into the statute by which free trade in bread was made law, thereby putting an authentic interpretation upon the phrase 'fair trade,' in diametric opposition to the grand victory over monopoly won in the memorable session of 1846.

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Now, in the first instance, let us refuse to be dazzled, not to say entrapped, by fair' names selected from the banking, brewing, and Bradford interests. The meaning and purpose' of these proposals have but a partial and personal connection with money or merchandise, trade or manufactures. Behind these thin disguises we see only the ancestral owners of broad acres, who sympathise with themselves, and are often mistaken about that, but only some of whom have much softness of affection for other kinds of people. They and their eldest sons see before them, as they think, and not without reason, that most dreaded of spectral oncomings, an altogether inevitable and very considerable reduction of rents. What, in such a dismal prospect, was to be done? There was nothing for it but to stand forth as the Farmer's Friend once more, and, shoulder to shoulder, raise heaven and earth to protect the whole kith and kin of John Bull from competition in the production of corn with all other farmers on the face of the earth. The real truth is, that fair trade," in those gentlemen's minds, means every man for himself. They care nothing for the farmer as farmer, as little as they care for the sugar interest or any other. They are the landed interest, and they care for nothing besides. What they want is more rent, instead of less; and it must be less, and cannot be more, unless by hook or by crook their tenantry have the means of contriving to pay what they now do, with as much more as can by any contrivance be screwed out of them. Never mind letting wine or brandy, sugar, silk, or even cotton, come in perfectly free; but, for Heaven's sake (which means themselves), keep out those damned things-foreign corn, beef, mutton, pork, butter, cheese, and everything else that our friends the farmers produce from the fields, which, by our condescending indulgence, are placed in their hands, not for any selfish purposes of ours, but for their own special benefit and the advantage of her Majesty's subjects at large.

Perhaps some of those gentlemen might be candid enough to acknowledge that they are looking after their own interests somewhat more than the interests of other people, but would, by way of apology, if not of justification, suggest that they are not, at the worst, the only selfish persons in the world. The plea, whatever we may think of its spirit, is not altogether without truth. There are others besides lords and squires whose charity both begins at home and never leaves the paternal roof. Spoil any other man's little game, but don't touch mine. This is the cry of the sugar-refiner and of the fine lady, in city or in country, as well as of his Grace or

hers. The one point in which the different orders of Protectionists agree is this-Protection for each man's particular branch of industry, but free trade, to your heart's content, in all others!

I cannot conceal from myself, however, and would not therefore attempt to disguise to others, the fact that there are among the advocates of what I am persuaded is a retrograde, no less than it is a selfish, injurious, and unpatriotic course, a number of heads too clear, and of skill in fence too great, to be safely passed over without notice, or to be put aside by mere pooh! pooh! I will rather examine what they have to say, and, without blinking anything, give them the best answer that may occur to me. Be it premised that the opponents of Free Trade, in giving to that measure of it which already exists the name of isolated Free Trade,' virtually throw up the sponge.' They twit us with Doctrinairism; but let them be assured that the working men of England retain so much of their natural practicality as still to perceive the difference between the theoretical and the real, the abstract and the concrete. Before Free Trade can be either approved or condemned, it must be fairly and fully tried; and how can it be said to have been tried if, as these partial reasoners seem to take pleasure in reminding us, the lapse of five-and-thirty years since the first step towards Free Trade was trodden, has brought us no nearer to the accomplished fact? The 'isolated Free Trade' has yet to take its second stride on the course, and, in 1881 as in 1846, the nations are still at the low point of one in forty as to this great matter, and it is England, as once it was Athanasius, against the world. Cobden had at least this recommendation over the great creed-maker, that, having promulgated his new belief, he forthwith set himself to make converts, and succeeded in gaining a somewhat illustrious one in France. It remains, no doubt, to be seen, whether, under a more real form of universal suffrage, our excellent neighbours will stand by the catechism taught them under the plebiscitum; but we will hope the best, and, while waiting, encourage each other with the persuasion that what Cobden, our master, initiated, his disciples of the Cobden Club will not cease to carry forward with all the argument and influence that can be commanded. It is not to be denied that the true apostles of Free Trade joined enthusiasm with conviction; and what men of light and leading' ever succeeded without that conjunction? I remember a favourite hymn among Dissenters, in which it is said with reference to the first coming of Christ

Prophets and kings desired it long,
But died without the sight.

So the elder of our prophets, after expressing a lively hope that in the course of ten years the commercial communities of other nations would be found as willing to act upon the principle of Free Trade

as ourselves, "died without the sight"; but, though Elijah be dead, Elisha lives, and that without any abatement of heart or hope; and perhaps it is no more than a just and justifiable enthusiasm to hold fast by the belief that, as surely as the ancient predictions of Isaiah were fulfilled in the birth and death of Christ, so surely will the example set by us in 1846 be followed by all trading nations, and that, it may be, before we get into another century. The delay may seem long, but, as in the one case so in the other, "Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." Nor will I offer any apology for the application of sacred language to our present purpose; for it will be remembered that the personage thus spoken of by the author of the Epistle to the Christian Jews is the same who had been long ages before announced by the prophet Isaiah as "the Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and of peace there should be no end." And how firm a believer in this grand and benignant prophecy Cobden was we all remember, in that mission of international arbitration which he undertook as a corollary from Free Trade and a substitute for war, and which his friend, the admirable member for Merthyr-Tydvil in the present Parliament, has prosecuted with so much encouraging

success.

