PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE.
advocated the policy they did, and, however that may be, the country would certainly have never carried it. Another point the repealers looked to was a greater stability in price, but there has been as much fluctuation in the price of wheat since the repeal of the corn laws as there was before. The conditions have absolutely changed since 1846, and it is idle to discuss the policy of tariff reform in the light of the conditions of sixty years ago. In 1846 we produced nine-tenths of our staple food, but in 1902 we produced only one-fifth. Our dependence on foreign countries for so large a portion of our food supply has become a great national danger. As regards the supply of some raw materials, our position is little better. British cotton mills have been working short time for many months past owing to a shortage in the supply of raw cotton, and a deputation from the Cotton Manufacturers' Association of Manchester recently asked Mr. Balfour to take steps to put a stop to the gambling in raw cotton in America. For a great Empire to be absolutely at the mercy of one single foreign country for the supply of raw material for one of its greatest industries—cotton goods form a quarter of our total exports—is deplorable. The remedy is to encourage the growth of cotton under the British flag.
Decline of agriculture. It is not necessary for me to enlarge upon the way in which British Agriculture has suffered in the past sixty years. Every one who has the least acquaintance with agriculture must know that farmer after farmer has been ruined after struggling against bad times. I have made a calculation as to what has been the effect of the enormous conversion of arable land into pasture, and the enormous extent of hop ground grubbed during190
