In Soseby's "History of Popular Government" he mentions "a monstrous
political practice known as 'Protection to American Industries.'" Modern
research has not ascertained precisely what it was; it is known rather
from its effects than in its true character, but from what we can learn of
it to-day I am disposed to number it among those malefic agencies
concerned in the destruction of the American republics, particularly the
Connected States, although it appears not to have been peculiar to
"popular government." Some of the contemporary monarchies of Europe were
afflicted with it, but by the divine favor which ever guards a throne its
disastrous effects were averted. "Protection" consisted in a number of
extraordinary expedients, the purposes of which and their relations to one
another cannot with certainty be determined in the present state of our
knowledge. Debrethin and others agree that one feature of it was the
support, by general taxation, of a few favored citizens in public palaces,
where they passed their time in song and dance and all kinds of revelry.
They were not, however, altogether idle, being required out of the sums
bestowed upon them, to employ a certain number of men each in erecting
great piles of stone and pulling them down again, digging holes in the
ground and then filling them with earth, pouring water into casks and then
drawing it off, and so forth. The unhappy laborers were subject to the
most cruel oppressions, but the knowledge that their wages came from the
pockets of those whom their work nowise benefited was so gratifying to
them that nothing could induce them to leave the service of their
heartless employers to engage in lighter and more useful labor.

Another characteristic of "Protection" was the maintenance at the
principal seaports of "customs-houses," which were strong fortifications
armed with heavy guns for the purpose of destroying or driving away the
trading ships of foreign nations. It was this that caused the Connected