The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-04 00:00:00

amount ofincreased demands upon the employer,
if it should not be increased toil? But let
us advance a step further, and suppose three or
four employers, with a like increase of detnand,
what would the working population gain
Would they not be made worse, by the com-
petition of these three or four employers, each
anxious to obtain as much of the indreased
demand as possible, and each, therefore, trying
to underbid his competitors, which he could
do only by underpaying his labourers? But
the number of employers is, with us, unlimited,
and in the ,event of a greater demand for
goods, it would increase in a ratio far
beyond the augmented demands, thus still
more severely grinding the working class; for it
cannot be too often repeated, that the competi-
tion which must ever exist in such u case will be
a competition to produce at the lowest price, i. e.,
at the lowest rate of wages. It must be, how-
ever, the less necessary to press this considera-
tion, because we have seen the experiment tried
by a thirty years' proof, and the result is, that
on the whole wages decline as manufacturing ex-
ports multiply. The second inference which we
draw from the premises furnished above by
the Times, is the precarious nature of the pros-
perity based upon manufacturing success. The
present prospects or manufacturers are " not
simply favourable, but highly encouraging."
This is a relative commendation ; it implies
that lately the prospects of manufacturers were
not favourable nor encouraging, but the reverse;
and, indeed, our contemporary distinctly admits
as much in the introductory part of the sen-
tence partially quoted. The prosperity of the
empire and the happiness of the people, how-
ever, are surely not safely committed to a pur-
suit subject to such violent fluctuations. As to
the labouring classes, indeed, their condition
varies but little, for the melancholy reason, that
scarcely at any time can it be made worse than
it is at all times. Our respected contemporary
proceeds to ascribe the improved condition
of manufacturing industry to the operation of
the late tariff, which it treats as an experiment
in free trade. We fully concur in the beneficial
effects assigned to the tariff, but we can-
not admit that that financial adjustment
is to be considered as, in any respect, an
experiment in free trade. The proof that it is
not such an experiment, will be found in the fact
that nearly all the important taxes reduced were
taxes for revenue, not for protection. The tariff
and the property tax are to be taken together
as one great measure of financial reform—
an approach to a more equitable distribution
of the public burdens. As such they have
operated most beneficially upon the home and
colonial markets, and it is thus that they have
restored manufacturing industry. If in truth
tariff is to be consieered as an experiment in
free trade, it is an experiment that has wholly
failed 5 for it has not procured the admission
of a single yard of cotton or of one
penknife into any country of the world
upon terms more favourable than before. This
the Times itself candidly admits, when it says
that " so far as foreign tariffs are concerned, the
result has been, it must be owned, absolutely
nothing." The tariff, however, has not failed ;
it has most happily succeeded in contribut-
ing to our present prosperity and in opening
the road, as we firmly believe, to still
greater prosperity hereafter; but it has not
failed, because it was not an experiment in free
trade. As to the foreign tariffs, we are per-
haps unpatriotic in saying that we are no proper
judges of their wisdom or folly, for your perfect
patriot has no charity for the patriotism of the
natives of other countries. There are, however,
certain general principles of which we ought
not to lose sight in pronouncing upon the acts
of our neighbours ; and one of these principles
is, that an enlightened and liberal self love is as
commendable in Governments as it is pardonable
n individuals.