THE RESULT OF MR. BALFOUR'S POLICY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." _I Snt,—Crushing and complete as the defeat of the Unionist Party has been, it is well we should realise that the defeat would have been even more overwhelming had Mr. Balfour openly adopted Mr. Chamberlain's policy. The Executive Committee of the Unionist Association for our county division included men of all shades of opinion on the Fiscal question. Our chairman, himself not a Protectionist, used every endeavour to keep us together as followers of Mr. Balfour. Before the day of election the Free-traders had dropped out ; but the remainder of the Committee—Protectionists, Retaliators, Preference and Open-to-inquiry men—continued to support the Balfourite candidate. He was defeated at the poll, as he had been five years before, and defeated by an increased majority; but had he declared for Protection his loss of votes would have been far greater. Our experience in this division is doubtless the experience in a large number of other constituencies, and I think it proves that if at a future election the issue is between Protection pure and simple and Free-trade, an even more decisive victory for Free-trade will
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