For the present, the Protectionism of the Conservatives cannot take
any practical effect. As Lord Salisbury reminded them in his speech of Wednesday, the alliance with the Liberal Unionists is the key to the whole situation, and any change of policy which would alienate them must be relegated to the distant future. He declined to level arguments against Home- rale, in effect for the same reason for which Mr. Brodrick declined the same task at Bath,—that Mr. Gladstone's measure was dead, and that it would be hardly decent, as Mr. Brodrick said, to follow the example of the man who had so enjoyed himself at a funeral that he got up to propose the health of the corpse. But Lord Salisbury strongly urged the necessity of cordial co- operation with the Liberal Unionists, while giving no indication at all of any intention of proposing a reconstruction of the Ministry.
