We shall be deeply interested to watch how the great.
Colonies take Mr. Chamberlain's proposal. We should, of course, be delighted if it satisfies the Colonies, but we fear that to grant, even in the rough, and with special exceptions, Free-trade with England, would turn out to be too great a sacrifice for them. If the Canadian suggestion asked a much greater sacrifice on the part of the Mother-country than on the part of the Colonies, Mr. Chamberlain's suggestion asks, we fear, a much greater sacrifice on the part of the Colonies than on the part of the Mother-country. They will not bear direct taxation, and they will not find it easy, we think, to get the revenue they need by taxes on imports, if they exempt all the principal articles of English manufac- ture which compete in any way with the infant manufactures of their own territory.
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