The  object  of  protection  is  to  enhance  prices.  Prices  are  what  a
man  has  to  pay,  for  it  is  no  use  to  enhance  a  price  which  no  one
'will  give.  But  to  make  me  or  any  one  else  pay  more  for  what  I
must  have  than  I  need  pay,  and  to  put  this  compulsion  on  me  in
the  interest  of  the  third  party,  which  is  most  falsely  called  native
industry,  is  as  violent  an  invasion  of  my  personal  liberty  as  1  can
^easily  conceive.  I  do  not  object  that  prices  are  heightened  against
r.me,  in  order  to  provide  funds  for  the  administration  of  public
^affairs,  for  internal  and  external  defence,  for  the  proper  dignity  of
ihe  collectivity,  which  we  call  the  United  Kingdom  or  the  empire,
though  every  one  has  the  right,  a  right  too  rarely  exercised,  of
criticizing  taxation  and  expenditure.  But  I  object  very  strongly
to  being  called  on  to  pay  for  one  man's  profits  and  another  man's
rent,  especially  when  I  have  grave  doubts  whether  profits  or  rent
will  be  improved  by  these  means,  and  I  am  quite  sure  they  ought
not  to  be,  if  they  could.  It  is  bad  enough  to  be  plundered  for  the
best  of  causes,  but  to  be  plundered  for  the  worst  is  more  than
irritating.  I  might  wince  if  my  own  savings,  or  my  own  harmless
enjoyments  were  curtailed  in  order  to  increase  the  wages  of  em-
ployed or  unemployed  workmen,  though  I  might  bear  the  calamity
with  equanimity,  but  to  have  them  curtailed  when  I  am  quite
-certain  that  the  process  will  only  make  the  condition  of  labourers
worse  is  a  good  deal  more  than  a  grievance.
