On Wednesday Mr. Balfour, speaking at the annual banquet of
the National Union of Conservative Associations, held in London, dealt with a fact which cannot be too often or too strongly insisted on,—namely, that Liberalism, i.e., Liberal ideas, is no longer the monopoly of one party in the State, but the common possession of both, and so of the nation at large. Where the two parties differ is in their methods of carrying out these ideas. When, then, we ask what are Liberal principles, we want to be told, not truisms about freedom and self-government, but how men mean to carry them out in practice. When they talked of Liberal prin- ciples in the abstract he had no cause of difference with his Liberal friends. It was only when they declared that the principle of self-government required Home-rule, that demo- cracy required the abolition of the House of Lords, or that religious liberty was inconsistent with the existence of a national Church, that he came into conflict with the views of the Liberal party. The passage in which Mr. Balfour spoke of the crisis in South Africa is dealt with by us elsewhere, and we will only say here that it showed a wise as well as a resolute spirit, and indicate that Mr. Balfour realises fully that while, on the one hand, it would be monstrous to attack the Boers out of a mean spirit either of envy or of revenge, it is also impossible for us to ignore the demand for help and protection put forth by British subjects. The Raid and the proceedings previous to it were a crime, but that does not give President Kruger a perpetual license to keep the majority of white men in the Transvaal without the vote.
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