10 OCTOBER 1908, Page 2

Mr. Balfour at Dumfries on Tuesday night abstained from all

reference to foreign politics, but dealt exhaustively with the home policy of the present Administration. Mr. Lloyd George (fleetly desired a second elective Chamber, and it was absurd to suppose that such Chamber -would be content to play second fiddle to the House of Commons, least of all with a Government like the present in power. Mr. Balfour ridiculed the evasive attitude of the Government in regard to Home-rule, and condemned their reckless partisan- ship in the field of social reform. Their old-age pension scheme was a hasty and ill-considered plan for catching votes which not only imperilled the future of our national finance, but imperilled any rational, coherent, and comprehensive method of dealing with the vast question of pauperism. Turning to Fiscal • Reform, Mr.' Balfour professed himself a profound believer in what it could do in the way of promoting the unity of the Empire, the stability of trade, and the growth of national industries. But he did not pretend that it could cure "the alternations of affluence and depres- sion, of feverish overproduction and melancholy underproduc- tion." Finally, Mr. Balfour administered a well-deserved rebuke to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for holding up the rich to odium, constituting himself the judge of what he thinks to be honest industry, and, in short, proving false to his trust as guardian of the sources of all productive wealth in this country. Mr. Balfour has seldom spoken with greater vigour and lucidity, with the exception of his balancing reference to the Fiscal question.