Sir Richard Cartwright, the Canadian Minister of Trade and Commerce,
made a remarkable speech at Toronto on Friday week. Like other critics, he observed that he could not be sure whether Mr. Chamberlain had thought out his proposals. If they meant simple Protection, they were inde- fensible ; if reciprocity, much might be said in their favour. " If he says it would be a great gain to the nations to ex- change goods on fair terms, I agree, and I think it worth while to make sacrifices for such an arrangement. If he says that Protection hurts countries trading with protected countries, he says the truth. If ho says he can tax food from all countries -without increasing the price to the consumer, he is wrong." Great Britain, he continued, was in the strong position of being able to force reciprocity on the United States, or to stimulate immigration and food produc- tion in countries other than the United States, or pave the way to a trade alliance between the English-speaking peoples. In other words, a preference between Canada and Great Britain would hit the American farmer so hard that he could not stand it, and the result would be a Zollverein between the British Empire and the United States.
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