Certainly he
had not imposed his view upon his fellow-members--they
would have blown it off like a feather--yet they found
themselves much of his mind. Most of them were manufacturing
men of the Conservative party, whose factories had been
nursed by high duties upon the goods of outsiders, and
few even of the Liberals among them felt inclined to
abandon this immediate safeguard for a benefit more or
less remote, and more or less disputable. John Murchison
thought otherwise, and put it in few words as usual. He
said he was more concerned to see big prices in British
markets for Canadian crops than he was to put big prices
on ironware he couldn't sell. He was more afraid of hard
times among the farmers of Canada than he was of competition
by the manufacturers of England. That is what he said
when he was asked if it didn't go against the grain a
little to have to support a son who advocated low duties
on British ranges; and when he was not asked he said
nothing, disliking the discount that was naturally put
upon his opinion. Parsons, of the Blanket Mills, bolted
at the first hint of the new policy and justified it by
reminding people that he always said he would if it ever
looked like business.
"We give their woollen goods a pull of a third as it is,"
he said, "which is just a third more than I approve of.
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