lO AGRICULTURAL AND fARII'i' REFORM. 



seems, in fact, to be all at sea wken we come to 

 boil clowu his comments and to find out wliat tlie 

 practical issue of them really means; and, Avlien 

 he might v/ith advantage aj^ply Mr. Chamber- 

 lain's proposals to the benefit of agriculture, 

 he, for some reason best known to himself, 

 neglects to do so. He does not argue them upon 

 their merits, and seems, indeed, not to grasp their 

 importance. It is all ver}- well to say we must 

 know this, that, and the other, and must be 

 advanced educationists. Of course we must; but 

 it so happens that the most advanced and prac- 

 tical farmers whom we have come across are not 

 only abreast of the latest knowledge in their 

 particular lines of agricultural work, but are 

 tariii reformers as well; whilst, v^e may add, the 

 Central Chamber of Agriculture — the most repre- 

 sentative body of agriculturists in ihe Kingdom 

 — has also passed a resolution in favour of 

 Mr. Chamberlain's preferential tariff proposals. 

 Mr. Armitage-Smith knows nothing of these 

 things ; hence it is we have considered it well 

 to say a few words which we hope may do some- 

 thing to set him and others right regarding them. 

 Mr. Armitage-Smith in his volume also has 

 a chapter entitled " Preferential Tariffs." It 

 is condemnatory of Mr. Chamberlain's proposals. 

 We refrain from a further discussion of the 

 author's views as contained in this chapter, not 

 because there is no satisfactory answer to them 

 but because the chapter, generally, consists of 

 such a jumble of pedantic statements, and is con- 



