be accepted when given, which yet cannot be asked for without a loss of self-respect. And it is only by the happy union of mutual esteem with unwounded self-esteem that intercourse between equals becomes productive of lasting friendship. Wisdom and se]f- control are required as well to refrain from taking, as to avoid giving, offence. Only intentional wrong ought to be resented, and then with seriousness only corresponding to the evident malignity of the inten- tion. A manly and sincere spirit will dismiss a thousand trifling incidents with, " What is that be- tween me and thee.-^" The chief interests of a family in which the family life consists, are its own, and by the instinct of self- preservation are devolved upon its own care for their preservation ; and nothing pertaining thereto which is not plainly unjust, ought to be taken in an offensive sense. If I strengthen the fences around my own fields, it is not for my neighbour to inquire whether it is to lo ESSA V. keep my cattle from spoiling his crops, or to keep his cattle from devouring my harvest. There are but few cases, even between the nearest relations, where good neighbourhood is not best perpetuated by the habit of interchanging visits through the street door, and with the forms of ordinary politeness, rather than by " running in " through a postern-gate across the garden. The frequent and easy interchange of ordinary civilities, as well as positive acts of kindness, should have every facility on both sides, and yet never be made obtrusive or burdensome. There is no obliga- tion, even of friendship, requiring one family to adopt the manners or copy the forms of another, in things either small or great. It is essential to the mutuality of courtesy that its forms be spontaneous and free. Short settlements make long friendships. The frequent balancing of accounts in business is a sure preventive of incurable alienations. And in cases of actual misunderstanding, all the manuals of , good manners ever written contain nothing so complete as the simple rule of Christian ethics — " If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Personal and prompt explanations between the parties, without any communication with others, would settle the greater part of the obstinate quarrels which disgrace civilized society. The frequency and familiarity of intercourse be- tween families for business or friendship can be regu- lated only by a judicious regard to the conditions ESSAY. II of both, and can neither be exacted nor restricted at the mere pleasure of one. Yet the increase of friendly relations depends upon the freedom and familiarity of mutual intercourse, and the constant interchange of offices of kindness, within the limits of common sense and sincere good-will. Two families thus living as neighbours and friends through a course of years, could not but grow more alike in many things, while some peculiar characteristics of each might appear more marked and distinct. As, in mathematical problems, the asymptote is described as a line which *' always approaches without ever meeting its curve," in like manner two families, or two persons, in process of the highest culture, under the influence of the firmest friendship, would continually assimilate to each other, without ever becoming iden- tical. It is not necessary to point the application to the case of these two distinct and kindred nations. The parable presents the outline of that free and volun- tary intercourse of courtesy and kind offices,'by which alone "improved commercial and political relations " between them would grow and develope themselves. Such causes produce their effects, independently alike of formal compacts and of governmental regulations, but in a way to give shape and direction both to treaties and laws. Nations as such do not visit each other. Their mutual intercourse and relations are maintained through the personal visits of individuals, the interchanges of thought by means of the post- office and the press, the operations of diplomacy, and the exchange of commodities in trade. Leaving 12 ESSAY. emigration out of the case, it is supposed that one hundred Americans visit England, where one Enghsh- man visits America, either for purposes of trade .or for pleasure and improvement. The reasons for this disparity are too many to be recounted, and are almost as various as the inclina- tions of individuals. The great increase of such intercourse must be a vital element in the " improved political and commercial relations " of the future. Those who have the most to learn, and those who are most eager to see and know, will be the most eager to go ; while those who furnish the most to be seen, or who take most pains to entertain and gratify strangers, will naturally attract the greatest number of visitors. Those who go to see, and to learn, and to enjoy, will be best welcomed and most gratified ; while those who go to criticise, to find fault, to scan- dalize, or to gratify a sour and selfish egotism, will see all things with jaundiced eyes. Either way, a large part of the mutual knowledge and interest between these two countries is produced by the interchange of personal visits. Seeing is believing. The places which we have ourselves visited, the ground which we have ourselves traversed, the persons whom we have ourselves seen and conversed with, are fixed in our minds, in all their qualities and proportions, and seem to us as interesting subjects of thought, in a far more vivid manner than is possible for that of which we have only read in books. They lose much who volun- tarily neglect opportunities which they might enjoy, of expanding their affections beyond their national i ESSAY. 