On Tuesday Lord Cromer addressed the Unionist Free. Trade Club.
We have dealt at length elsewhere with his remarks in regard to the Navy, but may note here his wise and moderate appeal to the Tariff Reformers. If the result of the next General Election was favourable to their cause, he urged them not to rush hastily to the conclusion that the country had definitely discarded Free-trade principles. Any attempt to carry out the policy of the extreme Tariff Reformers would infallibly lead to a speedy and decisive reaction :—
"Another swing of the pendulum will take place. The party in power will be swept away, and the country will then be left to the mercy, not of the moderates, but of the extremists of the Liberal Party. If this happens, and it is by no means an improbable contingency, the last state of all those interests which it is the duty alike of Conservatives and moderate Liberals to uphold will be infinitely worse than their first."
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