The direct effects of the action of the Confederates upon
the Unionist Party are bad enough, but some of the indirect con- sequences, though less obvious, are even worse and more dangerous. We have had occasion to point out before now how indifferent the extreme Tariff Reformers often show them- selves to the main principle of the Unionist Party,—namely, the maintenance of the Union. It will be remembered that at the height of his Tariff Reform agitation Mr. Chamberlain gave his sanction and encouragement to the candidature 0 a Home-rule Protectionist, and a leading article in the Daily Telegraph during the same period invited the co-operation of Irish Nationalists. We find a similar spirit displayed in last Sunday's Observer. Its first leader contains these significant words :—" Now Tariff Reform with all it involves, including preference and Imperial union, is an issue greater even than the Irish question and in some ways not less urgent." We have no small admiration for the ability and persistence with which the editor of the Observer fights the battle of Tariff Reform, but no serious man can read such words as these without realising the danger to which the cause of the Union is exposed by the fanaticism of the Confederates and their, alders and abettors.
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