Preferential arrangement which might affect the price of wool, he is interested in the future of the colonial markets. They are valuable, and they are improving. Import duties are not as yet particularly high-in Canada (after allowance has been made for the Preference) and New Zealand about as high as in France: that is to say, something like 20 per cent. ad valorem; in Australia considerably lower; and in South Africa only 7 per cent. Only in Canada is there as yet any considerable home industry, though in Australasia -particularly New Zealand-there are woollen mills; and attempts have been made to start mills at the Cape. Foreign nations have not begun to supply the colonial markets to any great extent; and there is no reason why they should, so long as the English industry remains efficient, and free from any artificial raising of its working expenses.

The Preferential policy aims at securing some guarantee that these good markets will, at the least, not be further closed to us. A mere promise, that greater hindrances will be put in the way of foreign than of British trade, can be of no serious value, unless accompanied by some assurance of this sort. There is no need to devise a new fiscal policy to secure easy treatment of English goods, where manufactures do not exist. The trouble is to retain low duties where they do. And I cannot think that the Preferential policy, as it has been brought forward, is likely to prove effective. I put on one side entirely the question as to whether England can afford to bargain, or ought to bargain, for a guarantee of low duties. Suppose for the moment that she can and ought. What are the chances of permanent success? We have not to deal with the advantages of Imperial Free Trade, but with the probable results of bargaining of a particular sort. And what is the situation? England, through the mouth of her representative statesman, is saying in effect to the manufacturing colonieswho are already well disposed towards Protection: "We find that Protection is good. Long hours and low wages give a nation an unfair advantage over its neighbours; and it is their business to neutralise that advantage by means of tariffs. It is true that British wages are lower, British

hours in some cases longer, than your own. Still, in the interests of the Empire, we ask you to abandon, so far as we, your chief competitors, are concerned, a policy which we ourselves propose to adopt. And your farmers shall in return have such and such advantages in our market." As the Colonies arrive-and they must-at the stage when woollen manufactures begin to take root, may not our arguments be repeated in defence of a new colonial Protectionism? And shall we be in a position to threaten the withdrawal of the agricultural preference? I believe that, if we set to work on these lines, colonial markets will remain open just as long as there are no rising colonial manufactures; and that is the worst that can happen in any case. Only, if England continues to say that Free Trade is good, the Colonies may in time come to agree with her; and we may move towards Free Trade within the Empire. But should England say that she has tried Free Trade, and found it a failure, she will put a fresh strain on colonial loyalty, if she asks the Colonies to give up indefinitely the apparent good, Protection, in return for the not very great advantages in her own market which are the utmost that she can offer. Even from the rather narrow standpoint of the export interests of the woollen industry, I see no prospect of gain from such a policy.

And, the

broader the view, the less attractive does the policy become.

J. H. CLAPHAM

MR. BURDEN

CHAPTER V

NOSMO, during the first few months after his success in the University examinations, lived a life which should have proved a fitting introduction to the position his father had reserved for him.

With the month of October he entered the business in Thames Street, and displayed an assiduity delightful for Mr. Burden to

witness.

The merchant was, indeed, astonished at the aptitude, or perhaps the inherited commercial talent, which had survived his son's philological training; and at times was prepared to admit, that the study of modern languages, even upon the side of pure literature, served (as he had often heard from its defenders) for a gymnastic to the growing mind.

Meanwhile, the young man was far from forgetting the pleasures due to his rank; but he used them in such a way that the development of his character was in no way injured. His health forbade excess. His acquaintances ensured, some that his pleasures should be refined, others that they should be energetic, all that they should be well selected. In a word, he led, during the happy winter months that followed, the normal life of that class which is perhaps the soundest, as it is certainly the most many-sided, in Europe: the class which has learnt to govern an immeasurable realm, without corruption, and almost without ambition.

It was remarkable that, in spite of his prospects, he maintained a severe grasp over his private expenditure; and this wise economy helped still further to strengthen a character which might, at first, have shown signs of weakness. He managed thoroughly well without a private trap, replacing it by such cabs as his business or amusements demanded. One horse sufficed him; and, when he visited the country to hunt (as he would occasionally do in the middle of a business week), he was not above jobbing a mount from a local stable he would not be at the expense of hunters. Did he visit

the theatre, the stalls seemed to him his most natural place. He took a box but twice: once when the house was full, with the exception of that expensive luxury, and, on another occasion, when he had calculated that the number of friends whom he could accommodate in this manner would have cost a trifle more had he taken them to separate seats.

