In the House of Commons, Sir Henry Campbell-Banner- man made
one of those hedging speeches for which he is becoming famous. He cheered the Government as a patriot, but at the same time he felt bound to point out that they had entirely mismanaged the whole business by their policy of " bluff." Mr. Balfour, in reply, declared that "if the right hon. gentleman's effort had fallen under the critical gaze of some professor of the higher criticism he would certainly have said that what professed to be the utterance of a single individual upon a single occasion undoubtedly formed part of two separate speeches delivered by two different individuals on two entirely different occasions." As to the accusation of " bluff," what, asked Mr. Balfour, would the Opposition have said if they had not made the military preparations they had made P Mr. Balfour ended by pointing out that though we might be the butt of much ill-informed and malicious foreign criticism, we had with us the conscience of the Empire. If we were really engaged in some piratical trans- action against the liberties of other people, is it to be believed that the Colonies, "the very breath of whose nostrils is self-government and liberty, would throw in their lot with us ? "
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