In an excellent letter to the Pall Mall Gazette of
Wednesday Mr. Herbert Vivian quotes from a recent article in the Figaro- contrasting the economic position of Free-trade Britain and Protectionist France :— " Our foreign commerce amounted to 8,651 million francs in - 1902: quite a, sum of money, I admit. But it amounted. to, 8,424 million francs in 1881. The advance from • 1881 to 1902 ,
is therefore only 227 million francs. England's foreign com- merce amounted in 1881 to 13 milliards of franca ; in 1902 it amounted to 204 milliards of francs in round numbers, which
signifies an increase of 74 milliards of francs as against our poor little 227 millions. Why all' this difference?
Because the- Englishman relies on himself, while the French- man, led astray, enervated, stupefied by charlatan demagogues, is absorbed, loses himself more and more, in the State Frightened, trembling, on his knees, he invokes for every work, at every hour, the coarse idol which has been fashioned in clay by the evil sorcerers who exploit his credulity." ' Mr. Herbert Vivian's comment is sound. " Tariffs or other forms of Protection are in commerce the clogging fetters which our grandmother the State is invited by Socialists' to impose upon all the relations of our daily life." France,' remember, is a perfect example of a " tied-house " Empire. Under her colonial system the colonies have a preference in all the French markets, and France in all the colonial: markets. And this is what comes of it !
