Has nothing changed in thirtj' years? Everythiiig has chahgedt,
PoUtics haw changed. " Science has clian'ged." And-, trade .has
changed ; the conditions with which we have to deal now are altogether
diffei>ent from the conditions with, whicli we h>d to deal thirty j-fears
aga • ' •

And let no man say that because to-day y<>u or I are
con«ttMS. '*" ^^"^^^ °* retaliation, , or what our opponents caU
newpoli<5. Protection— let no man say that that is at all jnc<»^
sistent with our having been Free Traders under totally
different conditions. When the temperature go^ up to loo I put on
my thinnest clothes. When it goes down below zero th«r^ ik nothing
too warm forme to wear. When tlie imjphecies of tho^e who sup-
ported Free Trade appeared to be in course of realiwition, what reason
was there why any of us should consider the subject or expr^s any
doubts, ^nd for sonaethihg like five-and-tw<aity or thirty years after
Fi[^ Trade was preached and adopted Uiere is fto doubt vhatexw in



47

my mind that it was a ito'id poli'.y for this country, and that our

country [jro ,()<;r',-d under it rriore than it would have done under any
'ith< r Kydtem. That was for livf-and-twcnty years. JUit in the last
thirty years the wIjoIc (:ofii1iiif;ri--> have chanj/od, and it scerns lo rne to
l)C not iIk; |(oli(.y of a I,dj';r;il, not th'.- [)oi'ry of a Radicai, a» 1 under-
!,tor;d -lUf li a (-olicy twenty or tl.ifiy yi.ar, aj.'o, but die [lolicy fjf a rabid
ur.rl rca' tionary Tory, to t-z.iy that when all die 'jondiiions have changed
you should not clianpe your jjolicy too.
