Sweden 1773. In most of these countries Grand Lodges were subsequently created and continue to this date, save that in Austria (not Hungary) and Russia no masonic lodges have for some time been permitted to assemble. There is a union of Grand Lodges of Germany, and an annual Diet is held for the transaction of business affecting the several masonic organizations in that country, which works well. H.R.H. Prince Frederick Leopold was in 1909 Protector, or the "Wisest Master" (Vicarius Salomonis). King Gustav V. was the Grand Master of the freemasons in Sweden, and the sovereign of the " Order of Charles XIII," the only one of the kind confined to members of the fraternity. Lodges were constituted in India from 1730 (Calcutta), 1752 (Madras), and 1758 (Bombay); in Jamaica 1742, Antigua 1738, and St Christopher 1739; soon after which period the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland had representatives at work throughout the civilized world. North America and wherever worked on a similar basis; the In no part, however, outside Great Britain has the craft flourished so much as in the United States of America, where the first "regular" lodge (i.e. according to the new regime) was opened in 1733 at Boston, Mass. Undoubtedly lodges had been meeting still earlier, one of which was held at Philadelphia, Penna., with records from 1731, which blossomed into a Grand Lodge, but no authority has yet been traced for its proceedings, save that which may be termed "time immemorial right," which was enjoyed by all lodges and brethren who were at work prior to the Grand Lodge era (1716-1717) or who declined to recognize the autocratic proceedings of the premier Grand Lodge of England, just as the brethren did in the city of York. A "deputation" was granted to Daniel Coxe, Esq. of New Jersey," unfriendly" laws or denial of legislative protection, could by the duke of Norfolk, Grand Master, 5th of June 1730, as Prov. Grand Master of the" Provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pensilvania," but there is no evidence that he ever constituted any lodges or exercised any masonic authority in virtue thereof. Henry Price as Prov. Grand Master of New England, and his lodge, which was opened on the 31st of August 1733, in the city of Boston, so far as is known, began "regular" Freemasonry in the United States, and the older and independent organization was soon afterwards "regularized." Benjamin Franklin (an Initiate of the lodge of Philadelphia) printed and published the Book of Constitutions, 1723 (of London, England), in the "City of Brotherly Love" in 1734, being the oldest masonic work in America. English and Scottish Grand Lodges were soon after petitioned to grant warrants to hold lodges, and by the end of the 18th century several Grand Lodges were formed, the Craft becoming very popular, partly no doubt by reason of so many prominent men joining the fraternity, of whom the chief was George Washington, initiated in a Scottish lodge at Fredericks-designated "free" where a space or zone exists within which burg, Virginia, in 1752-1753. In 1907 there were fifty Grand Lodges assembling in the United States, with considerably over a million members. In Canada in 1909 there were eight Grand Lodges, having about 64,000 members. Freemasonry in the Dominion is believed to date from 1740. The Grand Lodges are all of comparatively recent organization, the oldest and largest, with 40,000 members, being for Ontario; those of Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Quebec numbering about 5000 each. There are some seven Grand Lodges in Australia; South Australia coming Erst as a "sovereign body," followed closely by New South Wales and Victoria (of 1884-1889 constitution), the whole of the lodges in the Commonwealth probably having fully 50,000 members on the registers. There are many additional degrees which may be taken or not (being quite optional), and dependent on a favourable ballot; the difficulty, however, of obtaining admission increases as progress is made, the numbers accepted decreasing rapidly with each advancement. The chief of these are arranged in separate classes and are governed either by the "Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch," the " Mark Grand Lodge," the "Great Priory of Knights Templars" or the " Ancient and Accepted Rite," these being mutually complementary and intimately connected as respects England, and more or less so in Ireland, Scotland, exclude slavery, and that “it matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide on the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a territory under the Constitution." This, the so-called " Freeport doctrine," greatly weakened Douglas in the presidential election of 1860. Freeport was settled in 1835, was laid out and named Winneshiek in 1836, and in 1837 under its present name was made the county-seat of Stephenson county. It was incorporated as a town in 1850 and chartered as a city in 1855. FREE PORTS, a term, strictly speaking, given to localities where no customs duties are levied, and where no customs supervision exists. In these ports (subject to payment for specific services rendered, wharfage, storage, &c., and to the observance of local police and sanitary regulations) ships load and unload, cargoes are deposited