CAPTAIN CODMAN'S LECTURE.

Wednesday evening Captain John Codman delivered a very interesting and witty lecture, in Sever 11, upon the "Iniquity of Protective Tariff," before an appreciative audience. President Eliot and Deputy Collector Fiske of the Custom House were present. The lecturer opened by saying that commerce, though bound down by chains, has done more than either science or literature for the progress of humanity. Having established our rights to think and worship, we now want liberty to trade. What would you say if Congress passed laws compelling ministers to use a certain form of argument? Yet law compels you to trade in a certain way. The carrying trade of all other nations is on the increase, while ours is on the verge of annihilation. In respect to trade our government is tyrannical. The lecturer then gave an historical view of trade. As far as we can discover, the Phoenicians and Tyrians had free trade. There is no hint that the Greeks or Romans were prevented by any John Roach of their day from purchasing their ships wherever they wished. During the Middle Ages the tariffs were levied on a sliding scale, i. e., the captain of a vessel was obliged to walk the plank. Charles V. was an inventive genius; he invented the slave trade and protective tariff. Protectionists want such a tariff that a man can get over the fence with a bag of wheat but can bring nothing back. England was the first to take up and (be it said to her honor) the first to abandon protective tariff. The people of England are, consequently, free under a monarchy; we are slaves under a republic. The enormities of the present tariff are innumerable. Carlyle has done a most valuable service in showing that protection is sought for capital and not for labor. In our country, over 7,700,000 farmers help 3,500,000 "protected" laborers to get a living.