Mr. Balfour, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Goschen, and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach
have issued their addressee. In all the main drift is the same, that the Ministry exists only to carry through a Dissolution, after which it will form a Government and announce a programme. Mr. Balfour argues that the Liberals ought to have dissolved, and declares that the state- ment of Unionisi: policy must be " left to a happier period," when the party will show that it is not by the destruction of ancient institutions that progress is to be secured. Mr. Chamberlain, while repeating the same ideas, goes a step farther, threatening to resign if the Dissolution is delayed, and promising, if the Election goes in favour of Unionists, to " lay aside the wild projects of constitutional change and destruc- tive legislation which have formed the staple of the proposals of the last two Administrations, and to devote themselves to a policy of social constructive reform." Mr. Goschen post- pones any definite utterance until the General Election; and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach takes, in sentences equally brief, the same course. The policy of the new Government, in short, is to dissolve, and then announce its plans to the electors, who will accept or reject both the new Government and them. The result of this mode of action, which greatly annoys the Radicals, who are, however, powerless to resist it, is that the new Government, if it obtains a majority, will have received an unmistakable mandate from the people.
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