Excerpt from The Triumph of Free Trade: And Other Essays and Speeches The greater part of political controversy, in essays and speeches, lives and dies with the time of its utterance. Like good journalism it applies itself to the events of the day: and when that day is over, it is content to perish. The mass of political discussion which once filled platform and press belongs to questions one way or the other finally decided. The historian who burrows amongst piles of manuscript for some tiny piece worth preservation is for ever astonished at the heat expended and the energy and passion excited by things which so soon after appear so trivial and so dull. And in the case of speeches this is especially true. The better a speech - it may almost be said - for the moment, the more speedy its demise. For in the cut and thrust of debate, the utterance for the occasion - in repartee and reply, in the warm influence of the platform - is always more effective than the speech which omits these ephemera and endeavours to pronounce on a question as it will be viewed after a generation has gone. These considerations made me doubtful whet her in impartial examination of the printed and manuscript speeches and writings of my friend the late Mr. Russell Rea, there would be much worth reproducing four years after his death. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.