LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL ON FREETRADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 747, 23 January 1888, Page 4

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL ON FREETRADE.

A TSRbTBLE INDICTMENT.

The following extract from a speech . delivered m the Princo of Wales Theatre, at Blackpool by Lord Randolph Churchill, on the 24th January, 1884, will serve to throw some light upon the tendency of the Conservative party, or at least, awing of thit party - up >n the question :— *■ What is the state of things m the world of British industry 1 We are suffering from a de piession of trade, extending as far ba<.k as 1874—10 years of trade depression — aid the most hopeful, either among our capitalists or our artisans, oan discover no signs of a revival. Your iron industry is dead, dead as mutton I four coal industries, which depended greatly on your iron industries, are languishing* Your silk industry is dead, asuasninated by the foreigner. Your woollen industry is m articulo mortis — gashing, struggling ; your cottou iudustry is seriously sick, ? The ahipbuild'ng iudustty, which hold out longest of all, is como to a standstill. Turn your eyeß where you will, survey any branch of British industry you like, you will find signs of mortal disease. The salf satisfied Radical philosophers will tell you it is nothing ; they point to the great volume of British trade. Yes, the voluu-e cf British trade is still la'ge, bnt it is a volume whioh is no longer profitable, it is working acd struggling. So do the muscles and nerves of the body of a man who has been hanged, twitch and work violently for a short time after tie operation. But death m there ill the same, life has uit< r y dep-.rtad, a d sudden y comes tl>e rtgror tnorfw Wel , but a iti tola s'Htu of Brit an Qluatry, what do <ou find going «,n 1 You find foreign mn, foreign wool, foreign silk and cotton i>i Ur ug into the country, flooding you, drowning you, sinking you, swamping you; your laor market is ooi)g.|<*d, wnges have sunk below the feel of aff , Vh<* misery m < ur large towns stoo ttigh'* ful to contemplate and eui<grvMton or starvation is the remedy which the Radicals tffer y- o niti the most un* disturbed o»mplaOijnoy. But what pr< • duoed this sUte of thing* ? F ee imports ? lam not sura. I thou d like ao inquiry ; but I suspect free imports of the murder of onr industries, muah m the same way aa as 1* I found a man standing over a oorpt e and plunging hii knife into it, I should suspect the man of bomiolde and I shonld recommend a coroner's Inquest snd a trial by jary Of this yoa may be certain — that an impartial Inquiry Into this great questioa will put more money into yonr pookets and more hope m your hoarte than any Reform Bill. Do you know wbat Freetrade mbans m the mouth of the latter day Radicals? It means that articles of food, necessaries of life ojminy from abroad, and which cannot be produced at horn", shall be taxed heavily, and that article? of manufacure, luxuriec coming from abroad and which can be produoed at home, Bhall be admitted duty free. Do you know that yoor cosoa »» taxed at 13 per oent, your cuffae at 18 pet cent, youc dried fruit., ourr&nts eto,, 26 per cent, the poor man's tobacoo, 604 per oent, your rum 504 per oent, your brandy 114 per een. ] Observe th>s curiosity — that rum which comes from a British colony, is taxed five times as heavily as brandy, which oomes from France ; and with ail this, silk, leather, wool, and iron are all coming into the country duty free, and hopelessly underselling yoor own products and driving your Industrial population to America, to the colonies, to the workhouse, or to the prison,"