We have seen prominent gentlemen upon the stump weave from their imaginations glittering fabrics of trade. and airily draw checks for $100.000.000 of commerce each year with the Philippine Islands. Let us see if these drafts are liable to be paid when they are presented. When it was first proposed to set up an Asiatic empire the Treasury Department. with a commendable willingness to give members of Congress all possible light over this new pathway. presented to us the report of a commissioner who had investigated the question of trade. It appeared from that report that the yearly imports into the Philippine Islands amounted to less than $20.000.000 on a silver basis. or about $10.000.000 on a gold basis. Assuming that we did not propose to adopt the Spanish system of colonial government. and that one of our methods of taking freedom to the people of those islands was not to compel them to buy American goods if they could purchase similar goods elsewhere at lower prices. we could not. of course. expect the whole of this trade.