On Wednesday, there was a Unionist luncheon in the Birmingham
Town Hall, attended by Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain. Lord Salisbury, in his speech, dwelt first on the difficulties which were springing up from the various Protectionist tariffs, which interfere so much with the trade of the world, and our own trade, but showed no leanings at all towards retaliation ; and then remarked on the advantages of the alliance between the Conservatives and the Liberal Unionists. The Government is, he said, with one brilliant exception (Mr. Goschen), a Conservative Government, and, he was not sure that that brilliant exception was the least Con- servative of the Cabinet group. He quizzed Sir William Har- court for his very high view of party loyalty, which Sir William regards as that of an army to its General, the soldiers having no duty except to obey the word of command. "A party properly disciplined and exercised, according to Sir William Harcourt's acceptance of the term, ought to have Turn your coats' as one of the evolutions of its daily drill." And Lord Salisbury suggested that it would be a good subject for a political artist to paint Mr. Gladstone bringing down his hesitating neophytes into "a baptismal bath of Parnellite juice."
