Settlers will import of these to the measure of their needs and their ability to pay for them. It would be ridiculous to say to such young nation"Import freely; the more you import the more you will export." They would answer "We must export more before we can import more; until we can, by reason of our prosperity, import more, we must confine our imports to things that are indispensable and cannot be made at home." As such a nation advances in population it will begin to manufacture for itself many of the things it at first imported, for the double purpose of providing employment for all all classes of its people, and of utilising its own raw material. In the process it may find that such articles of manufacture cannot be produced quite so cheaply as they might be imported at; but, inasmuch as in their manufacture they utilise its own population and its own raw material, both of which, if the country is to prosper, must be utilised, it imposes a tax on the corresponding articles when imported, which tax it employs to meet the expenses of its Government: the exclusion that this tax may cause fosters the industry to be developed with which the foreign import would compete. This is not only a wise policy, but is essential to the prosperity of the young country. The industries thus developed, and those in which it can excel by reason of its natural and other advantages, expand and prosper, and the country soon becomes possessed of the best machinery for producing commodities on a large scale, corresponding to the magnitude of its own home market, and soon equals the parent country, or even surpasses it, as the United States has done, exporting to other markets the very things in which the parent State excelled. This is the stage now reached both by the United States and other countries, and, not contented with competing in foreign markets with Britain, they are competing with Britain in her own,-depriving her working classes of employment. While we leave open to them our market they keep their own shut to us. VII.-THE EFFECT ON PRICES OF AN IMPORT DUTY. It is commonly believed that the imposition of a duty on an imported article will raise the price of the corresponding article when produced at home by the amount of the duty, and this in turn will be paid wholly by the consumer. Neither of these results necessarily follows. In the United States a very large duty is taken from manufactured iron when imported from foreign parts, but this did not so raise the cost of horse-shoes to take the recent illustration-as to prevent the United States supplying our cavalry with horse-shoes at a cost lower VIII.-IS AN IMPORT DUTY ALWAYS PAID BY CONSUMER? It is not absolutely certain that a moderate import duty even upon wheat or flour would add to their cost to the consumer in this country, for there are commercial usages which will turn, within limits, an import duty upon the producer. But if it did slightly increase cost, it would have full compensations. The imposition of a duty on imported wheat, which is so much dreaded, may serve to illustrate the point. Supposing that a duty were levied on imported wheat of 4s. a quarter, and the half of such duty were remitted upon wheat coming from Canada, as a return for Colonial Preference granted to us, while full 48. were imposed upon United States wheat until that country gave us like preference, and that the same quantities came from each country, 2s. of the charge would certainly fall upon the United States, and not upon the British consumer, for the reason that the article coming from the United States, which has a common seaboard with Canada, must be laid down in this country at the same price as that from Canada, otherwise it will not come at all. Our home price might advance 2s., but less in that case would come in, and our compensation would lie in better employment for people on the land, by putting more of it into cultivation, and in the production of exports to Canada. our If it be thought that the advance of 2s. will add to the cost of living, it does not follow. Equivalent duties can be remitted on articles forming part of the cost of living, of which there are many. So far as the cost of living is concerned, it matters not whether the tax which all pay is levied on bread, which we can to some extent produce, if it be taken off tea or tobacco, tobacco, all of which go into the daily cost of living. Better levy it on an imported article of a kind which we can produce, reducing, it may be, the quantity imported, for it will increase our wage fund and restore the interruption of food imports produce of the land, than take would produce famine. it from an article that fulfils neither condition. We shall be able to pay the extra price, if need be, out of the increased earnings of a people fully employed. And in the event of war, it will be good for the country that we grow more food at home and are less dependent than we are at present upon the foreigner. Under existing conditions a few weeks' All nations save our own have surrounded themselves by tariff walls to keep out competing products of other nations, in order to preserve to themselves their home markets, and to foster such industries as they deem necessary for the employment of their people, and to raise revenue from such articles as are imported.1 IX. THE REMEDY. A well-considered scheme of duties to be imposed upon imported goods should be established, having for its objects(1) The reduction in quantity of such foreign imports as are found to interfere with