Mr. Chamberlain went on to declare that there were two
alternatives before the people of the Empire. "They may maintain if they like in all its severity the interpretation—in my mind an entirely artificial and wrong interpretation—which has been placed upon the doctrines of Free-trade by a small remnant of Little Englanders of the Manchester school who now profess to be the sole repositories of the doctrines of Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. They may maintain that policy in all its severity, although it is repudiated by every other nation and by all your own Colonies. In that case, they will be absolutely pre- cluded either from giving any kind of preference or favour to any of their Colonies abroad, or even protecting their Colonies abroad when they offer to favour us." The second alternative was "that we should insist that we will not be bound by any purely technical definition of Free-trade."
