have learnt from him, and, what is more important, the Colonies have heard and acclaimed the suggestion, that the Mother Country is not doing enough for her kinsfolk by giving a free entry to all their products and bearing on her shoulders unaided the burden of their defence. The statement made by Mr. Chamberlain that unless the question ' of trade and commerce were settled satisfactorily he for ' one did not believe in the continuance of the Empire' has made the discussion and inquiry to which he has invited his countrymen a matter of extreme delicacy. A serious danger has thus arisen, that those who honestly endeavour to make clear to the people of this country the principles upon which they believe their vital interests depend may be represented as indifferent or even hostile to Imperial unity. This danger the action of Imperial statesmen such as Lord Rosebery, Lord Goschen, and Sir Edward Grey, and of ex-colonial Governors like Lord Jersey and Lord Brassey, who have spoken with no uncertain voice, may do much to avert, for men like these cannot be charged with speaking with any object but that of the highest interests of the Empire. Some of the statesmen we have named have indeed looked forward to the time when the self-governing Colonies would be willing to enter into closer constitutional relations with us. We have never been convinced of the wisdom, in the interests of real unity, of contemplating as probable any closer relationship than that of a league between sister nations, bound together by common nationality and by the link of the imperial crown. The lessons of the past cannot be ignored. We have justly prided ourselves on the practical demonstration of loyalty which the late war called forth. It would be well to remember the conditions upon which this sentiment has been nourished. Its growth has depended, we are firmly convinced, on the absolute freedom, both in the political and the commercial sphere, which has been claimed by and granted to the Colonies by the Mother Country. We are therefore unable to sympathise with the idea, upon which much of the present agitation is based, that the continued existence of this country as a great power depends upon the actual incorporation with her, political or commercial, of the Colonies. Any such idea appears to us to involve a serious misconception of the history, the nature, and the needs of the congeries of peoples and states which goes by the name of the British Empire.

The fact is sometimes overlooked that the great self

governing colonies form but a small portion, in point of population, of the Empire as a whole. Great Britain, it must never be forgotten, is responsible for the security and happiness of one-fifth of the population of the globe. It is mainly in the interests of India, as the Prime Minister has lately reminded us, that we are obliged increasingly to become a military as well as a naval Power; it is from the necessity of the defence of India that our chief preoccupations in foreign policy arise. In the interests of the Empire at large, then, it may be contended that this country must long retain, not only full freedom of action in foreign policy, but also the power to pursue, as far as possible unfettered, the commercial and fiscal policy which best suits the needs of her home population; for upon their prosperity and contentment, upon their ability and willingness to support the great burden of taxation which Imperial defence entails upon them, the very existence of the Empire depends. Their ability to do so would be seriously affected by any measures which added to the cost of living for the masses, and raised their proportion of the burden of taxation, or which increased the cost of production of manufactures for home or foreign consumption, upon the profits of which the population mainly subsists. Their willingness might be impaired by the knowledge that these sacrifices were imposed upon them in the interest of distant colonial fellow-subjects who are called upon to submit to no similar burden for defence, and are not in a position to extend reciprocal treatment in any real sense to their imports from this country. It would indeed be a new and disastrous result of a forcing policy which created a feeling that the Colonies were a burden instead of a source of strength and well-justified pride to this country. That any such feeling would find a ready echo in Canada or Australia is only too probable. The best way to avert it is by plain speaking and discussion, which may make clear the respective position and real interests of the Colonies and the Mother Country.

Opinions will probably always be divided as to the wisdom of the abandonment by the British Government in the 'fifties of the attempt to regulate the commercial policy of selfgoverning colonies. It is certain that in 1847 Lord Grey looked forward to securely establishing a system of free 'trade throughout the Empire,' and that it was with this object in view that he dealt the final blow at the old system of monopoly by which differential duties were levied for the purpose of favouring colonial produce in our

