ed by either party to the transaction. In any case, the sums
involved in inter-colonial preference at the present time are
extremely small, and, however that might be, the matter is one which
is wholly outside our control, because we have no authority over the
Colonies in this respect, and we may just as well look pleasant about
it and accord a sympathetic attitude to such a process.

Yes; but let those who reproach us with pedantry and with not showing
a sympathetic desire to meet the Colonies listen to this: When such a
statement is made by a Minister, is it accepted as a desire on the
part of the Government to extend sympathetic treatment to the
Colonies? Not at all. It is taken as an admission, and used for the
purpose of trying to pretend that the Government have abandoned the
principle of their opposition to the larger question of Imperial
preference. If, although we think them unsatisfactory, we were, out of
complaisance, to accord the small preferences suggested upon dutiable
articles, we should be told in a minute that we had given up every
logical foothold against preference, and that nothing prevented us
imposing a tax on bread and meat except our inability to follow the
drift of our own arguments.

I have referred to preference, but there is another proposal. The
right hon. gentleman the Member for St. George's, Hanover Square, put
forward a proposal earlier in the year, and it was renewed in a
slightly different form by Mr. Deakin[5] at the Conference. The
proposal was to impose a 1 per cent. _ad valorem_ surtax on all
foreign merchandise coming into the ports of the British Empire. That
is the proposal which has been put forward as the least objectionable
form of the preferential proposals, and it has been said of it that it
was the least objectionable because it gave no loophole for the
corruption which may spring up in the wake of the other proposals.

Let me ask the House to examine this proposal for a moment. Has any
serious, civilised Government--I ask for information--ever been to the
pains and trouble of erecting round their coasts a tariff, with all
its complications, with the need of exacting certificates of origin on
every class of goods, with the need of demanding strict assessment of
all commodities brought to their shores--has any nation ever erected
the vast and complicated network which would be involved in such a
duty, simply for the paltry purpose of imposing a duty of 1 per cent.?
I sa