vi PREFACE. 



a state of things whicli, it is submitted, ought 

 not to have been allowed to exist for so long. 

 The agricultural predictions of Mr. Cobden in 

 1843-1846 have everywhere been falsified by the 

 results. Mainly on the strength of these, agri- 

 culturists were led to adopt the fiscal policy he 

 urged upon them — a policy which is proving in- 

 creasingly injurious to the agricultural and other 

 industries of the kingdom. 



The Imperial asjDect of Mr. Chamberlain's pro- 

 posals has not been touched upon in the following 

 pages ; though looked at from this standpoint — 

 which, in fact, embraces every other— there are 

 those (the writer included) who are inexpressibly 

 surprised that such proposals have not everyvfhere 

 been accepted with alacrity— ^indeed, " jumped 

 at," instead of its being necessary to " argue " 

 their value and importance. 



