Part 1 (2/2)

”Serious as was the task of the Minister (Sir R Peel) in every view, the most immediate sympathy was felt for him on account of the fearful state of the people The distress had now so deepened in thedistricts as to render it clearly inevitable that many must die, and a multitude be lowered to a state of sickness and irritability from want of food; while there see classes coe of property ith to begin the world again

The pressure had long extended beyond the interests first affected, and when the new Ministry came into power, there seemed to be no class that was not threatened with ruin In Carlisle, the Committee of Inquiry reported that a fourth of the population was in a state bordering on starvation--actually certain to die of famine, unless relieved by extraordinary exertions In the woollen districts of Wiltshi+re, the allowance to the independent laborer was not two-thirds of thepopulation consumed only a fourth of the bread and meat required by the much smaller population of 1820 In Stockport, more than half thehouses to the number of 3,000, were shut up; and the occupiers of many hundreds more were unable to pay rates at all Five thousand persons alking the streets in couardians wrote to the Secretary of State that the distress was far beyond their overn in Manchester, where humble shopkeepers were the speakers, anecdotes were related which told more than declamation Rent collectors were afraid to meet their principals, as no money could be collected

Provision dealers were subject to incursions fro for food for his children, or fro baby at her breast; or from parties of ten or a dozen desperate wretches ere levying contributions along the street

The linen draper told ho clothes had becoht only remnants and patches, to mend the old ones The baker was ht half-pennyworths of bread A provision dealer used to throay outside scraps; but now respectable custoht them in pennyworths tobut ruin from the impoverished condition of their custo beyond all precedent, their trade was only one-half, or one-third, or even one-tenth what it had been three years before In that neighborhood, a gentle a property worth 60,000 to his sons, and who had, early in the distress, beco the works for the benefit of the creditors, at a salary of 1 a week

In families where the father had hitherto earned 2 per week, and laid by a portion weekly, and where all was now gone but the sacks of shavings they slept on, exertions were et 'blue milk' for children to moisten their oatmeal with; but soon they could have it only on alternate days; and soon water must do At Leeds the pauper stone-heap auardians offered the paupers 6s per week for doing nothing, rather than 7s 6d per week for stone-breaking The ration, to induce their hands to go away At Hinckley, one-third of the inhabitants were paupers; more than a fifth of the houses stood eh in the place to employ properly one-third of the weavers In Dorsetshi+re a es 2s 6d per week, and three loaves; and the ablest laborer had 6s or 7s In Wiltshi+re, the poor peasants held open-air s after work--which was necessarily after dark

There, by the light of one or two flaring tallow candles, the man or the woman who had a story to tell stood on a chair, and related how their children were fed and clothed in old tiether; and no they could nohow es of their children, and what the little things could do, and the prices of bacon and bread, and calico and coals, had more pathos in them than any oratory heard elsewhere”

”But all this came from the Corn Laws,” is the ready reply of the American protectionist The Corn Laere the doctrine of protection applied to breadstuffs, farm products, ”raw materials” But it was not only protection for corn that vexed England in 1842, but protection for every thing and every body, froatherer Every species ofindustry had asked and obtained protection The nation had put in force, logically and thoroughly, the principle of denying thees which nature or art had conferred upon other climates and peoples, (which is the principle of protection), and with the results so pathetically described by Miss Martineau The prosperity of British manufactures dates from the year 1846 That they maintained any kind of existence prior to that ti proof of the vitality of human industry under the persecution of bad laws]

As these pages are going through the press, a telegram announces that the French Governoods iovernment to abolish the like discrimination which our laws have created Coress in Prussia, Austria, Italy, and even in Spain The United States alone, a civilized nations, hold to the opposite principle Our anomalous position in this respect is due, as I think, to our anoht or nine years, already adverted to--a condition in which the protected classes have been restrained by no public opinion--public opinion being too intensely preoccupied with thethe national existence to notice as doing with the tariff But evidences of a reawakening are not wanting

There is scarcely an argu the protectionists of the United States that was not current in France at the time Bastiat wrote the _Sophismes Economiques_ Nor was there one current in his ti us Hence his demonstrations of their absurdity and falsity are equally applicable to our tireater force ahly dispel the notion that Protection is an ”American system”

