HOW CAN YOU COMPLAIN? I FEEL QUITE COMFORTABLE.
MEN are too apt to jump at the conclusion that what satisfies them must be equally satisfactory to everybody. This is a fatal error in reasoning. Always keep in mind, that you argue to con- vince others, not yourself. Sir EDWARD KNATCHMILL furnished us, *Aber day, with an illustration of this maxim. "If a fixed duty," he said, " sufficient to protect the landed interest, could be maintained, it would be better than a sliding scale : but under some circumstances a fixed duty could not be maintained." Why ? Not because the sliding scale affords less protection : Sir EDWARD de- clares that he will not put up with less than "sufficient protec- tion," and it would be uncharitable to suppose that his preference of a fixed duty arises from the belief that it would give more. He prefers the sliding scale because the fixed duty could not under some circumstances be maintained—because its operation would be too direct and easily discovered. He prefers a sliding scale because when it is oppressive the people cannot so easily find out what ails them and become "factious for redress." It is not unnatural that such an argument should have weight with Sir EDWARD; but had he been wise he would have kept it to himself.
Previous page
