on the most authentic data _before_ the commencement of the depression. ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. Annual value of agricultural productions, £250,000,000 Annual value of manufacturing productions, £177,184,292 From which deduct value of raw material, 50,000,000 ———————————— 127,184,292 Annual value of product of mining interest, 36,121,000 Annual value of profits of shipping interest, 3,637,231 Annual income from Colonies, about 15,000,000 Annual income from foreign trade, 15,000,000 Annual income from fisheries, about 3,000,000 ———————————— Total, £449,942,523 ———————————— This constitutes the whole product of our national wealth. It is the substance of Britain, and from one or other of the above sources does every individual in the land derive his means of support. Out of these all taxation is paid: from these, all professional men, tradesmen, artisans, and dealers, derive their profit and their means. Hitherto, by all wise legislators, the interests of the two leading classes of producers have been considered indissolubly united. The agriculturist supplied the manufacturer with food, and to a considerable extent with raw material; and in return he took annually two-thirds of the manufactured productions. Our exports were exchanged for luxuries, or for articles which could not be produced at home, and the balance in our favour constituted the yearly increment of our wealth. What free trade proposes to do, and, indeed, has partially effected, is the dissolution of the dependence of the two great classes on each other. The manufacturer is invited to seek his food and raw material from the cheapest foreign source; the agriculturist to do the same with respect to foreign manufactures. But the two classes are not upon a par. The agriculturist cannot export any considerable portion of his produce, because he is greatly undersold by the cheap growers of the Continent and America. We observe that, last year, the whole of the exports which can be termed agricultural, were as follows:— Butter, £210,604 Cheese, 24,912 Wool, sheep and lambs, 535,801 ———————— £771,317