The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1867] MR. FREDERIC HILL, 375
management had been gradually reduced by about
;
1 00,000, was little augmented by less than ^300,000;
and I may add that but for such interposition as for a
short time he was still allowed to make, the increase,
great as it was, would in all probability have been
greater still.*
* The following passage from Sir C. W. Dilke's valuable work "Greater
Britain," published since the above was written, throws further light on the retro-
gressive course in question :
"Writing for the Englishmen of Old England, it is not necessary for me to
defend free trade by any arguments. As far as we in our island are concerned, it
is so manifestly to the pocket-interest of almost all of us, and, at the same time, on
account of the minuteness of our territory, so little dangerous, politically, that for
Britain there can be no fear of a deliberate relapse into protection, although we
have but little right to talk about free trade so long as we continue our enormous
subsidies to the Cunard liners.
"The American argument in favour of prohibition is in the main,
it will be
seen, political ; the economical objection being admitted, but outweighed. Our
action in the matter of our postal contracts, and in the case of the Factory Acts,
at all events shows that we are not ourselves invariably averse to distinguish
between the political and the economical aspect of certain questions." (" Greater
Britain," second edition, p. 69.)