The Ottawa correspondent of the Morning Post states in Thursday's
paper that Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Canadian
Premier, speaking at Nelson, said :—" The cardinal feature and outstanding principle of the tariff is British Preference, and so long as we stay in office it will remain." He then went on to declare :—
"It is not the policy of the Canadian Government to ask Great Britain to ohange her fiscal policy one iota. We make our own fiscal arrangements to suit our own interests ; so it is with Great Britain. I have heard it said that unless Great Britain gave Canada some mutual tariff arrangement there was danger of an estrangement of our Dominion. This is an insult to the Canadian people. Let the world know that the loyalty of Canada to the British Empire, of which she is proud to be a part, is not dependent on any tariff agreement."
When one remembers that at Edmonton Sir Wilfrid Laurier said :—" I believe in Free-trade as firmly as ever I did. It is no fault of mine that Free-trade principles have not been carried into practice," one is able fairly to measure the sincerity of the reiterated assertion that Canadian loyalty depends on a tariff. We would also draw attention in con- . flexion with this subject to the coincident agitations in the United States, France, and Germany, the three greatest Pro- tectionist countries, against the increased cost of living.
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