frontiers of the empires and
kingdoms of Europe."

"Yes," replied the doctor, "that is the case; and I suppose the
examination will be a light one for us, as we are going out of a
protection colony into a free trade one. If we were going the other way,
the custom house officials would be more particular."

"How is that?" Ned asked.

"Why, don't you see?" the doctor answered, "a protection country is on
the lookout for goods that may interfere with its manufacturing
interests; the free trade one has no such care for its manufacturing
industries, but levies its duties on articles of luxury principally.
When you come into the United States, your baggage is examined much more
carefully than when you go into England. England is a free trade
country, while our own is a protection one; at least it has been for
the greater part of the time since it began its existence."

"It is rather a strange circumstance," remarked Ned, "that two colonies
of the same country, lying side by side, and one of them an offshoot of
the other, should be so radically different in their tariff laws. How do
you account for it, sir?"

"We are treading on dangerous ground," replied the doctor, "as it is not
prudent for a traveler in foreign lands to talk politics; but as we are
quite by ourselves, we may be permitted to discuss the subject a little.
Victoria, as you are aware, is an offshoot from the colony of New South
Wales, from which it was separated in August, 1851. I don't know
anything about the matter, but presume that the origin of the
differences in tariffs between the two colonies grew out of the
opposition of the new to the old. There has always been a great deal of
jealousy between them, and as New South Wales had a free trade policy,
it was the most natural thing in the world that the jealous young colony
of Victoria should adopt a protection one. In each of the colonies there
is a strong party opposed to its tariff policy; in Victoria there is a
goodly number of free-traders, while in New South Wales there is an
equally good number of protectionists. Whatever a man's views are, in
regard to free trade or protection, it is generally useless to attempt
to change them by argument; and if he is a skilled debater, he can give
you facts and figures to demonstrate, with great clearness, the
correctness of his views. On that point I can tell you what was to me an
amusing story."

"What was that?"

"Several years ago, when the financial a