During the week the International Free-Trade Congress, organised by the
Cobden Club, has been in session in London. The Congress has been attended by a very large number of prominent European and American Free-traders, and we desire to express the satisfaction which all true Free-traders must feel in witnessing so distinguished a gathering. At the same time, we are bound to express our very deep regret that they should not have seen the cause which they have at heart in a better plight than it is just now in the land of its birth. Most foreign Free-traders are, we take it, like M. Yves G-uyot, true Free- traders,—that is, men who believe not merely in free imports, but in the application of the policy of free exchange to other parts of the social organism. They can hardly help being pained and astonished at seeing that a Government placed in power by Free-trade votes, and professing to 'be animated by the spirit of Free-trade, have passed an Old-Age Pensions Bill which, by embarrassing the finances of the country, will give an opportunity for the actual destruction of Free-trade, and, further, that they are preparing to interfere with freedom of exchange by such proposals as the Miners' Eight Hours Bill, and the measures promised and projected by the Liberal Party in regard to unemployment and the fixing of a minimum rate of wages.
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