We deal elsewhere with those passages in Mr. Balfour's speech
at the Albert Hall yesterday week in which he referred to the Macedonian and Chinese labour questions. We may notice here, however, the strange inconsistency of his attitude towards Home-rule. Mr. Balfour declared that he was unable to see any increased security against the Imperial dismember- ment attempted by Mr. Gladstone in 1886 and 1894, and in confirmation of his view that this menace was still abiding, drew attention to the recent pronouncement in the House by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the accredited and official leader of the Liberal party. "The fact that there is a section of his party who would fain forget that they have ever been Home-rulers in no way mitigates, in my judgment, the danger under which we still are from Home-rule." If this be so, why, in the name of common-sense, does not Mr. Balfour strike a blow for the Union by reducing that over-representation of Ireland which more than anything else tends to perpetuate the danger on which he dwells P He could, if he liked, make the Union absolutely safe. Yet though he laments about the dangers of Home-rule, he devotes the time which might be used to making Home-rule impossible to the intensification of the monopoly in the sale of intoxicants. With such Unionism we find ourselves in very little sympathy.
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