THE RESULTS OF THE POLICY. g5

will disturb the wave of popular enthusiasm or
indignation that must be the motive or method of
casting off an allegiance.
So that if there really are disruptive forces at
work within the Empire we cannot hope that a
preference will kill them. On the other hand,
a preferential tariff may well contain the element
of dissatisfaction or even of disruption. Take the
case of the Canadian cotton and woollen manufacturers
 and others who have had cause to complain
of British competition. Under present conditions
their grievance can only be against the Canadian
Government, who alone are responsible for granting
the preference, and itis a question for the manufacturers
 to settle with their Government. But had
the preference been the result of a compact between
the Governments of Canada and Great Britain, by
which in return for certain advantages granted to
the Canadian exporters Canada had conceded
terms which gave her manufacturers cause for complaint,
 their complaint would primarily be not, as
now, against their own Government, but against the
system which exposed them to such competition,
and that system would be nothing more nor less
than the Imperial connection.
When the Government of one country makes a
commercial treaty with the Government of another
country in pursuance of a policy which is presumed
to be calculated in the interests of their respective
countries, those injured have ground for complaint
against their Government. The unpopularity of