Mr. John Morley, speaking on the fiscal question at the
Free-Trade Hall, Manchester, on Monday, declared that "the whole weight of experience and responsible authority of all kinds, theoretic and practical, is against these new proposals." He asserted that the condition of Lancashire before 1846 was the best practical argument against Protection, and went on to inquire whether the improved position of the labouring classes, the enormous rise in wages, in Income-tax assess- ments, in the Savings Bank deposits, in British shipping, the 30 per cent, fall in the price of food and necessaries, proved the policy of 1846 to have been a mistake. A great point made towards the close of the speech was the disastrous effect that our abandonment of Free-trade would have on other nations struggling to be free from tariffs. "It discourages every Free-trade minority in every country in the world." Yet universal Free-trade is Mr. Balfour's ideal.
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