The growing disposition among the Tories to believe that they
lose more than they gain by their compact with the Liberal Unionists is the worst political omen of the moment. In the first place, it is an omen of retrograde policy, which would hamper gravely the action of the most brilliant of their leaders, Mr. Balfour. In the next place, it is a favour- able omen for the Irish Nationalists, who had almost begun to despair of achieving a separate Parliament for Ireland, but who certainly might achieve it, if the Gladstonians carry the next General Election. And that, in our opinion, depends, and depends entirely, on the firm maintenance of that great alliance between the Liberal Unionists and the progressive Conservatives, of which Mr. Chamberlain is, as we have maintained in another column, the keystone. For the present, however, the Tory party are fretting at the conditions of that alliance, and are in the mood to throw away the sure promise of a great victory, simply because it implies the surrender of dreams like renewed Protection, and demands forbearance with one of the most powerful and patriotic of their allies, without whose help the victory cannot by any possibility be secured.
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