In a vein of the finest and yet most trenchant
irony Sir Michael Hicks Beach went on to point out that it was necessary to conclude that the united Cabinet in its corporate capacity was as opposed to preferential duties as it was when he was a member, when he rejected preferential duties on Colonial wines, and when the Government bound itself to give no preference to Colonial sugar. Sir Michael ended with the warning that Mr. Chamberlain's policy, if persisted in, would destroy the Unionist party as an instrument for good ; and he therefore appealed to Mr. Chamberlain and to the Prime Minister to consider whether it was not their duty to refrain from pursuing a course which must split the party. Our precis does but small justice to a great speech, the force of which can only be understood when it is read as a whole. It was worthy of our best political traditions, and showed that in Sir Michael Hicks Beach we possess a true leader of men, —a man who knows his own mind, and will not be awed into silence by any combination of men or circumstances, how- ever strong. " Firm as the rock and clear as the crystal that adorns the rock " were words applied by the Duke of Argyll to Lord Hartington during the crisis out of which the Liberal Unionist party sprang. We may fitly apply them to Sir Michael Hicks Beach, but, in view of their original applica- tion, from the bottom of our hearts we say Absit omen !
