ABSTRACT
"There is a quixotic nobility about Imperial preference in strong contrast to the selfishness of manufacturers' protection", wrote Mr. Winston Churchill in 1903 to the Birmingham Secretary of the Postal Telegraph Clerks' Association. Events that were fresh in the public memory gave a vivid setting to Mr. Chamberlain's original appeal to the country. The South African War was ended, and Mr. Chamberlain had just returned from a grand tour of the Colonies that have since been brought into the Union. The new Imperial policy became frankly a trade policy. The bonds of commerce were exalted above all the other interests of the "common ideal". The sordid link between the Imperial sentiment and the selfish interests of certain British manufacturers was hammered on by the Tariff Reform League in a publication that appeared immediately after the October speeches. It is not desired to give the impression that the exploitation of the Imperial sentiment has ever been forgotten.
