Mr. Chamberlain, of course, repeated his old fallacies that if
we taxed the products of countries with high tariffs we should compel them to reduce them, and that Preferential duties would bind Colonies which may hereafter contain fifty millions of people more closely to ourselves. But why should foreign countries yield when, on his own showing, heavy tariffs produce prosperity, and he is asking the foreigner to give up the very source of his own wealth P And why does be think that the Colonists when so strong in numbers will consent to be cut off from trade with the world and compelled to confine themselves to trade with Britain P If that is sound economy, why should we not go a step farther, stop all foreign trade at once, and deal only among ourselves P It used to be said that the villagers who lived by taking in each other's washing were not prosperous ; but the makers of that epigram had clearly not read Mr. Chamberlain's speeches.
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