nemies?

It is said public opinion runs in favour of such a change; that the
manufacturing has become the dominant interest in the state; that wages
must at all hazards be beat down to the continental level; and that,
right or wrong, the thing must be done. Whether this is the case or not,
time, and possibly a general election, will show. Sometimes those who
are the most noisy, are not the most numerous. Certain it is, that in
1841 a vast majority both of the electors and the people were unanimous
in favour of protection. But, be the present opinion of the majority
what it may, that will not alter the nature of things--It will not
render that wise which is unwise. Public opinion in Athens, in the time
of Demosthenes, was nearly unanimous to apply the public funds to the
support of the theatres instead of the army, and they got the battle of
Chaeronea, and subjection by Philip, for their reward. Public opinion in
Europe was unanimous in favour of the Crusades, and millions of brave
men left their bones in Asia in consequence. The Senate of Carthage,
yielding to the wishes of the majority of their democratic community,
refused to send succours to Hannibal in Italy; and they brought, in
consequence, the legions of Scipio Africanus round their walls. Public
opinion in France was unanimous in favour of the expedition to Moscow.
"They regarded it," says Segur, "as a mere hunting party of six months;"
but that did not hinder it from bringing the Cossacks to Paris. The old
Romans were unanimous in their cry for cheap bread, and they brought the
Gothic trumpet to their gates from its effects. A vast majority of the
electors of Great Britain in 1831, were in favour of Reform: out of 101,
98 county members were returned in the liberal interest; and now they
have got their reward, in seeing the Reformed Parliament preparing to
abolish all protection to native industry. All the greatest and most
destructive calamities recorded in history have been brought about, not
only with the concurrence, but in obedience to the fierce demand of the
majority. Protection to domestic industry, at home or colonial, is the
unseen but strongly felt bond which unites together the far distant
provinces of the British empire by the firm bond of mutual interest.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 16: The Agro Romano, the Sabina, the Campagna Maritima, and
the Patrimonio di San Pietro, which make up the Campagna of Rome,
contain 3881 square miles, or about 3,000,00