Though we do not in the least complain of Lord
Ridley's letter, we must note that he misses the point. Up to 1904 the Unionists were able to command large working majorities in Parliament and to carry the most democratic constituencies of the North. Then something happened which turned the scale against them throughout the length and breadth of the land, and produced the electoral catastrophe of 1906. Since then things have no doubt improved from the Unionist point of view, but the last two Elections show that the party have not yet been able to recover their old position. They have not been able to get back to the conditions which prevailed before 1904. In our personal opinion, they cannot do so until they
return as regards policy to the status quo ante ante the promulgation of Tariff Reform.
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