Mr. Chamberlain has had a little controversy with Mr. Alfred
C. Osier, the President of the Birmingham Liberal Association, on the rather bitter controversial style of the discussions between the Birmingham Unionists and the Birmingham Gladatonians, in which Mr. Chamberlain cer- tainly does not come off badly. Mr. Osier had complained of the violent language of the paid secretary to the Liberal Unionist Association, and had asked Mr. Chamberlain to reprove him. Mr. Chamberlain replies that Mr. Osier would have done better to wait for a reply to his letter before pub- lishing it, and, better still, not to accuse the Unionists of "injustice, baseness, and treachery," as he had done on the previous night, at the very moment when he was pleading for a gentler style of controversy. Mr. Osier will not find that easy to reply to ; but what a pity it is that both parties cannot adopt the gentler tone for themselves, without first com- plaining of the other side for its ungentle tone ! A few practical illustrations of courtesy would be worth a hundred exhortations to courtesy.
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