Mr. Morley's speech on the Free-trade Question,—as apart from the
question which he professed hie intention of not handling, though he did handle it in a sense which seems to us utterly misleading,—was in every way excellent. He showed that the Fair-trade League could not in the least agree as to the proper step to be taken by way of retrogression from Free-trade, and that, in the first place, a commercial union as between England and her Colonies is held to be impossible by the leading Colonists themselves, because, even if we were willing to abandon Free-trade, which we are not, very few of the Colonies are willing to abandon their duties on English goods by which chiefly they fill their Treasury. In the next place, a preference for Colonial goods as compared with foreign goods is impossible, unless, indeed, we are willing to give them that preference with- out reciprocation, for the Colonies declare themselves quite unable to reciprocate the preference so as to give us the smallest practical advantage. In short, Mr. Morley showed conclusively that the Fair-traders are at their wits' end for a compromise with Free-trade for which they can make even a colourable case to English constituencies.
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