22 JULY 1905, Page 3

If anything can move from their opinion those who think

that Mr. Balfour is opposed to Mr. Chamberlain's Fiscal policy, and that Mr. Chamberlain has no right to claim Mr. Balfour as his faithful ally, it will surely be the presence and speech of Mr. Chamberlain at the party meeting. How can it be possible that Mr. Balfour is going to repudiate Mr. Cham- berlain when he not only allows his late colleague without con- tradiction to claim him in his presence as an ally, but later permits Mr. Chamberlain to put him under such an obligation as that of the speech at the Foreign Office ? If Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain are in agreement, there is nothing strange in the proceedings. If Mr. Balfour, as a section of his Unionist Free-trade supporters imagine, is going in the end to throw over Mr. Chamberlain, the situation is not only one of the strangest, but the most treacherous, that can be found in our politics.