Mr. Martin further asserts that the existing preference, originally proposed
by the Liberals when in Opposition, and passed by them when in office, was on both occasions vigorously opposed by the Conservatives, and also by the Manufacturers' Association, who have done their best since the preference was granted to abolish it. In view of these facts, Mr. Martin declares that either Mr. Chamberlain is endeavouring to mislead the British working men, or has been entirely misled by the members of the Manufacturers' Association who visited him last summer. The policy of Protection, he concludes, "whatever else it may accomplish, has always been successful in every country in which it has been tried, Canada not excepted, in lowering the moral standard of the electorate, and it would appear to an outsider that even in connection with the advocacy of this policy for Great Britain a decided taint has already been imparted to political life."
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