[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:I Szu,—You ask in
the Spectator of July 25th for an instance of a ruined trade. I will supply you with one. In the town of Derby, before Cobden made his Treaty with Napoleon HI., there was a busy and thriving silk trade. Thousands were employed in many mills, Bridget's alone employing about two thousand hands; but within a very few years after this event the trade was entirely destroyed, the mills closed, and men and women alike had to starve or seek a living "in pastures new." That trade went to Lyons and Marseilles, and has ever since been quite lost to this country.—I am,
[Our correspondent's exatnple is interesting because it touches the present controversy at a vital point. The new Protectionists tell us that we want something to bargain with,
— a tariff which we can take off by treaty, i.e., sand to throw out, according to Mr. Balfour's metaphor. But Cobden's Treaty was the last example of such international bargaining or throwing out of sand. And our correspondent tells us it ruined the silk trade! Yet we are now asked to foster trades, some of which can then be bargained away ! The game does not seem to us to be worth the candle.—ED. Spectator.' _
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