LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE NET RESULT OF THE FISCAL CONTROVERSY.
[TO THE EDITOR OP TEE "SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—May an outsider, a non-trader, who has studied with deep interest both figures and arguments, of late so thickly showered upon us, state briefly the propositions which have been established, to his satisfaction at least? First, that owing to the "most-favoured-nation" treatment to which our absence of tariff entitles us, we are not excluded from protected nations mere than they exclude one another. Secondly, that very few things, except a starched shirt, can be called finished manu- factures in the sense of not serving to produce something else, and that in consequence of our free imports of such manu- factures we can hold our own, even in exports to protected countries (as Mr. Haldane's figures showed), and yet pay our workmen better wages and give them better lives generally than any protected European country. Any retaliation in favour of a trade unfairly bit, as one might think, would result in injury to some other trade which in its turn would require protection, and so on, till unsettlement, discontent, and wrangling became chronic. "I was well, wished to be better, took physic and died."—I am, Sir, &c., C. W. M.
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