Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Lord Farrer on the Free Trade Question: Mr. J. W, Probyn and Mr. I, S. Leadam on the Work of the Cobden Club
I turn from the more favourable side of the subject to what appear to me to be the possible dangers of the present, but I do not wish to exaggerate them. In the first place it is impossible to help feeling the greatest sympathy with the agricultural interest, which is suffering terribly. It is a favourable feature, nevertheless, that there is no expressed demand for Protection. Still, all sorts of remedies have been suggested, and one of them is a proposal to mark all foreign-made goods imported to this country with the name of the place of their manufacture. But as a remedial measure I believe this to be a pure delusion because if a thing is good, people will buy it quite regardless of the home of its manu facture. As a matter of fact I am told that many cheap goods made in England are marked with French or German names, simply because people have got to believe that things cannot be had cheap unless they have been made in France or Germany. So far as this Club is concerned, the evil part of this suggestion is that it proposes to do this with respect only to foreign-made goods, and so invites the Custom House authorities to make a trouble some investigation for the purpose of seeing where the goods come from, and of stopping them if not properly marked. Here I say Beware of the Custom House, and I say it with a tolerable knowledge of the tendency of the Customs in this direction. The Custom House has lost a great deal of its importance by the introduction of Free Trade measures, and it is but natural that its officials should seek to recover some part at least of their lost jurisdiction. But if you are thus to mark foreign goods, be consistent, and do the same with English-made goods; let us not have Stilton cheese which is not made at Stilton, or Southdown mutton which is not bred and nurtured on the Southdowns of Sussex! Do that, and our agriculturists will cease to press for the marking of foreign goods.
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