On Thursday the question of "the other document" was raised
in the House of Lords by Lord Rosebery, who not unnaturally protested against the Prime Minister describing his words in regard to the document as "a calumny." Lord Lansdowne defended Mr. Balfour's words, though be was authorised by him to say that nothing was further from his mind than to impute to Lord Rosebery a deliberate attempt to misrepresent him. Lord Lansdowne also threw a little light, though not very much, on the unpublished paper itself. It appears that in it the Prime Minister expressed the hope that his colleagues would not dissent from the conclusions to be found in his "Insular Free-Trade." For ourselves, we find these constant cryptic allusions to this unknown, this a in the political equation, very unsatisfactory. Surely the time has come when the Prime Minister should publish the paper. He is clearly not ashamed of it. Again, it evidently is an abstract disquisition which contains nothing that would hurt the feelings of any of Mr. Balfour's past or present colleagues, and, therefore, there are no personal objections to publication. Mr. Balfour has nothing to lose, but everything to gain, by giving it to the world, and so clearing up the whole mystery.
Previous page