and handled, industries are exercised, manufactures are carried on, goods are bought and sold, without any action on the part of fiscal authorities. Ports are likewise commercial operations are conducted without payment of import or export duty, and without active interference on the part of customs authorities. The French and German designations for these two descriptions of ports are-for the former La Ville franche, Freihafen; for the latter Le Port franc, Freibezirk or Freilager. The English phrase free port applies to both. The leading conditions under which free ports in Europe derived their origin were as follows:-(1) When public order became reestablished during the middle ages, trading centres were gradually formed. Marts for the exchange and purchase of goods arose in different localities. Many Italian settlements, constituting free zones, were established in the Levant. The Hanseatic towns arose in the 12th century. Great fairs became recognizedthe Leipzig charter was granted in 1268. These localities were free as regards customs duties, although dues of the nature of octroi charges were often levied. (2) Until the 19th century European states were numerous, and often of small size. Accordingly uniform customs tariffs of wide application did not exist. In China at the present time (1902) certain ports are designated "free and open." This phrase means that the ports in question are (1) open to foreign trade, and (2) that vessels engaged in oversea voyages may freely resort there. Exemption from payment of customs duties is not implied, which is a matter distinct from the permission granted under treaty engagements to foreign vessels to carry cargoes to and from the "treaty ports.' " Uniform rates of duty were fixed in England by the Subsidy Act of 1660. In France, before the Revolution (besides the free ports), Alsace and the Lorraine Bishoprics were in trade matters treated as foreign countries. The unification of the German customs tariff began in 1834 with the Steuerverein and the Zollverein. The Spanish fiscal system did not include the Basque provinces until about 1850. The uniform Italian tariff dates from 1861. Thus until very recent times on the Continent free ports were compatible with the fiscal policy and practice of different countries. (3) Along the Mediterranean coast, up to the 19th century, convenient shelter was needed from corsairs. In other continental countries the prevalent colonial and mercantile policy sought to create trans-oceanic trade. Free ports were advantageous from all these points of view. In following the history of these harbours in Europe, it is to be observed that in Great Britain free ports have never existed. In 1552 it was contemplated to place Hull and Southampton on this footing, but the design was abandoned. Subsequently the bonding and not the free port system was adopted in the United Kingdom. Austria-Hungary.-Fiume and Trieste were respectively free ports during the periods 1722-1893 and 1719-1893. Belgium.-The emperor Joseph II. during his visit to the Austrian Netherlands in June 1781 endeavoured to create a direct trade between that country and India. Ostend was made a free port, and large bonding facilities were afforded at Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and Louvain. In 1796, however, the revolutionary government abolished the Ostend privileges. Denmark. In November 1894 an area of about 150 acres at Copenhagen was opened as a free port, and great facilities are afforded for shipping and commercial operations in order that the Baltic trade may centre there. is in force. France-Marseilles was a free port in the middle ages, and so was Dunkirk when it formed part of Flanders. In 1669 these privileges were confirmed, and extended to Bayonne. In 1784 there was a fresh confirmation, and Lorient and St Jean de Luz were included in the ordonnance. The National Assembly in 1790 maintained this policy, and created free ports in the French West Indies. In 1795, however, all such privileges were abolished, but large bonding facilities were allowed at Marseilles to favour the Levant trade. The government of Louis XVIII. in 1814 restored, and in 1871 again revoked, the free port privileges of Marseilles. There are now no free ports in France or in French possessions; the bonding system Germany.-Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck were reconstituted free towns and ports under the treaties of 1814-1815. Certain minor ports, and several landing-stages on the Rhine and the Neckar, were also designated free. As the Zollverein policy became accepted throughout Germany, previous privileges were gradually lessened, and since 1888 only Hamburg remains a free port. There an area of about 2500 acres is exempt from customs duties and control, and is largely used for shipping and commercial purposes. Bremerhaven has a similar area of.nearly 700 acres. Brake, Bremen, Cuxhaven, Emden, Geestemünde, Neufahrwasser and Stettin possess Freibezirke areas, portions of the larger port. Heligoland is outside the Zollvercin-practically a foreign country. In Italy free ports were numerous and important, and possessed privileges which varied at different dates. They were-Ancona, during the period 1696-1868; Brindisi, 1845-1862; Leghorn (in the 17th and 18th centuries a very important Mediterranean harbour), 1675-1867; Messina, 1695-1879; Senigallia, 1821-1868, during the month of the local fair. Venice possessed warehouses, equivalent to bonded stores, for German and Turkish trade during the Republic, and was a free port 1851-1873. Genoa was a free port in the time of the Republic and under the French Empire, and was continued as such by the treaties of 1814-1815. The free port was, however, changed into a " deposito franco " by a law passed in 1865, and only storing privileges now remain. Rumania.