S On Monday it was announced that Mr. Gibson Bowles
would contest the vacant seat in the City against Mr. Balfour, as an independent Unionist Free-trade candidate. The only noteworthy point in Mr. Balfour's speeches is his declaration that his letter to Mr. Chamberlain on Valentine's Day is con- sistent with all that he has said on the Fiscal question on former occasions. That is not a point which the Spectator can be expected to dispute with him, for our reading of those speeches was always to the effect that Mr. Balfour was a Chamberlainite at heart, and at the proper time would declare himself to be so in public, though during the life of the late Government, and even during the elections, he thought it good tactics to practise an economy of perspicuity in regard to the expression of his views. Mr. Bowles's speeches have been both able and trenchant. It is not, of course, to be expected that he will carry the seat, but at any rate he has ra;.de a plucky protest against the great commercial centre of the Empire being represented as unanimously in favour of an advocate of Tariff Reform.
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