On Monday Lord Balfour of Burleigh made a speech at
Glasgow, which was fully reported in the Glasgow Herald,—a paper which, we may note in passing, has shown an admir- able spirit throughout the present discussion. Lord Balfour insisted that it was the old question between Free-trade and Protection, decked out with new arguments, but not a whit changed in the essentials. He wholly dissociated himself from the policy of the Government, which, if logically developed, was the same as Mr. Chamberlain's. " There is an American saying that you cannot go half-way down a waterfall." It was impossible to hope that the new tariffs would add to the revenue,—that is, if they were successful from Mr. Chamberlain's point of view ; and he himself had never seen any argument which convinced him that taxation could be properly imposed for other purposes than revenue. Lord Balfour proceeded to sketch the difficulties which the new tariffs would put in the way of the commercial machine, and de- clared that neither the advantages of the scheme nor the dangers which it was framed to prevent had been adequately proved. There was no ground for pessimism about British commerce, and the creed " No tariffs, no Empire," was simply a slander on the Colonies. He concluded by analysing Mr. Balfour's policy of retaliation, which was either sheer Protection or a dormant power which no Government was without. In the present confusion of tongues he appealed to the ordinary voter not to be misled by rhetoric, false analogies, or the "glamour of a reputation, however great," but seriously and dispassionately to think the matter out for himself.
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