13 boundaries, and of crossing wide oceans into distant continents. Both the pleasure and the profit of travel depend much upon the spirit of candour and courtesy with which we make our observations. We should remem- ber that differences are not necessarily preferences. Diversity is the law of creation ; its universality is one of the highest evidences of the wisdom of the Creator. Diversities are the most marked where there is the highest cultivation. It is only through diversities that society becomes possible. Mutual intercourse and regard are enriched and heightened in proportion as natural diversities are enhanced and refined by culture. It is by our differences that we become most valuable to each other, and contribute most to the common stock of enjoyment and im- provement. Both national and personal idiosyncrasies are chiefly matters of growth rather than of arbitrary choice or production. Like the shell to the body of the fish, they fit exactly in proportion as they have grown without obstruction. It does not follow, because my way is different from yours in any par- ticulars, that it is therefore either better or worse than yours. Yours may be the best for you, as mine for me, and is entitled to the same candour and respect which I naturally desire in return. There is no philosophy and no refinement in life above the Golden Rule : " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." When Americans go to England, they go to see Englishmen ; and when Englishmen go to Ame- 14 ESSA Y. rica, they go to see Americans, and should expect to find that Americans are hke themselves and unlike Englishmen. If they were exactly alike, they would not be two, but one ; and it is because they are unlike in circum- stance and inclination that they are two, and not one. It is natural and necessary that both laws and manners should be different, in a monarchy and a republic ; in an old country and a new ; in a nation laden with the wealthy accumulations of many cen- turies, and one whose disposable capital is not yet sufficient for the development of its own resources. A country in which primogeniture, the aggrandize- ment of families, and the permanent distinction of classes are leading features of social organization, and another which bases its national life upon the senti- ment that all men are created equal, and have equal rights in all that constitutes individual life and de- velopment, cannot but grow more and more unlike in many things, in which neither could become like the other but by a forced imitation, alike unnatural and prejudicial. The degree both of likeness and unlikeness which the future development of ami- cable relations is to produce, is not a matter of calculation. The whole remaining problem is bound up in one word — Commerce ; the interchange of thought and knowledge through the press and the post, and the interchange of commodities by trade. And commerce is governed, as to its extent, mainly by price. So that whatever enhances the cost of the interchange, i ESSAY. 15 obstructs its flow, and lessens its volume ; and to the same degree diminishes its benefits. To obstruct the free flow of knowledge from country to country intentionally, through fear of social or political danger from the largest accessions of know- ledge, is a barbarism no longer to be apprehended. In a popular government, such as each country enjoys, intelligence is universally recognised as the safeguard of liberty. Everything which cheapens the cost of paper, and books, and newspapers, favours the difl"usion of knowledge. And everything that en- hances their cost is to be looked upon as a direct obstruction to this great object. To impose a tax on books and paper, either for revenue or for the pro- tection of material interests, is to increase the cost of the difl'usion of knowledge, and thus to sacrifice the greater good to the less. To subordinate the intellectual and moral interests of a great people — of two peoples — to the needs or the greeds of a small class, is so unstatesmanlike, that it must surely give way before an enlightened public opinion the moment the subject is fairly understood. The interchange of thought and knowledge ought to be as free and universal between the two countries, as between two counties of the same country. Let people weigh the principles and compare the ideas of each, until all their joint stock of knowledge and literature shall become the common property of both, and until that alone shall be accepted as true which can stand the unrestricted scrutiny of all. When the people of these two nations shall all read freely the 1 6 ESSAY. same books, and when the audience of both English and American authors shall be the whole English- speaking public throughout the world, the petty jealousies, the trivial misapprehensions, the unhappy distrusts, which dishonour the intelligence of the age, will be known no more. And the two nations will necessarily think alike, precisely in proportion as they think justly. The proposed international copyright has an im- portant bearing in this connexion. The object of this copyright is to give to the authors