A very important Free-trade meeting was held at Devonshire Rouse
on Tuesday under the joint auspices of the Women's
Free-Trade Union and the Free-Trade Educational Committee. The Alike of Devonshire was in the chair, and the principal speakers were Mr. Asquith and Lord Hugh Cecil. There are so many speeches to record this week that we can only call attention to the striking character of the meeting. As Mr. Asquith said, if any one last May had told him that that time next year be would be making a political speech at Devonshire House, with the Duke in the chair and Lord Hugh Cecil sup- porting him, he would have scouted the notion as utterly absurd. The ladies who organised the meeting—Mrs. Herbert Gladstone, Lady Frances Balfour, Mrs. Bamford Slack, and their colleagues—are to be heartily congratulated upon having, as the Duke of Devonshire pointed out, given the men so excellent a lead. They have shown that in the interests of Free-trade co-operation of the heartiest and most loyal kind can take place without fusion. They have, in fact, acted on the lesson which we have tried to enforce from the beginning, —namely, that the Free-trade Unionists ought not to fuse with, or merge themselves in, the Liberal party, but should remain Unionists as well as Free-traders. But we have always insisted that this determination to remain Unionists need not prevent Free-trade Unionists working heartily with the Liberals in defence of Free-trade on the one hand, and on the other attacking Protection, whether open in Mr. Chamberlain or concealed in Mr. Balfour, with all the vigour at their com- mand. The Women's Free-Trade Union is a fighting body, but the Liberal Unionist and Conservative women who belong to it have not become, and do not mean to become, Liberals.
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