Mr. Chamberlain was on Tuesday the principal guest at a.
House dinner of the Edgbaston Conservative Club, the Earl of Dudley in the chair. His speech was intended to emphasise his desire to assure the permanence of the- Unionist Party, and to show his own conviction that, for some time to come, a strong National Party, putting the higher- national aims above all sectional Liberal or Tory aims, is needed for the welfare, and indeed for the safety, of the United Kingdom. After touching on the mischief done by the sur- render of Mr. Gladstone to the Parnellite policy, he declared it to be "especially important that in future we should have a strong Government, not partisan in the old sense of the word, but a Government which really represents the strength and the beat intelligence of the British people." He reviewed the foreign situation, pointed out how the Journal des Debate has just taken Mr. Balfour to task for attaching great importance to the unfriendly spirit in which Frenchmen treat all the issues between England and France, and this, without rebuking in any way the French Press for the perpetual and irritating attacks on England in which they evidently regard it as their- journalistic interest to indulge. He then dwelt on the fact that for us an all-powerful Navy is a purely defensive force; while for the great military nations of Europe, it can be nothing but a preparation for offensive war. He wished for a party "sensible of the responsibilities of Empire, mindful of the traditions of a great governing race, and determined to hand clown to future generations the great inheritance of a, world-wide dominion."
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