The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

“It had always, however, been made a
condition of the liberty granted to these foreigners
for practising their handiwork that each house
should employ at least one English apprentice.”[5]
“Thus,” said a Walloon historian, splenetically, “by
this regulation, and by means of heavy duties on
foreign manufactures, have the English built up
their own fabrics, and prohibited those of the
Netherlands. Thus have they drawn over to their
own country our skilful artisans to practise their
industry, not at home but abroad, and our poor
people are thus losing the means of earning their
livelihood. Thus has cloth-making, silk-making,
and the art of dyeing declined in our country, and
would have been quite extinguished but by our
wise countervailing edicts.”[6]
The cause given by this writer undoubtedly
gives a wrong view of the case. This expatriation
of these poor people came about on account of the
sufferings imposed upon them in their native land.
Where such terrible edicts were being daily
enforced, where civil liberties were mocked at and
trampled in the dust, it is only reasonable to
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