Mr. Balfoar, who almost alone of our politicians can manage
to address a body of working men on an abstract subject with- out being either prosy, pompous, or patronising, or all three, spoke on Saturday last at the annual meeting of the Man- chester and Salford Equitable Co-operative Society, held in the Drill Hall, Ardwick. The speech, besides the passages on co-operation, contained some noteworthy remarks on the ownership of their houses by working men. After noting the fact that the Societyhe was addressing helped its members to own their houses, and declaring that this object was one for which he personally had a peculiar sympathy, he recalled the fact that he had himself been concerned "in the passage of a great measure for Ireland having for its object the advancement of money to enable tenants to buy their holdings." It was of enormous importance that the number of owners of houses, and if possible of owners of land, should be multiplied. " I can conceive no object which any statesman could aim at with a clearer certainty that he was doing permanent good to the whole fabric of society, than that he was strengthening the framework and making it fit to resist all the shocks both of internal revolution and of external assaults." In view of Mr. Chamberlain's scheme for helping the artisans to own their homes, this unusually optimistic and fervid outburst from Mr. Balfour is of real importance. It shows. that not only does the leader of the Conservative Unionists in the Commons accept this part of Mr. Cham- berlain's scheme, but enters upon it with positive enthusiasm.
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