The Yorkshire Herald on Monday published a letter addressed by
the Prime Minister to Lord Helmsley in regard to the Whitby election. After alluding to the "usual mis- representations" of the supporters of the Radical candidate about the "big and the little loaf" and the return to the days of dear food, Mr. Balfour continues :— " Blindly indifferent to modern conditions of commerce and to the true ideals of Empire, they apparently think themselves justified in resorting to every species of misrepresentations, and to the most unscrupulous appeals to groundless fears. If the policy of fiscal reform were to result in restoring the condition of life among the working classes which prevailed before 1850, it would have no more vehement opponent than myself. When I recollect how much of our prosperity depends upon markets for our exports and how much of our greatness upon our success in binding more closely together the various parts of our Empire, I wonder that even party passion should make our Radical opponents so reckless in dealing with the great national interests. But, after the object-lesson they gave us last Monday, in illustration of their views on fair play and fair controversy, I suppose anything may be expected."
As the Westminster Gazette observes, if it were not for the evidence of the signature, the letter might have been written
by Mr. Chamberlain, so closely does it approximate to the style and sentiments of the ex-Colonial Secretary. And yet we have Mr. Wilfrid Ward in the current Nineteenth, Century vindicating the Premier's Fabian tactics as justified by the restoration of his effectual leadership and the discredit of the unpractical optimism of Mr. Chamberlain.
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