Mr. Balfour made an excellent speech in reply, with the
spirit of which we are in entire sympathy. We cannot, how- ever, help being amazed at one portion of it. He declared that the great bulk of the leaders and of the rank-and-file of the Liberal Party were pledged to Home-rule and believed in Home-rule. In our opinion, this statement is very much exaggerated ; but admitting it to be the time view, what an extraordinary comment it is on Mr. Balfour's handling of the Fiscal controversy. Believing that the peril of the Union was so great and so immediate, he yet, as the chief and leader of the Unionist Party. allowed Mr. Chamber- lain and his followers to run the terrible risks involved in forcing on the Unionist Party the issue of Free-trade or Protection ! Surely, in the circumstances, Mr. Balfour should have said to Mr. Chamberlain As long as the danger to the Union is so great, I, as leader of the Unionist Party, will allow no question which will endanger the unity of the party to be placed before the country. Any one who disregards my opinion on this point I must treat as an enemy of the party.' If Mr. Balfour had taken up this attitude in 1903, it might have caused a certain amount of grumbling and dissatisfaction amongst the Tariff Reformers, but that he would have been successful we do not doubt. As ih was, Mr. Balfour gave Mr. Chamberlain a free hand, and allowed him by his Protectionist propaganda to shatter the fabric of the Unionist Party.
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