It is said that the Unionists are urging haste, thinking
that this is the moment to launch a Protectionist policy, the moment for which a party, large or small, has been waiting through fbur generations, ever since the country began to throw off shackles which, by experience, it had found to be galling. Times have brought changes, and they are probably right in believing that the country is a little more favourable toProtection than it has been for .
a century. Even so, we believe it is a damaging cry at any election to-day, and that it is unwise to raise it. There is also a slight savour of blackmail in demanding the assent of Liberal Free Traders who have become colleagues in a crisis and are doing all that patriotism asks of them, as the Unionists themselves have done in full measure. To introduce this highly contentious policy now is wrong, and it happens to be less urgent to-day even for the keenest Tariff Reformer than at any other time, because the fall in the value of the pound is actually performing the work expected of a Tariff and giving a bounty on exports into the bargain.