-Braila, Galatz and Kustenji were free ports (for a period of about forty years) up to 1883, when bonded warehouses were established by the Rumanian government. Sulina remains free. Russia-Archangel was a free port, at least for English goods, from 1553 to 1648. During this period English products were admitted into Russia via Archangel without any customs payment for internal consumption, and also in transit to Persia. The tsar Alexis revoked this grant on the execution of Charles I. Free ports were opened in 1895 at Kola, in Russian Lapland. Dalny, adjoining Port Arthur, was a free port during the Russian occupation; and Japan after the war decided to renew this privilege as soon as The number of free ports outside Europe has also lessened. The administrative policy of European countries has been gradually adopted in other parts of the world, and customs duties have become almost universal, conjoined with bonding and transhipment facilities. In British colonies and possessions, under an act of parliament passed in 1766, and repealed in 1867, two ports in Dominica and four in Jamaica were free, Malacca, Penang and Singapore have been practicable. | free ports since 1824, Hong-Kong since 1842, and Weihaiwei since it was leased to Great Britain in 1898. Zanzibar was a free port during 1892-1899. Aden, Gibraltar, St Helena and St Thomas (West Indies) are sometimes designated free ports. A few duties are, however, levied, which are really octroi rather than customs charges. These places are mainly stations for coaling and awaiting orders. Some harbours in the Netherlands East Indies were free ports between 1829 and 1899; but these privileges were withdrawn by laws passed in 1898-1899, in order to establish uniformity of customs administration. Harbours where custom houses are not maintained will be practically closed to foreign trade, though the governorgeneral may in special circumstances vary the application of the new regulations. Macão has been a free port since 1845. Portugal has no other harbour of this character. The American Republics have adopted the bonding system. In 1896 a free wharf was opened at New Orleans in imitation of the recent European plan. Livingstone (Guatemala) was a free port during the period 1882-1888. The privileges enjoyed under the old free port system benefited the towns and districts where they existed; and their abolition has been, locally, injurious. These places were, however, "foreign" to their own country, and their inland intercourse was restricted by the duties levied on their products, and by the precautions adopted to prevent evasion of these charges. With fiscal usages involving preferential and deferential treatment of goods and places, the drawbacks thus arising did not attract serious attention. Under the limited means of communication within and beyond the country, in former times, these conveniences were not much felt. But when finance departments became more completely organized, the free port system fell out of favour with fiscal authorities: it afforded opportunities for smuggling, and impeded uniformity, of action and practice. It became, in fact, out of harmony with the administrative and financial policy of later times. Bonding and entrepot facilities, requirements. In countries where high customs duties are levied, on a scale commensurate with local needs, now satisfy trade and where fiscal regulations are minute and rigid, if an extension is a national aim, special facilities must be granted for this purof foreign trade is desired, and the competition which it involves pose. In these circumstances a free zone sufficiently large to admit of commercial operations and transhipments on a scale which will fulfil these conditions (watched but not interfered with by the customs) becomes indispensable. The German govern An ment have, as we have seen, maintained a free zone of this nature at Hamburg. And when the free port at Copenhagen was opened, counter measures were adopted at Danzig and Stettin. agitation has arisen in France to provide at certain ports free zones similar to those at Copenhagen and Hamburg, and to open free ports in French possessions. A bill to this effect was submitted to the chamber of deputies on the 12th of April 1905. Colonial free ports, such as Hong-Kong and Singapore, do not interfere with the uniformity of the home customs and excise policy. These two harbours in particular have become great shipping resorts and distributing centres. The policy which led to their establishment as free ports has certainly promoted British commercial interests. " See the Parliamentary Paper on Continental Free Ports," 1904. (C. M. K.) FREE REED VIBRATOR (Fr. anche libre, Ger. durchschlagende Zunge, Ital. ancia or lingua libera), in musical instruments, a