Mr. Balfour was not slow to avail himself of the
many openings given to him by the Prime Minister. What the Lords proposed to do was, where the agricultural conditions were the same as those in England, to apply the measure of reform which the Government proposed for England, while in those parts of Scotland where the conditions differ from England, to pass a Bill amending the existing Crofters Acts. This course met with the acceptance of every Member in the House who represented a crofting constituency. Those con- stituencies were now going to be deprived, by the action of his Majesty's Government, of legislation which they desired, and the rest of Scotland of what the Government held to be good enough for England. After Mr. Balfour had shown that the objection that there was not time to define the crofter area was frivolous, he declared that it was quite obvious from the speech of the Prime Minister that his whole policy was based upon a desire to pick a quarrel with the other House. The next stage in the scene was a question from Mr. Morton, the Radical Member for Sutherlandshire, who asked the Prime Minister who authorised Lord Crewe to state in the House of Lords that those with the right to speak for the Northern Counties concurred in the withdrawal of the crofters portion of the Scottish Land Bill. While the Prime Minister was answering this question in terms which amounted to a declaration that the representatives of the crofters, though anxious for the legislation in question, "submitted themselves loyally to what they consider the best policy and tactics," Mr. Austen Chamberlain rose and contested the right to speak with the Leader of the House. After a good deal of noise, the Speaker intervened, and the incident was closed by a further declaration from Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman that the crofter representatives were not desirous of receiving any advantage for themselves at a cost to the rest of their countrymen.
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