In the House of Commons on Thursday, the subject before
the House being the second reading of the Appro- priation Bill, Mr. Balfour urged the policy of Colonial Preference. As long ago as 1843 an appeal came from Canada for some fiscal arrangement between that Dominion and the Mother-country, and once more the Dominion statesmen were advocating with unanimity the adoption of a Preferential tariff. After warning the House of th3 danger of the Colonies entering into independent fiscal negotiations, and declaring that the process which had begun must go on and must extend unless the problem of Prefer. ence was solved, Mr. Balfour declared that two tendoncit s had become manifest of recent years. According to one, the great Dominions would negotiate for their own trade and commercial interests as independent fiscal Powers, and the tendency would therefore be in the direction of separation. According to the other, the different parts of the Empire would consider not merely their separate interests,. but their. interests as parts of a great whole.
