Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/363

OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 123 three on the Reef and one on the Peak, where nearly everything in use could be bought, arid that, too, at prices that were far from being exorbitant. The absence of im port duties had a great influence on the cost of things, the state getting its receipts in kind, directly through the labour of its citizens, instead of looking to a custom house in quest of its share for the general prosperity. At that time very little was written about the great fal lacy of the present day, Free Trade ; which is an illusion about which men now talk, and dispute, and almost fight, while no living mortal can tell what it really is. It is wise for us in America, who never had anything but free trade, according to modern doctrines, to look a little closely into the sophisms that are getting to be so much in vogue; arrd which, whenever they come fn;m our illustrious ances tors in Great Britain, have some such effect on the ima ginations of a portion of our people, as purling rills and wooded cascades are known to posse?,:; over those of cer tain young ladies of fifteen. Free trade, in its true signification, or in the only signi fication which is not a fallacy, can only mean a commerce that is totally unfettered by duties, restrictions, prohibi tions, and charges of all sorts. Except among savages, the world never yet saw such a state of things, and proba bly never will. Even free trade ports have exactions that, in a degree, counteract their pretended principle of liberty; and no free port exists, that is anything more, in a strict interpretation of its uses, than a sort of bonded ware house. So long as your goods remain there, on deposit and unappropriated, they are not taxed; but the instant they are taken to the consumer, the customary impositions must be paid. Freer trade that is, a trade which is less encumbered than some admitted state of things which previously ex isted is easily enough comprehended ; but, instead of conveying to the mind any general theory, it merely shows that a lack of wisdom may have prevailed in the manage ment of some particular interest ; which lack of wisdom is now being tardily repaired. Prohibitions, whether direct, or in the form of impositions that the trade will not bear, may be removed without leaving trade free. This or that