in the case of child labour, to which their representative had ássented. He also strongly urged the retention of the certifying surgeons.

The Under-Secretary for the Home Department, Mr. StuartWortley (Sheffield, Hallam), denied that the Government had neglected the recommendations of the Berlin Conference; but with regard to the question of minimum age in the case of child labour, the Government would be quite willing to reconsider the question when the bill was in Committee.

The bill was then read a second time, and referred to the Committee on Trade, to which Sir H. James's bill had been also sent.

The action of the House of Commons in this matter followed immediately on the announcement by Mr. Smith that it was the intention of the Government to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the relations between employers and employed, and thus to discover, if possible, some solid basis on which prospective legislation should be founded. Mr. Broadhurst (Nottingham, W.), as the spokesman of the Trade Unionists, asked the Government for an assurance that the proceedings of the Commissioners should in no way be permitted "to interfere with the present legal rights and liberty of combination which the organised trades of the country possess." It was, perhaps, hardly necessary for Mr. Smith to point out that the Royal Commission would have no power whatsoever to interfere with the existing legal rights of any person whatever, employers or employed. The object of the inquiry was rather to discover how those rights, as well as all other ascertainable conditions, had contributed to the recent labour conflicts. Lord Hartington, at the special request of the Government, consented to take the Chairmanship of the Commission, on which employers and working-men, as well as lawyers, politicians, and economists, also found seats.

In connection with this subject should also be mentioned the motion (Jan. 26) made by the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Jackson (Leeds, N.), for a Select Committee to inquire into various schemes which had been proposed to facilitate emigration from the congested districts of the United Kingdom to British colonies or elsewhere; to examine into the results of any schemes which have received practical trials in recent years, and to report generally whether, in their opinion, it is desirable to promote emigration; and, if so, upon the means and the conditions under which such emigration can best be carried out, and the quarters to which it can be most advantageously directed.

The scope of the work of this Committee was subsequently (Feb. 3) enlarged, and the reports of the Select Committees on Colonisation, 1889-1890; on the condition of the Highlands in 1851; on the Game Laws in 1873; and of the various Royal Commissions on the Cottars and Crofters of Scotland, 1883-1890, were also referred to it for consideration.

The report of the Committee was made before Easter, and the chief conclusions arrived at were to the effect that they had no grounds for thinking that the present condition of the United Kingdom generally called for any general scheme of Stateorganised emigration: That the powers in possession of local authorities should be sufficient to enable them at no onerous risk to assist in the colonisation or emigration of persons or families from their own localities: That the congested districts of Ireland and of the highlands and islands of Scotland formed an exceptional case, and required relief by assistance to industries, to colonisation, or emigration; and, where suitable, to migration: That the provisions proposed in the Land and Congested Districts (Ireland) Bill were ample for these purposes, and that provisions similar to some of the foregoing should be made for the crofter districts of Scotland: That the Colonisation Board be continued and reconstructed for purposes of colonisation and emigration from such districts: That the power of enlarging crofters' holdings in that Act should be kept alive: That crofts vacated by emigration or migration should be added to existing holdings without power of subdivision: That the experiment of colonising the crofter population in Canada should be further tried: That the proposals of the Government of British Columbia should be favourably entertained, as well as similar proposals from any other Colonial Government: That the agency of companies for colonisation and emigration should be taken advantage of, both as regards the aforesaid colonisation in Canada and elsewhere: That the Government grant to the Emigrants' Information Office should be increased. With regard to Scotland, the report said :

"This and the still more recent inquiry of 1890 indicate measures which may relieve destitution in the Lewis and other spots severely, though less terribly, congested-the formation of local roads, tramways, fishing harbours, and more direct lines of railway from ports on the coast; the subsidising of lines of steamers to expedite the conveyance of fish to market; and for the families in which there is no able-bodied member, or on which the able-bodied are only females, grants in aid to the parochial boards to be disbursed separately from the rates with such labour tests of domestic industry as are possible. It cannot, however, be doubted that there are districts in which no remedial measures can be adequate or permanently beneficial which do not include some for the reduction of the redundant population within manageable limits. In so saying, your Committee can lay claim to no new discovery. From 1836 down to the present time competent authorities have from time to time declared that the population of these districts cannot be extricated from their difficulties without the aid of emigration, and each successive report has demonstrated that the evil and that the necessity have continuously increased."

Of the difficulties in the way of some of the more ardent Socialists, Mr. L. Courtney, at University College, London (Feb. 11), had spoken with great effect and strong common sense, based upon a consummate knowledge of the inexorable demands of political economy. First of all, he said it would be necessary to secure a majority among the possessors of political power for the principle of renouncing individual advantages, and surrendering individual powers, faculties, and abilities to the service of the community, a task not in itself very easy to accomplish. Next would come the pinch of the question how, after this had been effected, the individual, working under a socialistic régime, was to proceed when conscious of the hope that he was on the eve of discovering some great invention that would transform certain aspects of man's life. "How is he to begin with his invention, to practise it, to perfect it? He will not have resources of his own, nor can he go to friends or speculators to help his fortunes." A series of bureaux of invention for all the different fields of art

