MISCELLANEOUS. BULWER ON FREE-TRADE. [From the Britannia.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 572, 8 October 1851, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS. BULWER ON FREE-TRADE. [From the Britannia.]

Letters to John Bull, Esq., on affairs connected wilh 7us Landed Property, and the Persons who Live thereon. By Sir Edward Bur,wsn Lytton, Bart. Fourth Edition. London : Chapman and Hall. The political pamphlet, as distinguished from the mere party brochure, affords the best test of a writer's powers of stating facts with precision, and deducing conclusions with fairness. The celebrated novelist has put his long established reputation to the test, and come out of the ordeal with triumph, Without linking himself with any extreme section of party feeling, or denying to the leaders of the most opposed political parties the merit of believing in the opinions they advocate, he has exposed to the root the shifting sands on which the Free-ttade theories and assumed facts were founded, and put the claim of the Agriculturist to a fair and just protection on a sound and equitable basis. How trenchant his wic and sarcasm is, and how difficult his facts are of refutation or explanation may be well judged by the bitter criticisms of the Free-traders, and the hollow laugh and ghastly smile with which they seek to hide the sickening pain which the novelist's pen has produced. " Another such a victory," wrote the ministerial weekly journal, last week, in allusion to the memorable thii teen, and " the flag of Free-trade goes down." The pamphleteer has cut the halyards and the flag vainly clings to the mast. One by one the worthy Baronet attacks the Free-trade fallacies. "The question is settled," cries the Free-trader ; "it is tin fait accompli ; the lawis passed ; and like those of the Medes and Persians it can not be changed." Yet how has this really been ?—? — What, did we never try this experiment before? Why, throughout all the dark ages, the importation of foreign corn was substantially free. For about five bundled years that experiment was tried; and much good it did to commerce aud manufactures, — much good it did to the condition of the people ; and well it prevented fluctuations, scarcity, and famine ! Free importation of corn ! The duiation of that experiment extends through the history of our barbarism. From the dawn of civilisation dates the record of Protection ; it commenced under the dynasty of the House of York, in which commerce was first especially honoured and upheld, — in which, under u king who himself was a merchant, began that sagacious favour to the trailing middle class, as a counterpoise to armed aristocracy, that, under the more tranquil intellect of Henry the Seventh, created the civil powers ruling modern dominions; and that Protection, thus first admitted in theory, hut long defeated in practice, can hardly be said to have been vitally and lesolutely incorporated in our national system, till the voiy era that confirmed our constitutional freedom, and saw the rise of Great Britain to the rank It now holds amongst nations, — the reia;n of William theThiid. Well : this Piotection, first vigorously enforced at the Revolution of IGBB, lasted for the best pait of a century ; " and under it," s.iys the commercial historian, " the commerco and manufactures of the country were extended to an unprecedented degree." The country wished then, as now, to have some return to the system of those blessed five centuiiea of Fiee-trade in corn 3

and in I? 7.'> a law was parsed which a few years ago would huva satisfied, I suspect, Manchester itself; for foreign «-he.it was pprmitted to be imported on paying a nominal duty of 6d. whenever the home pi ice was at or above 48s. ppr quarter. The Nation tued that plan for about eighteen years, and then what did it do 7 — this England that the newspapers tell us " never goes back !" — why, it went back, of course ! And the pnoo at which foreign impoitation could take place at fid. was laised in 1791 from 475. to blq. ; while under 50s, the home producer was protected by a duty of 245. 3d. And observe this date, 1791! Was that a powod when the temper of the times was peculiarly submissive, and inclined, towards pol tical retrogression ? It was a time more democratic than this, — a time when the spirit of the French Revolution was at woik thiough all the great towns of the empire. " But the people cried out? There weie liots, rebellions, for the sake of the big loaf" Not a bit of it, my dear John ' The people were a sensible people; as the English are in the long run ; they had tiied their experiment, — did not like it: " And," &ays Mi. M'Culloch, with a candid sigh, " there was a pretty general acquiescence in the act of 1791." '• ' Pretty geneial acquiescence !' the admission is satisfactory in extent, but lukewarm in expression : the truth is that no more popular act passed throughout the whole lvign of George the Third. " And yet, "laws against piotection are never reppaled ! as well roneal the Reform Act ! — England goes bfllc !