Yours, &c.,
George T. Denison.
President British Empire League in Canada.
[The picture which Colonel Denison paints in such gloomy colours is unhappily true in a large degree. But the remedy is not to be found in impoverishing the people, increasing the price of the necessities of life, stopping the current of Free Trade through our markets, and establishing the principle of scarcity and dearness in the place of abundance and cheapness. Such a remedy would simply hasten the catastrophe that Colonel Denison foreshadows.— Ed.D.N.]
Lord Masham, speaking to me afterwards about this letter, laughed most heartily and said, “Just think, to get that letter before the readers of the News. That is capital, how the editor must have grudged printing it.”
I spoke at the Canada Club dinner on the 8th May in response to the toast of “The Dominion of Canada,” and at the Colonial Club dinner on the 28th May in response to the toast of “The Empire.” On the 2nd June I addressed the Chamber of Commerce at Tunbridge Wells. On the 4th June I addressed a large meeting in Glasgow, the Lord Provost in the chair. On the 5th June another in Paisley, and on the 6th June I addressed a joint meeting of the Edinburgh and Leith Chambers of Commerce in Edinburgh.
On the 5th June the Glasgow Herald had an article criticising my speech. It gave me an opportunity which I used by sending them a letter which they published the next day, the 6th. The same issue of the Herald had an article referring to my letter. To my gratification it closed with these words:
The question remains an open one whether, when the Colonies are prepared to accept some of the burdens of the Empire, we should accord them preferential treatment in respect of products in which they compete with foreigners.
I have already referred to the uneasiness and anxiety among the Liberals about my mission, and in addition to Mr. Bryce’s speech in Aberdeen a large meeting was held in Edinburgh on the 8th June, where the Rt. Hon. John Morley spoke in reply to my speeches in Scotland. Among other things he said:
You have got a gentleman now, I observe, perambulating Scotland—I am sure in perfectly good faith—I have not a word to say against it—perambulating Scotland on this subject, and it will be the subject, depend upon it, because it is in the hands of a very powerful and tenacious Statesman. Therefore excuse me if I point out a fifth broad effect. On the chances of some increase in your relatively small colonial trade, you are going to derange, dislodge, and dislocate all your immense foreign trade.
And he also said that it meant the abandonment of Free Trade, and “would overthrow the very system that has placed us in the unexampled position of power and strength and wealth.”