Dealing with the question of uniting the Empire, Mr. Chamberlain
said :—" I take all my opponents—those who differ from me, those with whom I am dealing, and those with whom I am not dealing—and I say that there is not a man of them who can give you any alternative to what lam proposing, any alternative for attaining the object which I have in view. You cannot weld your Empire together, you cannot draw eloser the bonds that now unite us, except by some form of lommercial union. I say that none of our opponents have put !orward any alternative. It is true that a statesman for whom I -have the greatest respect, and who lives in the neighbour- hood—I mean Sir Edward Grey—has told us that, in his opinion, it would be a very good thing to have an Imperial Council. Well, who first proposed an Imperial Council P It was not Sir Edward Grey. It was I. I mean Of late years. It was proposed before me. There is nothing new under the sun. But I have pressed it more than any of my predecessors."
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