of books, or their assigns, the exclusive right of publication in both countries, in order to keep up the price in both. That this enhancement of the price in one country, of books produced in the other, will have a tendency to limit the mutual circulation of current literature, will not be questioned. Whether the proper encouragement of authors requires this to be done, is the point which the two governments should first settle. Copyright does not exist, except as created by law", for it begins only when the steps are taken which the law prescribes, and it continues only so long as the law extends it. There is, therefore, no national right involved. A man's thoughts are his own, only so long as he keeps them to himself. When he has uttered them, they become the thoughts of all who receive them, and who thenceforth use them at pleasure. The title to a thought by original invention is no better than the title to an asteroid by original discovery. The cloth- ing of a man's thoughts in language no more entitles ESS A V. 17 him to their exclusive publication, after they are gone forth to the public, than a man's careful study of the clothing- of his person entitles him to forbid the imitation of his garb and gait as he walks the streets. The law creates copyright on the assumption that the public good will be promoted by the encourage- ment thus granted to authors to publish their works. The same law limits copyright as to its duration and extent, because the public good forbids the existence of a power to perpetuate the high price of books. What a drawback it would have been upon the circu- lation and influence of English literature if the law had invested the heirs of Shakespeare, of Bacon, of Milton, with a perpetual copyright in their immortal works ! The only proper question in the case relates to the sufficiency of the present encouragement •to authors, by the exclusive possession of such a market for their books as is afforded by either one of these two nations. It is only a £'ood book, in the intellectual sense, that deserves encouragement from the Govern- ment. And it is only 3i £-ood hook, in the commercial sense, that is capable of being benefited by copyright. A very large majority of the books that are published never sell at all beyond the first edition ; and the exclusive benefit of the first edition is in most cases sufficiently secured by priority in the market. Of the comparatively small number of books in either country which run through many editions, the product of money to their authors is now extremely liberal. Many of the makers of such books are able to live in handsome independence on the fruits of B 1 8 ESSAY. their labours, such as is rarely attained by those of equal ability, either in the professions or in the public service. These high literary prizes are already a strong inducement to others to try their fortune in the field of literary adventure, as is seen by the mul- titude of books which fall still-born from the press, because they do not possess the qualities for which the people purchase books. It can hardly be maintained that authorship, con- sidered either as an industry or as an -intellectual profession, is not as well protected and encouraged in proportion to the usefulness of its products, as any other human pursuit. The pecuniary return realized from their publications is neither the only nor chief encouragement by which authors of merit are induced to publish their works. The good they may do to mankind, the reputation they may acquire, and the satisfaction of seeing their thoughts widely diffused and received, and made a part of the mental wealth of their country and age, outweigh a thousandfold, to an enlarged and generous mind, the value of the material silver and gold yielded by their copyright. And it cannot be doubted that these higher returns are directly increased by the freedom of publication unrestricted by copyright ; because cheapness of price, and variety in the forms of publication, are prime elements in the widest circulation of books. The reputation gained by Dickens and Thackeray and Tennyson, by the boundless circulation of their books in America, has powerfully reacted upon their position in their own country, in ways which no ESS A Y. 19 amount of money received for copyright could ever have equalled. The same is true of many American authors, whose standing and satisfaction are mightily enhanced by the circulation of their works in England, solely through the freedom of the reprint. It is impossible to exaggerate the value of this inter- national exchange of ideas through the medium of books, as a means of that general assimilation of thought and life, which is the highest guaranty of political and commercial intercourse, and permanent friendship between the two countries. While each nation, for the most part, buries its own literary trash, and each retains the exclusive circulation of books adapted specially to its own use, the whole volume of the best thoughts of one country have now their widest diffusion through their freedom of publication in the other. And as this goes on from age to age, always increasing as it advances, the minds of both nations will come to be fed chiefly upon the same food, until they grow alike in all the great qualities of national life. The two countries have a valuable modern expe- rience as to the influence of cheap postage, in hasten- ing