home employment and the cultivation of the land; (2) To enable us to remit the whole or a part of such duties as are levied on their imports to the Colonies or nations who will remit to us all or part of the duties they levy on our exports; (3) To provide a portion of the nation's revenues. The duties taken from such imports as still come into Britain will go in relief of the taxation imposed on the people for national purposes. How such tariff is to be fixed 1 The United States are about to revise their tariff, and in his inaugural address Mr Taft, the new President, says: "This Act should secure an adequate revenue and adjust the duties in such a manner as to afford to labour and to all industries in the country, whether of the farm, mine, or factory, protection by tariff equal to the difference between the cost of production abroad and the cost of production here, and have a provision which should put into force, upon Executive determination of certain facts, a higher or maximum tariff against those countries whose trade policy toward them equitably required such discrimination." -not too numerous-chosen, give to the Mother Country a without regard to party, from larger preference on hers than the ranks of commerce and is now granted. Our exports from other qualified sources. to the Colonies would be inSuch council might be per- creased, as would also be emmanent, to regulate the tariff ployment in their production; and the remission of duties, and all the beneficent results but its members should not that such preferences would be long in power, but should bring would follow. be constantly refreshed by the introduction of new men to keep its knowledge up to date, and to guard against the dangers incident to their position. The experience and the practice of foreign nations would be available for the guidance of the council. It would be the duty of the Government of the day to examine and decide upon the scheme the council might suggest before putting it in force, and of taking measures to guard against such abuses as the protective systems of foreign nations have been known to permit. Under such conditions a scheme of duties would be assured which would be of inestimable value to the nation. Our Colonies, in exchange for some remission of the duty imposed on their products, would Foreign nations wishing to share in these advantages would be negotiated with, and concessions made by them in exchange for British remissions could be extended to the Colonies, who in turn might originate like mutual concessions in which we would participate. Good feeling would be engendered thereby, and Universal Free Trade may eventually be brought about. Home employment to people would immediately be increased by the various agencies which the fiscal changes would bring into activity, and Imperial revenues would be raised without provoking bitter feeling in any quarter. With abundance of work, improved relations between employer and employed would be restored, bringing in their train numbered blessings. our un TO THE HILLS OF SMOKE AND THE IMPERIAL PORPHYRY QUARRIES OF THE ROMANS. BY ARTHUR E. P. WEIGALL. THOSE Who have travelled in Italy, and, in the museums and in the ruins there, have studied the sculpture and the architectural accessories of the Roman Imperial age, will be familiar with that magnificent purple stone known as Imperial Porphyry. It was one of the most highly prized of the ornamental stones employed by the great artists and architects of that age of luxury; and the great distance which it had to be brought, over parched deserts and perilous seas, must have sent its price up beyond the reach of all save the rulers of the earth. The quarries from which this porphyry was obtained are situated in the region known as Gebel Dukhân, "the Hills of Smoke," in the eastern Egyptian Desert, some twentyseven miles from the Red Sea, opposite the southern end of the Peninsula of Sinai. Two or three travellers during the last century have visited them, and recently the Survey Department of the Egyptian Government has published a technical report on the whole district; but with the exception of this and an article by the German explorer Schweinfurth, the literature on the subject, such as it is, seems to be more or less untraceable. In 1887 a gentleman of the name of Brindley obtained a concession there for the reworking of the quarries, but the project fell through owing to the difficulties of transporting the stone. In 1907 Mr John Wells, the Director of the now defunct Department of Mines, decided to make an expedition to Gebel Dukhân to report on the possibilities of reopening the old works; and it was with considerable pleasure that I received, and found myself able to accept, his invitation to accompany him, in order to see how far the Department of Antiquities could concur in the projects of modern engineers. We set out from Keneh, a town on the Nile some 400 miles above Cairo, in the middle of March: a time of year when one cannot be sure of good weather in Egypt, for the winter and the summer together fight for the mastery, and the hot south winds vie with the cold north winds in ferocity. Sand-storms are frequent in the desert in this month, and these, though seldom dangerous, can be extremely disagreeable. We were, however, most fortunate in this respect; and, in spite of the fact that the winds were strong, I do not recall any particular discomfort experienced from them, though memory brings back the not rare vision of men struggling with flapping tents |