FREE-TRADE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE *SPECTATOR:] Sra,—I am disturbed to find that a number of thoughtful, capable business men to whom I have been talking are inclined to vote for " Balfour Unionism" only, and, failing a suitable candidate, to refrain from voting, their view being that Free-trade is of the somewhat discredited laisser-faire epoch, and that as other protected countries will not accept Free-trade, whilst we do not pretend to have a monopoly of the brains of the world, a middle course is the best ultimately to obtain real Free-trade all round. A final statement from your able advocate just before the Election might help to bring in some of the doubters to vote Liberal for the sake of
FREE-TRADE.
[We would refer our correspondent to the latter part of our first leading article, but may say here that the proposal to adopt Protection because foreign countries adopt it is logically quite untenable. Free-trade is a positive, not a relative, good; and though foreign States injure us as well as themselves by rejecting it, we cannot improve matters by rejecting it also. When we find that Jones, a man with whom we do business and might do more, is injuring his trade, and so in a sense ours, by taking to drink, we do not say to him : "Jones, you are doing us both harm, and I warn you, unless you give up drink, I shall take to it also." Our answer to the proposal to bluff Jones out of his bad ways by threats is that experience shows that such threats have never succeeded. They only make Jones say :—" You see how right I am to use stimulants. All the others are preparing to follow my example."—ED. Spectator.]
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