Before he can say precisely what the Irish Parliament means by a free trade, he must see the heads of the proposed bill. If it is only freedom to export, nothing could be more just and reasonable. If it is freedom to import, subject only to their own customs’ duties, that again is perfectly reasonable, though it would “interfere a little with some of our paltry monopolies.” If they wish to be allowed to trade freely with the American and African plantations, that also should be conceded. It would interfere with some monopolies, but would do no harm to Great Britain. Lastly, they might mean to demand a free trade with Great Britain. “Nothing, in my opinion, would be more highly advantageous to both countries than this mutual freedom of trade. It would help to break down that absurd monopoly which we have most absurdly established against ourselves in favour of almost all the different classes of our own manufacturers.” Dundas had hinted that the two Parliaments might be reconciled by a proper distribution of loaves and fishes. Smith did not shrink at all from promoting a good policy by what was then the ordinary method of promoting a bad policy:— “Whatever the Irish mean to demand in this way, in the present situation of our affairs I should think it madness not to grant it. Whatever they may demand, our manufacturers, unless the leading and principal men among them are properly dealt with beforehand, will probably oppose it. That they may be so dealt with I know from experience, and that it may be done at little expense and with no great trouble. I could even point to some persons who, I think, are fit and likely to deal with them successfully for this purpose. I shall not say more upon this till I see you, which I shall do the first moment I can get out of this Town.” A week later Smith repeated his argument with some additions and modifications in a letter of November 8th to Lord Carlisle, who then presided over the Board of Trade. He maintains that “a very slender interest of our own manufacturers is the foundation of all these unjust and oppressive restraints,” and ridicules “the watchful jealousy of the monopolists, alarmed lest the Irish, who have never been able to supply completely even their own market with glass or woollen manufactures, should be able to rival them in foreign markets.”