Mr. Chamberlain's fiscal policy has acted as a splendid tonic
to Sir William Harcourt. No better evidence of his welcome restoration to health could be forthcoming than his vigorous, witty, and genial letter in the Times of Wednesday. After setting forth the issues raised by "the Chamberlain policy," which rests on the fundamental assumption that the Empire is in danger of disruption, Sir William asserts that the one thing of which its nominal supporters are convinced is that there must be no taxation of the food of the people, though that is the very keystone of the policy. But to imagine that Mr. Chamberlain will abandon this position is to misunder- stand him completely. "Whatever may be the merits or demerits of Mr. Chamberlain's convictions, he wants neither courage to declare nor lucidity to express them. Whatever his alarmist adherents may say, I at least believe that Mr. Chamberlain is in earnest in his profession that the British Empire is in peril, and that it can only be saved by the measures he advocates. If that were not the case he would cease to exercise the weight which he enjoys in the conduct of public affairs, and the country would regard with amused con- tempt his Imperial pretensions."
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