ould imagine that the
fallacies of protection were discovered by the intuitive good sense of
the people, even if the existence of such a quality as the good sense of
the people be more than a political fiction. The principle of free trade
may, as far as Englishmen are concerned, be treated as the doctrine of
Adam Smith. The reasons in its favor never have been, nor will, from the
nature of things, be mastered by the majority of any people. The apology
for freedom of commerce will always present, from one point of view, an
air of paradox. Every man feels or thinks that protection would benefit
his own business, and it is difficult to realize that what may be a
benefit for any man taken alone may be of no benefit to a body of men
looked at collectively. The obvious objections to free trade may, as
free traders conceive, be met; but then the reasoning by which these
objections are met is often elaborate and subtle and does not carry
conviction to the crowd. It is idle to suppose that belief in freedom of
trade--or indeed in any other creed--ever won its way among the majority
of converts by the mere force of reasoning. The course of events was
very different. The theory of free trade won by degrees the approval of
statesmen of special insight, and adherents to the new economic religion
were one by one gained among persons of intelligence. Cobden and Bright
finally became potent advocates of truths of which they were in no sense
the discoverers. This assertion in no way detracts from the credit due
to these eminent men. They performed to admiration the proper function
of popular leaders; by prodigies of energy and by seizing a favorable
opportunity, of which they made the very most use that was possible,
they gained the acceptance by the English people of truths which have
rarely, in any country but England, acquired popularity. Much was due to
the opportuneness of the time. Protection wears its most offensive guise
when it can be identified with a tax on bread, and therefore can,
without patent injustice, be described as the parent of famine and
starvation. The unpopularity, moreover, inherent in a tax on corn is
all but fatal to a protective tariff when the class which protection
enriches is comparatively small, whilst the class which would suffer
keenly from dearness of bread and would obtain benefit from free trade
is large, and, having already acquired much, is certain soon to acquire
more political power. Add to all thi