The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-19 00:00:00

John Stuart Mill on American Protection.

The following letter has been forwarded by the
London correspondent of the Chicago Tribune for
publication in that journal :

"Blackheath Park, Kent, Feb. 26, 1866.
" Dear Sir,—l have to acknowledge a letter from
you dated Feb. 15th, asking me to explain a pas-
sage of my " Principles of Political Economy," in
which I express the opinion that a protecting duty
for a limited space of time may be defensible in a
new country, as a means of neutralizing a branch
of industry in itself suited to the country, but which
would be unable to establish itself there without some
form of temporary assistance from the State. This
passage you say has been made use of by American
Protectionists as the testimony of an English writer
on political economy to the inapplicability to America
of the general principle of free trade. The passage
has been used for a similar purpose in the Australian
colonies, erroneously in my opinion, but certainly
with more plausibility than can be the case in the
United States; for Australia really is a new
country whose capabilities for carrying on manufac-
tures cannot yet be said to have been tested ; but
the manufacturing parts of the United States, New
England, and Pennsylvania, are no longer new
countries ; they have carried on manufactures on a
large scale, and with the benefit of high protecting
duties, for at least two generations ; their operatives
have had full time to acquire the manufacturing skill
inwhich those of England had preceded them; there
has been ample experience to prove that the alleged
inability of their manufacturers to compete in the
American market with those of Great Britain does
not arise merely from the more recent date of their
establishment, but from the fact that American la-
bour and capital can, in the present circumstances
of America, be employed with greater return and
greater advantage to the national wealth in the pro-
duction of other articles. I have never for a mo-
ment recommended or countenanced any protecting
duty except for the purpose of enabling the pro-
tected branch of industry, in a very moderate time,
to become independent of protection. That mode-
rate time in the United States has been exceeded,
and if the cotton and iron of America still need pro-
tection against those of the other hemisphere, it is
in my eyes a complete proof that they ought not to
have it, and that the longer it is continued the
greater the injustice and the waste of national re-
sources will be.
" I confine myself, on the present occasion, to
the one special point which you have referred to me ;
and do not enter into the fallacies of Protectionism
generally, or of American Protectionists in particu-
lar. But since you pay me the compliment of think-
ing that what is said in my " Principles of Political
Economy" is read and listened to by some Amer--
Cans, I beg to recommend to your notice the further
explanations which I have added to the passage
quoted by you in the last published (the People's)
edition of that work. I have directed the publisher
to send you a copy, and if the important journal with
which you are connected is pleased to attach any
value to my opinion on the subject, that opinion
will be found much more completely stated, with
additional replies to Protectionist arguments, in pp.
556 to 558 of the People's edition.—I am, dear sir,
yours faithfully, tcJ. S. MILL:,

Henry Ward Beecher on the Admission a
the South.

Henry Ward Beecher, in his oration, delivered at
Brooklyn, makes use of the following language in
reference to the admission of the Sou th : " You are
going to keep them out until you are certain that
it would be best to let them in. It is impossible to
give a certainty. What are the things you want
guatantees about? Secession, rebellion, the condi-
tion of the freedmen. What ! a guarantee of seces-
sion? We want a guarantee that the South are

willing to give it up. how long would you take
before you would consider that experiment as
settled—five years. Would that cure them ? Now
the South is just in the condition of a man who has
gone into Court with a contested title. He be-
lieves that he is the owner of that estate, and the
other parties believe they are the owners of it. All
his life is in the conflict. It is decided against him
in the lower Court, and he carries it to the Court
of last resort, and argues it. The Judges decide it
against him finally ; and what does good citizenship
require? Does it require that he should say, " Mr.
Judge, I am perfectly satisfied that I did not own
this property." Do you require him to change his
opinion ? Is more required of him than this, that
he says, " as a good citizen, obey the laws ;
_ . _

I do not think it was right, but it was decided
against me and I shall obey ?" Is not that all you
would require of contestants in a court? And now
the South believed in secession. The works of

Calhoun were taught in their colleges, and the
young men were taught, as you were taught, the
contrary doctrine, to believe that States rights was
the true political doctrine. Many of them assert
the right to secede from this Government, from the
compact and confederation of States ; they believed
it. What has the war done ? The war has settled
the fact, whether they believe it or not, that it shan't
be. The fact is settled, it shan't, and all that you
can ask the South is, will you give up the fact and say
so ? Will you give up the fact, though you still
believe the doctrine ! 'Are you going to keep
them out till they don't believe the doctrine ? The
question is settled when they say, "We have re-
f erred this question to the court and arbitration of
war, and war has declared against us, and we accept
the verdict —we bow to it." Can you in honour ask
anything more than that ? " But then we want
guarantees against rebellion." Four parts out of
five of the total property of the South have been
destroyed by war, and is not that guarantee
that they won't, fight again very soon ? The popu-
lation of the South has been more than decimated
—doubly decimated. There is mourning there of
which we have no record or knowledge here.
What village has been blotted out in the North ?
Hundreds have been there. What cities depopu-
Wed here? Many, many there. Whole families
extinguished and lineage blotted out. There were
no bells rung and no trumpets sounded on the re-
turn of the shattered remnants of armies; and now
do you want a guarantee that this depopulated and
destroyed South will not attempt to organise a war
again?"

The Brussels journals contain an account of a
grand ball given there at Wauxhall, last week, under the
patronage of Lady Howard do Walden and other ladies, for
the benefit of the necessitous English resident in that
capital.
RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT PARKSIDE.--Yesterday
afternoon a serious accident occurred at Parkside, near
Newton Bridge, to the express train leaving Liverpool at
2 23. As the train approached the Parkside junction a
luggage train came out of one of the junction sidings to go
upon the main line of the principal way. The engine of
the passenger train struck the goods engine, and both
were seriously damaged. A second-class passenger car-
riage and a brake-van were thrown on their sides, and the
passengers of the second-class carriage experienced a
very narrow escape. The brakesman jumped out of the
van before,it upset. The driver of the passenger train
and the driver and fireman of the luggage train jumped
off their respective engines when they saw that an accident
was imminent ; the fireman of the passenger train did not
do so, but he nevertheless escaped injury. Though
several of the passengers were shaken, none was severely
hurt, and the only person who sustained injuries of any
consequence was the driver of the Liverpool express, who
slightly hurt himself in jumping from the engine. Assist-
ance had to be obtained from various stations along the
line in order to clear the railway
of luggage and debr s, and
this process occupied a couple of 113urs.
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