the process of assimilation among a people, as well as in greatly promoting the general advancement of civilization. And yet neither Government appears to have entertained the idea of extending the applica- tion of the same principles to ocean postage. It has happened unfortunately, for reasons not necessary to be now considered, that the Government of the United States, in cheapening their rates of inland postage, B 2 20 ESS A V. have never hit upon a complete system. Having estabhshed a rate higher by fifty per cent, than the English postage, they have been compelled to admit a number of variations for special classes, which de- stroyed the uniformity of rate, and the simplicity in the details of arrangement, so essential to the success of cheap postage. Until it shall adopt the funda- mental principles of uniformity in rate, simplicity in arrangement, and beneficence in spirit, its attempts at reform in ocean postage would fail of the success which a better system would surely attain. The English system of cheap postage, on the other hand, came full orbed from the brain of Sir Rowland Hill ; purely scientific in its principles, complete in its details, beneficent in its plans, and successful in its operations. It is, beyond a question, the most perfect piece of governmental machinery that was ever invented. It presents the Government to the people, in daily contact with their business and their happiness, but always in the aspect of a benefactor, giving benefits of inestimable value, and exacting but a penny in return. An English statesman, not now living, Mr. Richard Cobden, in conversation with the writer in 1843, bore the strongest testimony in its favour, in the opinion expressed, that the introduction of cheap postage had rendered a violent revolution for the overthrow of the Government in England for ever impracticable. By the facilities which it affords for bringing the people all over the country, and of all classes, into ESS A Y. 21 mutual acquaintance and sympathy, and into the knowledge of each other's wants and wishes and plans, it lends such unity and force to public opinion that all needed reforms can be effected, one after another, by the demonstrated will of the people, without violence or revolution. A quarter of a century has passed, and he has not yet proved a false prophet. It is a curious phenomenon in political philosophy, that in thirty years which have passed since the publication of Sir Rowland Hill's pamphlet, and with all the experience by which his method has shown itself to be as perfect in operation as it is scientific in theory, no attempt has yet been made to apply its beneficent and irrefragable principles to the postage of letters sent by sea. There is no reason in .the nature of the two services why the same method should not be adopted at sea as on land, and with the same satisfactory results — all good, and no evil. The cost of transportation of letters, which sug- gests itself at first blush as the great obstacle to cheap postage, was demonstrated by Sir Rowland Hill to be a mere insignificant portion, two-ninths of a farthing for a single letter, too small to be stated in money. And even this, it was shown, would be diminished in inverse proportion as the number of letters was increased. The cost to the Government arises from other sources, which he classed together as " Management." And this cost of management is chiefly in sending, running and receiving the mails, and is, therefore, nearly independent of the number 22 ESSA V. of letters. Consequently the cost is increased in only a very small proportion as the number of letters is increased. Hence it is that the net income of the constantly increasing gross amount of British postage has con- stantly advanced until it has surpassed the expendi- ture of the Post Office, so that the actual cost to the Government of letter postage in Great Britain is now less than a halfpenny. Why should not the manage- ment be just as simple, and the transportation just as cheap, by sea as on land ? The freight of a barrel of flour from New York to Liverpool costs from two to four shillings sterling, that is, from half a dollar to one dollar in American money. Its weight is two hundred pounds, equal to six thousand four hundred half-ounce letters, the postage on which, at a penny, would be £26 1 3^-. The actual contrast is still more striking, by the fact that the average weight of single letters is less than a quarter of an ounce ; so that the barrel of flour weighs as much as 12,800 letters, the postage of which would be about fifty pounds sterling. We may make all rea- sonable allowance for the bulkiness of letters, as compared with barrels of flour, but if we reckon them as " measurement goods," the actual cost of the transportation of a single letter will not exceed one- third of a mill, or about sixty-four thousandths of a farthing. The mails at sea would be much less exposed to injury or depredation than on land, and the whole management is more simple and less ex- pensive. If either Government finds it expedient, ESSA V. 23 for reasons of its own, to subsidize lines of mail steamers with large gifts of money for carrying the mails, those reasons are governmental in their nature rather than postal, and this expense is not properly charged to letter postage. As far as postage proper is concerned, there is nothing to hinder the placing of the ocean mails upon precisely the same footing with the inland mails. As the United States have now no steamers plying between the two countries, the whole matter rests at present with the Govern- ment of Great Britain. And the reasons which prevent its adoption will be such as influence the determinations of that Government alone. But the greatest civilizer and assimilator of nations is Commerce. 