Sir A. Hayter, M.P. for Bath, has pointed out, in
a letter to Monday's Times, how much at sixes-and-sevens the Tory
leaders are on the Fair-trade question. Thus, while Sir Stafford Northcote considered it a mischievous delusion to suppose that the prices of farm-produce in England could be raised by pro- tective duties, Colonel Stanley, a member of the late Cabinet, has declared, at Chorley, that " if Protection were carried out as respected America, the country most traded with, he had no doubt that nation would continue to advance on the path of progress very much as she had before." That is not a clear oracle, as it seems only to maintain that we cannot injure America much by protecting ourselves against her, whereas the more important question is whether we should not injure our- selves very much by so doing. But whatever the oracle means, it means, if it means anything, the opposite of Sir Stafford Northcote's. And amongst Conservative Cabinet Ministers that is a very serious sort of difference on a subject of the first magnitude.
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