We have dwelt elsewhere on the new dangers that threaten
the unfortunate Unionist Party. Not content with having hurled it over a precipice, Mr. Chamberlain now seems bent upon making it impossible that the crippled body shall ever be restored to life and vigour. He has begun to coquet openly with the Labour Party, and he has made the sinister and significant remark that the Irish are, of necessity, Protection- ists. Such words from such a source cannot but alarm those who ardently desire, as we do, the revival of the party on its old basis. If once the country realises that Mr. Chamberlain is willing to ally Unionism with Nationalism and Socialism in order to carry Protection, it is all over with the Unionists for another generation. It is possible that the electors will some day adopt Protection on its merits, though, personally, we are convinced of the contrary. What is impossible is that they will allow Free-trade to be destroyed by an alliance unnatural and immoral in its very foundation. Before more mischief is done by speeches of the Halesowen type, will not some leader of the Unionists make a protest against such madness P Are they all too much afraid of Mr. Chamberlain to speak P That they are all in reality in agreement with the policy fore- shadowed at Halesowen we cannot believe. It is true that Mr. Chamberlain kept his seven seats at Birmingham invio- late; but elsewhere, as our correspondent "C. A." points out, he often proved nothing but a missionary of defeat. Wherever he spoke the Unionist majority withered away. The fact is that Mr. Chamberlain, though he may be a power in Birmingham, is not a power in the land as a whole, and there is not the slightest reason to regard him as the man who has the right and the power to do what he will with the Unionist Party.
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