34 ESS A V. By the very structure of the world, by the unchange- able conformations of continents and seas, by the diversities of soil and climate and production, and by the inherent distinctions among men in regard to their preferences and capacities, the Creator has clearly manifested His design that the human race should depend upon the mutual exchange of com- modities for its highest gratifications and develop- ments. It is only in quite modern times that commerce has begun to produce its highest benefits ; and even now its capability of promoting the welfare of man- kind is only partially displayed. In proportion as religion has softened the rugged features of society, and thus allowed the dictates of humanity a wider scope and greater influence, commerce has at once grown more free, and at the same time has regulated itself more by the rules of reciprocal justice. Science, also, has analysed its principles, and given to it the guidance of intelligent reason. From the days of Adam Smith, philosophers at least have understood that trade is by its very nature an interchange of benefits. Each party gives that which he values less, and receives in exchange that which he values more, and thus both are enriched by the process. Without trade, there could be no riches. A man might dig diamonds from a mine, and if he could not sell them he would starve in poverty. A community may fill itself to overflowing with its own productions, and yet remain poor and barbarous as to the blessings which wealth confers, until it opens its doors to exchange the hitherto worthless contents of its storehouses for ESS A V. 25 the precious products of other climes. As all such interchange is voluntary, it follows that freedom is an essential element of commerce. Trade is trade only so far as it is free, because the choice of the will is only choice so long as it is free. The interferences of power to restrict trade are, like the interpositions of force in opposition to free-will, mechanical and obstructive in their nature, and oppressive in their operation, except where justified by some higher extraneous reason. From the days of the old Romans, who used the same word to designate an enemy and a stranger, it seems to have been a prevalent idea in Europe that hostility was the most essential element of national life, and that nations existed chiefly to distrust and depress, or to injure and destroy other nations. It seemed to be accepted as a fundamental axiom of statesmanship, that no nation could enrich and elevate itself but at the expense of its neighbours. The nearest countries as to locality were regarded as most essentially and constantly " natural enemies." The sorrowful poet Cowper wrote truth as well as poetry when he sung— " Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other. Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else, Like kindred drops, been mingled into one." Tasl', Book ii. The concurrent growth of commerce and civilization in the fourscore years that have elapsed shows that 26 ESS A V. the poet was also a prophet, when he speaks of com- merce as the necessary remedy — " Sure there is need of social intercourse, Benevolence and peace, and mutual aid, Between the nations, in a world that seems To toll the death-bell of its own decease, And by the voice of all its elements To preach the general doom." In the face of the vast and ruinous military prepa- rations of most of the countries in Europe, and the failure of all negotiations for disarmament, it is yet an unquestionable fact, that the political and com- mercial relations of those countries to each other have been wonderfully ameliorated, and that the increase of commerce among them is at once a principal cause and an accurate measure of this great improvement. Commerce, in proportion as it has become more free, has extended itself more and more widely, and everywhere encouraged a more varied and productive industry, which in its turn furnishes more abundant material for the operations of commerce, until the conviction has become general among civi- lized nations, that the trade of a country in peace is worth more than its spoils in war. And even in cases where the arbitrament of war cannot be avoided, although the improvements in the military art make war appear more terrific in its display, so great is the supporting and healing efficacy of modern commerce, that nations suffer less and recover more quickly, under the inflictions of war^j than they did a hundred years ago. ESSA V. 27 In the former ages, the right of trade was regarded as a privilege, to be conceded as a boon, or prohibited as a penalty ; granted with condescension, or refused in anger. As each nation believed that it could enrich itself by trade only through the impoverishment of its neighbour, and could enrich its neighbour by trade only in proportion as it impoverished itself, the regu- lation of international commerce became a subject of the profoundest study of statesmen and scholars, endeavouring to discover in