Thou g h it must be confessed that Mr. Balfour's pled g e that
Tariff Reform, like other matters of grave import, should be . submitted to the country before it was carried into law, affected the polls less than we had hoped—it came too late—one thing is clear in regard to the general pro- posal for the Referendum, or as we prefer to call it, the I " Poll of the People." The proposal to add the Poll of the People to our Constitutional machinery is clearly not un- popular, and is gaining ground very rapidly. It may be said, indeed, that no change of such magnitude has ever won its way so fast or taken so firm a hold on men's minds in so short a time. It is hardly too much to say that up till Wednesday, November 30th, when the country read the reports of Mr. Balfour's speech at the Albert Hall, the popular mind had never " bitten " on the subject of the Referendum. The seed, however, evidently fell upon pre- pared groimd, for not only was there no inclination on the part of the rank-and-file of the Unionist voters to object to the proposal, but there were innumerable indications of a keen desire by Unionist audiences to hear about the measure, and a strong inclination to give it their approvaL In a nation so naturally conservative as ours, this is a very remarkable fact.
