2 9 



minent feature in which, with, I regret to say, some foul 

 exceptions, has ever been a love of " fair play." This latter 

 led to an early development of our liberties, and this again to 

 England long having been the refuge for the persecuted and 

 the exiles of other countries. It is too much a matter of history 

 to require further mention here how some new industries were 

 introduced and other older ones improved by some of these 

 refugees. It is in such ways and by such combinations of 

 circumstances as those now briefly indicated that our national 

 industrial character has been formed, and that character, coupled 

 with our insular position, our mineral wealth, and other natural 

 advantages, is what, in my opinion, has led to our commercial 

 supremacy. Having attained to a certain position, it is the duty 

 of every individual in the community to do what he can to 

 maintain it. Is then our position threatened or assailed ? If 

 so, by whom, and how are we to meet and to defeat the attack? 

 In the first place, I do not consider that it is so seriously threa- 

 tened as some make out ; but, granted that it is threatened to 

 some extent, how comes it ? I believe it arises from different 

 causes in the different articles in which foreign competition 

 presses on us most severely. In some things, such, for instance, 

 as linen yarns and plain articles generally, the cause seems to 

 be found in the longer hours and lower wages that prevail in 

 the establishments of our Continental rivals. We cannot 

 expect, nor indeed do we wish for, any retrogressive legislation 

 with regard to hours of labour ; so, I fear, unless we can further 

 lower the cost of production, we must let those rivals keep what 

 they have got, consoling ourselves with the reflection that what 

 they have got is what was least worth our while to keep. In 

 other articles, however, it is superior taste, and in others, again, 

 superior skill and the applied results of a carefully nurtured 

 system of technical instruction, that are causing us to feel 

 foreign competition as we do. The advocacy of scientific and 

 technical education comes so legitimately within the scope of 

 our operations that I proceed to allude briefly to the subject ; 

 doing so, indeed, requires no apology, as it is one of the 

 questions of the day. It was lately brought so fully before 



