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.