The National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations held their
fortieth annual Conference at Newcastle- on-Tyne this week. The day before the Conference, which opened on Tuesday, there was a meeting of the Primrose League, at which the principal speakers took rather a gloomy view of the situation. Mr. Lane-Fox, the Vice-Chancellor, said that the whole organisation of the Unionist party was "distinctly rather sleepy," and rallied the Primrose Leaguers for their excess of scruple. Colonel Bowles, M.P., took a similar view. The tide had turned against them, but it was a disgrace to have to own that either apathy or misrepresentation could lose them an election. There Was not, he declared, an iota of truth in the statement that Captain Wells's resigna- tion was a Chamberlainite victory. " What happened was this. Captain Wells was called upon to perform a difficult task, and had the courage to attempt it. He had found it an impossibility without previous knowledge to carry it on in the way it should be carried on, and, therefore, he was right when he said: I will make room for some other man who may be able to do it better.'" Sir Alexander Acland-Hood, the chief Conserva- tive Whip, speaking at a dinner to the Council of the National Society of Conservative Agents on the same evening, adopted a far less plaintive note. Admitting that a General Election must take place within the next twelve months, he urged upon his hearers the need of meeting Radical misrepresentations in every public-house and street. He saw no reason to antici- pate a sweeping Liberal victory at the polls : the Liberals were only united on the question of clearing the Government out of office and getting the sweets of it for themselves. Finally, in an elegant peroration he besought them, "in going into the fight, to keep their tails up."
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