ed, for objects which could not be stated by those who made
the proposal. The right hon. gentleman said that there was to be a
meeting of the representatives of the different Colonies in the
different great cities of the Empire--one different great city each
year for seven years, excluding London, where there was to be no
meeting, and they were to search for a method of spending this money.
Such plans have only to be stated to fall to pieces.

The House will see that the real essential fallacy of the
protectionist proposal is the idea that taxation is a good thing in
itself, that it should be imposed for the fun of the thing, and then,
having done it for amusement, we should go round afterwards and look
for attractive methods of expenditure in order to give support to the
project. These are the actual proposals made to us at the Colonial
Conference. These are the sort of proposals in respect of which we
are, forsooth, to be censured because we have not found it possible in
the name of the Government of this country to give our assent to
them.

I will submit a proposition to the House as a broad, general rule. I
daresay the Leader of the Opposition may rake up some ingenious, hard
case in conflict with it; but as a broad, general rule I believe it
will be found true to say that there is no power in a Government to
impose indirect taxation outside the limits of its territorial
sovereignty. Although I am quite ready to admit that, by sudden and
unexpected alterations of the tariff, temporary advantage might be
gained, and some share of the wealth of other people and other
countries might be netted for this or that set of traders within your
own border, in the long run the whole yield of any tax, export or
import, will come home to the people of that country by whom it is
imposed. It will come home plus the whole cost of collecting the tax,
and plus, further, the inconvenience and burden of the network of
taxation which is needed. It will come home to them, if they be
consumers, in the quantity, quality, or price of the articles they
consume, and, if exporters, in the profit, convenience, or reserve
power of the business which they conduct.

There is no parity between the sacrifices demanded of the Mother
Country and the proposals of preference made by the various Colonies.
To them it is merely a fresh application of their existing fiscal
system. To us it is a fiscal revolution. To them it is a mere
rewriting of their s