Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/197

 right of kings, which arrogated the right to treat the people as if the people were made only to be their slaves. The Anti-Corn Law League had to contend with the divine right of squires, which claimed the power of having a monopoly of the food of the people. In an admirable letter which I will quote presently, Mr. Bright says of the Americans putting down slavery, "It is strange that a people who put down slavery are not able to suppress monopoly, which is but a milder form of the same evil." Much as I have read on the subject of Protection or Monopoly and Free Trade, I never met with so clear an exposition of the text of "Nations slowly wise and meanly just," as the remarks of Mr. Bright which I am about to quote. What we have seen in our own days goes far to corroborate Mr. Bright's remark—that freedom of industry will do much to put down great armies and the peril and suffering of war. I will quote a few words in illustration of this point from a traveller of singular courage and great intelligence:—

"'The English,' says Mr. Borrow, 'who have never been at war with Portugal, who have fought for its independence"