A writer in this Review of August 1881 has, indeed, reminded us that some thirty years ago, Benjamin Disraeli, putting on the prophet's mantle, foretold a time when the working classes of England would come to Parliament on bended knees and pray it to undo the legislation of its predecessors. But he, no less then Cobden, has passed away without witnessing that painful spectacle of popular infelicity. It was not Lord Beaconsfield's fault, nor is it the fault of his surviving colleagues, that the nation has beheld him gathered to his fathers, and seen his political allies go the way of all party flesh, without the least sign of the trades unions trooping up to the palace of Westminster, much less professing the penitential palinode which he saw in thought from the visions of the night when deep sleep falleth on But this, as I have admitted, was neither his fault nor theirs : for the oracle had hardly spoken when all the friends thereof set to work in the formation of those miraculous, because overdrawn, working-men's Conservative associations by whose subtle instrumentality the grand triumph of national repentance was to be effectuated. And yet the wish just arrived upon the scene, having all the courage of wishes that are father to the thought, does not hesitate to asseverate that, 'whether the reaction against isolated Free Trade is reasonable, or whether it is merely the revival of working-men's prejudices, as the Leading Journal tells us, it exists, and it is growing with a rapidity and with an intensity that surprise many even of those best acquainted with the operative class. The organisation of the working classes

men.

is very complete and very strong, and at this moment the whole of it is being concentrated on this point. Already a number of operatives, far more than is necessary to turn a general election, have through their delegates given in their adherence to the Fair Trade League.' Well, we shall see, but the gentleman who thus asserts, passing forthwith into a forgetful rather than in a vauntful mood, says another queer sort of thing. For five or six years,' quoth he, 'they have been consuming their savings and the funds of their trade societies; one rich trade society having paid no less than 200,000l. in work pay,' and reduced its capital to 100,000l.' Which statement, I will ask of the stater, is most worthy of our trust? I will answer in a word attributed to Dr. Johnson. Which, Doctor,' said one of two disputants in orthoepy, as I understand scholars style right speaking, 'is it proper to say, neither or neether?' 'Nayther,' answered the great umpire; and I follow his example in the present instance. What, indeed, is the use of spending time and thought upon the random voices of so smart a writer as he who in one page lauds to the skies the intelligence and the organisation of the working classes, and in another tells the whole world (as if those classes were not themselves among the listeners) that the operative classes in England do not think for themselves as they do in France and America: they follow without question those who lead them?' Behold, my friends and brethren, the fine foundation of Conservative hopes and Protectionist calculations! Which prophet,' demands the young master of Ember Court, Surrey, already cited, may I ask, now in 1881, has proved himself most worthy of our trust?" One may easily determine how his one question would be answered by the writer who, in the memorable words of one of the two, replies, "We have a redundant population hemmed in by the melancholy ocean.' I for my part will answer by a not unsuitable evasion: 'He that trusteth in his own heart,' saith the wisest of men, 'is a fool.'

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This home-county baronet is in his turn a prophet, and verily he cannot be charged with being one of those who, as the margin has it, smooth their tongues,' and, according to the text, 'speak unto us smooth things.' On the contrary, he has made sackcloth his garment, and, seated in ashes, cries with a lamentable voice, 'The cloud that threatens the industrial existence of England has been gathering and intensifying for six years.' Now, who, I pray you, most lugubrious Sir, was King over Israel during nearly the whole of that lustreless lustrum? Surely no man of light or leading,' but more likely some jack-o'-lantern, ' leading to bewilder, and dazzling to blind!' Be that as it may, it is evident that the devout baronet has been deep in his Bible, for he almost rivals John Bright himself in the biblical archaism of his phraseology, as he pictures deluded and desolated England, 'intoxicated with success, with her

immense accumulated wealth, her machinery, her coal, her iron, her insular position, thinking herself unassailable, and laughing at the possibility of foreign competition.' Phrases nearly equal to the loftiest in the Apocalypse, where we read of one whose sin had reached unto heaven, who had glorified herself and lived deliciously, and said in her heart I am a queen, and am no widow; I shall see no sorrow.' Can we help being reminded of that great city Babylon, that mighty city, whose judgment in one hour had come?' Do we not seem to see and hear the merchants of the earth weeping and mourning over her; no man buying her merchandise any more, but all standing afar off for the fear of her torment; in one hour so great riches coming to nought, and every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, standing afar off, because of the smoke of her burning, as in one hour she is made desolate? Which, I say, shall we admire the most, the picture or the parody? Parody, indeed! or bathos were the fitter word; for the eloquent jeremiad, from the height of pathos suddenly falling into the deeps of bathos, ends with the anti-climax, 'She offered to fight the rest of the world with her right hand tied behind her back!'

From this unlucky Eton or perhaps Harrow reminiscence, when Mr. Gully peradventure was professor in the noble art of selfdefence, let me hasten to liberate our professor in the new chair of fair trade,' by searching for some needle of eye and point in the hay-bundle of his iterated and reiterated fallacies, for all the world as like each other as the still green blades and spires in a truss not yet thatched.

When this fortunate successor to a baronetcy and an estate affirms that the working men of England are badly off now,' we will not affect to deny that their case might be better; but, when the misfortune is charged upon isolated free trade,' my answer is that there is too little trade, free or fair, isolated or multitudinous. A man of many assertions and few proofs is sure to land himself in a quagmire before he has done; and so it is here. In one page we read of the marked depreciation in the quality of English goods'; in the next foreigners have flooded our markets with cheap, and often nasty, manufactured goods.' In short, England has been made the market for the shoddy of all nations; of inferior, often adulterated, goods, made at the lowest possible cost, and sold at the lowest possible price!'

Well, if we did not know by this time with whom we have to deal, we should have both eyes and ears opened to a realising stretch by one sentence in these lucubrations: The apathy with which the nation views the collapse of agriculture is astounding.' There spake with full tongue the country squire: of course, the mere truth or untruth of the halloo is a secondary question. Yet, by