Ɛpsilon

WCP3026

Letter (WCP3026.2994)

[1]

yr letter only reached me today1

Malvernbury

Great Malvern

May 2. 1879

Dear Sir

I wrote to the Editor2 of the 19th century asking if he would print my addition to yr paper.3 but after the manner of Editors he made no answer: so it was sent else where.

The fact that France does in fact export to us both cotton & silk has no bearing on the case: The proposition I put was stated as pure hypothesis:

As a matter of fact however I believe France does send us no ale and does send us some wine. Supposing France to exclude our ale by a prohibi [2] -tive duty we should not bring France to reason by putting on extra duty on French ale — but we should be very glad to do it by putting an extra duty on French wine — That is my case.

The answer to Sir E Sullivan's4 view is contained in the paper I scored at the side.

In addition the difference of a duty of 10 or 15 per cent on corn & beef would at once bring the United States to reason. & that without costing us a shilling — for as I have shown such a duty would have no effect in raising the price to the consumer[.]

[3] It is perfectly true that Free trade people are afflicted with a perfect "diarrhoea scribendi" a great discharge of matter accompanied by gt weakness of parts. I am at the moment engaged in answering one A J Wilson5 who has been perpetrating three papers6 of pure bosh in MacMillan - where I shall send it remains to be seen — perhaps Vanity Fair.

—————

The fact is, till the manufacturers can swallow without nausea the idea of [illeg.] to the land in the matter of [4] taxation he will have to stay out in the cold. If you will take a piece of paper and a pencil you will find that land bears six times the amount of burdens that any other property does.

Take £1000 a year from the owning & occupying a say 600 acres of land — rental value 660 rated at 600 including house at £60 & £1000 a year from Funds[.] House £60 — sales in both cases 216 in the pound. Upkeep of Estate. 12 necessary repairs — 20 per cent — & see the result.

Yours faithfully | E S Cayley7 [signature]

1
The postscript was written at the top right corner of the page.
2
Knowles, James Thomas (1831-1908). British architect and Editor of The Nineteenth Century.
3
Wallace, A. R. 1879. Reciprocity the true free trade. Nineteenth Century 5 (26): 638-649.
4
Sullivan, Edward (1822-1885). Irish lawyer, and a Liberal Member of Parliament for Mallow. Created a baronet in 1881. Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1883-1885.
5
Wilson, Alexander Johnstone (1841-1921). Journalist and author who specialized in financial matters.
6
Wilson, A. J. 1874. Agricultural Unionism. Macmillan's Magazine, vol. 30, pp. 449-454; The Walter Press. Macmillan's Magazine, vol. 31, pp. 309-317.
7
Cayley, Edward Stillingfleet (1824-1884). J.P. British barrister and author, eldest son of Liberal Party politician and advocate of free trade Edward Stillingfleet Cayley (1802-1862).

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3026.2994)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Lo, Yen-Nyuk [2020-03-23] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP3026,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3026