As we commented at length in our last issue on
Mr. Arnold-Forster's excision of Free-trade doctrine from the new edition of his "Citizen Reader," it is only fair to give the substance of his defence as set forth in the Westminster Gazette of the 23rd inst. Mr. Arnold-Forster begins by the frank admission that he has changed his views,—that eighteen years ago he accepted without question "certain so-called political axioms then taught at the schools and Universities," but that he has since been led to examine them, to doubt their inherent truth, and still more to doubt their applica- bility to the artificial economic conditions forced upon the United Kingdom by the action of foreign countries. This, however, is not the mason for his withdrawing the passages in question. The "Citizen Reader" is a book intended for use in all schools, and it is therefore undesirable that it should deal with so highly controversial a, subject as the Fiscal question has become. The reason why the change was made at this particular moment was simply that it was found necessary to reset the type, and that an opportunity was thus afforded of making an alteration in the form. We gladly give currency to Mr. Arnold-Forster's explanation, but can- not refrain from expressing our regret that the excision of controversial matter should have also involved the sacrifice of matters of historical fact; and we can only condole with him on the unfortunate coincidence of the issue of his revised edition with the present posture of the Fiscal controversy.
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