Mr. Balfour then proceeds to specify his grounds for complaint
against the Duke. So far from the Sheffield speech making for party division, it had produced greater harmony than had prevailed since the fiscal question came to the front six months ago. "Had you resigned on the 15th, or had you not resigned at all, this healing effect would have suffered suffered no interruption. To resign now, and to resign on the speech; is to take the course most calculated to make yet harder the hard task of the peacemaker." the Dtike's- with- drawal from the Government at any time would have been a blow, but at this particular juncture it was something act of desertion. "Yon have, in fact, left, it..avhen,:in 'the opinion of our opponents, its fortunes are at their karest And its perplexities at their greatest." We cannot bring ourselves to believe that Mr. Balfeitr's surprise at the Duke's aelloit will be shared by the majority of thinking :-People. "What fills us with something like -amazement 1i-that:Mr:BS/font: should have thoUght-it necessary to palish his agitated and acrimonious rejoinder to the Duke'S dignified letter. A Prime Minister is the last person in the world who ought to rush into print. But if he does, he certainly ought not to scold. Think how Mr. Balfour would have scored if he had simply wished the Duke good-bye, with possibly just a suggestion of a n'y a pas de duo ngeessaire. No doubt the Duke's resignation was a terrible blow to Mr. Balfour, but a good fighter does not show when he is hurt.
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