Lord Charles Beresford was the guest of the Midland Con-
servative Club held at Birmingham on Wednesday to celebrate Trafalgar Day. Had Lord Charles stuck to his last he would no doubt have made a pleasant and interesting speech. Instead of that he made a gratuitous, not to say ridiculous, attempt to make mischief between the Liberal Unionists and the Conservatives. Coalitions never lasted. On the Con- servative side there was an alliance which had no doubt saved the Empire from disruption ; but it was necessary to look at this matter through Conservative glasses. "Though the Conservative party as one of the historic parties could last for ever, the Unionist alliance, as at present constituted, could not, now that the danger which created it had dis- appeared. What would be the result to them as Conservatives, if, on some side-issue, the Liberal Unionists broke away when the Conservative party did not happen to occupy the pre- dominant position it did now ?" At present all was going- well, but there was anxiety about the future. Lord Charles Beresford went on to say that it was possible that they might have a robust Liberal party "led by a man to. whom Birmingham and the country owed so much." Who could better lead that party than Mr. Chamberlain ? We do not wish to speak harshly, but we must condemn the bad taste as well as the disloyalty to the Unionist cause and party shown by these remarks. Their apparent object is to make Conservatives feel that the differences between them and the Liberal Unionists are so great and so essential that dis- ruption is sure to take place in the end. That is a suggestion of suspicion which has no foundation.
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