respect, handicaps and kills our competitors. Free Trade would breathe life into them. I say, therefore, speaking selfishly as an Englishman, we had better remain as we are, and "let sleeping dogs lie."
But I want to know what it is our Neo-Protectionists have to lay at the door of Free Trade, even one-sided Free Trade.
Let us do a little more national stock-taking, for there is no other way of seeing how we get on.
Under the head "Imports and Exports," I gave figures which show the grand external results of our one-sided free trade. Let us now look at our internal condition, and see whether we can recognise any moral and material progress.
Let us take—i. Population. 2. Pauperism. 3. Crime. 4. Education. 5. Thrift. 6. Bankruptcy. 7. Taxation. 8. National Debt. 9. Banking. 10. Railways. 11. Agriculture.
i.— Population.
| In | 1850 | the United | Kingdom | numbered | 27,523,694 |
| „ | 1860 | „ | „ | „ | 28,778,411 |
| „ | 1870 | „ | „ | „ | 31,205,444 |
| „ | 1880 | „ | „ | „ | 34,468,552 |
| „ | 1881 | „ | „ | „ | 34,788,814 |
There is nothing discouraging here, surely. During the last ten years 3,275,000 persons, nearly 900 a day, have been added to our population, notwithstanding emigration, and a protracted agricultural and trade depression.
What is the economical condition of this population?
The following tables will indicate this:—
| Years. | Exports. | Per head of Population. | Imports. | Per head of Population. | Excess of Imports per head. | ||||||
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |||
| 1854 | 115,821,092 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 152,389,053 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| 1860 | 164,521,351 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 210,530,873 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 8 |
| 1870 | 244,080,577 | 7 | 16 | 5 | 303,257,493 | 9 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 11 |
| 1880 | 286,414,466 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 411,229,565 | 11 | 18 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 6 |
