At the dinner of the Jewellers' Association held at Birmingham
on Saturday last, Mr. Chamberlain showed the absurdity of a resolution lately passed by a committee at Aylesbury which declared this Government to be "the worst Government of modern times." The last twelve months would be memorable in English history. They marked the close of a chapter—that which is associated with the Manchester school—and indicated the determination of the people to adopt an Imperial rather than a provincial policy. Mr. Chamberlain later on in his speech diagnosed the disease of the West Indies to be want of fresh blood and fresh capital. That is entirely our view, and we have always asserted, and still assert, that the supply of these wants, and not the abolition of the sugar bounties, will cure the ills of our oldest Colonies. Mr. Cham- berlain says, however, that it is imprudent " to contrive to identify the doctrine of Free-trade with the support of this abominable bounty system." We entirely agree. What we have done is to identify Protection with the machinery by which it is proposed to force foreign nations to give up their bounty system. Free-trade means letting people come and sell you their goods freely in an open market. If you stop them doing so by countervailing duties, certificates of origin, and the other odious impedimenta of Protection, you are so far giving up Free-trade. If, however, foreign Powers are sensible enough of their own accord to give up their bounties we shall be well pleased. All we want to avoid is cutting off our own noses in order to show them the error of their ways.
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