On this important suggestion we have commented else- where, but
when it came to be discussed it soon appeared that there was very great diversity of opinion about it. Sir Douglas Smith, the High Commissioner of Canada and the delegate of the Montreal Board of Trade, wanted to go beyond the Toronto proposal, and lay down the principle that Great Britain and her Colonies were to concert a scheme for preferential treatment of all the States in the Empire. The Victorian delegate (Hon. Robert Reid) thought it impossible for Victoria (Australia) to give up Protection, and could not ask the United Kingdom to give up Free-trade. The president of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce was totally opposed to a system of preferential duties and the sacri- fice of Free-trade, and Mr. Holland, president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, took the same line, and so did Mr. Burnie, president of the Swansea Chamber. On Wednesday the divergence of opinion developed itself still further. Mr. Colmer (representing the Board of Trade of Sydney, Cape Breton, Canada) thought that a preferential treatment by England of some twenty or thirty articles produced by the Colonies would quite satisfy the Colonies, while speaker after speaker expressed the view that the time was not ripe for any practical measure of commercial union. The Colonies cannot and will not rely on direct taxation, and must trust to import duties, and England dare not abandon Free-trade. The result is that while it was agreed to keep a closer com- mercial union with the Colonies in view, it was possible only to decide on farther consultation and discussion among the various sections of the British Empire.
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