On Friday week the inaugural meeting of the Constitutional Free-Trade
Association was held and an address delivered by its president, Lord Cromer. He began by explaining the origin of the Association, which existed in order " to show the leaders of the Unionist Party that there were still loyal members of that party who gave their adherence to Free-trade principles." Lord Cromer gave a sketch of the development of the Constitutional issue, which, however, need not neces- sarily be fought out to a finish. As the basis of any com- promise the Unionists would have to make concessions as regards the composition of the Second Chamber, while the Liberals would have to make them as regards its powers. If through the action of the extremists the idea of a compromise had to be abandoned, Lord Cromer declared that he held a very strong opinion "that all other considerations must yield to the paramount importance of convincing the electors that the revolution proposed by the present Government—for it is nothing else—should be stoutly resisted." The Constitu- tional Free-Trade Association may not at the moment be able to produce any great political results, but it holde a watching brief for the principle of "taxation for revenue only," and some day it may be able to exercise an influence on the course of public policy which will prove of no small importance.
Previous page
