The Government game of "hunt the slipper" in regard to
their fiscal policy was played on Thursday night both in the Lords and Commons. In the Lords, Lord Lansdowne, in regard to preference, complained that the Government were called upon night after night to "defend a policy which they had been at great pains to explain that they did not intend to adopt, and which, indeed, they would not uphold if it were proposed to them,"—a statement on this point certainly in advance of any yet made by any member of the Cabinet. In the House of Commons, Mr. Balfour, in answer to a question, declared that be had never written a pamphlet advocating Protection—that was, of course, not what Lord George Hamilton stated—and added : I have never advqcated Protection in or outside the Cabinet." That is no doubt true, but Free-traders must be careful not to be too greatly elated by the declaration, or to imagine that it gives them any genuine security. If Mr. Balfour has not advocated Protection, he has (1) got rid of the Free-trade members of his Cabinet, and, except in one case, intimated that he could not entertain the idea of retaining them as his colleagues ; (2) wished success in his propaganda to the leader of the Protectionists ; (3) given his assistance to - Protectionist candidates, and encouraged the electors to vote for them ; (4) refused to condemn Protection as dangerous ; and (5) made Mr. Austen Chamberlain, an avowed Protectionist, his Chancellor of the Exchequer. After that we cannot feel any great sense of relief or security when we hear that /filr. Balfour has never advocated Protection. Till he opposes Protectionist candidates, declares that Protection would be injurious to the nation, and clearly announces his intention to do all in his power to prevent it ever being adopted, we shall, we regret to say, find it impossible to consider him a genuine Free-trader.
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