Lord Salisbury delivered a brilliant speech at Hastings on Wednesday,
one portion of which was not less imprudent than brilliant,—we mean the portion in which he advised the country to devise retaliatory tariffs on the less important of our imports from those foreign countries which load our exports with high duties, in order that we may have the wherewithal to purchase from those countries a remission of their hostile tariffs. At present, he said, England is simply out of the running in these matters, because all other countries know that they will not be any the better treated by us for admit- ting our exports, nor will they be any the worse treated by us for excluding them. Therefore, he said, though we must not meddle with food or the raw materials of manufacture, we might fairly load luxuries like silks, laces, gloves, wines, &c., with duties which would give us something to take off on condition that they met us half-way. At this declaration the Sussex hop-growers were delighted, and cheered lustily, and exclaimed " Hops !" which they would much like to see protected. We have said enough on the certain failure of this policy of tentative and experimental Protection in another column, but may add here that while Lord Salisbury's declara- tion will repel many Liberal Unionists who understand the subject, it will probably attract a great many believers in the Protectionist delusion,—who, if the policy were ever put in force, would become its victims.
