A banquet was given on Tuesday by the Metropolitan Division
of the National Union of Conservative and Consti- Antional Associations in honour of her Majesty's Ministers, at -which Mr. Balfour spoke. He commented on the singular victory of Conservatism in London, where fifty-four seats out .of sixty-two are now in the hands of Unionists, and this he attri- buted (as we too have often done) leas to the merits of the Unionists than to the folly and violence of the Gladstonians. He twitted the Gladstonians with first declaring that all the pledges given at the elections were to be broken, and then, when they found out that there was both the intention and power to fulfil them, changing front, and declaring that the Government were engaged in giving "sops" to various sec- tions of their supporters. Mr. Balfour expressed his belief that the town sympathises with the country and the country with the town, and asserted that what the Gladstonians call setting class against class, is really the promise of uniting class with class, and helping each and all to defend the in- terests, and to draw closer the bonds, of the Empire. Mr. Balfour has no belief in the success of the attempt to make it appear that the Government want to swell the power of the rich and to neglect the weak and poor. He knows too well that all its measures have a totally different aim.
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