The theory of which I have attempted in this chapter to trace the
outlines, deserves a much greater elaboration. But perhaps the
attentive reader will have perceived in it the fruitful seed which is
destined in its future growth to smother Protectionism, at once with
the various other isms whose object is to exclude the law of
COMPETITION from the government of the world. Competition, no
doubt, considering man as producer, must often interfere with his
individual and _immediate_ interests. But if we consider the great
object of all labor, the universal good, in a word, Consumption, we
cannot fail to find that Competition is to the moral world what the
law of equilibrium is to the material one. It is the foundation of
true gratification, of true Liberty and Equality, of the equality of
comforts and condition, so much sought after in our day; and if so
many sincere reformers, so many earnest friends to public right, seek
to reach their end by _commercial legislation_, it is only because
they do not yet understand _commercial freedom_.
CHAPTER V.
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