“So far as I understand ... reciprocity is barter. I have always understood that barter was the first evidence of civilisation[86]--that it was exactly the state of human exchange that separated civilisation from savagery.... My noble friend (Lord Bateman) read some extracts, ... and he honoured me by reading an extract from the speech I then made in the other House of Parliament. That was a speech in favour of reciprocity--a speech which defined what was then thought to be reciprocity, and indicated the means by which reciprocity could be obtained. I do not want to enter into the discussion whether the principle was right or wrong, but it was acknowledged in public life, favoured and pursued by many statesmen who conceived that by the negotiation of a treaty of commerce, by reciprocal exchange and the lowering of duties, the products of the two negotiating countries would find a freer access and consumption in the two countries than they formerly possessed. But when my noble friend taunts me with a quotation of some rusty phrase of mine forty years ago, I must remind him that _we had elements then on which treaties of reciprocity could be negotiated_. At that time, although the great changes of Sir Robert Peel had taken place, there were one hundred and sixty-eight articles in the tariff which were materials by which you could have negotiated, if that was a wise and desirable policy, commercial treaties of reciprocity. What is the number you now have in the tariff? Twenty-two. Those who talk of negotiating treaties of reciprocity--have they the materials?... _You have lost the opportunity._... The policy which was long ago abandoned, _you cannot now resume_. You have at this moment a great number of commercial treaties ... nearly forty, with some of the most considerable countries in the world ... in which ‘the most-favoured-nation’ clause is included. Well, suppose you are for a system of reciprocity as my noble friend proposes. He enters into negotiations with a state; he says: ‘You complain of our high duties on some particular articles. We have not many, we have a few left; we shall make some great sacrifice to induce you to enter into a treaty for an exchange of products.’ _But the moment you contemplate agreeing with the state, ... every other of the forty states with ‘the most-favoured-nation’ clause claims exactly the same privilege. The fact is, practically speaking, reciprocity, whatever its merits, is dead._... The opportunity, like the means, has been relinquished; and if this is the only mode in which we are to extricate ourselves from the great distress which prevails, our situation is hopeless. I should be very sorry to say, whatever the condition of the country, its condition is hopeless....”