The Americana are beginning to see that protective duties are
taxes levied on the poor for the benefit of the rich. A very important meeting was held at Boston on the 20th April, to found a Free-Trade League. It was supported by many leading New-Englanders, and attended by many manufacturers ; but the important fact was the adhesion of some leading members of the old Abolitionist party. They will not be put down by clamour, and they have the habit of exposition. Unluckily, they have not the grand weapon of our old free-traders, the protective duty on bread ; but they can appeal to the masses by showing how protection raises prices without raising wages, except in the protected trades. As the West, the South, and half the East are consumers, raising corn only, and are taxed for the benefit of the manufacturers without even apparent compensation, the reformers can hardly fail of ultimate success.
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