Mr. Asquith addressed a large meeting of Liberals, presided over
by Lord Rosebery, at Edinburgh last Saturday. Address- ing himself to the Fiscal question, as the predominant issue in British politics, Mr. Asquith dealt with the assumptions on which Mr. Chamberlain based his case in October, 1903,—viz., that our exports in point of quantity were practically stationary, and in point of character were everywhere retro- grading; that we were sending out everywhere more things like coal, and less and less of manufactured goods which employed both labour and capital. Applying the test of official Returns, Mr. Asquith showed (1) that between 1902 and 1904 there had been an increase of seventeen millions; while (2) of the growth in our exports during the last three years ninety per cent. was due to the increased export of British manufactures. In regard to imports, again, Mr. Chamberlain's assumptions had been absolutely falsified, since eighty per cent. of the growth had been due to the increased importation, not of manufactured goods, but of food and raw materials. Mr. Asquith further showed that Mr. Chamberlain's statement that such increase in the export trade as there had been was to the Colonial and not the foreign markets was flatly disproved by the facts, fourteen and a half millions of the seventeen millions excess having gone to foreign countries.
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