“The able men who led the agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws promised much more than this. They told us that the Poor Laws were to follow the Corn Laws; that pauperism would disappear with the restrictions upon trade, and the workhouses ere long become obsolete institutions. I fear this part of the programme has scarcely been fulfilled; those ugly social features, those violent contrasts of poverty and wealth, that strike so unpleasantly the eye of every foreign observer in this country, are still painfully prominent. The signs of the extinction of pauperism are not very apparent.”[30] Disraeli prophesied in 1852:-- “The time will come when the working classes in England will come to you on bended knees, and pray you to undo your present legislation.” And it really seems as if the time was approaching for the fulfilment of his prophecy, for I read in a recent Paper: “It is the intention of the leading men among the Cotton Operatives to move next session for a Royal Commission to enquire as to what extent, if any, we suffer from foreign competition, and _what bearing free trade may have on the question_.” Sir Edward Sullivan also stated in a recent speech that: “Already a number of Operatives, far more than is necessary to turn a general election, have, through their delegates, given in their adherence to _Fair_ trade.”[31] Fair trade is one step in the direction of protection. FOOTNOTES: [30] _Fortnightly Review_, July, 1871. [31] _The Mail_, December 19th, 1883. CHAPTER IX. ISOLATION OF JUGERNATH. Carlyle has said--“There are thirty millions of people in Great Britain, _mostly fools_.” You remind me, my friend, of the Irishman who complained that he never served on a jury without finding himself associated with eleven of the most obstinate pig-headed men conceivable. Are all other nations, except England, obstinate, and pig-headed? Is the shrewd American blind to his own interest? Are the phlegmatic Dutchman, the thrifty Belgian, the clever Frenchman, the philosophical German, simpletons and idiots, as Mr. Bright is pleased to call all those who do not implicitly accept the gospel of free trade. Might not Carlyle’s pithy remark teach a little humility? No country except England is free-trader. Free trade, at the present time, after a trial of thirty-eight years, is either an English, or a barbarous custom. All other civilized nations are obstinate protectionists; and the worst of it is, that they are growing more and more obstinate in their adherence to protection, as they find they are making greater relative advance in prosperity than England with its free trade. Even Mr. Gladstone himself admits that “_America is passing us by in a canter_.”