It is not a very propitious time for the holding of the International Free Trade Congress which has been sitting in London during the past week under the auspices of the Cobden Club; but'I need hardly say that the distinguished economists who have gathered from all nations profess themselves by means disheartened or weakened. Whether the Congress will have any considerable effect in stemming the progress of the Tariff Reform movement in this country may be doubted. Many admirable speeches have been made in favour of Free Trade, and many telling arguments have been propounded by Free Traders from Protectionist countries to prove that their fellow-countrymen are suffering severely and not profiting from Protection; but "The Times" founds a legitimate gibe on the undeniable fact that the Liberal and Free Trade journals afford very little space to its proceedings. " Our' efforts to give adequate reports to the proceed it it says, "are not emulated by the organs of the party in whose interests the Con has been called together." That is mainly due, how-fever, to the fact that very few people will read lengthy reports of speeches on serious subjects now-a-days. "The Times" indeed stands almost alone in resisting the apparent demand for "snippets" and sensations. And it stands almost alone, too, in maintaining the old honourable tradition of English j that whatever reports of its opponent Out the whole. of this focal agitation the Free Traders have been afforded ample space in its columns. Indeed in its correspondence columns they have had, I think, a good deal the best of it. "Certainly the proceedings of this Congress havertveen well reported in its ages,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.