Mr. Chamberlain addressed a great meeting at St. Helens last
Saturday night in connection with the Lancashire and Cheshire Conservative and Working Men's Federation. The bulk of his speech was a reiteration of familiar argu- ments. British trade was either ruined by unfair com- petition, or else it was not doing half as well as it ought to do. The true test was comparative progress, and judged by that test, we were being passed by all the protected countries. Germany, whose emigration had fallen to a very low figure, was the paradise of the working man; those who said the contrary were guilty of "abominable falsehoods." He admitted that the glass and chemical trades in St. Helens were prospering, but their prosperity ought to be much greater. How could the working man gain by a policy which compelled his employer to take his trade abroad ? What was the good of cheaper food, clothes, or other neces- saries if they had less money to purchase them ? Then followed the familiar warning in regard to the Colonies. Under a system of Imperial Preference our Empire might be ' self-contained and safe, but if we continued the existing policy we should incur the danger of separation and the loss of even the pretence of Empire.
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