xvi PREFACE 



country, not the home producer, and in justice this 

 state of affairs should be remedied, and the home pro- 

 ducer put on an equal footing with the foreigner that 

 is all we ask. 



Why does the present fiscal system exist ? selfish- 

 ness, greed. The townspeople want cheap food, even if 

 it is at the expense of the county population, and they 

 are backed up by large chemical, cocoa, and other 

 employers who want cheap labour ; also subsidised 

 by money from foreigners who are naturally anxious 

 not to lose the only free market they have abroad 

 wherein to dump their surplus goods. 



The evils that ensue are depopulation of county 

 districts, degeneracy of the race, overcrowding of 

 cities, need of emigration of our finest blood and sinew, 

 etc. etc., and for all these evils, the Free Traders 

 offer sham remedies, anything but the real one, because 

 it affects their pockets. Any saving in the cost of food 

 by the many, is more than counterbalanced by the loss 

 of work and wastage to the nation, and which must 

 be made up by extra taxation in other ways ; it is 

 six and half a dozen. The following extracts from 

 the Daily Mail are worthy of consideration and 

 adoption : 



" The administration of public finance nowadays is 

 a science and a business. It calls for trained administra- 

 tors who will devote not only their whole time to it but 

 their whole energy and skill. They should have no 

 political entanglements, and least of all any electioneer- 



