Wallingham, still in the Cabinet, was
going up and down the country trying not to explain too
much. There was division in the Cabinet, sore travail
among private members. The conception being ministerial,
the Opposition applied itself to the task of abortion,
fearing the worst if it should be presented to the country
fully formed and featured, the smiling offspring of
progress and imagination. Travellers to Greater Britain
returned waving joyous torches in the insular fog; they
shed a brilliance and infectious enthusiasm, but there
were not enough to do more than make the fog visible.
Many persons found such torches irritating. They pointed
out that as England had groped to her present greatness
she might be trusted to feel her way further. "Free
trade," they said, "has made us what we are. Put out
these lights!"
Mr Chafe was one of these. He was a cautious, heavy
fellow, full of Burgundy and distrust. The basis of the
imperial idea inspired him with suspicion and hostility.
He could accept the American tariff on English manufactures;
that was a plain position, simple damage, a blow full in
the face, not to be dodged. But the offer of better
business in the English colonies in exchange for a duty
on the corn and meat of foreign countries--he could see
too deep for that.
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