Year: 1875

NATIONS.


The Ncw York iIeriu asserts it's syn, q
thy with member OF the British Parlia
ment, Mr.. Forster, who said in a recent
speech in the House of Commons tina, he
hoped the time would come when there
would be no custom houses on the soil OF
English or English-speaking nations. Mr..
Forster is the champion of the doctrine of
free trade. He Is anxious that, as step
toward universal free trade and that alli-
ance between the English-speaking nations
which is now commencing itself so earn
estly to thinking men of England and Amer
lea, there should be absolute freedom of
trade between England, Austria and the
United States. How far this is to extend
as to India and those dependencies of Great
Britain the trade of whose population forms
so large part of her revenue he does not
say. We suppose there would be some
limitation to the importation of cloth and
opium into India. Free trade in England ,
thus far, has always been construed to mean
free trade in its best sense so far as it bene-
fits the English, and protection wherever
it is necessary for the protection of English
industries.


This, however, is pretty conceit of Mr..
Forster's. 1t is one which has many attrac-
tive features. We believe in free trade as
the consummation of commercial civiliza-
ton. We believe the time will come when
the nations of the world will see that there
can be no real protection to industry; that
any attempt at protection is only crippling
of true industry and premium upon crime
in the way of smuggling, and limitation
of the true resources of country. We
confess we should like to see the zollverein
between the Enghsh-speaking nations that
existed between the German-speakIng ma
tions before their union in one empire. The
temporary advantage of such relation
would be with England. English capital
and English industry would throw into
America great quantity of cheaply pro-
duced articles, which would deluge our
market and temporarily injure certain in
dustries. But in the long run we should be
able to overcome this. What we should
lose in the way of cheap iron and cheap
cloth we should gain in the renewed market
for corn and wheat and pork and cheese.
The commercial union between the English
speaking nations would be of great advan-
tage in moral point of view. As the world
goes on, as distances are extinguished and
nations which we're once as far apart as Pat
agonia and Abyssinia are now within an
hours communication by telegraph and
within few days reach by steam, we find
ourselves taking the deepest interest
in English questions, while the Eng
lish give more and more space to Ameri-
can events. When Mr.. Plimsoll arose in
the House of Commons and called Mr.. Dis
raeh and his Cabinet williams, the Incl
dent made almost as much of sensation in
New York next morning as it did in Lon
don. Step by step there grows similarity
of thought, a union of interest and har-
mony of feeling. They are based upon the
fact that we are all of common language
and common religion, and although there
have been political differences and aliena-
tions, and although these still exist in the
minds of acrid and narrow minded men
who remember nothing of the past but its
sorrow and misfortune, still the genuine
manly sense, the Saxon sense of the great
nations, is growing more and more into
sympathy. We are Saxon, after all. The
crown and the aristocracy and the estab-
lished church and the other elements of
government are nothing compared to the
great manhood that lies underneath them
all. We believe that any craftsmanship
that brings the Anglo-Saxons into closer re-
lation will be for the benefit of liberty and
civilization. While we have no expecta-
ton of Mr.. Forster's dream being realized,
we accept it as a happy conception, and
trust that the time will come when we shall
have no custom houses on the soil of Eng
disappearing nations, when between the
great countries of the Anglo-Saxon family
there will be the utmost freedom of inter
course.