The St. Johns herald., 1892-07-14
Britain was Hard Up.

 when by means of this system she had attained conditions of great prosperity and substantially com manding position in manufactures and commerce.
 The very reverse is true; the pro- tective system was given up by Great Britain under the pressure of pauperism and bankruptcy in which it eliminated in the years imme- diately preceding 1S42, when Sir Robert Peel presented and carried his first great measure for the re- form of the British tariff.
 The origin of customs in England was in the time of Edward I thence forward duties were added and null tiplied, each rate being devoted to a specific purpose, until l784 as many as fifteen separate duties were levied upon the same article. In 1787 William Pitt carried through an act for consolidation without reducing the number of articles taxed; this measure left 1 200 articles subject to duty, and in order to bring the act into force 5000 resolutions were required in the House of Commons. In 1797, however, the laws relating to customs filled six large folio vol umes unprovided with ar index. The great subsequent wars rendered nugatory all Pitts efforts to relieve commerce between 1797 and 1915, 600 additional acts were passed, and in fifty-three years of the reign of George III. the total number of acts relating to duties on imports was 1900. At length taxes became so numerous that nothing was left untaxed even premiums offered for the suggestion of fresh subjects of taxation failed to stimulate ingen- ton.
 Another consolidation was begun which required twenty-five years for its completion. Then third was undertaken under the direction of Mir. James Deacon Hume, and fin ally fourth, which was enacted in 1883. All, however, worked changes in form rather than in substance, except that in 1924, under the lead of Huskisson, several of the crude materials necessary to British in. dustry had been put into the free list, of which the most important was wool. This change had worked great benefit to both wool grower and manufacturer the price of do- mestic wool advanced while the manufacturer was enabled to reduce the cost of goods through the op- portunity given him by freedom from taxation on imported wool to buy, sort and mix his wool in the most effective manner.
 The first decisive step in tariff reform was brought about in 1S40 by the appointment of a parliament tary committee at the instance of Mr. Joseph Hume. The condition of the country was then desperate. The most concise account of. the case is given in Noble's Fiscal Legislation of Great Britain," but all authorities-Liberal and Tory alike-are substantially at an agree ment upon this point. It is written that "every interest in the country was alike depressed; Tn the manu- featuring districts mills and work shops were closed and property daily depreciated in value: in the seaports shipping was laid up use- less in harbor; agricultural labor CTS were eking out a miserable exis- tence upon starvation wages and parochiai relief; the revenue was insufficient to meet the national ex- penditure; the country was brought to the verge of national and uniyer- sal bankruptcy"
 "The protective system which was supported with a view to ren- dering the country independent of foreign sources of supply, and thus, it was hoped, fostering the growth