The papers of Wednesday published a letter, addressed to Lord
Newton, in which Mr. Balfour defined his policy in face of the Constitutional crisis. "I agree with the advice Lord Lansdowne has given to his friends; with Lord Lansdowne I stand ; with Lord Lansdowne I am ready, if need be, to fall." Mr. Balfour then examines the military phrases of the hotheads as to no surrender. "It is all quite true ; but is it all quite relevant ? " Fighting in any effective sense, he says, is impossiole. The Unionist Party therefore has to choose between an ineffetual parade amid the clatter of divided counsels and preparing as a united party for a great struggle to redress the wrong in the future. Which course is the right one P " Without doubt the latter." No one who reads Mr. Balfour's speech in the House of Commons on Monday can pretend for a moment that he is without the motives for fighting, if fighting would serve any useful purpose. Far from doing so it would actually put the Unionist Party in a position of impotence for years and destroy the national asset of the peerage. We are grateful to Mr. Balfour for his admirable letter. The case could not have been put better.
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