At the Empire, the Alhambra, and other music halls, he made it a rule to break a sovereign as he entered, and to make that sum suffice him for the whole evening.

He but rarely visited the Savoy, the Carlton, or Prince's. When he entertained, it was at his club, and, though he was careful that the wine and cooking should be of the best, yet he abhorred the ostentation of unseasonable flowers, and of vintages whose names might be unfamiliar to his guests. His dress was nearly always new, and always, always, quiet. His linen (a result of careful measurement) fitted him with exactitude. To his hats he paid that attention which is only to be discovered in men who comprehend the subtle importance of such ornaments.

In everything the management of his affairs displayed a wise reticence and balance: qualities most fortunately bestowed upon him by Providence, when we consider that his father's old-fashioned standard forbade him an allowance of more than £250 a year.

His life, I say, through all that winter, was at once well-ordered and happy, and justly envied by all his contemporaries. There was but one flaw in the perfection of his content, and that flaw was to be discovered in the very serious condition of his finances.

The interest upon £1,250-an interest to be paid half yearly— even if it be at so small a rate as 15 per cent., will appear, at the time of payment, a sum of astonishing magnitude to the needy. It amounts, as the less classical of my readers will at once perceive, to no less than £93 15s. (less tax) at the end of every six months; and, when the first of these terms approached him in the course of February, Cosmo had the misfortune to find himself for the moment unable to meet it.

I have already indicated to what an exaggerated extent he permitted such little matters to prey upon his mind. I need hardly say that, in his distress, he went to call upon Mr. Harbury.

That excellent friend spoke to him more seriously than he had done upon the first occasion. He pointed out to him that, while debts of the more ordinary sort were often a matter for jest, the exact payment of interest was a duty, upon the fulfilment of which a man's honour was engaged. In a somewhat softer manner, Mr. Harbury proceeded to inform Cosmo of the interest which Mr. Barnett had taken in his career: nor did he conceal from him that,

on hearing of his difficulty, the very first thing he had done had been to write to that large-hearted and travelled man, whom he (Mr. Harbury) regarded almost in the light of a father. Rising at the close of this conversation, he laid his hand, not without dignity, upon the young man's shoulder, and begged him to dismiss all further thought of the matter from his mind. . . . . It would have been evident to a meaner intelligence than that of Mr. Burden's son, that he had once more been saved by agencies whose power he had long admired, and whose character he had begun to revere.

From that moment, during the months of the ensuing spring, he threw himself with a kind of zeal into the companionship of such friends. Gratitude alone would have compelled him to frequent their houses to gratitude, admiration was added, and to admiration a sudden access of a sense of familiarity, when he discovered, that no less a person than Charles Benthorpe was very often a fellow guest with himself.

The historic name which this young man bore so easily, the consummate knowledge of the world which he had acquired as the companion of his father's official life, the public reputation of the family, and to some extent the titular honour it boasted, had drawn Cosmo warmly towards the enjoyment of Charles Benthorpe's friendship, during their contemporary residence at the University.

Nay more, Lord Benthorpe himself, as Cosmo discovered with astonishment and pleasure, was, in a manner, the familiar friend of these few who had at heart the glory of England in the Delta of the great African river. Often as the name M'Korio would enter into the conversation, still more often would the experience, and occasionally the name, of Lord Benthorpe accompany the judgment of Mr. Harbury, of Mr. Barnett, and of that Major Pondo, whom it will be my business upon a later page to describe. Charles Benthorpe, in spite of the reserve which properly accompanies exalted social rank, was not unwilling to describe his father's attitude upon those Imperial matters wherein his long political and administrative experience had given him an exhaustive knowledge.

Nor did the name or the opinions of this statesman alone mingle with their discussions. Once he himselt came in person to a dinner of Mr. Barnett's, and was willing to express by word of mouth his strong faith in the future of the M'Korio Delta. Upon another occasion, Mr. Harbury was able to read a letter from his lordship, regretting his inability to address a small private meeting upon the potentialities of the M'Korio-potentialities which, in his absence, were set forth by that Major Pondo, with whom, as I have just remarked, and shall probably remark again, a future page must deal.