PART I.
SOPHISMS OF PROTECTION.
FIRST SERIES.
INTRODUCTION.
My object in this little volume has been to refute some of the arguments usually advanced against Free Trade.
I am not seeking a combat with the protectionists.

I merely advance a principle which I am anxious to present clearly to the minds of sincere men, who hesitate because they doubt.
I am not of the number of those who maintain that protection is supported by interests.

I believe that it is founded upon errors, or, if you will, upon _incomplete truths_.

Too many fear free trade, for this apprehension to be other than sincere.
My aspirations are perhaps high; but I confess that it would give me pleasure to hope that this little work might become, as it were, a _manual_ for such men as may be called upon to decide between the two principles.

When one has not made oneself perfectly familiar with the doctrines of free trade, the sophisms of protection perpetually return to the mind under one form or another; and, on each occasion, in order to counteract their effect, it is necessary to enter into a long and laborious analysis.