MR BRIGHT ON PROTECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue XIII, 15 April 1879, Page 2

MR BRIGHT ON PROTECTION.

The following letter from Mr John Bright, M.P. has been received by Mr Cyrus W. Field, of New York :— " One Ash, Rochdale, January 21, 1879.— My dear Mr Field,— l never write for reviews or any other periodicals. It is so long since I have written that my hand has lost its cunning, if it ever had it. Ido not think anything an Englishman could say would have any effect upon an American protectionist. The man who possesses a monopoly by which he thinks he gains is not open to argument. It was so in this country forty years ago, and it is so with you now. It is strange that a people who put down slavery at an immense sacrifice are not able to suppress monopoly, which is but a milder form of the same evil. Under slavery the .man was seized and his labor was stolen from him, and the profit of ic enjoyed by his master and owner. Under protection the man is apparently free, but he is denied the right to exchange the produce of' , his labor, except with his countrymen, who offer him much less for it than the foreigner would give. Some portion of his labor was thus con. fiseated. In our Protection days, our weavers and artizans could not exchange with American flour. They exchanged with an English farmer, who gave them only half the quantity the American would give them. Now, your farmer is forbidden to trade with an Englishman, and must give to an American double the quantity of grain and flour for many articles ho is constantly requiring than he would give if your laws did not forbid his trade with England. A country may have democratic iustitutions, its Government may be Republican, and based on a wide suffrage, and yet there may be no freedom to men for that which is the source of life and comfort. If a man's labor is not free, if its exchange is not free, the man is nob free. And whether the law which enacts this restriction be the offspring of Republican or autocratic government and power, it is equally evil, and to be condemned and withstood by all who love freedom and understand what it is. iNations learn slo .vly, but they do learn ; and therefore I do nob doubt that the time will come when trade will be as free as the winds, and when freedom of industry will do much to pub down great armies awd the peril and suffering of war. But I am writing you almost an article, instead of a short note — as if I would teach yo , which would be an impertinence. If you could teach your farmers and ask the ' solid South' to help them, and you, you might soon succeed. — Believe me always sincerely your friend, Jonsr Bright."