Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/178

PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE. At the close of the debate, Mr. Brassey made the following speech:—

At Fifth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire 9 Montreal, August 1903.

,—

I am exceedingly obliged for the kind permission you have accorded me to make a few remarks before the close of this important debate. I felt bound to refuse to second this resolution on behalf of the London Chamber out of regard for my father, with whom unfortunately I do not see eye to eye on the question now before the Congress. I regret that I had to do so the more now that the discussion is coming to a close, because I am as strong as any Canadian in the conviction that some reform in the fiscal policy of the United Kingdom is necessary; and, in the second place, because I feel that some of the most important arguments which might be adduced in favour of a change of policy have barely been alluded to, and others have not even been touched upon in the course of the discussion. I will pass over the decline of the agricultural population in the mother country, and the effect that this is having upon the physique and stamina of the race. I will pass over all that is meant by the fact that during the last ten years of the nineteenth century the balance of imports over exports in the United Kingdom has practically doubled; but I would ask to say a word with regard to Ireland. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the fiscal policy of the United Kingdom was mainly governed by the interests of the people of Great Britain. During the era of Free Trade, 160