Excerpt from The Nineteenth Century and After, Vol. 55: A Monthly Review; January-June, 1904 IN the midst of much that is difficult respecting the fiscal controversy now raging in this country there is probably a prediction that may be made with some confidence. Whatever the hasty con fusion of facts and figures for the moment, whatever the passing plausibility of argument on either side, the case for the reversal of the trade policy which this country has followed for the past sixty years can only be carried on one condition. It must be won on its permanent and intrinsic merits. If so much he admitted, there is a test of those merits which may be held to surpass most others in severity. If the case for change he made out, we must be able to conceive it as involving in the not remote future a national policy having the general assent not of one but of both political parties in the State. Looking for a moment beyond the existing party conflict in Great Britain, how are we able in such a light to regard the proposals that have been made If we can imagine the position in British politics reversed, and can conceive a statesman of unusual insight and of commanding personality engaged on the other side in just such a task as Mr. Chamberlain has undertaken on his, what is the nature of the case he would have to present? What are the arguments by which he would have to justify before the tradition of English Liberalism the proposal to depart from the attitude in fiscal relations which Great Britain has for the last two generations maintained towards the world and towards her own Colonies? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.