thin metal tongue fixed at one end and vibrating freely either in surrounding space, as in the accordion and concertina, or enclosed in a pipe or channel, as in certain reed stops of the organ or in the harmonium. The enclosed reed, in its typical and theoretical form, is fixed over an aperture of the same shape but just large enough to allow it to swing freely backwards and forwards, alternately opening and closing the aperture, when driven by a current of compressed air. We have to deal with air under three different conditions in considering the phenomenon of the sound produced by free reeds. (1) The stationary column or stratum in pipe or channel containing the reed, which is normally at rest. (2) The wind or current of air fed from the bellows with a variable velocity and pressure, which is broken up into periodic air puffs as its entrance into pipe or channel is greatly upon the form of the tongue, its FIG. 2.-Organ pipe S, Hole through which compressed air is fed. Free reeds not associated with resonating media as in the concertina are peculiarly rich in harmonics, but as the higher harmonics lie very close together, disagreeable dissonances and a harsh tone result. The resonating pipe or chamber when suitably accommodated to the reed greatly modifies the tone by reinforcing the harmonics proper to itself, the others sinking into comparative insignificance. In order to produce a full rich tone, a resonator should be chosen whose deepest note coincides with the fundamental tone of the reed. The other upper partials will also be reinforced thereby, but to a less degree the higher the harmonics. For the history of the application of the free reed to keyboard instruments see HARMONIUM. alternately checked or allowed by the vibrator. (3) The disturbed | in periodic pulsations to divide into aliquot vibrations or loops, condition of No. 1 when acted upon by the metal vibrator and producing the phenomenon known as by No 2, whereby the air within the pipe is forced into alternate harmonic overtones or upper partials, pulses of condensation and rarefaction. The free reed is there- which may, in the highly composite fore not the tone-producer but only the exciting agent, that is clang of free reeds, be discerned as far to say, the sound is not produced by the communication of as the 16th or 20th of the series. The the free reed's vibrations to the surrounding air,' as in the case more intermittent and interrupted the of a vibrating string, but by the series of air puffs punctuated by air current becomes, the greater the infinitesimal pauses, which it produces by alternately opening number of the upper partials produced." and almost closing the aperture. A musical sound is thus The power of the overtones and their produced the pitch of which depends on the length and thick-relation to the fundamental note depend ness of the metal tongue; the greater the length, the slower the vibrations and the lower the pitch, while on the contrary, the thicker the reed near the shoulder at the fixed end, the higher the pitch. It must be borne in mind that the periodic vibrations of the reed determine the pitch of the sound solely by the frequency per second they impose upon the pulses of rarefaction and condensation within the pipe. The most valuable characteristic of the free reed is its power of producing all the delicate gradations of tone between forte and piano by virtue of a law of acoustics governing the vibration of free reeds, whereby increased pressure of wind produces a proportional increase in the volume of tone. The pitch of any sound depends upon the frequency of the sound-waves, that is, the number per second which reach the ear; the fullness of sound depends upon the amplitude of the waves, or, more strictly speaking, of the swing of the transmitting particles of the medium-greater pressure in the air current (No. 2 above) which sets the vibrator in motion producing amplitude of vibration in the air within the receptacle (No. 3 above) serving as resonating medium. The sound produced by the free reed itself is weak and requires to be reinforced by means of an additional stationary column or stratum of air. Free reed instruments are therefore classified according to the nature of the resonant medium provided:-(1) Free reeds vibrating in pipes, such as the reed stops of church organs on the continent of Europe (in England the reed pipes are generally provided with beating reeds, see REED INSTRUMENTS and CLARINET). (2) Free reeds vibrating in reed compartments and reinforced by air chambers of various shapes and sizes as in the harmonium (q..). (3) Instruments like the accordion and concertina having the free reed set in vibration through a valve, but having no reinforcing medium. From JB Biot, Traité de FIG. 1. Grenie's organ pipe fitted with free-reed vibrator. A. Tuning wire. D. Free reed. R. Reed-box. B.C, Feed pipe with conical foot. T. Part of resonating physaqur expérimentale. pipe, the upper end with cap and vent hole being shown side. separately at the (K. S.) FREESIA, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to the Iris family (Iridaceae), and containing a single species, F. refracta, native at the Cape of Good Hope. The plants grow from a corm (a solid bulb, as in Gladiolus) which sends up a tuft of long narrow leaves