COMMERCE AND PHILOSOPHY.
(TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—If "our foolish want of adequate preparation cannot be attributed to Free Trade," to what then are we to attribute it ? The country, under the persuasion of Cobden, resolved to adopt a purely commercial policy—i.e., of aiming at the "maximum amount of wealth" (in other words, making as much money as possible), without thinking about what other countries might do in an opposite sense. This no doubt "sapped our energies." I do not write this in a party spirit. Sir Robert Peel and his followers (including the modern Conservative Party) are as much to blame for the adoption of Cobden's principles as Cobden himself. But it still seems to me " unphilosophical " to deny that our present circumstances are the result of the adoption of an unqualified system of Free Trade as the basis of a " national " policy.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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