Mr. WADE. No, sir, it is not a new discovery that I have made, for I have been aware of it for a good while. Now, sir, all the argument that has been made on this subject by the Senfrom Maine might be made in regard to every article where protection is sought to be established. If gentlemen are opposed to the principle of protection then there is a P. good weight in the argument. If they are in favor of protection then the argument goes for nothing. Sir, what I wish to protect above all other things is labor. I know that some gentlemen look very much at other effects of protection; but I am all the time looking to the welfare of the men actually engaged in laborious occupations. If you throw down the protective principle entirely, and open the door for all nations to come in competition with us in everything that men can do, the effect, of course, is to place our laborer on the same level that laborers are everywhere elsewhere these articles are manufactured and made., Sir, throw away the protective principle, and labor will find its level like water. The man who wishes to reduce the wages of the American laborer to the same niggardly amount that the laborer in the old countries of Europe receives, and no more, ought to be a free trader, and he ought not to attempt to protect anything; for nobody can contend, unless he is the advocate of absolute free trade, for placing the American laborer on the same degraded level that the laborer occupies in other countries. This fact cannot be disguised, and this is the principle that operates of. me; for I will say that I look more at that than I do to other interests, or even to the wealth of the country. They all, to be sure, depend upon the same principles exactly; but it is obvious that those who resist all attempts to lower the laborer of this country, and who endeavor to secure to that laborer wages, such as he can live by, must be in vor of protection. That is a mathematical certainty. Now, sir, how is it in re Nova Scotia lies right o the facilities for bringing their productions in competition with our own., Labor is infinitely cheaper there than it is here, and they can destroy any work of this kind in this country. It is just as easy to find and manufacture this article there as it is here. Labor is all the value there is about it there. In its crude state, as I said before, it seems to be worth nothing, but in its finished state it is exceedingly valuable. We have a great many work men engaged in this business in our own country. If you throw down all protection to them you will drive them out of the business, or compel them to do work as cheap as it is done in other countries. Now, sir, I for one will never yield to that. I said the other day I never want to see the American laborer have less wages than he gets now; for if somebody's interest must give way I would as lief it should be the wealthy as the poor. I would as lief the laborer should have the advantage of our legislation as anybody else. I will never yield the point that, so far as I can he shall be protected against this destructive competition; and it never was more apparent than it is on this very item that I have mentioned. In Nova Scotia I am told perhaps that point is not clear, but I am so told the wages of the men who labor in this business is about 75 cents a day, while the wages here is 2 or 3 times that amount.