Mr. Gladstone on Monday, on the occasion of an address
to Mr. T. B. Potter, presented by the Cobden Club, in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, pronounced a eulogium on Free-trade, marked by three observations of some importance. He was disinclined to rest the cause of Free-trade so much as is often done, upon its effect in cheapening food. He thought the present cheapness of bread due in the main to the long peace, and the improvement in the means of communica- tion; and held the Free-trade argument to be sound even without that particular result. That is, we conceive, the true doctrine, though no doubt it was the taxation of corn which brought the economic argument home to the people of this country. Mr. Gladstone also maintained that in excluding the Chinese, the Americans and Austra- lians were actuated entirely by Protectionist feeling, which is, we conceive, not true. The objection of one race to the intrusion of another and lower race can be defended, even if the lower race demands larger wages than the higher. It may be a duty to avoid the lowering of the general standard of ideas. That duty does not justify the expulsion of guests, but does, we think, render a refusal to admit them at least law- ful. At any rate, we can see no other reason for the exclusion of convict immigrants. Mr. Gladstone, too, pushes the Free- trade argument far when he says it is fatal to bimetallism. The object of Free-trade is not to raise or to lower prices, but to abolish artificial prices,—which are, in fact, taxes on the consumer. If, therefore, a double currency is the best currency—an open question—the fact that its use would raise prices does not make it Protectionist. Bimetallism might be wise or foolish, even if India and Russia employed a gold currency.
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