At Greenwich on Saturday Mr. Courtney presided at a special
dinner of the Cobden Club held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Repeal of the Corn-laws. It was possible, he admitted, that, in spite of Free-trade, our national prosperity might decline, but if it did Free-trade would break the fall. Our best way of promoting Free-trade principles was to show we did not doubt them ourselves. After reading the speeches of a certain great personage of to-day, he had been tempted to say "Lord S tliebury, you want other nations to believe in Free-trade ; begin by believing in it yourself." Even the devotees of the Free- trade policy had sometimes used language which encouraged the fallacious belief on the part of others that the adoption of Free-trade was a loss. They had chaffered and bargained as if it were a sacrifice to adopt this policy. What Mr. Courtney had to say on the proposal for an Imperial Zollverein was most impressive, useful, and timely. At one time we tried to make the United Kingdom self- contained, but some fifty years ago realised our mistake. "Was there any reason for believing that a policy which was a mistake within the United Kingdom would not be a mistake within the united Empire ? If in the interests of the whole community we threw open the markets of England to the whole world, bow could we attempt to reproduce in the Empire the features of the system that prevailed before that was done,—internal Free-trade, external Protection ? " Not many Colonists, he believed, were disposed to listen to the advice which had been given them on this subject. Let them, however, understand that if this policy were entered upon for one moment, it would be entered upon with the intention of breaking it down. If we consented to establish this kind of Zollverein it would be with the intention of putting an end to it as soon as possible after its accomplishment. That is excellent sense, and we trust will be taken to heart by those who are inclined to the notion of arriving at Free-trade by way of Protection. Let the whole Empire unite in a policy of complete free exchange. That would indeed be a union worth preserving.
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