Iw the poetical introduction to that very clever political skit "Lost in Blunderland," written by Caroline Lewis, Tenniclesquely. illustrated by "Stafford Ransome, and published by William Heinemann, the author says or sings woeful fate-to-force on one of which we should have thought Mr. Balfour, left to himself, incapable by another piece of deception the Duke of Devonshire was kept in, until Mr. Balfour incautiously gave himself away at Sheffield. The Duke, who has " high reputation in England as being sleepy but sound, could not remain after he found that the two leaders, the "Goff" and " Bruin" of. that it is neither orthodox nor acceptable. Ministerial organs are complacently labouring to demonstrate that things are exactly as they were, The strong. man, has gone forth' with 'a mission from the Government to convert the constituencies toa policy with which its members secretly sympathise. If he ig success-
So eminently suited In cloistered shades the world to shun These politics polluted, Better for thee to mount thy car, And leave the madding crowd afar. legacy from other days When life was slow and easy, For thee too tangled is the maze, The greasy pole too greasy. Essay to climb? Thou can't not stand Apart from Joe's retaining hand!"
That this should be literally true.was probably hardly expected at the time it was written; it has turned out to be as plainly the fact as the propheoy in the first stanza of the same poem; a "Child of the pensive dead wall brow And languid eyes, I wonder How long & time twill be ere thou Wilt drive.us all asunder! Thy methods, dear, can hardly fail To rend from head the Tory tail."
It must be remembered that. these verses were written. months before Mr. Chamberlain determined to draw his preferential tariffs as a red herring across the trail, to divert the British voter: from his investigation of the general inefficiency of the Government, and the disclosures of the War Commission.
The future historian of " England in the Twentieth Century" will no doubt mention hypnotism as one of the crazes of the period, and will ask whether Mr, Chamberlain succeeded in hypnotising Mr. Balfour to. the extent of making him break up aad reform: his Cabinet in a manner that would have been scoffed at as impossible if it had been predicted a year ago. Hypnotism being, as far as it has any solid. basis, the influence of a strong will over a_vacillatin; one, this explanation: will serve. was doubtless; on Mr.
Chamiberlain's suggestion.that Mr. Ritchie landlord George Hamilton were jockeyed out of the Cabinet by a piece of deception the "Monthly Review's" fable, were ful, the; policy will be officially acting in collusion, and that Mr. adopted "as the programme of. the Balfour, while claiming in his pam.
Unionist party. If he fails, it will be phlet to be a "free-trader" (p. 4), finally abandoned. It is a game of heads Mr. Balfour wins, and tails Mr. was only waiting to throw in his lot with Mr. Chamberlain, as soon as the Chamberlain loses. Opposition news-latter had succeeded in putting new Papers, for a totally different reason, are no less anxious to maintain this life in the dry bones of Protection, which died in England sixty to stigthatisé the Government' with thesis. Ibis vital for their ' purposes years ago. The present situation, the supposed odium of the Food surely an unparalleled one in English history, and one which it is to be Taxes, and an ingenious phrase, hoped will remain unique, was most "collusive divorce," has been evolved aptly as well as tersely described by to describe the situation, the presence the Duke of Devonshire at the great of Mr. Austen Chamberlain in' the meeting of the Free Food League. reconstructed Cabinet being triumph-"He asked how long the Unionist antly paraded as the "connecting link between Mr. Balfour and'Mr. leaders intended to sit silent spectators, while their late colleague as-Chamberlain. In spite of these high sumed all the duties, privileges, and authorities we venture to predict that the breach between the writers of responsibilities of leadership." It is a sorry spectacle that of a dis-the letters we have quoted is final credited Cabinet hanging on to office and irrevocable, and that they. will in the hope that a former colleague never again sit in the same Cabinet. Mr. Balfour, as the infant gate of because he differed seriously from its who is supposed to have resigned British politics, would not eqnsent policy, will succeed in imposing his to serve under any other man, and it, views on the people, when the: is utterly inadmissible that even Mr. Cabinet from which he resigned will Chamberlain, who is the soul of take its place in'his triumph. loyalty and largely governed by his Presuming that. Mr. Chamberlain personal attachments, should consent does return from his campaign in to work on the. Ministerial terms. that he' is addressing a people de-triumph, which is possible seeing nounced by the Mandarins to be He is to undertake the' task, pro-pressed by the inevitable reaction Herculean, if not hopeless, of convert after the Boer War, what will be the ing the country to tke preferential future relations of the two leaders policy, and is then to resume his seat Mr, Balfour's idea doubtless is that as a secondary member of the Cabinet Mr. Chamberlain will slip gracefully which funked the issue. This may back into the seat that Mr. Alfred Lyttleton, who is obviously a stop-and we venture to say with the be magnificent but it is not Politics, gap, is keeping warm-for him. But greatest respect to these eminent men the "National Review," which is that the country would never consent "Joe-ite" through thick and thin, to such an arrangement. Mr. Cham-rudely dispels this illusion in its October issue. We do not propose jeopardize the great policy, which es! would not be entitled to to, add anything to the following will enlist more enthusiasm than any quotation from its "Episodes of the cause of our time, atid which he alone: Month can carry and consummate, by "We have advisedly selected' the. entrusting its execution to any other substantive rupture' to describe head of a Government. Public opinion the severance between Mr. Balfour will. compel him to become Prime-and Mr. Chamberlain. We are aware I Minister whenever he gains his. victory."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.