Mr. Goschen made one very weighty remark on the depression
of trade. He said that in some departments of trade the pro- ducers are suffering by very low prices, without the public getting the advantage of the stimulus which great cheapness in the staple articles of trade always gives. Thus he knew a case in which 15,000 carcases of Australian sheep had been sold in the London market at 4d. a pound, though the public in general had not been able to buy mutton at any lower price than 10d. a pound. He was severe on Lord Iddesleigh for telling of legisla- tion as a probable consequence of the inquiry into trade depression. Unless, he said, they were going to change the currency of the country, legislative remedies must mean a Protective tariff, which would aggravate all the sources of distress. For himself, he thought that the spread of technical education was the most potent means of gaining for English hands the largest amount of profitable industry.
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