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regards Finland, the Emperor Alexander II., referring
in his speech from the throne in 1863 to the work
which was to he done by an organising committee,
declared that the general principles of the tariff should
be decided by himself in conjunction with the Estates.
But this was one of his good intentions which were
never carried out. Only on the tobacco duty has the
Diet been allowed to vote an increase several times, in
the same manner as it has voted an excise on brännvin
and malt.
Instead of recognising this natural and proper right
of the nation to vote its own most important tax, the
special Russian interests which rule in St. Petersburg
have now demanded concessions which would be greatly
to the disadvantage of Finland, and which might even
entirely destroy the present basis of the national
economy. There has already been an insecurity and
continual variation in the tariff without sufficient reason,
which has done harm to the industries of the country,
and which is not in accordance with good conservative
principles. It is not, as already noted, that the
Finlanders do not pay enough duty compared to Russia.
Here, as is frequently the case elsewhere, moderate
duties are much more productive of revenue than a
high prohibitive tariff. But if the Russian tariff was
introduced, imported articles would pay three times as
much. This whole amount would not be paid, because
less import would take place. But the present conditions
of the national economy, and, in fact, of the
whole civilisation of the country, would be changed.
Instead of furthering civilisation, such a measure would,
without any necessity whatever, injure the life of the
people, and contribute to force it down to the same
low level as that of a great part of Russia’s inhabitants.
We need not refer to the inevitable demoralisation
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