150 THE FISCAL QUESTION 



colonies an unwelcome burden to our citizens at home, to 

 lay aside a powerful instrument of amity and good-will 

 amongst the peoples of the earth, and all for the sake of 

 a limited and still more doubtful material gain, is a wrong 

 against humanity which we ought not to have been invited 

 to commit. And we shall not commit it. We shall not 

 turn back upon the methods that have made our Empire 

 great, nor shall we weaken the moral foundations on which 

 alone it can securely rest. 



