THE COLONIAL CONFERENCE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:'] SIR,—The Lord Chancellor is reported as saying in Tuesday's debate in the Lords on the subject of the Colonial Conference : " Supposing a commercial treaty with a foreign nation were in debate, would it be considered right to begin by saying that certain matters could not be discussed ? " Evidently this is one of the questions known to grammarians as rhetorical, " expecting the answer, Not " One hesitates to contradict a Lord Chancellor; but that is precisely what Germany has done in the commercial treaties which she has just concluded. Certain rates were fixed for the duties on corn beyond which the negotiators were on no account to go. They were forbidden even to discuss the reduction of the
duties beyond those limits. It is unnecessary to point out how strikingly parallel this case is with the case of our repre- sentatives on the proposed Conference, forbidden even to discuss the imposition of a duty on corn.—I am, Sir, &c.,
FREE-TRADER.
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