and a slightly branched stem bearing a few leaves and loose one-sided spikes of fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers. Several varieties are known in cultivation, differing in the colour of the flower, which is white, cream or yellow. They form pretty greenhouse plants which are readily increased from seed. They are extensively grown for the market in Guernsey, England and America. By potting successively throughout the autumn a supply of flowers is obtained through winter and spring. Some very fine large-flowered varieties, including rose-coloured ones, are now being raised by various growers in England, and are a great improvement on the older forms. FREE SOIL PARTY, a political party in the United States, which was organized in 1847-1848 to oppose the extension of slavery into the Territories. It was a combination of the political abolitionists-many of whom had formerly been identified with the more radical Liberty party-the anti-slavery Whigs, and the faction of the Democratic party in the state of New York, called The arrangement of the free reed in an organ pipe is simple, "Barnburners," who favoured the prohibition of slavery, in and does not differ greatly from that of the beating reed shown accordance with the "Wilmot Proviso " (see WILMOT, DAVID), in fig. 2 for the purpose of comparison. The reed-box, a rect-in the territory acquired from Mexico. The party was prominent angular wooden pipe, is closed at the bottom and covered on one face with a thin plate of copper having a rectangular slit over which is fixed the thin metal vibrating tongue or reed as described above. The reed-box, itself open at the top, is enclosed in a feed pipe having a conical foot pierced with a small hole through which the air current is forced by the action of the bellows. The impact of the incoming compressed air against the reed tongue sets it swinging through the slit, thus causing a disturbance or series of pulsations within the reed-box. The air then finds an escape through the resonating medium of a pipe fitting over the reed-box and terminating in an inverted cone covered with a cap in the top of which is pierced a small hole or vent. The quality of tone of free reeds is due to the tendency of air set See H. Helmholtz, Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen (Brunswick, 1877), p. 166. See also Ernst Heinrich and Wilhelm Weber, Wellenlehre (Leipzig, 1825), where a particularly lucid explanation of the phenomenon is given, pp. 526–530. in the presidential campaigns of 1848 and 1852. At the national convention held in Buffalo, N.Y., on the 9th and 10th of August 1848, they secured the nomination to the presidency of exPresident Martin Van Buren, who had failed to secure nomination by the Democrats in 1844 because of his opposition to the annexation of Texas, and of Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for the vice-presidency, taking as their "platform "a Declaration that Congress, having "no more power to make a slave than to make a king," was bound to restrict slavery to the slave states, and concluding, "we inscribe on our banner 'Free Soil, Free Speech,Free Labor and Free Man,' and under it we will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions." The Liberty party had previously, in November 1847, nominated See Helmholtz, op. cit. p. 167. These phenomena are clearly explained at greater length by Sedley Taylor in Sound and Music (London, 1896), pp. 134-153 and pp. 74-86. See also Friedrich Zamminer, Die Musik und die musikalischen Instrumente, &c. (Giessen, 1855), p. 261. the large majority being elective. Freetown was the first place in British West Africa granted local self-government. John P. Hale and Leicester King as president and vice-president | by a municipality (created in 1893) with a mayor and councillors, respectively, but in the spring of 1848 it withdrew its candidates and joined the "free soil" movement. Representatives of eighteen states, including Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, Both commercially and strategically Freetown is a place of attended the Buffalo convention. In the ensuing presidential importance. Its harbour affords ample accommodation for the election Van Buren and Adams received a popular vote of largest fleets, it is a coaling station for the British navy, the head291,263, of which 120,510 were cast in New York. They re-quarters of the British military forces in West Africa, the sea ceived no electoral votes, all these being divided between the terminus of the railway to the rich oil-palm regions of Mendiland, Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor, who was elected, and the and a port of call for all steamers serving West Africa. Its Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass. The "free soilers," however, inhabitants are noted for their skill as traders; the town itself succeeded in sending to the thirty-first Congress two senators produces nothing in the way of exports. and fourteen representatives, who by their ability exercised an influence out of proportion to their number. Between 1848 and 1852 the "Barnburners" and the "Hunkers," their opponents, became partially reunited, the former returning to the Democratic ranks, and thus greatly weakening the Free Soilers. The party held its national