-^k law about corn is as fixed as the of Jove !" — And all the while you are going back iPto the reigns of the Norman and Plantagenet ! and in- « sling on the stability of experimental legislature upon every aiticlp and in the very mode upon which the History of Civilisation abounds the most with precedents of change ! " lint has the repeal of the Corn-law produced the resulls which were anticipated ? Considenng that no two of its authors ever could agree what those results would b?, it is difficult to say that it has not so done. In one thing, however, the leaders pretty well agreed, and that was in disagreeing as to whether the Corn-laws raised the pi ice of corn above its natural level. The League Circular and Colonel Toirens preached the fall in pi ice ■which we have experienced; Mr. Cohden and Mr. Wilson scouted low-priced corn as a delusion. " Provisions," said Mr. Cobden, " will be no cheaper." il The average price of wheat," said Mr. Wilson, " will be higher than it has been for the last seven years." Justly does the writer remark :—": — " It is the old story of Munchausen ; the tiger jumps down the jaws of the crocodile; the crocodile is strangled by the tiger." What and who alone lemains safe, challenging our convictions, insisting on our belief? Munchausen ! See again how the doctors differed as to wages and the puces of land. " On the necessity of lowering wages, — ay, and not in agricultural districts, but in manufacturing towns, — on the necessity of lowei ing them in older to compete with the foreigner, Mr. Villiers rests half his case. And yet, what says his fellow political economist, Colonel Ton-ens? Exactly the contrary : "The true cause of low wages is high food ; for then mechanical power is brought more and more in competition with human labour, and the opeiative will be employed at wages reduced to the slavery point.'' *' ' The Repeal of the Corn-laws must lower the wages," says Mr. Villiers. 'It must raise them,' says Colonel Torrens. Every fact, real or supposed, adduced by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, tended to show the necessity of conforming to the low wages of the continent. And again, Mr. James Wilson, who hus a kind word and coaxing luio for erery class, fells the Manchester Chamber of Commerce with this .knock down prediction, " We are therefore of opinion that in the event of a Free-trade in corn, the puce of labour in this countiy would ? either be increased than diminished.' " The farther we advance in the polemics of Freetrade, the more the perplexity gathers : not a result but has its separate free-trading prophet, and not a prophet that does not belie his brother. ' Will rents fall?' murmurs the timid landowner. 'Fall? of course, you vampire !' cries the Manchester Chamber of Commerce ; * You have been living on the capital of the farmer ever since the peace.' ' Certninly they will fall,' fcays Mr. Villiers, with polite indifference to so small a calamity. " ' Fall? — they will rise!' exclaims Colonel Torrens. * They will rise,' says Mr. W. W. Whitmoro, who was a very popular prophet in his day. * Pooh ! don't believe them, my dear Vampire,' argues that dear, good Mr. Wilson; 'my object in removing these Coin-laws is to increase the value of your land !' " The farmer puts hit, question, ' Will these horrible prices List for ever ; and how many quarteis of grain are likely to be imported V "And straight, therewith, arises such a discord of contradictory answers, all equally positive, and equally contradictory, that poor Chawbacon, if he have any animal desue still to have bacon to chaw, thinks it best to escape fiom the hubbub, and stick to his old motto, * Live and let live, in the land we live by.' ' The theory of Free-trade is no doubt porfect. It only requires the absence of all national rivalry, and the spunging out of all national debts from our own eight hundred millions of pounds sterling to the {aw thousands of florins borrowed by his Highness the Grand Dukeof Pampernickel, and the abolition of nearly all taxes. How attractive a proposition may be the theory, but how disastrous in practice, is cleverly put by the pamphleteer. " These distinctions would be perfectly clear to all persons, if they would only regard political economy as they do any other investigation of art or science. First, with regard to the abstract truth of its principles, and next, to the prudence of applying them in each special instance. "Suppose that I write a treatise on Architecture, whereui I geometrically establish the fact that the Parthenon is a most beautiful building. If my neighbour, Squire Hawthorn, who lives in an old-fashioned irregular country house, as unlike the Parthenon as a house can be, runs to me out of breath, transported to enthusiasm by my admirable treatise. 