WD 



\s>xr 



\90A 

 6,^2 



J^ 



PREFACE. 



Hj It is submitted that, iu tlie foUoAviug pages, 



material will be found sbowiuff that our free- 



% imports sj^stem — erroneously called Free Trade — 



=^has proved injurious rather than beneficial to 



agriculture. 



It would appear that there are those who hold 

 the opinion that so long as the urban trades and 

 manufactures flourish all is well. That is the 

 5 conclusion deducible from the arguments of " free 

 ^ importers." Pounds, shillings^ and pence are the 

 "~" test of the nation's soundness with them. The 

 ^ time, however, appears to have arrived when even 

 the urban traders and manufacturers feel seri- 

 ously the pinch of a fiscal policy which agricul- 

 turists of all shades of political opinion have felt, 

 and condemned, for many a long j-ear. 



It seems reasonable, therefore, to conclude, that 



fewith the rural and the urban elements — with the 



^agricultural and the manufacturing elements — 



"joining forces, something may be done to alter 



