The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-18


investigation with q perfectly open mind.
and would proceed with the utmost eau
ton before committing themselves to a
radical departure from free trade prin-
ciples. He added that not O single mem
Der Of the Government, except Mr.. CHAM
BERLAIN himself, was committed to the
plan put forward by the Colonial Secre-
tary. This assertion would indicate that
Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN is worse OH than was
supposed it being hitherto taken for
granted that he had the Premiers sup
port. But it seems that Mr.. BALFoURs
approval was Of purely academic Kind
and must not be construed as committing
him to any definite scheme.
The severest blow that Mr., CHAMBER
LAIN received in the House of Lords was
dealt him by Viscount GosCHEN, the we'll
known Unionist, who is generally re-
garded as having been, with the excep-
ton of Sir ROBERT PEEL and Mr.. GLAD
STONE, the most brilliant Chancellor Of
the Exchequer that England has pos
sessed during the last hundred years.
Lord GoscHEN pointed out that, if Great
Britain should enter into the arrange
ment proposed by Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN,
and should ultimately find it necessary
to revert to free trade, she would have to
90 to the Colonies and beg them to release
England from her compact in order to
rescue the British people from starvation.
He challenged the proof of Mr.. CHAMBER
LA1N's assertion that higher wages would
result from a preferential tariff, and de-
nounced the whole scheme as a gamble
with the food OF the people. He pointed
out that the old-age pensions which Mr..
CHAMBERLAIN had put forward as a lure
to the workingman could not eventually
be betrayed from any income accruing
under q preferential tariff; for, mani
testify, when Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN's pro-
fessed purpose should be fulfilled, and
the Colonies should be able to forward all
the breadstuffs which Great Britain
should need to import, the whole revenue
derivable from the tariff on breadstuffs
would cease, and the old-age pensions
would have to be provided from direct
taxation, that is to say from taxes levied
on the prospective benefciaries Of PEN
sions, or else, if these were exempted, on
the already overburdened victims of the
income tax. As regards questions re-
lating to political economy Mr.. CHAM
BERLA1N is grotesquely overmatohed by
Lord GoscHEN. From the moment that
it was known that no attempt would be
made to silence the latter by party pres
sure, it was foreseen that the preferential
tariff scheme was doomed.
1t only remains to add that the Duke
OF Devonshire, Lord President Of the
Council and official head Of the Liberal
Unionists, gave his lieutenant, Mr. CHAM
BERLAIN, no support whatever beyond
remarking that he did not object to an
inquiry into the feasibility of the differ
entail tariff scheme. He insisted, how
ever, that, in such an inquiry the para
mount question to be kept in view was
what economic effect food tax would
have on the internal as we'll as external
trade and industry Of the United King
dom. If it should appear that the plan
would tend to starvation, hardship and
discomfort on the part Of the British peo-
pie, then, said the Duke, he could con-
ceive Of nothing more certain to lead
swiftly to the dissolution of the Empire.
If this is all the countenance that Mr..
CHAMBERLAIN is to receive from body
controlled by landowners, he must re.
gard his differential tariff scheme as
ludicrous fasco.