Mr. Balfour was entertained by the Manchester Conser- vative Club
to luncheon on Tuesday, and made an interesting speech. He would not, he said, speak on the fiscal problem, but asked leave to compress his speech of the previous night into two pieces of advice : "Don't fall into the ordinary Radical fault of being fifty years behind the age in which you live"; secondly, in regard to their own internal affairs: "Let us all have regard to the feelings, so far as we can, consistently with public policy, of the weaker brethren,"— who the weaker brethren were, added Mr. Balfour, he left to each one of them to determine. Turning to the question of a closer union with the Colonies, Mr. Balfour said he had modified his view, expressed in 1902, that it must be looked for in the direction of fiscal union. He was now prepared to admit that this was not the only way, in view of the recent development of the new Committee on Imperial Defence, to which the Canadian Minister of War had only the other day been summoned, "not as a witness or suppliant, but as a member." Mr. Balfour did not see why that which was applicable to Canada and Australia should not be extended to India. As an instructive commentary on Mr. Balfour's amiable plea for mutual toleration, we note that the /Duke of Sutherland, president of the Tariff Reform League, in reply to a conespondent, has stated that the League has by reso-
lotion determined to oppose the return of all Free-fooders, whether Unionist or Radical, and will use the whole machinery of its organisation for this object.
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