New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-29
4 UORLb-WIDE INF4TUATTON

4 VORLD- VIDE INFfTUATJON
The results of the Canadian election have
been regarded with extreme dissatisfaction in
England. Sir John Macdonald is Colonial
statesman with conservative instincts, which Of
Ten lead him to exaggerate his feeling OF loyalty
to the British Crown. In the matter OF DIS
cipliua his conduct is uneXccptionable, but IN
doctrine he has swerved from the economic
faith of the mother State. His overtnrn
would have been viewed in London as
the stamping ont of a dangerous heresy.
Now that his remuneration of the orthodox com
m4rcial faith has been sanctioned by the
Provinces, English Liberals cannot conceal
their impotence and modification. They are
at a loss to understand how any dependency
of the Crown can deliberately reject the can
ons of Free Trade. There can be no new dis
coveries in finance The principles OF CONNER
cial development and national prosperity have
been formulated for all nations and for all
time by the Manchester School. The cir
Gle of economic knowledge has been
closed. England, speaking in a tone OF
| authority, has proclaimed Free Trade as
the best and Protection as the worst policy,
not only for herself, but for all her
dependencies and for every country ON the
| face of the earth. How disheartening it must
| be, therefore, for this school of empiriciss to
find an influential community like the Domin-
| ion separating itself from the estabiohed sys-
| tent They cannot understand if. They fam
! cicd il would be n mOmentary delusOn when
| the Protection party won its first triumph III
| 1878. Now that the National policy has been
! Judged by its results, and has received the de-
| liberate approval of the constituencies at
second election. they ascribe the triumph OF
| Protection TO a mysterious "infatlation" which
| has perverted the intelligence of so sober and
practical people as the Canadians.
| If it be an "infatuation," one nation after
another is losing its senses, and, what is
stranger than all else, is prospering in its
| folly. The German as well as the Canadian
customs schedules were revised in 1879, and
while the result has not fulfilled the expccta-
tions of an over sanguinc Chancellor, he has
| had the satisfaction of witnessing a constant
increase of revenue For example, the amount
of duties collected in 1873 under the old sys-
| tenn of Free Trade was II 600, 600 NJ; in
| 1879, under the new tariff, it was III, 100000
M: in 1850 it was 1876, 600 900 H.; and in
1881 it was 1872, 100000 N. This increase
would satisfy a less impatient statesman than
|
| introducing the Tobacco Monopoly bill
in order to make the profits of a
thriving industry available for State rev
enue, it has been because he is III
| hot haste to render the Central Government
| independent of the cOnfedcratcd monarchies
and to repress Scparatlst tendencies. Yet
without the aid of so arbitrary measure, he
| finds the revenues of the Empire more salts
| factory each year than the last and has evil
| dcncc in the export statistics of a most en-
couraging development of home manufactures.
| There has been a marked increase in the ex-
portation of w0ollen goods, hosiery, gloves,
| glass china, iron wire, steel rails, toys and
| beer and a corresponding increase III
! the quantity of raw materials imported
| for various manufactures. An impetus has
| been given to commercial and industrial
pursuits. The natural consequence of this
| policy, the results of which find cOmpre
| hensiyely stated in The British Irade J0WHaL
is its extension in nelghbOring countries. In
| Russia where the duties on IRON were materl-
! ally increased last year, higher tariff is to
| be introduced. In Austria "A revised tariff with
! higher duties on nearly all imported articles
has been accepted by Parliament; while HUI
| gary, so far from favorng Free Trade as in
the past, acquiesces heartily in the national
policy.
English economists have not been able to
convince either the legislators of the Colonies
or those of foreign States that Free Trade is
the best policy for every nation the world
over. The lnfatuatiOn" has been infectious.
Prohibitory tariffs have multiplied, and the
markets of one country after another have
been closed against a nation whose own mar
kets are open to all. Even the elastic optm-
ism of Mr.. Golden himself would be
strained by the cumulative evidence of
indifference to that commercial gospel of
which he was the most hopeful evangel.
If his disciples have not lost faith in that gos-
pei, their confidence in their ability to compass
the conversion of the nations has been seri-
ously impaired. L. they still exclaIm with the
prophet, "Their rock is not as our rock |"
they cannot trumphantly add, sour enemies
] themselves being the judgesn ProtectiOnists