27 AUGUST 1904, Page 3

duties for revenue, denounced Retaliatory duties as obstruc- tions on

obstructions, which only aggravated the evil. In Germany, he confirmed, there had always been Protection— at least, from the eighteenth century—whereas her great prosperity was the growth only of the last twenty-five years. Thus clearly Protection was not the cause of that prosperity. The character of the people had more to do with progress and industry in Germany than any Fiscal policy. Note, also, that these foreign experts did not take the line of saying that England would be worse off under Protection, but that foreign countries would be better off under free or freer trade.