what way a government could most advance the interests of one country, while conferring the smallest benefits or inflicting the greatest injury upon another. Like all struggles against the beneficent laws of social life established by the Creator, these narrow schemes perpetually frustrated themselves. And wherever they were reciprocally pursued, their results of mutual impoverishment or open hostility showed that restrictions upon trade are in their nature identical with war, which is only a trial between nations to see which can do the other most harm. As the commerce between neighbouring nations increased, it was found out, especially by English statesmen, that the same policy of commercial restriction through the taxing of foreign products, which had been originally introduced for purposes of hostility or national rivalry, could be made to subserve the further object of encouraging the production of articles at home, which would other- wise be imported from abroad. Hence protective duties on foreign products came to be employed as a substitute for governmental 28 ESS A V. bounties on home products, as the means of promoting that diversity of industrial pursuits which is so neces- sary an ingredient in national prosperity. This protective policy is essentially of British origin, or, at least, has been followed out by the British Government, until a recent period, in the most com- prehensive manner. The operation of the protective policy is to help domestic industry by making foreign products dear, while the bounty policy aims at the same result by making domestic products cheap. The one aims at high prices, the other at low prices. The fact was lost sight of, that the artificial raising of prices, if long continued, inevitably spreads itself over all branches of industry, enhances the cost of living and the wages of labour, and thus neutralizes its effect. This compels a further advance of protective duties, issuing again in a similar equilibrium of prices, calling for further imposts. The great increase and diffusion of wealth in modern commercial nations permitted this policy to be pursued for a long time, notwithstanding its obvious tendency everywhere to make the poor poorer, while it made the rich richer. But there must come a limit beyond which the alternate elevation of the wages of labour and the cost of subsistence cannot be extended, and then the protective policy breaks down, and must be laid aside. And with this comes in the practical adoption of the true economical philosophy, that the interests of nations are mutual and not antago- nistic, which teaches that each one grows in wealth by the advancement of its neighbour ; that the impover- ESSA V. 29 ishment of a nation destroys the value of its trade, and thus impairs the prosperity of its neighbours ; that the highest possible prosperity of a country depends upon the greatest possible extension of its commerce, which is best promoted by the utmost degree of freedom in trade ; and that the diversifica- tion of productive industries rests on the surest foun- dations when allowed its natural growth, under the influence of increasing commerce, advancing intelli- gence, unlimited freedom of labour, and the highest assurance of the enjoyment of its products. And this is also demonstrating, in practice, that the continuance of the entente cordiale between nations long supposed to be necessary rivals, if not natural enemies, is most sure to be permanent, when it is upheld by the freest interchange of their respective products. • All Europe is now falling gradually into this new system of policy, the nations most advanced in free- dom and intelligence taking the lead. The Govern- ment of the United States still adheres to the protec- tive policy, in all its bearings and proportions, with the utmost tenacity, and is thus far supported by the apparent consent of the great body of the people of that country. The fact is certain, and if fully ex- amined is less to be wondered at than regretted. That a body of English emigrants, going to found an English colony, having English laws and habits, and carrying with them only English ideas and literature, should, on setting up for themselves, fall spontaneously into the adoption of English methods of policy, in regard to most things not actually involved in the 30 ESS A V. process of separation, would be anticipated as philo- sophically as it has been realized historically. Mr. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States under the Con- stitution, in his first report on finance, proposed the encouragement of domestic manufactures as one of the leading objects to be aimed at in legislation. And the first Congress of the present Government incor- porated this idea by express words in its first act, laying duties on foreign goods. By the greater num- ber of American statesmen and financiers this idea has been received, without a serious question of its soundness, to this day. In all the incessant fluctua- tions of the tariff, the changes have been only in degree, and not in principle. In all the strifes of parties, they have started with the common axiom of " duties for revenue, with incidental protection." Of late a few extremists have almost ventured to proclaim the doctrine that duties ought to be laid with reference to protection chiefly, even if their efl"ect should be a diminution of revenue. Their plain utterance