184 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



tariff protection is necessary or advisable for Brit- 

 ish agriculture, all the political parties are agreed 

 in ignoring the necessity — at least for the present. 



It seems to me to be a singularly unfortunate 

 fact for British national interests that, when the 

 issue of " Tariff Reform " — that is, a change 

 from Free Trade towards Protection — was raised 

 first, the sharpest of the Free Trade attacks were 

 made on the proposals touching agricultural 

 protection, and the weakest defence was made 

 of those proposals by the Tariff Reformers. 

 For if there is any case at all for Protection, it 

 must be strongest for agricultural protection. 



The Free Trade case may be stated (I hope 

 fairly — I am not a Free Trader) as this : that it 

 is a disadvantage for the community as a com- 

 munity to interfere at all in fostering this or 

 that industry ; that the currents of trade, the 

 development of production and manufacture, are 

 best left to regulate themselves under con- 

 ditions of freedom ; that cheap imports are an 

 advantage, not a disadvantage, since they reduce 

 the cost of living, and give facilities for cheap 

 production in other directions. 



The Protectionist case is this : that the organ- 



