THE MINISTRY AND MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—YOUP article in the Spectator of October 24th on the duty of Free-trade Unionists would have been more pointed if you had quoted Lord Percy's speech at Tynemouth instead of the Times's description of it. Lord Percy is Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and understands, doubtless, the full significance of what he said. This—I quote from the York- shire Post report—is the language Lord Percy held :- " Mr. Chamberlain had gone out to plough a furrow of his own. Other people were ploughing furrows, but Mr. Chamberlain's was not a lonely furrow, and with him he carried the hearty approval of his colleagues in the Government which he had left. We have at heart,' he continued, 'the same great object and ideal that Mr. Chamberlain has. Like him we want to rid ourselves of a paralysing superstition, and to regain in the interests of our own trade that liberty of negotiation which we ought never to have surrendered.'"
At the time of writing no Minister of the Crown has dis- claimed Lord Percy's statement, and one is impelled to ask how long Ministers intend to play with the public in this matter. If they "have at heart the same great object and ideal that Mr. Chamberlain has," and if he carries with him " the hearty approval of his colleagues in the Government which he had left," then the oft-repeated statement that Ministers are not committed to Mr. Chamberlain's policy is a mere blind ; and if honesty is to remain a cardinal principle in our public life, the attempt to differentiate between the Premier's policy and that of Mr. Chamberlain should be abandoned, and the country told in plain language that the Premier and his colleagues are food-taxers and Protectionists in the full sense of the term, only awaiting a more convenient season
to put the policy into force. I am one of your Liberal sub- scribers, and trust my. politics do not disqualify me from expressing these views, more especially as I have much sympathy with those gentlemen who are trying to play the
game fairly, and a great admiration for your strenuous fight for Free-trade. The country has suffered long enough from a disorganised Opposition, and I have no wish that the Con- servative party should be similarly broken. The evidence seems to point in that direction. In this constituency, for instance, one Member is a retaliator but not a food-taxer, the other is with Mr. Chamberlain ; the chairman of the party is an ardent Free-trader. These divisions will be found in many Lancashire constituencies, and though the Liberal party may gain therefrom, the situation created is not one that will commend itself to any lover of his country.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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