would be, " Duties for pro- tection, with incidental revenue." It is safe to say that the system has reached its acme in the United States, and that any future changes in the tariff will be in the other direction. The need of revenue to meet the exigencies of the public debt, the general embarrassment arising from the continu- ance of exorbitant prices, the vigour with which the true principles of political economy are now urged upon the public mind, and the obvious interest of ESS A Y. 31 the country in the restoration and expansion of its commerce, cannot but extend the conviction, already adopted by large numbers of the ablest thinkers and most learned scholars of the country, that the pro- tective policy has already been carried too far, and that the future prosperity of the people depends now upon a rapid change towards the policy of Free Trade. The common sophistries by which the Pro- tective policy justifies itself are only the gloss by which it is apologized for and made presentable in the arena of public opinion. A more careful exami- nation of the facts will show that its vital principle is to be found in the idea of national antagonism which is discussed in the preceding paragraphs. No current argument in its favour would be considered complete, no popular presentation of it would be found p^- suasive enough to satisfy the body of the American people, unless it was vitalized with the idea that it is both necessary and right to protect the labouring classes of the country against the ruinous competition of " the pauper labour of Europe." That is the opprobrious term employed by the Protectionist press of America to describe the indus- trial classes of the parent countries of their own population. But the labouring classes in America are already beginning to see that they have only a choice of competitions ; for the facilities of crossing the ocean are now such, that the labouring classes of both Europe and Asia can easily transfer the field of competition to the American soil, so that all they can gain by their Protective tariff, if it is continued a 32 ESSA V. length of time, is the privilege of paying exorbitant prices for their subsistence, while the capitalist gets the lion's share of the benefits. But the selfish expectation of building up their own manufacturing interests by destroying those of their European neighbours, with the satisfaction of pam- pering their own labourers by starving their kindred in Europe, is still insufficient to give political popu- larity to the protective system, such as will secure its permanent continuance. The appeal is made to what is supposed, by superficial thinkers, to be the over- mastering passion of the American people, by holding forth the protective policy as a weapon of special power to injure the British nation. The supposed traditional hatred of England handed down from the American revolution is chafed and exasperated by representations designed to create the belief that the British commercial policy is always governed by the single aim to destroy American manufactures. And no man of prominence in America can support even a partial relaxation of the rigours of Protection without bringing upon himself the stigma of being a partisan, and probably a pensioner, of " British Free Trade." The persistence and vehemence with which these representations are urged attest the consciousness of the Protection advocates that their cause cannot be maintained among their own people unless the belief is propagated that high duties are a weapon of special force to injure Great Britain. If the tariff would inflict serious injury only upon Germany, the German citizens have already too much political influence to ESS A v. 33 allow hatred of Germany to be aroused and appealed to in favour of any measure of policy in America. If it were only France that was concerned, no American statesman would venture to propose the infliction of injury upon France in face of the strong national sympathies with France which have come down from the days of Independence. The protective policy cannot stand in America, by the admission of its advocates, except as it is deemed an expression of hostility against England. But for these representa- tions it would begin to be abandoned before the close of the present administration. So long as it is con- tinued it will remain an expression of unabated and unalterable hostility, in the face of which it is in vain to expect any considerable amelioration in the political and commercial relations of the t\^io countries. The circle of topics belonging to this discussion cannot be completed without a brief reference to the Dominion of Canada, in its bearing upon the relations between the two countries. It is impossible to wink out of view. the fact, that the present value of this possession, in the eyes of the British nation, has reference chiefly to the contingency of war with the United States. Since the adoption of Free Trade, the value of such a territory for its trade depends upon the condition of the people, and not at all on their political relations. The possession or the abandon- ment of Canada can have no perceivable bearing upon the relations between Great Britain and any European nation, unless it might possibly, in some c 34 ESS A Y. contingency, become a means of involving the United States in some entangling alliance with a European power at war with England. 