convention at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of August 1852, delegates being present from all the free states, and from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky; and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and George W. Julian of Indiana, were nominated for the presidency and the vice-presidency respectively, on a platform which declared slavery a sin against God and a crime against man," denounced the Compromise Measures of 1850, the fugitive slave law in particular, and again opposed the extension of slavery in the Territories. These candidates, however, received no electoral votes and a popular vote of only 156,149, of which but 25,329 were polled in New York. By 1856 they aban- | doned their separate organization and joined the movement which resulted in the formation of the powerful Republican party (q.v.), of which the Free Soil party was the legitimate precursor. FREE-STONE (a translation of the O. Fr. franche pere or pierre, i.e. stone of good quality; the modern French equivalent is pierre de taille, and Ital. pietra molle), stone used in architecture for mouldings, tracery and other work required to be worked with the chisel. The oolitic stones are generally so called, although in some countries soft sandstones are used; in some churches an indurated chalk called "clunch" is employed for internal lining and for carving. FREETOWN, capital of the British colony of Sierra Leone, West Africa, on the south side of the Sierra Leone estuary, about 5 m. from the cape of that name, in 8° 29′ N., 13° 10' W. Pop. (1901) 34,463. About 500 of the inhabitants are Europeans. Freetown is picturesquely situated on a plain, closed in behind by a succession of wooded hills, the Sierra Leone, rising to a height of 1700 ft. As nearly every house is surrounded by a courtyard or garden, the town covers an unusually large area for the number of its inhabitants. It possesses few buildings of architectural merit. The principal are the governor's residence and government offices, the barracks, the cathedral, the missionary institutions, the fruit market, Wilberforce Hall, courts of justice, the railway station and the grammar school. Several of these institutions are built on the slopes of the hills, and on the highest point, Sugar Loaf Mountain, is a sanatorium. The botanic gardens form a pleasant and favourite place of resort. The roads are wide but badly kept. Horses do not live, and all wheeled traffic is done by manual labour-hammocks and sedan-chairs are the customary means of locomotion. Notwithstanding that Freetown possesses an abundant and pure water-supply, drawn from the adjacent hills, it is enervating and unhealthy, and it was particularly to the capital, often spoken of as Sierra Leone, that the designation "White Man's Grave" applied. Since the beginning of the 20th century strenuous efforts have been made to improve the sanitary condition by a new system of drainage, a better water service, the filling up of marshes wherein the malarial mosquito breeds, and in other directions. A light railway 6 m. long, opened in 1904, has been built to Hill Station (900 ft. high), where, on a healthy site, are the residences of the government officials and of other Europeans. As a consequence the public health has improved, the highest death-rate in the years 1901-1907 being 29.6 per 1000. The town is governed In consequence of the character of the original settlement (see SIERRA LEONE), 75% of the inhabitants are descended from non-indigenous Negro races. As many as 150 different tribes are represented in the Sierra Leonis of to-day. Their semiEuropeanization is largely the result of missionary endeavour. The only language of the lower class is pidgin-English-quite incomprehensible to the newcomer from Great Britain,-but a large proportion of the inhabitants are highly educated men who excel as lawyers, clergymen, clerks and traders. Many members of the upper, that is, the best-educated, class have filled official positions of great responsibility. The most noted citizens are Bishop Crowther and Sir Samuel Lewis, chief justice of Sierra Leone 1882-1894. Both were full-blooded Africans. The Kru-men form a distinct section of the community, living in a separate quarter and preserving their tribal customs. Since 1861-1862 there has been an independent Episcopal Native Church; but the Church Missionary Society, which in 1804 sent out the first missionaries to Sierra Leone, still maintains various agencies. Furah Bay College, built by the society on the site of General Charles Turner's estate (1) m. E. of Freetown), and opened in 1828 with six pupils, one of whom was Bishop Crowther, was affiliated in 1876 to Durham University and has a high-class curriculum. The Wesleyans have a high school, a theological college, and other educative agencies. The Moslems, who are among the most law-abiding and intelligent citizens of Freetown, have several state-aided primary schools. FREE TRADE, an expression which has now come to be appropriated to the economic policy of encouraging the greatest possible commercial intercourse, unrestricted by "protective " duties (see PROTECTION), between any one country and its neighbours. This policy was originally advocated in France, and it has had its adherents in many countries, but