1176 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [partV 
the Colonies as separate communities, so far as relates to 
their fiscal arrangements, on the ground that the Colonies 
are thus treated as foreign communities, when a claim is at 
the same time set up by the Colonies to treat the United 
Kingdom itself as a foreign community, by imposing differen- 
tial duties in favour of other parts of the Empire, as against 
British produce. 
But the meaning is, I apprehend, to be gathered from the 
succeeding paragraph, which affirms that foreign Governments 
ought not to be allowed to become parties to stipulations 
respecting the trade of one part of the Empire to another, 
whether by land or sea : and further light is thrown upon it 
by the observations in the New Zealand Memorandum, 
that the object of the treaty with the Zollverein seems to 
be to prevent the Colonies making reciprocal arrangements 
with the United Kingdom, that “if Great Britain were to 
confederate her Empire, it might, and probably would, be 
a condition that, throughout the Empire, there should be 
a free exchange of goods °, and that the effect of the Zollverein 
Treaty ‘is to make Great Britain hold the relation of a 
foreign country ’ to her Colonies. 
It seems, therefore, to follow that, in the opinion of some 
at least of the Australasian Governments, the ports of the 
United Kingdom should not, as at present, be open to 
the produce of the whole world on equal terms, but that the 
produce of the Colonies should be specially favoured in British 
ports; or, in other words, that we should abandon the 
principles of free trade, and return to the old system of 
differential duties. The New Zealand Memorandum; indeed, 
suggests that the best arrangement would be a Customs 
union embracing the whole Empire, but it may, perhaps, be 
thought that if it has been found impossible for adjacent 
communities, such as those of Australia, to come to an 
agreement for a common system of Customs duties, it is 
scarcely worth while to consider the possibility of so vast 
a scheme as the combination of all parts of the British Empire, 
scattered over the whole globe, under such widely varying 
conditions of every kind, in one Customs union. But apart 
from the insuperable practical difficulties of such a scheme, 
it is sufficient to point out that its results, if it could be 
adopted, would certainly not be to promote the views of 
commercial policy set forth in the papers now under con- 
sideration. For, in such a Customs union, Great Britain, 
with her wealth and population, must, for an indefinite 
period, exercise a greatly preponderating influence, and it