'markets and our produce in the markets of the Colonies.' He did not anticipate and did not approve of the action or inaction of the Home Government which resulted in the creation from 1879 onwards of high protective tariffs in the Colonies against the Mother Country. But he would, we may be sure, have viewed with far greater disapproval the more serious surrender of principle by Great Britain which is now in contemplation. For our own part we believe that the full commercial freedom of the Colonies, involving, of course, a similar freedom on the part of this country, was and still is a prime factor in the maintenance of harmonious relations between them, and, therefore, of infinitely greater moment than either the larger trade which insistence on the maintenance of free trade might have gained for us, or the advantages which a preference in colonial markets might even now secure. For it is a grave question whether the difficulties and disputes which would be the result of tying the hands of the British and Colonial Treasuries in a manner which would sooner or later prove irksome to some of the many parties to the bargain would not far outweigh any such advantages. As regards Great Britain an increase in the cost of food is candidly admitted by the advocates of preferential arrangements, though they are now endeavouring to minimise the effect of this admission. Can we expect that Canada, which is geographically so close to the great American markets, and Australasia, which is destined to form part of a Far Eastern and Pacific system, would be able to resist the promptings of obvious self-interest, and penalise for ever their commerce with their nearest and greatest neighbours? It is a narrow, and it might have been hoped an antiquated, view which would endeavour to confine commerce within national boundaries, however large those boundaries may be; and what is possible within self-contained areas like Germany and the United States may well be impossible, even if it were desirable, in a scattered dominion like the British Empire. The attempt to bind may therefore, as in the past, lead only to dissension, division, and dispersal. Material ties are no guarantee, as Burke long ago pointed out, for union and loyalty. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection 'which grows from common names, from kindred blood, 'from similar privileges and equal protection. These are 'ties which though light as air are as strong as links of 'iron.' Even if our commerce were endangered by freedom, which is far from being the case, we should remember that

the sentiment to which the Colonial Secretary himself has so often successfully appealed is a greater force in Imperial affairs than immediate material interests. "Without com'mercial bargains,' Lord Goschen has finely said, 'the 'Colonies have lavished their blood in South Africa, and ' without commercial bargains we have lavished our millions ' in the protection of the Empire, which includes the Colonies, 'asking but little in return; and under these circumstances 'I am not to be told that if we cannot accept this plan we 'are to accept the fate of a dying Empire.' The complete freedom which we have granted to the great Colonies has been eminently successful in maintaining their loyalty, and there is no desire in any quarter to go back on the gift. It is difficult to believe that they on their part will not recognise the equal necessity for the Mother Country, while extending her powerful protection to them, of freedom to consider in her fiscal and commercial arrangements not only their interests, but the interests of her own population, and of the vaster populations under her sway. It is to be hoped that the discussion on the delicate questions thus lightly and prematurely raised, without a shadow of justification arising from the material condition of this country or of the Empire at large, may be so conducted, to quote Lord Goschen's words, that if the result should not be that 'we can assent to the views of the Colonies,' if the 'Colonies realize that they cannot press on in this matter 'because it involves the taxation of food,' no ill feeling will be left behind, and that we can go forward on the road 'towards consolidating our Empire with equal confidence as ' in the past.'

If it were not for the disastrous result of these proposals in forcing to the front what was at first thought by superficial observers to be a side-issue, the question of protection for home manufactures, we should watch the further developement of the situation with some equanimity. The harm, indeed, already done in this direction may well prove to be irreparable; it will at all events remain for years a dividing and disfiguring' element in politics. But as regards what we must still hold to be the main issue before the country the Prime Minister himself has, with his accustomed lucidity, signalised two difficulties which we believe will prove insuperable-the traditional objection of our population to a tax on food and the traditional affection of the Colonies for a system of protection.' There is as yet no sign that Colonial Governments are prepared to do more, even if they

VOL. CXCVIII. NO. CCCCV.

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go as far as this, than tax at a rather higher rate their imports from foreign countries, with the possible effect of giving to this country a proportion of that trade-an infinitesimal proportion only, for the bulk of it consists of such articles as petroleum, tobacco, and timber, which we cannot produce. We believe we are correct in saying that the authors of the proposal themselves confess that such an advantage would be inadequate and insufficient. For what concerns this country the Duke of Devonshire, in his first speech in the House of Lords, the ablest and most statesmanlike speech yet delivered on the question, has insisted on keeping in view as fundamental' the question of the 'economical effects' of a change of policy upon our own people and our trade.' He has told us that no political consideration would induce him to be a party to a trial of the proposed experiment, unless he were convinced in his heart and conscience that that experiment was justified on sound 'economical grounds, and that there was reason to believe 'that it would tend to the benefit of the great masses of the people as well as to that of some of the more favoured 'sections of the working classes.' The burden of proof, as he says, eminently rests upon those who proposed this change in our fiscal system, of proof that the great political advantages held out to us can be purchased except at the expense of privation, hardship, and discontent on the part ' of our people.' We are still awaiting such a demonstration of the practicability, to say nothing of the necessity, of the proposed change, for the arguments hitherto put forward on the economic side by its ablest champions have been strangely meagre and inconclusive. This is no academic question to be solved by the refinements and sophistries of modern' economic speculation, and something more convincing than the complaints, assertions, and predictions so far advanced will be needed to outweigh the practical consensus of administrative and financial opinion against the reversal of a system which, in its main lines, has been so splendidly vindicated by long experience.

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No. CCCCVI. will be published in October.