Mr. Asquith has made three excellent speeches to his Fife-
shire constituents since our last issue. Speaking at Lady- bank on Saturday on the Fiscal question, Mr. Asquith ironically congratulated Mr. Balfour on having so long and successfully concealed the fact that he had always been opposed to Protection. But when Mr. Chamberlain at Luton also repudiated the title of Protectionist, and yet advo- cated precisely the policy condemned by the Premier at Edinburgh, these declarations must be left to Unionist casuists to reconcile. Retaliation was an impracticable policy, because we could not effectively retaliate without raising the price of food and of raw materials, which were the life-blood of the country ; and Mr. Chamberlain's re- jection of the evidence of Board of Trade and Income- tax Returns, in order to maintain his theory of declining trade, removed him from the category of practical men. Finally, speaking for himself and the Liberal party, he condemned the Premier's proposal for a Colonial Con- ference as unsettling, mischievous, and impracticable. Re- turning to the question of a Colonial Conference at New- burgh on Tuesday, Mr. Asquith brushed aside Mr. Balfour's suggestion that they could go on year after year with discus- sions, elections, and referendums. British trade could not stand such a process of experimentation. Mr. Chamberlain's proposal was at least more businesslike, and if the electors acted on it they would have only themselves to blame.
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