modern philosopher, and accomodate the additional population
who are to assist in the prospective crops of calico. The cheaper corn
then is, the smaller will become our home-producing surface. The
chaw-bacon will be driven to the railroads, where there is already a
tolerable demand for him. The flail will be silent in the barn, and
the song of the reaper in the fields.

Let us suppose this to last for a few years, during which Lord John
Russell--the Whigs having, in the meantime, got rid of all graduating
scruples and come back to power--has taken an opportunity of enriching
the peerage by elevating the redoubted Cobden to its ranks. But a
change suddenly passes across the spirit of our dream. At once, and
like a thunderbolt--without warning or presage--comes a famine or a
war. We care not which of them is taken as an illustration. Both are
calamities, unfortunately, well known in this country; and we hardly
can expect that many years shall pass over our heads without the
occurrence of one or other of them. Let us take the evil of man's
creating--war. The Channel is filled with French shipping, and all
along the coast, from Cape Ushant to Elsinore, the ports are rigidly
shut. Mean time American cruisers are scouring the Atlantic, chasing
our merchantmen, and embarassing communication with the colonies.
Also, there is war in the Mediterranean. We have fifty, nay, a hundred
points to watch with our vessels--a hundred isolated interests to
maintain, and these demand an immense and yet a divided force. Convoys
cannot be spared without loss of territory, and then--what becomes of
us at home?

Most miserable is the prospect; and yet it does appear, if we are mad
enough to abandon protection, perfectly inevitable. With but a portion
of our land in tillage--an augmented population--no stored corn--no
means of recalling for two years at the soonest, even if we could
spare seed, and that is questionable, the dormant energies of the
earth!--Can you fancy, my Lord Ashley, or you, converted Mr Escott,
what Britain would be then? We will tell you. Not perhaps a prey--for
we will not even imagine such degradation--but a bargainer and
compounder with an inferior power or powers, whom she might have
bearded for centuries with impunity, had not some selfish traitors
been wicked enough to demand, and some infatuated statesmen foolish
enough to grant, the abrogation of that protection which is her
sole security for pre-eminence. What ar