Mr. Blaine, who, in spite of the general distrust, still
hopes to be the candidate of the Republican Party at the next election, has apparently decided that his best chance is to come out as an enthusiastic Protectionist and teetotaller. He is accordingly making speeches in Pennsylvania, in which he argues, first, that Protection will keep up wages for the working man, which as nobody proposes to protect food, and a majority of working Americans raise food, is not only untrue, but ridiculous ; secondly, that it will render America independent of all the world, which is like making one's own coat in order to be " independent " of one's tailor ; and, thirdly, that Free-trade is the destruction of temperance, to which Mr. Blaine is devoted. The meaning of that last argument is a little obscure. Mr. Blaine assumes, we suppose, that if all things are admitted at a low duty, alcohol must be admitted too ; but what Free-trader ever said so ? What he says is, that if alcohol is taxed on importation, as may be necessary for fiscal reasons, an internal excise duty must be levied of equal amount. It is, however, just possible that Mr. Blaine may have a more recondite explanation to give. Protection taxes Western men very heavily. They already drink hard, and if Free-trade made other things cheap, there is no telling how hard they would drink. Mr. Blaine is said to excite great enthusiasm, but it is, we fancy, the enthusiasm of his audiences, not of the public. Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett has been known to do that.
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