Great Britain stands alone among the great commercial nations of the world in having adopted it systematically from 1846 onwards as the fundamental principle of her economic policy. In the economic literature of earlier periods, it may be noted that the term "free trade " is employed in senses which have no relation to modern usage. The term conveyed no suggestion of unrestricted trade or national liberty when it first appeared in controversial pamphlets; it stood for a freedom conferred and maintained by authority-like that of a free town. The merchants desired to have good regulations for trade so that they might be free from the disabilities imposed upon them by foreign princes or unscrupulous fellow-subjects. After 1640 the term seems to have been commonly current in a different sense. When the practice which had been handed down from the middle ages-of organizing the trade with particular countries by means of privileged companies, which professed to regulate the trade according to the state of the market so as to secure its steady development in the interest of producers and traders-was seriously called in question under the Stuarts and at the Revolution, the interlopers and opponents of the companies insisted on the advantages of a "Free Trade "; they meant by this that the various branches of commerce should not be confined to particular persons or limited in amount, but should be thrown open to be pursued by any Englishman in the way he thought most profitable himself. Again, in the latter half of the 18th (1622), p. 68; G. Malynes, The Maintenance of Free Trade (1622), 2 H. Parker, Of a Free Trade (1648), p. 8. E. Misselden, Free Trade or the Meanes to make Trade Flourish p. 105. the existing generation. Owing to the neglect of this element of time, and the allowance which must be made for it, the reasoning as to the advantages of free trade, which is perfectly sound in regard to the distribution of goods already in existence, may become sophistical, if it is put forward as affording a complete demonstration of the benefits of free trade as a regular policy.. After all, human society is very complex, and any attempt to deal with its problems off-hand by appealing to a simple principle raises the suspicion that some important factor may have been left out of account. When there is such mistaken simplification, the reasoning may seem to have complete certainty, and yet it fails to produce conviction, because it does not profess to deal with the problem in all its aspects. When we concentrate attention on the phenomena of exchange, we are viewing society as a mechanism in which each acts under known laws and is impelled by one particular force-that of self-interest; now, society is, no doubt, in this sense a mechanism, but it is also an organism, and it is only for very short periods, and in a very limited way, that we can venture to neglect its organic character without running the risk of falling into serious mistakes. century, till Pitt's financial reforms' were brought into operation, | it may often be wise for the statesman to look far ahead, beyond the English customs duties on wine and brandy were excessive; and those who carried on a remunerative business by evading these duties were known as Fair Traders or Free Traders. Since 1846 the term free trade has been popularly used, in England, to designate the policy of Cobden (q.v.) and others who advocated the abolition of the tax on imported corn (see CORN Laws); this is the only one of the specialized senses of the term which is at all likely to be confused with the economic doctrine. The Anti-Corn Law movement was, as a matter of fact, a special application of the economic principle; but serious mistakes have arisen from the blunder of confusing the part with the whole, and treating the remission of one particular duty as if it were the essential element of a policy in which it was only an incident. W. E. Gladstone, in discussing the effect of improvements in locomotion on British trade, showed what a large proportion of the stimulus to commerce during the 19th century was to be credited to what he called the "liberalizing legislation" of the free-trade movement in the wide sense in which he used the term. "I rank the introduction of cheap postage for letters, documents, patterns and printed matter, and the abolition of all taxes on printed matter, in the category of Free Trade Legislation. Not only thought in general, but every communication, and every publication, relating to matters of business, was thus set free. These great measures, then, may well take their place beside the abolition of prohibitions and protective duties, the simplifying of revenue laws, and the repeal of the Navigation Act, as forming together the great code of industrial emancipation. Under this code, our race, restored to freedom in mind and hand, and braced by the powerful stimulus of open competition with the world, has upon the whole surpassed itself and every other, and has won for itself a commercial primacy more evident, more comprehensive, and more solid than it had at any previous time possessed."3 In this large sense free trade may be almost interpreted as the combination of the doctrines of the division of labour and of laissez-faire in regard to the world as a whole. The division