'My dear Sir, I have read your work ; you have proved to my satisfaction, that no buildiDg on eaith is so perfect as the Parthenon. Pray, would you advise me to pull doivn Hawthorn Hall, and build a country house exactly on the model of which you have so lucidly given the geometrical designs? Shall I turn Hawthorn Hall into a Parthenon? What's your advice?' •" ' Sir,' I should answer, unless 1 had a sinister interest to answer otherwise, ' I am not the proper porson of whom to ask that advice ; whether it is for your interest to pull down your very irregular old house, — whether, if you did, you would be as comfortable in a Parthenon, and, however beautiful that edifice, find that it could be adapted to the wants of your family and the difference of your climate, — whether you could even live in it, without catching your death of cold, — are all considerations with winch 1 had Dothing to do when I wrote my treatise. .My object was but to explain «s true principles of Architecture, and establish the ksellence of the Paithenon upon geometrical prin)les!' " Squire Hawthorn would have no right to blame me for having written my treatise and disturbed his mind ; but he would be a monbtious great fool if he turned his old hall into a Parthenon !" A country ruled by theory will not differ much from the abode of which good intentions form the pavement, and its people will be as perfect as bachelors' wives and old maids' children. In his second and third letters, which we must hurry through, much as we regret it, the writer explodes the fallacy that protection is merely a landlord's question to be met by a reduction of rent, and brings the matured judgment of their own leaders against the hasty conclusions of the originators of the late 'measures. Adam Smith, Burke, and Iluskisson, not to omit Sir R. Peel against Sir R. Peel, and. Lord John Russell against Loid John Russell, with their sharp attacks in tormer years on the folly of Free-trade, and their apparently manly defence of a fair, a just, and reasonable protection, form a curious and formidable band of anti-Free-traders. Sir Edward Buller Lytton is a fixed-duty man, and, on behalf of his remedy, calls into court Political Economists and Free-traders, as well as Protectionists. Smith, Ilicardo, Poulett Thomson, and M'Culloch are his witnesses, and ably dops he sum up his case to the court of public opinion. His concluding letter leaves tho political bearing of the late changes for their practical effect on the land, its owner, and its occupier. The cuckoo cues of " natural price," " high fanning," " old fashioned farmers," "competition for farmeis," and " reduced rents," are handled in their order with great ability and no little humour ; and tho debt we owe to that race of men whom it is now the fashion to run down— the country gentleman and the tenant fanner— is set forth with feeling, and contended for with an energy that speaks of a thorough appreciation, not only of tho national benefits they have conferred, but of the innate worth and private influence of the class which our fathers fostered, only that their degenerate sons might try to fi sweep them away" with scoin and ridicule. We must, however, conclude this able and most entertaining pamphlet, which has long cnice, as we bee. reached a fourth edition. The '

following example of n f.iir smuggle, as it is now called betwpen unbuiilipned foreigners and ovei taxed Enplibhmen, will bring our leyiew to an amusing conclusion :—: — " A Latin author has pUiily said : — " Ad viveiK'um velutad nlandivn— lsnieliormiioncrclibciior." "Lilo is like swiminiiig-ijje lares the best vho carries least ivcighf about Jinn." " When Lennder swam fteross the Hellespont, no doubt be was m puns mUuralUnts, but let us suppose that some experimental philosopher, a lover of Natuip, coaxed a rival to swim against Leander, burthened with tunic and cloak, two gieat stones in Ins pocket, and a couple of paupers tied to his back, I don't think it would have been quite fair for the sage to say to the rival, ' Swim away, my good friend ; I have no doubt that you'll outswim Leander ; but whethei you do, or whether you don't, all I can say if, that I'll not lend you a cock-boat, nor throw you a tub; for there's nothing so natural as swimming I.'1 .' 1 " ' Natural ? ye<<,' the poor rival might gasp, ero he 'giavitatpd to the centre,' in other word* — went to the bottom — ' natural to that fellow Leander, for he has nothing but nature to carry. Hut I've got a tunic and cloak, two great stones in my pockets^ and two paupers as heavy as lend on my back. Is that the natural way to swim over the Hellespont V 11 Loander gains the shore ; that is natural ! The competitor is drowned ; that also is natural ! The philosopher contemplates the result with philanthropical pleasure, and walks off to his dinner, saying, ' What stimulates exertion like rivalry 1 But 0 Zeus ' how could you suffer that man to bo drowned in gravitating to the centre ? There's nothing so natural as swimming !' "