The loss of two consecutive harvests.
To which of these last two circumstances is the first to be attributed?
The protectionists do not fail to exclaim: "It is this cursed freedom which does all the mischief.

It promised us wonders and marvels; we welcomed it, and now the manufactories stop and the people suffer." Commercial freedom distributes, in the most uniform and equitable manner, the fruits which Providence grants to the labor of man.

If these fruits are partially destroyed by any misfortune, it none the less looks after the fair distribution of what remains.

Men are not as well provided for, of course, but shall we blame freedom or the bad harvest?
Freedom rests on the same principle as insurance.

When a loss happens, it divides, among a great many people, and a great number of years, evils which without it would accumulate on one nation and one season.
But have they ever thought of saying that fire was no longer a scourge, since there were insurance companies?
In 1842, '43 and '44, the reduction of taxes began in England.