FENELON AND FREE-TRADE.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—May I bring to the recollection of your readers the brief statement of fiscal policy set forth by Mentor in Fenelon's " Telemaque" P- " La liberte du commerce etait entiere : bien loin de is gener par des imptits, on promettait une recompense a tons les marchands qui pourraient attirer it Salente le commerce de quelque nouvelle nation. Ainsi les peuples y accoururent bientet en foule de toutes parts. Le commerce de cette ville etait semblable au flux et reflux do In mer. Lea tresors y entraient comme lee fiots viennent run sur l'autre. Tout y etait apporte et en sortait librement. Tout ee qui entrait etait utile : tout ce qui sortait laissait en sortant d'autres richesses it sa place."
Contrast this with the state of trade as we had it under Pro- tection. In Tait's Magazine for 1842 I find a report of a public
meeting in Dundee at which it was reported that since 1837 there had been two hundred and ten bankruptcies in Dundee.
Two-thirds of the looms in Dundee were unemployed. More than half the mechanics were unemployed, and five-sixths of the masons. One-third of the operatives of the district were idle. Contrast this doleful picture with the extraordinary prosperity of the last fifty years under Free-trade, and I think you have a clear and striking proof of the prescience of
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