Surely they cannot do less than this

There are one or two argu the protectionists of the United States that were not rife in France when Bastiat wrote his _Sophismes_ It is said, for instance, that protection has failed to achieve all the good results expected froovernment has been variable If we could have a steady course of protection for a sufficient period of tih to say what ti it, we should see wonderful progress But, inasovernment is uncertain, protection has never yet had a fair trial This is like saying, ”if the stone which I threw in the air had staid there, my head would not have been broken by its fall” It would not stay there The law of gravitation is co-place is on the earth They begin by violating natural laws and natural rights--the right to exchange services for services--and then coainst them and finally overcome them But it is not true that protection has not had a fair trial in the United States The protection has been greater at some times than at others, that is all Prior to the late war, all our revenue was raised fronated ”free trade tariffs,” to distinguish the before and since, they were necessarily protective to a certain extent

Again, it is said that there is need of diversifying our industry--- as though industry would not diversify itself sufficiently through the diverse tastes and predilections of individuals--as though it were necessary to supplement the work of the Creator in this behalf, by human enactments founded upon reciprocal rapine The only rational object of diversifying industry is to make people better and happier Do ether in es, ten hours each day and 313 days each year, than when cultivating our free and fertile lands? Do they have equal opportunities for mental and moral improvement? The trades-unions tell us, No Whatever may be the experience of other countries where the land is either owned by absentee lords, who take all the product except what is necessary to give the tenant a bare subsistence, or where it is cut up in parcels not larger than an Aarden patch, it is an undeniable fact that no other class of Aent, so well provided with co in prosperity, as our agriculturists; and this notwithstanding they are enormously overtaxed toto the protective theory, cannot support themselves The natural tendency of our people to flock to the cities, where their eyes and ears are gratified at the expense of their other senses, physical and islation to stimulate it

It is not the purpose of this preface to anticipate the aduue which deserves a moment's consideration Mr HC Carey tells us, that a country which exports its food, in reality exports its soil, the foreign consu eleu that whenever it ceases to be advantageous to America to export breadstuffs, she will cease to do so; also, that when it becomes necessary to manure her lands, she will either import manure or make it at home[5] A shorter answer is, that the lands are no better h, or even in Chicago, than in Birham or Lyons But it seems to me that Mr Carey does not take into account the fact that the total amount of breadstuffs exported froly small fraction of the whole amount taken from the soil, and scarcely appreciable as a source of manure, even if it were practically utilized in that way Thus, our exportation of flour and meal, wheat and Indian corn, for the year 1860, as compared with the total crop produced, was as follows:

TOTAL CROP[6]

Flour and Meal, bbls Wheat, bu Corn, bu

55,217,800 173,104,924 838,792,740

_Exportation_ Flour and Meal, bbls Wheat, bu Corn, bu

2,845,305 4,155,153 1,314,155

_Percentage of Exportation to Total Crop_ 515 240 39

This was the result for the year preceding the enactment of the Morrill tariff It is true that our exports of wheat and Indian corn rose in the three years following the enactht e of forty-six h tariffs tend to keep breadstuffs at horeat caution in eneralizations as to the influence of tariffs on the movement of breadstuffs Good or bad harvests in various countries exercise an uncontrollable influence upon their islation short of prohibition The market for breadstuffs in the world is as the number of consumers; that is, of population It is sometimes said in the way of reproach, (and it is a curious travesty of Mr Carey's n nations _will not_ take our breadstuffs It is not true; but if it were, that would not be a good reason for our passing laws to prevent the so; that is, to deprive them of the means to pay for them Every country must pay for its imports with its exports It must pay for the services which it receives with the services which it renders If foreign nations are not allowed to render services to us, how shall we render them the service of bread?

[Footnote 5: Principles of Political Econoe 557]

[Footnote 6: These figures are taken from the census report for the year 1860 In this report the total production of flour and iven, not in barrels, but in value The quantity is ascertained by dividing the total value by the average price per barrel in New York during the year, the fluctuations then being very slight Flour being a manufactured article, is it not a little curious that we exported under the ”free trade tariff” twice as large a percentage of breadstuffs in that form as we did of the ”raw material,” wheat?]

The first series of Bastiat's _Sophismes_ were published in 1845, and the second series in 1848 The first series were translated in 1848, by Mrs DJ McCord, and published the same year by GP Putnam, New York

Mrs McCord's excellent translation has been followed (by perht,) in this voluinal, in the Paris edition of 1863 A very few verbal alterations have beenon the accuracy and faithfulness of her work The translation of the essay on ”Capital and Interest” is froo, the na unknown to me The second series of the _Sophismes_, and the essay entitled ”Spoliation and Law,” are, I believe, presented in English for the first tiust 1, 1869

PART I