We have dealt with Mr. Balfour's speech elsewhere, but must
again point out here how strongly it supports our con- tention that the present Government by insisting on vast expenditure and by mortgaging the financial resources of the country for the future are proving themselves the greatest enemies of Free-trade. In effect, Mr. Balfour's speech is a declaration that he expects to find in bloated Estimates for so-called social reform the opportunity he desires,—i.e., the opportunity for passing Protection and Preference without having to employ those direct Protectionist arguments which he knows to be unsound. The Liberals are, in the name of anti-Protection, digging the pit in which Free-trade is to be buried. The only possible answer to our contention is that the Liberals do not intend that Mr. Balfour and the Tariff Reformers should return to power ; but after Peckham and the rest of the by-elections, is this an answer which will satisfy any sane man? If Mr. Asquith would abolish the Sugar-duties, and in the future resolutely keep down expendi- ture on so-called social reforms, he would leave a situation which could not be turned into an excuse for a fiscal revolu- tion by Mr. Balfour. As it is he and his party seem bent upon laying the foundations of Tariff Reform.
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