Mr. Chaplin, who moved in the House of Commons for
the Commission now sitting on the causes of Agricultural Distress, made a rather iffiportant speech—qmportant, we mean, when we -consider the influence he seems to exercise over the Govern- ment—at the dinner of the Alford Agricultural Association yesterday week, in relation to the future of Agriculture, in which he said plainly that if freights rose, and the price of wheat .could be kept at its present rate, agricultural distress would .disappear ; but that, "If there was truth in the rumours that -within three years from the present time, wheat from the Red. River and Lake Winnipeg districts could be sold in Liverpool for 278. a quarter, and that the supply at that rate was likely to become permanent,the question of Protection would again have to be seriously considered in this country. The reason for this was that without Protection, no wheat could then in future be grown in England, and that no country situated as England is, could afford to be dependent on foreign countries for the staple of its people's food." Why, it is so dependent now. How could the millions of England at the present time buy bread at all, at the prices we should have, if the foreign supply failed us P Mr. Chaplin'sreason is as bad as it can be, but his prediction is not the less significant, as showing in what quarter the wind sits, if the present Government remain in office.
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