COBDENISM. 63 



owing to bad seasons (which some of us very well 

 remember) that depression in agriculture began, 

 and that it has not recovered since; and then, 

 curiously, the author at once admits that a chief 

 cause of this depression continuing is what we 

 have stated, namely, foreign competition. 



The author next has a tilt at the Agricultural 

 Rates Act, 189G, by which the rates on farm lands 

 have been lowered ; and he adds — without a 

 shadow of proof — that the measure will confer no 

 permanent advantage upon farmers. lie should 

 remember that half a loaf is better than no bread, 

 and that permanent or not, great advantage has 

 been received by the farmers, whilst it still 

 remains for him or anybody else to prove that 

 the Act has failed in any particular. 



Dealing with ^diat he calls the remedy of 

 " Protection," the author, in characteristic 

 Cobdenite fashion, says, " for good or evil, Great 

 Britain has become dependent upon imported 

 wheat to the extent of more than TO per cent, 

 of her consumption; that cheap food is essential 

 to her industrial supremacy; and that only by 

 free importation can an adequate supply be 

 obtained." Does Mr. Chamberlain propose to 

 prevent cheap food? Does he not expressly say 

 that he wants wheat to come in free from our 

 Colonies; and, is it not known to everyone who 

 cares to know, that Canada alone could supply in 

 a very short period all the wheat we require? 

 How is it possible to place reliance in a guide who 

 omits all reference to facts like these? 



