“I admit the comparative poverty of this country as compared with many other countries of the same magnitude and importance, and I am convinced of the impolicy and injustice of imposing burdens on this people which may be called crushing or oppressive.” (Lord Mayo, March, 1871.) “It is not too much to say that the very existence of our rule in India may be gravely imperilled unless the finances of the country are placed in a more satisfactory position.” (Professor Fawcett, Feb., 1879.) “The first thing to do is to point out well that frequent iteration, which alone impresses political masses, that India is of no real use at all to us, that we should be _richer_, stronger, better, happier without it, that we are cramped, distracted, and _impoverished_ by it.” (Why keep India? by Grant Allen.) [100] Dr. Watson’s Report. [101] Government of India Records. Home Agriculture, and Revenue Department, clx. p. 16. [102] Cotton 37,300,000 Silk 2,400,000 Grain 66,800,000 Flax 8,700,000 Sugar 22,400,000 Tea 10,900,000 ----------- 148,500,000 [103] “With a more certain market for wheat, it would, in many districts” (of Australia), “be profitable to bore for or to store water and open railways or make rivers navigable, and thus enormously increase the area of profitable wheat production.” (Duke of Manchester, _Nineteenth Century_, 1881.) CHAPTER XXVII. I know a maiden fair to see. Take care! Trust her not, she is fooling thee. Beware!! Fair Trade! Reciprocity! Retaliation! Such are the cries that have been raised by those who have felt the evils of Free Trade, without fully realising the mischievous principle involved in it. England, _with its dependencies, if properly governed_, might be independent of foreign nations for its trade, commerce, markets and productions. “Retaliation” is an action at once undignified, inexpedient and unjust. Are we to injure ourselves by the imposition of protective tariffs, which are mischievous when unnecessary, and to attempt to injure our neighbour, because he declines to imitate our folly in ruining ourselves for an economic “ignis fatuus?”