ENGLISH FINANCE UNSOUND. 221 dation in their most formidable shape. It has been well said by Mr. Macdonnell, Political discontent is oftentimes another name for the possession of an unsatisfied and lofty ideal of political excellence.'* It is the business of statesmen to obviate discontent by just and timely reform. *The Land Question, p. 43. CHAPTER VII. INDIA AND THE COLONIES. THIRTY years ago, the trade between England and the East had been finally thrown open to the public, by the abolition of the East India Company's monopoly of traffic with China. Whatever defence might have been alleged for the policy which secured the trade of India to the Company,-and the ordinary apology was that it had incurred the cost of military occupation and government, no such defence could be alleged for its monopoly with China. The trade, it is true, was of little profit to the Company, for experience had abundantly proved the truth of Adam Smith's reasoning, when he showed that just as the Company succeeded as traders, they failed as rulers, and vice versa. But it was an enormous loss to the British public, as was shown in the rapid decline of prices for China produce when the trade was made free. The abolition of the China monopoly was the extinction of the East India Company as a trading society, for its transactions in opium and indigo were fiscal arrangements rather than trade privileges. THE INDIAN EMPIRE, ITS ORIGIN. 223 The abolition of the Company's trade involved at some period, more or less remote, the extinction of the Company's political existence. It was clear that the government of a vast dependency, the retention of which involved expenditure, or at least watchfulness, on the part of the British nation, could not be administered by a Committee of Stockholders in Leadenhall-street, but must be brought within direct relations to Parliament. It is true that either because it acted on a sense of its own responsibility in the matter, or because it was naturally jealous of such an imperium in imperio as the Indian dependency was, the Houses of Parliament had gradually curtailed and controlled the authority of the East India Directors. Lord Dalhousie was a very different personage from Warren Hastings, both as regards the power which he exercised, and the parties to whom he was made responsible. But even this qualified power must necessarily have come to an end, and it came to an end in 1858. The character of what was called the double government was strikingly illustrated by the Burmese war, which Cobden made the subject of a very important pamphlet, published in 1853, under the title, 'How Wars are got up in India.’* On this occasion-the circumstance commented on happened in 1852-Commodore Lambert, commanding the Queen's ships off the coast of Burmah, took offence at the conduct of the Governor of Rangoon, stormed the fortifications of that town, and ultimately brought about the annexation of a portion of Burmah to the Indian empire. During the greater part of Cobden's public life, the * Political Writings, vol. ii. p. 29 sqq. 'We,' said real question before the British public was not whether The world It is a principle, which Cobden was very fond of illustrating by facts, that the profits of no trade ever were, or ever could be, equal to the charge of maintaining such a trade by force of arms. It is commonly said that the military stations possessed by this country in every part of the world are part, and a necessary part, of the machinery for carrying on such a trade as we possess, and that we should imperil our supremacy in mercantile energy and success if we abandoned such places as we occupy now, or failed, when urged to do * Speeches, vol. ii. p. 357. TRADE AND CONQUEST. 225 so, to occupy more in advantageous places. Now I can well believe that certain places do promote or sustain certain kinds of trade. I have little or no doubt that a considerable quantity of goods has been smuggled into Spain by means of the possession of Gibraltar. Whether it is creditable to us to have taken a part of Spain from the Spanish people, under circumstances little honourable to our political reputation, to have retained it and so laid a standing affront on the honour of a peculiarly proud and sensitive nation, to have justified its retention on the loftiest grounds of political necessity, and to discover that its chief value consists in its affording a means for committing offences against the municipal laws of a community, analogous laws to which we maintain among ourselves by inflicting very severe penalties on those who infringe them, is a question which may be left for political casuists to debate. There can be no doubt as to how honest people would answer it. But even if this trade be profitable, it is certain that it does not cover the cost of the station, and that even if it did cover the cost, the gain of the transaction goes into one set of pockets, and the charges come out of another set. The profit of all the trade which is carried on in the Mediterranean is far less than the cost of the stations and fleet which are maintained there. But even if the profits far exceeded the cost, the question still remains, is the cost necessary for the trade? The answer is obvious. The American trade with the Mediterranean countries was, before America ruined herself by protection, only second to our own, and this trade was carried on without the assistance of any armed force whatever. ૨ L |