Though the victory of Free-trade has been so signal, Free-
traders must not suppose that the cause is safe for all time. It can only be that if the vigilance and care used to guard what we have gained are equal to the keenness and enthusiasm which were employed to obtain it. If the Free-traders misuse their victory, it is doubtful whether the country will again act as it is now acting. Especially is it important that the Unionist Free-traders should use every endeavour to re- construct the Unionist Party on a Free-trade basis. They are in a sense the arbiters of the situation. If they are only resolute enough, and only make it clear enough that the sole condition upon which they will rejoin the main body of Unionists is the condition that Protection, whether under the guise of Tariff Reform or of Retaliation, shall be finally abandoned by the party, they will, we believe, be able to get their way and to secure Free-trade for all time. That they will be able to accomplish this in a moment we do not, of course, suggest. It will probably take four or five years of hard struggling, but it may be done, and is certainly worth attempting. At first they will speak to deaf ears, but a period of barren opposition will have a chastening effect upon men who ,are now determined never to desert the glorious banner of Tariff Reform.
