I defy you to say that this argument does not apply with equal force to foreign as to domestic competition. Let us try again. At page 325, we find:
'Men either possess certain rights, or they do not. If they do—if these rights exist, they entail certain inevitable consequences....
But more than this, they must be the same at all times; they are entire and absolute—past, present, and to come—in all seasons; and not only when it may please you to declare them to be, but when it may please the workmen to appeal to them.'
Will you maintain that an iron-master has an undefined right to hinder me for ever from producing indirectly two hundredweight of iron in my manufactory, for the sake of producing one hundred-weight in a direct manner in his own? This right, also, I repeat, either exists, or it does not. If it does exist, it must be absolute at all times and in all seasons; not only when it may please you to declare it to be so, but when it may please the iron-masters to claim its protection.
Let us again try our luck. At page 63, I read,—
'Property does not exist, if I cannot give as well as consume it.'
We say so likewise. 'Property does not exist, if I cannot exchange as well as consume it;' and permit me to add, that the right of exchange is at least as valuable, as important in a social point of view, as characteristic of property, as the right of gift. It is to be regretted, that in a work written for the purpose of examining property under all its aspects, you have thought it right to devote two chapters to an investigation of the latter right, which is in but little danger, and not a line to that of exchange, which is so boldly attacked, even under the shelter of the laws.
Again, at page 47:—
'Man has an absolute property in his person and in his faculties. He has a derivative one, less inherent in his nature, but not less sacred, in what these faculties may produce, which embraces all that can be called the wealth of this world, and which society is in the highest degree interested in protecting; for without this protection there would be no labour; without labour, no civilization, not even the necessaries of life—nothing but misery, robbery, and barbarism.'*
* This is a happy exposure of the inconsistency of M.
Thiers. But we have had recently, and in the sitting of the
late National Assembly, a curious example of the perversion
of his extraordinary powers, in the speeches, full of false
brilliancy, to the legislature of France, in condemnation of
the principles of Free-trade. His statements were coloured,
or altogether without foundation; the examples which he
adduced, when looked into, told against him, and his logic
was puerile. Yet he found an attentive and a willing
auditory. Indeed, the prejudices of the French on this
subject, mixed up as they are with so many influences
operating on their vanity, are still inveterate; and it was,
as it always has been, M. Thiers's object to reflect
faithfully the national mind. His aim never was the noble
one of raising and enlightening the views of his countrymen,
but simply to gain an influence over their minds, by
encouraging and echoing their prejudices and keeping alive
their passions.