Si Henry Campbell-Bannerman, in the course of a vigorous reply,
said they had seen in the attitude of the Government towards Fiscal agitation the successive stages of the closed door and the side door, and now finally had come to the stage of the back door. Observing that most of the Tariff Reformers were absent, he asked : "Is not this Nelson's year P Where are the sons of Empire P I should have expected them to be here either to bury Caesar or to praise him." On a division the majority of 254 consisted of Liberals, Nationalists, and thirty-seven Unionist Free-traders, while two Members (Sir Frederick Banbury and Mr. Massey Mainwaring) voted in the minority, thus giving a Free-trade majority of 252. We have dealt with this strange and discreditable episode else- where, and will only say here that if it was undesirable for a private Member to induce the Commons to pass a vote against Colonial Preference, why was it not undesirable for a private Member to induce them to pass one against an average duty of 10 per cent. on manufactured articles P The Conference would not have been bound by a private Member's abstract Resolution, nor would the next Parliament, and therefore Mr. Balfour's distinction is invalid. Alice accused the King in Wonderland of inventing new rules as he went along. Mr. Balfour invents new principles just in the same way. His distinction between the two Motions was purely illusory.
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