lt COMPLAINTS FROM BASTIAT. 477

He was confronted by ‘the fact that at the very time when 7328.
Peel consummated the policy of Free Trade, he asked for Zr 4
extra credit for the army, as if to proclaim, said Bastiat,
‘hat he had no faith in his own work, and as if to thrust
Yack our best arguments down our own throats. Thirteen
Years afterwards, when Cobden was himself engaged in con-Yerting
 France to Free Trade, while Lord Palmerston was at
the same moment increasing the fleet, raising new fortificabons,
 and making incendiary speeches, Bastiats words of
1847 may have come back to his mind : “ Besides the extra
“redit, the policy of your government is still marked by a
Piri, of taquinerie, which irritates the French people, and
wakes it lose whatever impartiality it may have had left.” ®
“Trust speak to you in all frankness,” Bastiat proceeded,
W his urgent way. “In adopting Free Trade England has
Bot adopted the policy that flows logically from Free Trade.
Will she do so? I cannot doubtit, but when? The position
taleen by you and your friends in Parliament will have an
'mmenge influence on the course of our undertaking. If you
*Mergetically disarm your diplomacy, if you succeed in
*educing your naval forces, we shall be strong. If not,
what kind of figure shall we cut before our public? When
We predict that Free Trade will draw English policy into the
Way of justice, peace, ecomomy, colonial emancipation,
France is not bound to take our word for it. There exists
M jnveterate mistrust of England, I will even say a senti-Went
 of hostility, as old as the two names of French and
English, Well, there are excuses for this sentiment. What
® wrong is that it envelopes all your parties, and all your
fellow.citizens in the same reprobation. But ought not
tations to judge one another by external acts? They often
Wy that we ought not to confound nations with their govern-Ments,
 There is some truth and some falsehood in this
8 Bastiat, i. 168,