Before we leave the subject of the debate we may
note Mr. Hunt's extraordinary attack on Mr. Balfour. Before the last Election, said Mr. Hunt, he (Mr. Balfour) "declined to put forward any policy which any ordinary person could under- stand or which could appeal to the Imperial instincts of the British people. The consequence was that they bad a good many of the constituencies full of wonder, and they could never give a straight answer to a straight question." The Opposition, no matter whether they were Liberal Unionists or old-fashioned Tories, old or young, rich or• poor, men or women, declared: " We must have a leader who knows his own mind, who will say what he thinks, and give us a lead in Imperial policy and social reforms." They could not follow a leader who had no definite policy and whom they could not understand. Mr. Hunt, whose speech was punctuated with cheers and laughter, ended by entreating his leader to come down from the Olympian heights of philosophy and golf. In
♦ the end, Mr. Hills's Motion was negatived by a majority of 255 votes (353 to 98). In other words, not a hundred Members of Parliament could be whipped up to vote for Tariff Reform. The Unionist Free-traders seem for the most part to have walked out of the House without voting.
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