MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S IDEA.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S speech on Tuesday to the representatives of the different delegates of the British and Colonial Chambers of Commerce was a very able and remarkable one, and whether it produces any immediate result or not, we shall never regret that it was made, as it is not easy to overrate the importance of showing to our various Colonies and dependencies how anxious British statesmen are to draw closer the ties which unite the different Colonies and dependencies of this great Empire to each other. Whether it can be done or cannot be done, it is at least certain that we ought to be in earnest in our wish to make that union closer without serious loss to any members of the Empire. And it is a very great thing that the statesman at the head of the Colonial Office should make it evident to them all that not even the risk of material loss is sufficiently alarming to deter us from seriously examining the question whether it might not be worth a considerable sacrifice to put our relations with the other members of our great Empire on a better and more permanent footing. At the same time it is not possible to forget that one of the great causes which have led all the constituents of the Empire to the present strong desire for a closer union is the perfect liberty at which we have been content to leave them to act on their own impressions of self-interest in regard to the question of commercial relations, even when that has led to a policy exceedingly unfavourable to the Mother-country. The assurance that whether they would receive our goods without taxing them or not, we at least should always be willing to receive theirs without insisting on any recipro- city, has produced the good feeling which now exists. It is that which has led to the steadily increasing confidence between us, and we may well hesitate before resigning that attitude of magnanimous willingness to benefit them with- out asking for any return, and before entering upon nego- tiations which might result in very uneasy relations, supposing they should feel, as they very likely might feel, that they had made heavier sacrifices to please us, than we, with our fixed Free-trade policy, could possibly make to please them. We have gained so much in cordiality of feeling towards them by leaving them at perfect freedom to tax our goods or not at their pleasure, that we may well pause before accepting from them sacrifices which might prove much more galling than they can as yet realise, and which we might not be able to repay in kind without having to endure an amount of peril of which it is not at all easy to gauge the extent. A most sincere and hearty good-will has grown up between us on the existing system. Let us at least look well to it that we do not exchange it for a system of complex engagements under which both we and our Colonies might fret without finding it possible to obtain any easy or effectual release. The discussions of this week have certainly proved two things,—(l) that there are many of our Colonies which could not surrender the right to tax our exports without the utmost inconvenience to themselves, which they might regard as very inadequately requited by any concessions which we could safely make in the way of taxing the imports from the rest of the world so as to give our Colonies and dependencies a substantial preference ; and (2) that our Free-trade with foreign countries is so gigantic as compared with our Colonial trade, great though that may be, that we should very likely find that we had put ourselves into much greater straits by establishing any system of even moderate protection against the foreigner, than we had at all anticipated, end that a cry might go up from our labouring millions which would render the proposed sacrifice almost intolerable, iu which case the last state of our relations with the Colonies would certainly be much worse than the first. We cannot well imagine a more disastrous result than a failure in such an experiment as is now proposed. The heart- burnings which would come of it would be so serious on both sides that they might well outweigh, and much more than outweigh, all the advantages of a sincere attempt to draw the bonds closer. It is perfectly true- that real Free-trade with three hundred. million of our fellow men would be a, great boon, if that Free-trade did not prove very irksome to our greater Colonies, who could hardly exempt our exports from their own Cus- toms duties without accepting a policy of direct taxation under which it is certain that they would fret very seriously ; and again, if the loss of trade with the rest of the world resulting from the new protective duties im- posed on that trade, did. not so seriously embarrass our own millions of labourers that we might find ourselves quite unable to support our own population. It is true that three hundred millions is a very considerable section of the human race, but it is after all only a small minority, and we might find. our relations with the great majority so much changed for the worse, that we should suffer much more than we could gain by the new departure. It is extraordinarily difficult to calculate beforehand how any great revolution in trade relations would work out. Any sudden change of that kind is in itself a great evil, for it is like a great change in the productive powers of Nature herself,—indeed, that is precisely what it is,—for new freedom in some directions bought by new restrictions in others, is equivalent to a great change in the produc- tive powers of Nature,—a change of which the full effects can never be known till they have been actually tried. When you open one set of markets and close another set you make as great an experiment as if you had, stimulated the energy of Nature in one region of the world and had paralysed it in another, and human foresight is not equal to the calculation of the conse- quences, without a power of supernatural prophecy. But of this at least we have full warning, that our greater Colonies will find the resort to direct taxation necessitated by taking off their duties on British goods, extremely burdensome and vexatious, and that our home manufacturers regard the experiment of putting duties on our imports from foreign nations, with extreme alarm, and anticipate a great collapse of our commerce as the probable result. Hardly anybody thinks that the time is yet ripe for so very perilous a policy, and it is evident that the proposal to postpone once more any- thing at all like immediate negotiations, was received by the Congress with a sense of great relief. Neither the Colonies nor the Mother-country are as yet at all prepared, for any great repudiation of our present policy and sub- stitution of a brand-new one.
For our own part, while we heartily welcome any new move in the direction of Free-trade, however small,. we dread exceedingly the consequences of binding either our Colonies or our own country to enter on the terra incognita of an entirely new system, especially one which is to open up new trade at the cost of resigning or re- stricting existing trade. That is a sort of bargain which must be made more or less in the dark, with our eyes blindfolded. Let Free-trade grow even by little and little, for every little is a step in the direction of mickle. But when Protection is put on by little and little too, we can never be sure what the cost of it may not be. We do not want to see our Colonies placed under obligations to us to introduce a new system of taxation that may prove very irritating and very likely to result in mutual reproaches. And we do rot want to see our states- men here entering into engagements which may very seriously embarrasss our financial discretion and prove extremely fettering in case we had to make any great effort, as, for instance, in case of a great European war. We wish to see every change on both sides made in the direction of freer intercourse, but quite voluntarily made, and very cautiously made, bit by bit. We have grown so friendly, and so eager to increase that friendliness without imposing any serious sacrifices on each other, that it is not easy to imagine any system of strict mutual obligations which might not initiate a change for the worse. At all events, it is clear that neither our English Chambers of Commerce, nor the Colonial Chambers of Commerce are now disposed to go rashly into new engagements, and that in spite of the very sincere wish on both sides to improve our relations,—a wish to which Mr. Chamberlain has given a hearty and statesmanlike expression,—we can hardly be too cautious in committing ourselves to a great revolution in commer- cial relations of which it is almost impossible to discount the effect. Exchanging Free-trade for even a hounceo- pathic system of Protection is extremely dangerous work, and not to be entered on without great searchings of heart.
Previous page
