Mr. Brodrick, on the other hand, in a speech made
to his constituents at Bramley (Surrey) on Monday, represented the Government as one which needed no apologies to be made for it. Referring to the Fiscal question, he declared that, although no Protectionist, he pinned his faith to Mr. Balfour's policy of Retaliation as a sound, safe, practicable, and necessary policy. "He was not committed to Preference for the Colonies, and he thought we must hear a good deal more of what the Colonies intended to offer us before we could decide what we might offer them." After insisting that we must remember the position of India, which had prospered under Free-trade, he declared his belief that both Free-traders and Protectionists were rather apt to exaggerate the exclusive influence of their respective doctrines. He believed our safe path "lay in the policy enunciated by the Prime Minister, and it was as one of its supporters that he would ask a renewal of their confidence at the next Election."
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