A BIJIEF EXAMINATION OF FREE-TRADf: ITiIXCiri^S 350 



1Q per cent, of her consumption. . . , Is the nation prepared 

 to put hack Us progress and revert to that position in order 

 that it may he sclf-sustaininfj i " 



These questions of enormous moment will be dealt with 

 seriatim. 



Fallacy 1. "In no circumstances hnown at piresent could this 

 country feed her cnormo^is population of 40,000,000 people 

 at their existing standard, of subsistence." 



Bkitain can easily Feed iieu Toi-ulation 



To affirm that Great Britain cannot feed her population — in 

 no circuindances hnown at present — is to imperfeotly state a 

 proposition, and a partly stated question can only be partly 

 answered. The question which is before the country is this : 

 " Can Gkeat Bkitain Feed iiek own Population ? " The 

 answer is : " Yes ! With Pekfect Ease." 



To put this momentous case before the public in any other 

 form would be to beg the question, and the people are sick and 

 tired of the fine-spun quiddities which have been cast around 

 this matter for the last half-century. They want straight 

 (|uostions and straight answers ; a scpiare, stand-up fight, in 

 fact, and neither the quibbling of political parties nor the clever 

 prestidigitation of " scientitic " economists will be of further 

 avail. 



To ask if Great Britain can grow all her own corn and other 

 food-stulTs to-day, is to ask if a man, althougli a strong swimmer, 

 who has been tied up hand and foot, and trussed up like a 

 turkey ready for roasting, would be likely to swim if cast into 

 the water \ " Not likely " is the answer here, but remove his 

 bonds ; release him from his trussings, and he would swim fast 

 enough. 



In respect to growing all her own food supplies. Great 

 Britain is like the tied and trussed swimmer — she can not only 

 grow all the corn she requires for her own consumption, hut 

 millions of quarters hcsides, but she has been so tied up by the 

 bonds which political parties have cast about her for the last 

 sixty years and more ; and so trussed and girded about by the 

 fetters which economic "science" has forged for her out of tlic 

 fecundity of its own immateriality : that although even now 

 she might be able to grow what she requires, it would be 

 difficult. 



But loose her from her bonds and trussings, set her free — 

 as every other civilised country in this world is free — from all 

 those absurd restrictions wliich a ridiculous agricultural system 



