In expressions such as these, which might be multiplied, those who advocate a return to preferential trade relations within the Empire find proof of a great change in English public opinion. But after all has been said that can be said it is clear to any unprejudiced observer that on the whole an overwhelming majority of the people of the United Kingdom still sincerely regard free trade with all the world as necessary to the welfare of the masses, and to the stability of the vast industries of the country. No political party would as yet dare to face an election on a platform of Protection or Fair Trade. The reason is obvious. Dependence on sources of food supply outside the Empire is still so great that any change of policy would be thought to involve great risk and anxiety. Though a few years of strenuous effort would doubtless make the Empire self-sufficing in the {286} matter of food, still those few years of transition would be a critical period. Clear thinkers outside of the United Kingdom recognize this. It is well known how strongly Sir John Macdonald held the opinion that the Empire would be strengthened and drawn together by preferential trade between its different communities. Yet he said to me in 1889: 'Till England sees that we can feed her or with a little encouragement can do so, we must not expect to work out Federation on a trade basis. But as soon as we have proved what our North West can do and English people see that they can get all the wheat they want from ourselves and the other colonies, the English point of view, will change, and trade advantage can be made to supplement the other forces which make for British unity.' Sir Charles Tupper argues for immediate discrimination, but he as fully recognizes that it should not affect the prices of food for the vast masses which, in England, depend on outside supplies. He has given illustrations which he thinks indicate that a fiscal arrangement which favours the productions of the colonies would not result in raising the price of food materially in Great Britain, while it would give stimulus to colonial industry and increase the colonial market for British manufactures to the great advantage of the British working man. He points out that the Mark Lane prices of corn during the year 1890 and 1891, as shown by the report of the Board of Agriculture, indicate a fluctuation {287} in price of ten shillings a quarter, and it was only when the maximum advance of ten shillings a quarter was reached that a half-penny difference was made upon the four-pound loaf. From this fact he draws the conclusion that five shillings a quarter could be imposed upon foreign wheat without making any appreciable advance in the price of bread.