REACTION AGAINST FREE TRADE IN ENGLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2470, 5 January 1870, Page 3

REACTION AGAINST FREE TRADE IN ENGLAND.

(MarhLane ■ Express.)

Could Sir Robert Peel and Mr Cobden Stave lived to witness theihigh holiday which Sas been celebrated during the past week iv Manchester, the triumph of their policy ■would suroly have bi?en complete, 'thf lion the lambh^v^kissed eachpther. Certainly bo one could have behaved with more genero--aity, none could have evinced a more earnest -desire to let bygonesbebygojdes, than the as here represented. J Se, himself, as it were, bodily over' ■&> the keeping of his ancieat antagonist.; JSeyer has tibie ponduct of : the ; Koyal Agri,.«saltnral Society been taken so much out Of "ihe hand s of its own;officem The old war-' indeed, woWd^ loo^ to haye died put.; "tthe1 merchant princes, of Lancashire do not aseeniito.care quite so much about inviting alii world to come and undersell them, unless^ wprid be prepared to meet them on freciaely the same terms.-. -The operatives of liverpool afid Mancheaterdonot qnite come to "'*s& the ipia|nseadvantage of.inviting opposirom&Viintries where laT&oursDdliving are 'jalike>cheaper. Over and over again we met j^with the remark, jattered ever with a kind<^^mc^'surprise, BS~ If it were; something' Tntterlybeybndcomprehension, that "these i^a^s.^^hpjfciree-tnijdera after;all^ ;but as throng, profectibhists ,aa ever we were i" zJkn& further, *' If; we; werevpnly to, begin -«sd^ightit over agi«ni I really tbinfc ihey ;^ou|d go with; flso!.^.; bs ifcborae Merest of ".Richard Cobden's statue, as vl»^^^>P.paa%if y cc^gjtb thiDk-that' .5R 6n competition may be a very fine thing your neighbour, but scarcely so good for, :^oc^^:;f" We offer lib opiaiori upon this ;^rery remarkaHle revulsion of opinion : but ■we. certainly feelat-a.duty to record it. For jsome time pasfc men have been wont to epeak M the blessings oi free-trade, just as they ;.bad.!esntaughttosay their civtechiem or to -xWash their facea. r.lt. was a commendable JMs# grew upon them, and --what;everybody saya must be true The j£rs^ hbwever,-to say so, _are about the first -to question^he soundness of their own dicta. :':'The":res^iV of ;the last electioEs ia Xaaca- i shire gave: some ; key to what was v«omiug, and-the meeting of the Eoyal Agricultural Society in Manchester has afforded some further insight as to what is in the rniads of men. But will Man-; cheater, pr Laucsishire, or Liverpool stand alone here? Will the much benighted and jCQpre abused farmers, who still stick to their eolonra, ha.ye to travel dowii again to those : p^its."'-for sympathy and siipport. By no imnner of means. The feeling against open - competition would.-■jprbniise to be spreading sa fast as it once upon a time gathered in - jihe- opposite direction, Oa the very day

of our return from thc^Royal Society's Show we encountered this in^the Pall Mall Gazette —"Those who think the Americano ex-; tremely Tshoit sighted and foolish in clinging! to the policy b£ protection, will: do well to notice that Bigns of diseatisfaction with the; effects of free trade are becoming more frequent here than they used to he. & populasj reaotion against free trade will be one of the most tralooked for changes of pablio opinion^ but changes perhaps still more surprising have bsen witnessed in our own time, The American prejudices in favour of" Pro-j teotion, as applied ■to the regulation !of their own trade, are by no meana so easily eradicated as most people who have ! been born and bred, ,a{j it were, in 3?re*tradd principles are apt to imagine. At this mo'j ment Mr Horace Grtely is intent upon proving to his oountcymen the injury which free trade has done to tho English; working classes. Some of our workmen begin to take the same sort of "new. Qn Mr Ayrton and Mr Samu^a attendedV a pnbtio meeting at Limehouee to consider certain proposals with reference to emigratioti r Mr Wilktas, a working man, moved.an. amend-; ment to one of the resolutions, referring to the poverty and. distress which prevailed in the country owing; to the impdrtation of foreign manufactures duty free.. There is a society, in existence for the revival of Protection, and somedaywe .may., see, it with bands, banners, and new and .favourite orators afeiti head on the way .to Hyde Park. The Chairman of one pf pur leading Chambers, of Commerce thbiight it desirable, not long ago to state the fabta in favour, of free trade, in answer t© many comptniats of: its reiults which he had heard. Free trade has not impressed the people of- France very .favourably. Altogether American opinion on the <[uestion-is-np. doubt absurd and ground-; lessj but English' opinion is hv'."iioJmqans so enlightened as most English Libers' 5* make out","- '".'•':■■■■;..,, .-•:>;.;.;v;;'.- T