surplus towards its reduction; but, if any result be clear in the financial experience of the last fifteen years, it is this that the most efficacious sinking fund that can be established is, the release of the industry and skill of the country as rapidly as possible, from the pressure of every fiscal burden which operates as a positive hindrance and oppression.

But it is quite true, as Mr. Tooke adds, and as her given altogether in his own words; "Our strength and progress consist far more in augmenting the ability of the country to bear the burden of the debt, than in attempting to diminish its magnitude by retaining taxes which prevent accessions to our ability; and the more rapidly we arrive at an adjustment of taxation so perfect and equitable that, for all practical purposes it may be regarded (considering its necessary magnitude) as imposing no oppressive burdens on the development of skill and enterprise, the more rapidly we shall arrive at that point where we may, with most advantage and safety, make the reduction of the debt our first and greatest concern; but, till then, few inferences from experience seem to be plainer than this, namely, that constantly observing the line of prudence, as regards a full provision for all our engagements, our first duty and our best policy is, to remove fiscal oppressions and inequalities."

The result of all this experience clearly shows that, every relaxation of restrictive duties has been immediately followed by an expansion and increase of trade. much more than sufficient to compensate for the loss of the abandoned duties; and that, so sensitive is trade to any restraints upon perfect freedom of action, the removal of any impediments, even in the minutest arrangements of official routine, is attended with immediate and sensible effects to the same end,-the extension and enlargement of trade, with all the necessary conse

quences of increase in the rate of profits, and wages, and of employment, and comforts, to the working classes. With such experience of relaxing only the rigid rules of the present system, what may not be expected from the total abolition of all restrictive duties, and other impediments to perfect freedom of trade in this country? Even the most sanguine advocate of free trade could hardly have foreseen such vast results in so short a time, from such small beginnings.

It is, therefore, impossible to calculate beforehand what would be the state of trade in a very few years from the date of its perfect freedom and independence. But this is certain, that in the absence of any national calamity from other causes, this country would then be in a state of prosperity and happiness unexampled in any period of its past history; and that the example of this nation would then be like a beacon of light to guide other nations of the world into the same track, that all may be as one nation, with one interest, mutually interchanging, for their mutual benefit, the varied and peculiar gifts of climate, soil, and produce, bestowed on each by a bounteous Providence, whose gifts are limited by no measure, and who would have all mankind as one People, looking to one and the same God, the Giver of all, and for the equal good of all.

This is the first step to the establishment of peace on the firm and sure foundation of one common and equal interest. Nations, like individuals, must learn from experience. They will then learn that, in the establishment of peace they are all equally interested, and when people are duly impressed with this, as a fact proved to their own conviction, war will be no longer possible. Year by year they will be learning this, through consequences which must convince them of the fact. They will see in the freedom of trade, the surest means of their own freedom and worldly welfare, and they will

learn to regard the interests of others, for the sake of their own, if for no higher and better motives. By these means savage and barbarous people will be first taught to appreciate the comforts of civilization, and they, in their turn, will become the promoters of civilization by the same means. Year by year, under this teaching, the shackles of slavery and serfdom must be loosened, and must, in the end, be allowed to drop off. Slaves and serfs must be set free, because it will be found to be for the interests of all that they should be free. Freedom of trade will be valued and guarded with no less jealous care, than the freedom of the Press now is in this country. To the freedom of the Press we shall owe freedom of Trade, and we shall value both equally.

We

We shall claim and exercise the right to buy and sell, as freely as we now speak and write. We shall learn to respect the grand simplicity of the Divine Commandments, written on tablets of stone by the first Lawgiver, and to submit ourselves, more faithfully than we have ever done before, to the Divine spirit of those ancient and eternal laws. We shall learn, through these, to see the wicked injustice, the unwise severity, and the feeble folly of most human laws; and, in the enjoyment of our own natural and lawful rights, we shall learn better to respect the natural and lawful rights of others. shall learn that, what is in common language called, accommodating oneself to the prejudices of individuals, or showing a prudent respect" for strange customs, and peculiar habits of thought, or for moral characteristics of nations, is nothing but a just appreciation of the intellectual and moral development of the individuals, or nations; and the right employment, in each case, of precisely those agencies of civilization which are fitted to be most effective. The work of legislation will then be comparatively simple, and the line of duty plain. The necessity of making just laws, and enforcing them, will

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then be universally acknowledged and supported, and a vast majority will always compel the observance. The complicated interests of society will then be no longer the miserable excuse for unjust and oppressive laws, and Sovereigns and Governments will then find their own duties much more easy, and their own positions much more secure;-they will find their best security in the well-being and contentment of the people, and the people will find their greatest happiness in the preservation of peace and good order, which left them free to think and to act in all that concerned themselves alone; to manage their own affairs, and to enjoy the fruits of their own industry.

The People will then be encouraged to place confidence in sound principles, and they will make laws and regulations, for the government of themselves and their affairs, more in accordance with reason and justice,— more consistent with humanity and prudence. They will learn to respect and apply, in the moral affairs of this world, those truths discovered through reason, which, in the physical world, are revealed to us through the laws of nature; and they will proceed to act with the same confidence in the one, as in the other. Thus, they will derive incalculable advantages, far beyond the present reach of human foresight. Irreconcileable difficulties, in the present complicated state of human affairs, will then be simplified; and, by degrees, all will become reconcileable with reason and truth. Freedom of trade being seen to work for the equal benefit of all, will be recognized and established, all over the world, with universal consent; and freedom of thought and action must follow by the same universal assent.

The intricacies of the Currency Question, and all such like complications of artificial and unjust systems, will disappear, and the wonder of posterity will be, in the want of wisdom and foresight of their ancestors. Men

will be left more to regulate themselves as rational and responsible creatures; and things will be left more to the regulation of simple and natural laws. As for example, when free trade is admitted and established as a principle, it will no longer be possible to make gold and silver, or anything else, exceptions. The principle, once admitted as a law of nature, will be relied upon with the same confidence. All strange and anomalous distinctions, and irreconcileable differences, must then disappear, and with them will disappear most of the difficulties. Gold and Silver will then be bought and sold like any other article of merchandise. Mint price, and Market price, will then be known only as a matter of history; and the law which prohibits the Bank of England from purchasing gold bullion at the market price of the day, will be referred to with the same sort of astonishment as we now refer to those laws which prohibited the exportation of our woollen manufactures, or that natural production called, "fuller's earth," on pain of death; or which prohibited, under heavy penalties, on a sliding scale, the importation of Corn in times of scarcity. The true character of gold and silver as articles of merchandise, and as representatives of debt, not of value, in the form of currency, will then be better understood, and the difficulties arising from intricate artificial contrivances which now envelop the questions of currency and banking, will then disappear; the truth will then be seen in its simplicity, and, like the sun emerging from the obscurity of a cloud, will throw light around, making clear many objects now in darkness. Other improvements will follow, as simple and necessary conse quences. As the improvement of the steam-engine has led to innumerable benefits to mankind, so will the principles of reason and truth, in all human affairs, lead to innumerable and far greater benefits to the whole human race. All mankind will be drawn and held