The meeting of Parliament has been fixed for February 14th.
We are not prepared to say, with some political meteorologists, that an impending Dissolution is foreshadowed by the com- parative lateness of this date, but undoubtedly omens pointing in that direction have multiplied during the past week. To begin with, the Tariff Reformers in the Cabinet are growing more restive. Thus we may note Mr. Arnold- Forster's frank admission at Croydon on Wednesday night that be was not so sure that the Conservatives would win at 'the General Election. " He did not think that a reverse at the next General Election would do much harm. In fact, he thought it would do good in the long run." Mr. Walter Long, speaking at Weston-super-Mare on the same night, took precisely the same view and in almost the same words. " Whether the policy was popular or unpopular, the Government had deliberately committed themselves to a revision of the fiscal
system It was possible that the electors might temporarily select a Government from the other side. He did not doubt, if that were the case, that a check—though only a passing check—must be given to the development of those great Imperial ideas which he believed now animated the majority of our fellow-countrymen." Here we have two Cabinet Ministers boldly proclaiming the view that a General Election, even though it ejects the present Ministry, will "do good in the long run." Obviously, then, the sooner it comes the better for the cause they have at heart. Meantime Mr. C. A. Vince, the secretary of the Imperial Tariff Reform
Committee and the Birmingham Liberal Unionist Assooia- tion, has stated that he is inclined to think the Election will come before the year is out, but that as March was men- tioned as the probable date, they would make their arrange- ments accordingly.
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