of labour between different countries of the world-so that each concentrates its energies in supplying that for the production of which it is best fitted-appears to offer the greatest possibility of production; but this result cannot be secured unless trade and industry are treated as the primary elements in the welfare of each community, and political considérations are not allowed to hamper them. The doctrine of free trade maintains that in order to secure the greatest possible mass of goods in the world as a whole, and the greatest possibility of immediate comfort for the consumer, it is expedient that there should be no restriction on the exchange of goods and services either between individuals or communities. The controversies in regard to this doctrine have not turned on its certainty as a hypothetical principle, but on the legitimacy of the arguments based upon it. It certainly supplies a principle in the light of which all proposed trade regulations should be criticized. It gives us a basis for examining and estimating the expense at which any particular piece of trade restriction is carried out; but thus used, the principle does not necessarily condemn the expenditure; the game may be worth the candle or it may not, but at least it is well that we should know how fast the candle is being burnt. It was in this critical spirit that Adam Smith examined the various restrictions and encouragements to trade which were in vogue in his day; he proved of each in turn that it was expensive, but he showed that he was conscious that the final decision could not be taken from this standpoint, since he recognized in regard to the Navigation Acts that "defence is more than opulence."8 In more recent times, the same sort of attitude was taken by Henry Sidgwick, who criticizes various protective expedients in turn, in the light of free trade, but does not treat it as conveying an authoritative decision on their merits. Stated in its simplest form, the principle which underlies the doctrine of free trade is almost a truism; it is directly deducible from the very notion of exchange (9.9.). Adam Smith and his successors have demonstrated that in every case of voluntary exchange each party gains something that is of greater value-inuse to him than that with which he parts, and that consequently in every exchange, either between individuals or between nations, both parties are the gainers. Hence it necessarily follows that, since both parties gain through exchanging, the more facilities there are for exchange the greater will be the advantage to every individual all round. There is no difficulty in translat-material resources of the world is undoubtedly an important ing this principle into the terms of actual life, and stating the conditions in which it holds good absolutely. If, at any given moment, the mass of goods in the world were distributed among the consumers with the minimum of restriction on interchange, each competitor would obtain the largest possible share of the things he procures in the world's market. But the argument is less conclusive when the element of time is taken into account; what is true of each moment separately is not necessarily true of any period in which the conditions of production, or the requirements of communities, may possibly change. Each individual is likely to act with reference to his own future, but (1787), 27 Geo. III. c. 13. Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, chapter v. 'Gladstone, "Free Trade, Railways and Commerce," in Nineteenth Century (Feb. 1880), vol. vii. p. 370. Parker states a similar argument in the form in which it suited the special problem of his day. "If merchandise be good for the Commonweal, then the more common it is made, the more open it is laid, the more good it will convey to us." Op. cit. 20. But other exponents of the doctrine have not been content to employ it in this fashion. They urge it in a more positive manner, and insist that free trade pure and simple is the foundation on which the economic life of the community ought to be based. By men who advocate it in this way, free trade is set forward as an ideal which it is a duty to realize, and those who hold aloof from it or oppose it have been held up to scorn as if they were almost guilty of a crime.10 The development of the element in the welfare of mankind; it is an aim which is common to the whole race, and may be looked upon as contributing to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Competition in the open market seems to secure that each consumer shall obtain the best possible terms; and again, since all men are consumers whether they produce or not, or whatever they produce, the greatest measure of comforts for each seems likely to be attainable on these lines. For those who are frankly cosmopolitan, and who regard material prosperity as at all events the prime object at which public policy should aim, the free-trade doctrine is readily Schmoller, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre` (1904), ii. 607. Byles, Sophisms of Free Trade; L. S. Amery, Fundamental Fallacies of Free Trade, 13. 7 W. Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, PP. 5-11. s Wealth of Nations, book iv. chap. ii. Principles of Political Economy, 485. 10 J. Morley, Life of Cobden. i. 230. |
