The people of Birmingham have been doing honour to Mr.
Chamberlain. Both parties agreed to give him a banquet on Monday, and so eager were the would-be guests that although the Town Hall was secured, not two-fifths of the applications for dinner seats could be granted. They were sent in by all the representative men of the city, and when the proceedings terminated four thousand citizens bearing torches escorted Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain on their way to their home through great and applauding crowds. No hitch, still less any appear- ance of opposition, marred the splendours of the day, which were intended to mark, and did mark, that Birmingham con- sidered Mr. Chamberlain her first citizen and best represen- tative, and heartily approved his project of himself visiting South Africa to decide, or at all events to discover grounds for deciding, on the large and difficult questions which have arisen there since the war. That approval, as we have argued elsewhere, will greatly facilitate the Colonial Secretary's action in South Africa, since it will show, both to the British and the Dutch, that the British people are with him as well as his colleagues in the Cabinet.
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