Mr. Arthur Elliot, M.P., in a letter to Wednesday's Times
illustrates from his own experience the extraordinary situation in which the Unionist party has been landed by the reticence of Mr. Balfour and the exuberance of the Tariff Reform League. In his own division he recently addressed a public meeting, with a Liberal Unionist in the chair. Only Unionists— including three M.P.'s of the district—were on the platform, and only Unionists addressed the meeting, which carried resolutions condemning the Tariff Reform League policy and approving Mr. Elliot's continued representation of the city. The second act of this Unionist comedy was witnessed on the following day, when the Tariff Reformers held a meeting addressed by two Balfourite M.P.'s, who blessed Mr. Chamber- lain's policy, and urged the electors to turn Mr. Elliot out because he disagreed with it. Since then a candidate who has expressed himself as in firm accord with the proposals of Mr. Chamberlain" has been duly launched, not by the Conservative Association, but by some nine or ten Con- servatives attached to the cause of the Tariff Reform League. The next step, of course, is to invoke party loyalty, and so gain the support of the Association. Mr. Elliot very pertinently asks : " Has the Tariff Reform League swallowed the Conservative party ? Have these tactics the approval of the Prime Minister ? If so, Unionist Free-traders will realize where they stand, and will know how to act in Durham and elsewhere."
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