would become necessary. Now, Now, "the socialised community would be a slowly moving if not stagnant organism." At present we have variety ensured by competing individuals or competing companies; but a "socialised community" would have to determine on à priori principles for what varieties of improvement there was a demand, and for what varieties there was no demand. Then, again, industries change their habitats, and the "socialised community" would have to discover the law of these changes, and to obey it; but the "socialised community could hardly bring about all these modifications without directing that a different amount of labour should be given in one productive process to that required in another productive process, and consequently a difference in the award of remuneration. would become necessary; whence, again, an immense amount of jealousy and heart-burning, and also a strain put upon the intellectual powers of the directors of the "socialised community" which it surpassed the imaginative power of ordinary men to conceive. After dealing with the bearing of Socialism on art and literature, and holding that the judgment of taste of a community would be almost of necessity commonplace, Mr. Courtney concluded: "If we were to judge aright the programme of Socialist promise we must compare it not merely with the society that existed, but with society as it too might become, though remaining based on the principles that now underlay it, as its units grew in morality and wisdom. No economist, however strong an upholder of the freedom of individual action and of individual development, had ever forgotten that man was a social animal. From his birth onwards he carried his powers and his responsibility at his own peril till the time came when, in Pascal's phrase, he must die alone; yet his career was only possible through a participation in labour, an interchange in services, a co-operation in toil. What might not the race become

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through the education of the individual man thus endowed with complete personal freedom, and using that freedom as his reason directed, now to work apart and then in unison with his fellow or his fellows ?"

The relations of Great Britain and her Colonies were touched upon both in Parliament and in public meetings, and in each case the question of Imperial Federation was mixed up with that of Free Trade, the policy of the mother-country and her dependencies being in almost all cases opposed upon this point. The Imperial Federation League, which owed much of its popularity and strength to the support given to it by Lord Rosebery and other prominent Liberal politicians, was this year addressed by Sir Gordon Sprigg (Jan. 14), an ex-Prime Minister at the Cape of Good Hope, who discussed very openly the interest of South Africa in any scheme of Imperial Federation. The pictures which he painted of colonial feeling towards England was the reverse of flattering to those who put faith in the filial devotion of colonies towards the mother-country. Sentiment, Sir Gordon Sprigg admitted, was the only tie now binding them together, and sentiment was growing weaker year by year. Patriotism was coming more and more to mean attachment to the land of birth, and every year the numbers born in each colony was increasing. To replace the sentimental tie by something stronger and more durable, Sir Gordon Sprigg wished to see a commercial union among the various dependencies of the British Empire. They wanted to show the different colonies that they got an advantage by being portions of the Empire-a practical advantage in trade and other matters-something altogether outside of sentiment. He, therefore, urged upon the Association to press for an invitation being addressed to the Governments of the various Colonies to discuss the formation of a commercial union between the different Colonies.

Mr. L. Courtney, who represented the stricter views of the Cobden school of political economists, urged against this plan of a Zollverein embracing the whole British Empire, that it would mean fewer customers for English goods, for it would be only possible to give special trade advantages to the Colonies by imposing corresponding disadvantages on foreign countries.

Mr. Howard Vincent (Sheffield, C.), when raising the question in the House of Commons (Feb. 17), recommended that steps should be taken for inviting a conference between the Imperial Government and the self-governing Colonies upon the best means of developing the trade of the Empire. In the course of his speech he let fall many ambiguous suggestions as to the limits of Free Trade, such as the establishment of preferential custom duties as between the mother-country and the Colonies; but Sir Lyon Playfair (Leeds, S.) showed conclusively the fallacy of any such attempt to bolster up British commerce. He maintained

that the proposer of the motion had produced no argument as well as no basis for the proposed conference. He showed from the statistics of the trade of this country that under our FreeTrade system this country was not declining in prosperity; on the contrary, it had prospered and was prospering enormously by reason of our commerce being perfectly free. The trade of this country for 1890 amounted to no less than 684 millions, or an increase of 122 millions as compared with the figures for 1886; while the Board of Trade returns proved that employment was general throughout the country among the wage-earning classes. What was it that the fair traders wanted to be at ? Was it a general Zollverein? If so, that was not the intention of the Colonies. The Colonies desired that England should put a tax on all foreign imports whatever, and that colonial products, with a few limitations for revenue purposes, should be admitted free; but the Colonies refused to be bound in any way to lower their taxation on British commodities.

Mr. J. Lowther denied that Sir L. Playfair had at all accurately stated the programme of the Fair Traders as to the lines on which a preferential fiscal system should be conducted. He pointed out that Free Trade was losing ground all the world over, and that Protection was everywhere rampant, and stated that even among the electorate of this country the "claptrap" cries of Free Trade had largely lost their potency, and that a strong Imperial feeling was growing up in favour of closer fiscal relations with the Colonies.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer deprecated any notion that the debate or the fate of the motion was meant to influence, however indirectly, the Canadian election then in progress. Personally he was in cordial sympathy with the idea of the closest intercourse between the mother-country and the Colonies, and on that account he was desirous that the movement should not be prejudiced by any suspicion that its champions had any sneaking liking for protection at home. There was no doubt the idea of closer relationship, at all events in connection with naval defence, had laid hold of the imagination of the Colonies, and this country might well make some effort for the sake of the closer union of the Empire; but he hoped the colonists would thoroughly understand that it was impossible to put, for example, a duty on corn without raising the price of the article. There were two great systems possible-the one a customs union, and the other the system of preferential duties. He saw no objection in principle to a customs union of the Empire, but we were a long way from such a consummation; while, with regard to differential duties: that would mean the imposition of duties on food-stuffs, breadstuffs, and raw material, which public opinion in this country would not tolerate. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he was bound to say that the amounts contributed by the Colonies towards naval defence was extremely insignificant. Nothing,